Amster......Dam

So I got back from Amsterdam last night and here are some intial thoughts.

1- The red light district is pretty cool but it is dirty as all sin. Trash everywhere and people walking around stoned or on something else. There is a church and kindergarten in the district as well as tons of sexshops and girls in the windows. Our hostel was in the heart of the redlight district so we spent a considerable amount of time there. The girls in the mornings are butt ugly but the A-team comes out around 8 or so at night and some of them are knockouts. Note though if you go DO NOT take pictures of them. We heard from multiple people they like to keep glasses of urine next to them to throw at people who take pictures. That or come outside and destroy your camera.

2- The rest of the city is pretty cool but not as beautiful as people made it out to be imo. The buildings are leaning everywhere and are all crooked. Outside of the redlight district the buildings get better and there are some nice churches but everyone kept telling me this was one of the most beautiful cities ever and frankly I just didn't see that. There are also urinals next to the canals that drain into them. You also have to watch out for cars, trams, buses, scooters, and bikes. The bikes are the worst because there are so many of them and they have their own lanes that can be mistaken for sidewalks.

3- We took a tour of the city. It was free but you could tip the tourguides whatever you wanted at the end. Very cool and informative. I would definitetly recommend.

4- Saw the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. Skip the Van Gogh unless you're a huge fan but you have to go see the Anne Frank House. It's where she and her family lived for 2 years during WW2 before they got caught. Surreal would be a good way to describe it. Tiny rooms and an attic with a super steep staircase, and it even has her original diary on display. Must see while in Amsterdam.

Now onto the Coffe shops.

There are plenty of them around. Cafe in the dutch means a regular bar and coffe shop means they sell cannabis. Smart shops sell mushrooms and smoking accessories (bongs pipes papers etc...) The coffe shops have special rules, no screaming or yelling, no loud noise making, no dancing, etc... You walk by all these coffe shops and just see people stoned out of their mind sitting there aimlessly. Our hostel had a coffe lounge in it that also served food. Whenever you'd go downthere they had three couches that always had people stoned or sleeping from being stoned on them. Others were just staring at the TV's. Everyone else was eating doritios and candy bars, I'm not kidding this is actually what I saw the majority of the time I went down there. If you want to smoke you go up to the counter and they give you a menu of what they have. You pick what you want and they can sell it to you already rolled up or just give you a baggy of the stuff. A joint will run you about 3 euros. You can't take it out of the shop. Looking back it was actually sort of depressing.

We even took a trip to the VondelPark which is the biggest park in Amsterdam. It was a nice park but there were a lot of people (about 30%) that where just zonked out on something walking around playing guitars, kicking soccer balls at trees or we watched one guy try to re-adjust his backpack for about 5 minutes straight. Just slinging it back and forth on his back.

All in all worth the trip and would definiteatly check it out if you had the chance. Anyone under 25 would have a great time but for the older crowd I'd skip the red light district and just stick to the museums and parks. They have an Amsterdam pass but I wouldn't get it . The museums are not expensive (around 9-12 euros) and you can walk everywhere the city is pretty small.