Sept 1, 2006
Amsterdam, Netherlands ~ Brussels, Belgium
Overcast, warm
Amsterdam, the city where everything is legal. The first day I quickly realize it is much more than this. The layout of the city is basically a big circle full of canals and bridges centered around a big rock called The Dam. At the dam square it is always packed with people. This is where festivals are held and the site of an impressive cathedral. In fact, the city has many impressive old buildings. It is one of the oldest cities but lost some builings during the world war. You can read more about this in Anne Frank`s diaries. The Anne Frank house is one of the ities biggest attractions. The city itslef is really cool, most people have bicycles and they are everywhere to rent. I prefer to walk. I would wander around, get lost , and that was often, then find my way back to the dam. It was great.
When You wander around Amsterdam, you are bound to end up somewhere in the red light district. Its boundaries are marked out with 2 red lights at the entrance of each street and it was huge. Of course I had to check it out, and man, was it ever different than I thought. Some people has referred to it as window shopping, and that is exactly what it is. Women from all parts of the world, different shapes, and sizes. There was literally every type of women possible available, some transvestites too. You walk down the street and they are right in your face. You turn to your side and the large window is right there with them pressed up against it. Some are real aggressive too, knocking on the windows, trying to lure you in. Some would have music blasting, some would try to talk sweet to you. But I must say, some of them were really done up, and pretty. Its a shame what they`ve got themselves into, although I`m sure they make good euros.
I`ll correct myself, Anne Frank is not the biggest attractions, the red light district is. If Anne Frank was alive she`d probably be disgusted, or would she? The streets and alleys are packed full of tourist `just looking` Many families too. To my surprise I see many couple go into the rooms probably to fulfill the guys fantatsies. I walked the whole thing and now I can say I`ve seen it. Check. Time for the coffee shops.
I`ve already noticed people everywhere rolling big fat blunts of hash or weed, must be close to a gram per joint. They are huge, and people just smoke it in bars, on the streets, even tough it really isn`t allowed. The coffee shops are there specifically for them to smoke in. I also noticed everyone mixing tabacco in as well. Everyone smokes cigarettes in europe.
So I go into a coffee shop and theres a coffee station, a bar, and a counter where you can get your drugs. There is a big menu to pick your drug of choice from, complete with product name, where its from, description, and what its effects are. They keep track of every sale and quantity, it is very organized and there is a limit ot how much you can buy at once. I think that is where the Commercial Dr coffee shop in Vancouver went wrong, because they sold any amount of quantity. I believe that was a test shop to see if it would work in Vancouver, makes you wonder why they haven`t tried it again.
Anyways I picked a couple grams of local crops with moderate effects. I didn`t wanna fuck myself up at the 1st stop of my trip. Got a hot chocolate, sat down, and lit it up. And although it is relaxed in Vancouver, it was very relaxed here. Each coffee shop would have its own theme with different lights and art for your viewing pleasure when the time is right. I chatted with the people I sat down with and by coincidence, they were from Vancouver as well. For `some reason` we thought that was the funnist thing. Then this old dutch couple comes in and sits down with us, only they brought their 2 dogs in with them and tied them to the table. We couldn`t stop laughing at the dogs being in the bar. They started swearing at us in dutch, and now that was the funniest thing ever. Needless to say, Amsterdam has some quality stuff. At the hostel, I woudl see the same people sitting in the same spot when I leave in the morning as wehn I return at night. They would just smoke all day getting stoned out of their mind. Guess most aren`t use to this kind of liberty.
So of couse there are lots of food availabe for when you get the munchies. Many good kabob\falafel stands, pizza joints, italian food, argentina food, thai food, french baguette sandwiches, and the king of all snacks, frites. Josh made me try frites the first night and I was like, they`re just fries right, can`t be like poutine. I try them and holy shit, so hot, so crispy, so good. Josh said they will melt my face, and they did. You pick a type of sauce and thats it. Fries witha sauce. John Travolta was right in Pulp Fiction, the dutch just smother their fries with mayonaise. Its a cheap snack too, around 2 euro and it fills you up. I think I`ve found a match for the poutine. 3 days in Amsterdam and thats all I can handle, for now. It was DAM expensive there.
I needed to get to Italy afterwards and flights with Ryanair was a quarter the price of anything else. Only thing was I had to fly out of Brussels, not a problem. Belgium was actually a boring place but the architecture was nice. I stayed at the Van Gogh Hostel and this was an amzingly designed bulding, very luxurious for onlye 13 euro a night.
I walked around town then I here crown noise by the center of the city. I follow the noice and find 20 tents set up in the middle of the streets with 10,000 people inside drinking. I was in town for the Belgium beer festival. Great timing. Every type of Belgium beer was available to try for a cheap price and there would judges at the end, and blind fold taste test. Almost everyone I tried was great. I was drunk, talking to random people who I`ll never see again, both in english and french. Yes the beer was good and strong. And I only know a minimal amount of french. It was a great start to the trip.