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"Tomorrow afternoon I leave for Amsterdam"

For 4 days. Had so many opportunities to go but had to turn them down, mainly due to being financially embarrassed or having unavoidable student exams. Myself and 4 other decent people are jumping on a plane at 3pm tomorrow.

Needless to say I'm very much looking forward to it, I'm not above most of the sordid activities you envision and am sure to spend a fortune. Got a nice 5 bedroom apartment with all mod cons, for those nights where our third eyes are 'squee-geed' to a flawless shine. Even a nice Jacuzzi is included which I hope to claim as my own.

Is this post to gloat? Most likely. I can turn it into a question though - who here has been (without their parents, girlfriends or pets), and which bars/cafes/miscellaneous locations do you most highly recommend? Omit no detail, however depraved.

Time to have a bath, then pack before a couple of frosty ones.

Europe seems like an amazing place. It doesn't make any sense that I've only bothered to go twice in 26 years when it's just an hour or two on a plane to pretty much any destination.

I think the Amsterdam thing is more relaxed because it's not treated like some huge illegal no-no - which only serves to make it appeal more thrilling.
I'd bet most of the business in these places are from drug-tourists, we've all done it at some point.
Removing the illegality of it will remove the thrill for a lot of people.

And there's nothing wrong, per se, with beered up stag parties - again, we've all done it. But I notice a lot more when I'm abroad, and it makes me really self-concious that anybody might think I'm from the same culture.
Europeans just seem more relaxed and have a better grasp on things. Like Sheepy says, they learn other languages from an early age, it's not just a subject for exams. We start to learn English from when we're born, and we're not proficient enough to speak it until we're...what...4 or 5?
You don't really stand a chance of learning well with 2 lessons a week for 3 years at school, when you don't really want to learn much anyway.

It's this retarded notion of "En-ger-land! En-ger-land!" that galls me, especially around the time of international sporting events when I see St George flags everywhere. Because I associate being English with being insular, arrogant, pretty much unaware of Europe and hopelessly crass and vulgar.
But that's me

Yeah, when you spend so much time exposed to it over here, you think it's the norm, but it isn't.

Being a smoker I loved the coffee shops, and it made me wonder if they could work in the UK. No trouble in there, just a lot of people sat around watching telly eating cream cakes. Of course, those who actually dwell in Amsterdam don't binge on the stuff like us 'drug tourists'.

I'm going to Benidorm at the end of this month for a stag do, I dare say that will be a tad less uncivilised. 'OI GASSON, CAN A HAVE SOME KETCHUP FOR MA PIE-ELLA?" Oh well.

SHEEPY wrote:
> Everywhere else have one main language to learn and a lot more an
> incentive to do so PLUS they teach them constantly from age 4/5...
> rather than a few hours a year at my school when I was about 10.

This is something that really annoys me - I hate being the stupid shouty English guy who doesn't know any other languages. And it's not my fault.

Schools still haven't realised that French (or whatever) is another language, not just another subject. And if you don't start learning it way before you get to secondary school, there's practically 0 chance that you'll become fluent in it - exactly the same with English itself.

Rargh.

Heh, excellent.
I think it's because we have these archaic licensing laws that mean you must cram in your drinking by 11pm, or risk going to some awful cattlemarket nightclub for a drink.

In Barcelona, we found all the shops shut on Saturday from 11am until around 3pm, then they reopened till midnight, bars were open, restaraunts. Just a lot more relaxed.
The only drunk, shouty people I saw were Brits on stag-dos in comedy afro wigs shouting abuse at the street entertainers.

What I did love about Amsterdam was the almost total lack of drinking binge culture. Only once did I see someone drunk out of his head. While in a Sex-shop purchasing some 'Gentlemans Media' some french guy passed out on the floor. It took a bucket of water over the head and a threat of the police to get him to move on.

He got up, grabbed a d!ldo off the shelf, then stumbled towards the exit, where he was promptly informed to pay up or get the hell out.

I love other countries, but I'm too skint and lazy to go anywhere. I could probably get by in Germany, it's an easy language, and our teacher was actually Hitler.

Unfortunately, the only times I've been abroad have been package holidays to Spain with my parents when I was a lot younger. Oh, and France one time to go to a monstro-mart (the first thing we saw were French gypsies).

I took French at school and Latin.
Of course, Latin is useless unless we're invaded by Romans but I'm prepared.
It's not just the languages though, being abroad lets you see how much more relaxed and calmer other nations are as a whole.
Spain, France, Holland, Belgium. They all seem to have worked it out.
I'm still not sure about the Germans, but at least they have good sausages.

I don't blame myself for not being fluent in other languages.

Everywhere else have one main language to learn and a lot more an incentive to do so PLUS they teach them constantly from age 4/5... rather than a few hours a year at my school when I was about 10.

Though, I tried.
Some bloke on holiday last year:

" What you doin', mate? They speak the Queen's tounge 'ere "

Aye.
I remember in Barcelona, being extremely touristy and taking the sightseeing bus one morning.
4 other people up top, all from England.
"Oi Dave, why's it so fakkin cold? Iss Spain innit?"
"Yer, this is fakkin dumb, oi'm gahn back to the 'otel and getting wasted"

Like Sheepy said, English abroad tends to be "TWO PORTIONS MATE!" loudly and slowly, complaining about not getting beans with their paella.