Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Welcome to the sex capital of the world. No, that's not what it read when we walked out of the train station but I could definitely feel it. Before I talk about Amsterdam, I have to say something about the travel from London. We decided to fly from London to Amsterdam instead of taking the Chunnel across the English Channel... We fly the cheapest airline we could find and that was Ryan Air. Now for those of you that don't know about Ryan Air, it is incredible. We paid a grand total of 0.01 pounds for our flight.. That's right, a penny.. We only pay the taxes which was about 25 pounds.. But to check in a luggage, it costs an extra 15 pounds.. The flight was YELLOW on the inside with no in-flight entertainment and advertisements on every seat.. No Jokes.. It was a tiny tiny flight flying from London's Stansted Airport into Eindhoven, Netherlands.. and yes, it is pronounced AIND-HO-VEN.. and we took a train from Eindhoven to Amsterdam.. I think i just like saying Eindhoven a lot.. LOL..

So our first experience in Amsterdam was getting gypped.. Yup, we got gypped by a cabbie who took 40 euros from us and drove us around for 20 minutes to drop us back off less than 5 minutes walk from where we started.. so we eventually ended up walking around and finding our hostel which incidentally was at the heart of the red light district with a view of a beautiful woman, sorry, a beautiful view OF a woman with red neon lights surrounding her. The walk to the hostel was through a few sex shows, and pretty much the entire road of red light windows..

We got a 3 hour walking tour of the red light district by new europe once again. (same as the one in london with Anna) and found out about cool things again.. did u know that the red light district began because of and later sponsored by the church?? (explains the church bells every hour in the district) Sailors would come to Amsterdam's port after months in the sea and would rape the women in the city so the church apparently started sponsoring and delegating women to be raped by these sailors. It later started charging the sailors who didn't wanna go back to sea with sin in their hearts. So the church would forgive their sins for a price. After a while, sailors started prepaying for their sins and would invariably go beyond what they paid for and would pay again on their way out from the prostitute's house.

While on the topic of the working women, it's important to know that taking pictures in the red light district is frowned upon and don't ever get caught doing it. No, the cops won't come after you but the girls will. if you think that's not bad, they come at you with a cup in their hands. The cup will have their urine.. and they will not hesitate throwing it at you. These women stand up for each other, and they dont tolerate jackasses. A lot of them do this to pay for their schools, to pay for their families and do it behind their parents backs. (they are all licensed and are of age..) If i remember correctly, they can rent a window for 8 hours for 200 euros i believe. The rates go at about 40 euros for a simple S&F.. (if u don't know what that is, then that's ur problem..) If you want anything extra, it will cost you.. typically 5 euros for her to act like she's enjoying it.. 5 euros to call u by ur name.. 5 euros for any prop use.. u get the picture.. bottom line.. don't mess with em..

Did you also know that marijuana is illegal in Amsterdam.. (it's only decrimanalized so it's ok to carry it and even sell it as long as it's under 5 grams) Did you know that the biggest gay bar in Amsterdam is called the cockring? (women are not allowed in and men who go in typically do not come back out with their clothes on) Magic Mushrooms are no longer tolerated in Amsterdam which wants to change the worldwide image of the city being too open.. How about the fact that the city has a history of looking the other way anytime a topic of morality comes up with the ideology that "if I don't know something's happening, then I don't have to fix it." This even had good effects when Catholics were protected during the protestant reformation, or protecting the jews from the nazis even when Amsterdam was under nazi control.

Since we only spent 2 days in A-Dam, we cudn't resist going to the infamous Heineken Brewery and man was that worth it. We went through the entire beer making process, tasted the hops, and the barley water, and the raw barley.. Bottled our own personalized bottle of Heineken.. yes.. AWESOME SOUVENIR... (along with some stropwaffles.. ask for details..) chugged 3 pints of beer in quick succession (including one ice chilled.. it was soo cool taht they actually had the whole tap covered in ICE..) and got back to the train station very very tipsy.. too much fun..

It's definitely one of those cities that leaves a lasting mark in your mind. The contradictions going hand in hand is something that I just never imagined.. How could the church and sex go together? how are drug related crimes lower than in countries with less tolerance? How does teaching kids about sex at the age of 4 result in lower teen pregnancies? It's all weird but somehow it all works...