"i am in Amsterdam"
So the day before yesterday i was un in out tiny room on the Amsterdam hostel and i wrote a huge entry about my experience here. but the shitty internet froze the page and then didn't allow me to send it. so this will be my second attempt. Jen and i are sitting in the Cafe Utopia which is our attached coffee shop. we are listening to Spanish metal. hmm pretty interesting. the first night we arrived we found out hotel and climbed 3 flights of spiral stairs to get to our room which is about as large as a walk in closet. i paid for the experience and that is what i got. i am drinking a milk coffee and a looza vegetable fruit mixture.
ok now on to the original post:
Amsterdam is a surreal place, these are the reasons why:
1. Marijuana is legal: this fact attracts a lot of tourists or course from especially the surrounding countries. The woman running the coffee shop we are in just recieved a tiny potted plant of flowers from a man who walked in. he told us that he was giving these to her because she has just been promoted to manager of this shop. it's technically her day so she sat down with the man and smoked a joint. it reminds me of curl up and dye. so our first experience with this law was stopping into the grasshopper which is basically the mcdonals of coffee shops. their are 2 locations and one is like a super store. the decor is all these mahogany enclosed bench style seating with lime green table tops. all of the shops have a smoking section with a humidor. so you are smoking and so is the person next to you, but there is almost no smoke. at the grasshoper we chose a hash called Marena Cream. i understand why people enjoy hash over pot, you get the same feeling but with clarity. not a foggy haze. after this shop we stopped at the big grasshopper because i wanted to get a mug for a friend of mine. after the red light district we wanted to stop in another coffee shop as it was freezing outside. we stopped in a shop that the tables and chairs are all made from slices of tree. the tables are oddly shaped for this reason. a cat greeted us at the door and later begged to be let in this tiny door in the wall. that sounds like some drugged out halucination but it actually happened. most of the shops have cats that just kind of hang around. they are cute and jen has tried taking pictures of a couple of them even though the coffee shops forbid cameras. (this is the part where i note that a remix of bob marley's exodus is playing. again.. surreal repeat; "i really am in Amsterdam.")
2. Prostitution is legal: we headed down the street finding ourselves in the red light district. jen and i agreeing that we are fine with boobs we head in. an odd sort of place. walking through there is window after window with girl after girl. many of the girls are wearing something lightly colored as it glows under the black and red lighting. i had read a few articles about human trafficking and learned that only 7% of dutch prostituted have HIV or AIDS. many of the prostitutes are illegal or human trafficked. the reason it's so hard to catch the people trafficking here is because, anyone can rent a window space, it's doesn't matter who you are. we saw a few windows that were empty but have props in them that most of the girl windows have. these props are usually things like a chair of some kind and perhaps a sink and a mirror. many of the girls were on their cell phones or txting which was pretty awesome. there was a large black woman in one of the windows and she was lazily sitting in her chair on her cell phone with a tiny flashlight shinning it on and off on her stomach. we also passed a lot of sex shops and live sex shows.
today i am going to try and find the miranda sex shop that emma told me about last time she was in Amsterdam. we tried to find it yesterday and failed with sidetracking shops along the way.
3. The Food: we got here and had an amazing dutch meal. the man asked if we wanted a little of everything for $20 euro, we said sure why not. we get 4 side dishes. 1 is fried potatoes, one is purple cabbage, one is tiny carrots baked with brown sugar and butter, the 4th is salad. then they bring out the main coarse which is set on a dish warmer (Dave you would have loved this) first they put our plates on it to warm them before bringing the food. the food was 4 different kinds of meat. 1 was beef stew, one was chicken, one was pork and one was sausage, served next to mashed parsnips, with beans cooked in marrow fat. the whole thing was garnished with shredded carrots. (ok i litereally just heard the line "wanna tear off tights wif my teef" from the song that's going on. but not it's that techno song "i can't get no sleep") ok so then later after the red light district and the other coffee shop. we went to one of those fry stands where they put almost anything on fries. i saw on anthony bordaine that he got mayo and curry. this seemed like one of the oddest choices but he said it was good so i tried it. pretty effing amazing if you ask me. the next morning we woke up and walked around a bit we found a breakfast place which was the ultimate picture of "European cafe" it was a corner cafe and i ordered the Gorgonzola blueberry jam toast. which is basically served like a grilled cheese, jen got the goat cheese and honey which was amazing! the Gorgonzola on mine was a bit much but a good idea. we may go back to that cafe with liz and her boyfriend whom we are supposed to meet here in about 15 minutes.
4. Random Awesome: Bikes are everywhere. there are bike lanes everywhere. bikes are piled up on the street and you can rent them for around $15 Euro a day. wonderful! to bad today has been the only nice day and we are leaving.
we walked into a shop that is similar to city bird in Detroit. they had lots of interesting little things for sale, local made jewelery and clothes. i asked the woman how long the shop had been there. she said about 10 years. she told us that her and 6 other designers share and run the shop and they all only work one day a week. genius! a perfect side business. she said it starts them all out if they want to own their own shop at some point. (Dear dave i bought you a gift just now in a shop down the street, it's not dope or a hooker.)
ok now on to the original post:
Amsterdam is a surreal place, these are the reasons why:
1. Marijuana is legal: this fact attracts a lot of tourists or course from especially the surrounding countries. The woman running the coffee shop we are in just recieved a tiny potted plant of flowers from a man who walked in. he told us that he was giving these to her because she has just been promoted to manager of this shop. it's technically her day so she sat down with the man and smoked a joint. it reminds me of curl up and dye. so our first experience with this law was stopping into the grasshopper which is basically the mcdonals of coffee shops. their are 2 locations and one is like a super store. the decor is all these mahogany enclosed bench style seating with lime green table tops. all of the shops have a smoking section with a humidor. so you are smoking and so is the person next to you, but there is almost no smoke. at the grasshoper we chose a hash called Marena Cream. i understand why people enjoy hash over pot, you get the same feeling but with clarity. not a foggy haze. after this shop we stopped at the big grasshopper because i wanted to get a mug for a friend of mine. after the red light district we wanted to stop in another coffee shop as it was freezing outside. we stopped in a shop that the tables and chairs are all made from slices of tree. the tables are oddly shaped for this reason. a cat greeted us at the door and later begged to be let in this tiny door in the wall. that sounds like some drugged out halucination but it actually happened. most of the shops have cats that just kind of hang around. they are cute and jen has tried taking pictures of a couple of them even though the coffee shops forbid cameras. (this is the part where i note that a remix of bob marley's exodus is playing. again.. surreal repeat; "i really am in Amsterdam.")
2. Prostitution is legal: we headed down the street finding ourselves in the red light district. jen and i agreeing that we are fine with boobs we head in. an odd sort of place. walking through there is window after window with girl after girl. many of the girls are wearing something lightly colored as it glows under the black and red lighting. i had read a few articles about human trafficking and learned that only 7% of dutch prostituted have HIV or AIDS. many of the prostitutes are illegal or human trafficked. the reason it's so hard to catch the people trafficking here is because, anyone can rent a window space, it's doesn't matter who you are. we saw a few windows that were empty but have props in them that most of the girl windows have. these props are usually things like a chair of some kind and perhaps a sink and a mirror. many of the girls were on their cell phones or txting which was pretty awesome. there was a large black woman in one of the windows and she was lazily sitting in her chair on her cell phone with a tiny flashlight shinning it on and off on her stomach. we also passed a lot of sex shops and live sex shows.
today i am going to try and find the miranda sex shop that emma told me about last time she was in Amsterdam. we tried to find it yesterday and failed with sidetracking shops along the way.
3. The Food: we got here and had an amazing dutch meal. the man asked if we wanted a little of everything for $20 euro, we said sure why not. we get 4 side dishes. 1 is fried potatoes, one is purple cabbage, one is tiny carrots baked with brown sugar and butter, the 4th is salad. then they bring out the main coarse which is set on a dish warmer (Dave you would have loved this) first they put our plates on it to warm them before bringing the food. the food was 4 different kinds of meat. 1 was beef stew, one was chicken, one was pork and one was sausage, served next to mashed parsnips, with beans cooked in marrow fat. the whole thing was garnished with shredded carrots. (ok i litereally just heard the line "wanna tear off tights wif my teef" from the song that's going on. but not it's that techno song "i can't get no sleep") ok so then later after the red light district and the other coffee shop. we went to one of those fry stands where they put almost anything on fries. i saw on anthony bordaine that he got mayo and curry. this seemed like one of the oddest choices but he said it was good so i tried it. pretty effing amazing if you ask me. the next morning we woke up and walked around a bit we found a breakfast place which was the ultimate picture of "European cafe" it was a corner cafe and i ordered the Gorgonzola blueberry jam toast. which is basically served like a grilled cheese, jen got the goat cheese and honey which was amazing! the Gorgonzola on mine was a bit much but a good idea. we may go back to that cafe with liz and her boyfriend whom we are supposed to meet here in about 15 minutes.
4. Random Awesome: Bikes are everywhere. there are bike lanes everywhere. bikes are piled up on the street and you can rent them for around $15 Euro a day. wonderful! to bad today has been the only nice day and we are leaving.
we walked into a shop that is similar to city bird in Detroit. they had lots of interesting little things for sale, local made jewelery and clothes. i asked the woman how long the shop had been there. she said about 10 years. she told us that her and 6 other designers share and run the shop and they all only work one day a week. genius! a perfect side business. she said it starts them all out if they want to own their own shop at some point. (Dear dave i bought you a gift just now in a shop down the street, it's not dope or a hooker.)