Okay, so I took a little trip to Amsterdam over the weekend. The only thing I can say about that place is, "If you haven't been there, go!" We Americans are always touting the whole "land of the free" slogan but we've got nothing on Amsterdam!The trip started off a bit on the wrong foot as my train from Braunschweig to Hannover was late and I missed the connection in Hannover. No big deal, the trip got re-routed and we ended up going through Duisburg and the penalty in time for this re-route was only about 2 hours. Those 2 hours would have come in handy, but I wasn't gonna let this get me down...
On the final train into Amsterdam we (Jon, Cindy and I) met a few Americans and even set up a plan to meet at the Pink Floyd Coffeehouse around 7:30pm. That was cool and all, but I honestly thought that was the last we would be seeing of them. I was wrong on this matter; but I guess that's just part of what makes me me...When the train arrived in Amsterdam I was off to check into my hotel room at the Amsterdam Hotel Parkplace. It was just a quick trip on tram #9, a quick check-in and a return trip back to Centraal Station. As I was doing this, Jon and Cindy continued on to the airport to pick up a package that they had left there a couple weeks ago and the rest of the crew split off on their own trips.
After returning back to Centraal Station, I then made a bee line straight over to the Pink Floyd Coffeehouse where I earned a bit of respect with the people there by showing them the tattoo of the Wall DVD I have on my back. This ended up being a good move as I was therefore able to get them to stop playing the house music they were playing and put on some Floyd.Upon entering the shop, I noticed that none of the others had arrived yet and that was cool because it was still a bit before the 7:30 meeting time. I bought myself a gram of the Mother's Finest, grabbed a rolling paper and headed up to the third floor to roll up a J.
I decided after a bit that I should get back down and see if the others had arrived yet. I told the bartender to send any Americans my way, but I really didn't think that would work. Sure enough, when I got back to the ground floor Jon and Cindy had arrived and were sitting at a table waiting. We purchased some more weed and headed up to the second floor to relax for a bit. (side note here: The staircases in the Pink Floyd Coffeehouse have got to be some of the narrowest and steepest stairs I have ever seen! I mean it seems a bit dangerous at an establishment such as that, but I guess throughout life you just gotta take your chances...)
Well, to my surprise, as we were relaxing on the second floor and listening to some Floyd, everybody that we invited on the train stopped by! I don't know, maybe the traveling in foreign countries thing just makes people so happy to meet fellow Americans that kinship just has a way of happening. But it was cool, the people were nice and damnit, we were in Amsterdam!
Over time everyone decided to leave and Jon and Cindy wanted to try to get down to tour the Heineken brewery. I was not really up for trying to make it to a brewery tour that was probably already closed for the night and decided to just chill for a bit longer at the coffee shop. It was decided that Jon and Cindy would head down to the brewery and come back and meet me at Pink Floyd's a bit later. Cool, plan set.
Unfortunately, Pink Floyd's closed around midnight and I was put out on the street to fend for myself. I figured that was cool since I still wanted to try to make it over to Conscious Dreams, a 'smart-shop' that I new about that supposedly had some good shrooms. So, I began to walk east. Not too long after this, Jon called me on my mobile and said they were heading back toward Pink Floyd's. I then turned around and met up with them a bit later at the Thai restaurant that was right next to the coffee shop. I told them to come with me and once again started the trip toward Conscious Dreams. This time, however, the journey wasn't as quick as Jon and Cindy still had not obtained a place to sleep that night and Jon wanted to check every hotel along the way. Needless to say they were all booked full. It was a summer Saturday night in Amsterdam - I wasn't the least bit surprised...
After making one wrong turn and upsetting Cindy because we almost walked straight into the red light district, we finally made it to Conscious Dreams which, by the way, had closed shortly before our arrival. Oh well, that's cool ... I wanted to head to the red light district anyway. Cindy, on the other hand, didn't. This is where I wished Jon and Cindy luck in finding a place to stay and bid them farewell as I then headed directly for the red light district.
The red light distract in Amsterdam is actually rather interesting. It's basically set up on the streets next to a couple canals. There are a plethora of sex shows that one can go see and, of course, there are the prostitutes. It seemed interesting, almost comical to me that walking down these streets you actually see these women (and I have to admit that there were quite a few hot ones) basically sitting in these little rooms behind glass, lit up with red light of course, making plays at guys as they walked by. And the cool thing was that they weren't teasing, what you saw was what you could purchase. I figured I'd walk up to one of these and see how much the transaction would cost and was a bit shaken when she said €350 for half and half. €350!? That was a bit higher than I was expecting, but damnit, I was in Amsterdam and how often am I gonna get this chance?
The problem was that I was down to a bit over €150 as I needed to front Jon with some cash since his ATM card wasn’t working. That was cool, no skin off my back - I'm always willing to help a brother out; however, this apparently made me cash poor when it came to buying services. This wasn't gonna get me down though as I was determined I could find a cash machine somewhere ... and this was the next mission I was on.
Finding cash machines in the states is easy. Finding a cash machine in the red light district of Amsterdam is another story. It must have taken me at least an hour to finally find a cash machine; but find one I did. I then got myself another €250 and started heading back to the red light district.
Now this was around 3:00am and I had read that the prostitutes usually begin closing shop between 1:00 and 2:00. It was a summer Saturday night though and I thought I'd go see what was still happening, if anything.
I returned back to the place I had been earlier and saw a completely different sight. The crowds were basically gone and the street once lit up by red lights from both sides of the canal was much darker. It appeared, however, that I could see what looked like some red lights a ways down and started walking toward them. To my surprise, some of the ladies were actually still working. I picked one that I fancied and headed up to the window to have a word.
She opened the door and invited me in. Guess how much a prostitute in Amsterdam costs? €50! That first one I spoke to was trying to take advantage of me. (There's an ironic statement...) She must have smelled newbie on me and figured she'd see what she could get. Unfortunately for her, she aimed a bit too high and she ended up getting nothing. I was getting what I came for for €50.
Now I am sure that there are many out there that disapprove of what I was doing ... the whole "prostitution is a sin" argument and that's fine. I'm not you and I didn't ask you to read my blog. So seriously, if you are somehow offended by what I (just a typical nobody from nowhere) did, try to relax. I don't need to get hate mail about something that affects nobody else... I should warn you, however, that I do some other stuff a bit later that may also offend you. So please, if you are one of these close minded individuals stop reading now.
In fact, I'm afraid everyone is going to have to stop reading now because I really have some stuff I need to do and will have to finish this story some other day ... perhaps tomorrow but who really knows? If I haven't bored you to death with this story yet and you actually want to read the rest of it then check back in a few days ... I'll try to get it up there...
bis später,
Coriolis
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