Amsterdam

I got into Amsterdam the evening of the 13th, this was my first stop solo. As far as place to go solo, Amsterdam isn't a bad one, or maybe it is? Being solo could mean Steve:
1. Runs through most of his money on Prostitutes
2. Uses some common sense and plays it cool til he smokes a way too strong joint and then runs through most of his money on Prostitutes
3. Doesn't use common sense, has a space cake or mushroom and spends one of his days in Amsterdam having meanignful conversations with plants, variety of inanimate ojects and/or imagined friends.
4. Does #2 0r #3 and takes a header into a canal

Of course being solo means I could do any and all and noone else would know...

Fortunately, I used good sense all the way through and just smoked a mild hash/tobacco joint (more on that later) and left the hookers be. I know you all want to hear about Rembrandt's Nightwatch or Van Gogh's works... yea right.. you want to hear about the Red Light District, don't you, don't you, you filthy heathens. Good, you're in the right place.

Everything Looks Better in Red
The Red light district is several blocks long and a few blocks wide, it's hard to nail down a precise area, but when you no longer see anything related to sex you know you are definitely out ofthe area. Red Light District is comprised of sex shops, sex shows and prostitutes.

First off, the sex shops, they are everywhere. Amstedam sex shops feature DVD's covering most every fetish you can think of (and a few you didn't). Bestiality, bathroom fetishes, fisting, etc it's all here for ya, fun for the whole family. Beyond the extreme categories of DVD's, I am not sure how much different a shop would be from one here in California.

Sex shows are heavily promoted on the main drag of the RLD. Doormen outside try to call passing guys into checking it out. I think the average prices are in the range of 25-40 Euros, so they aren't cheap. I hadn't read anything complimentary about them so I didn't bother, especially being there by myself. Moulin Rouge, Cassa Rossa and The Banana Bar are the main one's. A coworker said she went to one and the guy couldn't get it up so I guess it wasn't as much of a sex show (rope trick anyone).

The other type of show is the peep show. I saw a bunch of people come out of peep show booths chuckling, so me being the inquisitive one had to go check it out. Basically you go to a small stand up booth drop in a Euro or two and a window opens and there is a woman there who is basically doing a strip routinue. However, she almost immediately came over and said, "hey baby meet me over in Private Cabin 4". I'm like.. uh yea, I know a con job when I hear one. Whatever, it was I wasn't interested in whizzing away money on that, so I bailed. I figured it was some kind of private room like they have in strip clubs for lapdances. Close. One of the cabins was open so I peeked in and there was a chair that faced a glass partition (apparently where the girl does her show) I didn't notice much else in there, except... the tissue dispenser, lol. This is where you go... ewwww. In Amsterdam, I guess you can do as you please just be tidy about it. How would you like to work there... "cleanup, Cabin 1"

Finally, the prostitutes. From what I can glean, the girls rent space, which from what I can see is a glass door, that leads into a small room with bed among other things. The girls stand or sit there looking at the prospective clients. The girls were a variety, from quite attractive to "I'm looking for adams apple and noticeable bulge". There was one black lady who was tipping the scales at about my weight, so they even had that covered. Although the majority were white, there were quite a few black women and a couple of asian. I am betting that more than a few of the white women were from Eastern Europe. Apparently 50 Euro is standard base price for "a suck and a fuck" (standard phrase from what I read) for 15 minutes. What is surprising is with it being legal, they do not do any health testing, so it isn't any safer, just more open. They see it as a personal rights issue (if we are tested, clients should be too). My theory is that there are professions that require some invasions of typical privacy if you want to be a part of it. It was bizzare walking around watching the flesh supermarket right on the street. As much fun as RLD was, there were other parts of Amsterdam to see... like the coffeeshops.

Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
Coffeeshops are teh term for the places where you can buy and consume soft drugs, primarily marijuana and hash. There are dozens of coffeeshops in Amsterdam and apparently many of them have their own private variety of weed. From what I understand, the local Dutch grown stuff is pretty potent. Now, I never smoked pot before (yea yea I know, where have I been.) I had read a good review of the coffeeshop, Rookies, so I headed there. I told the guy at the bar I was a total newbie, not even a smoker. So, he suggested a light variety hash/tobacco joint wit ha mild variety of hash called sugar polm. I received this joint in this little plastic test tube like container so you could take it to go if you didn't finish Their menu had a about 8 varieties of pot/hash sold for 15 euros, with the amount of good varying. I didn't do too bad, I only inhaled a little fast once and almost cough my guts out. I could feel a buzz not long after I started, and as I had about 3/4 of the joint burned I could feel a strong buzz. It also felt like someone put me in a sauna, my body temp seemed to spike in minutes, I closed out and walked out into freezing weather to cool off. If I was in Amsterdam longer I would have tried something else but I had only one more day and kept it mellow, but at least I tried. You experts out there, enjoy the variety and spark up.

Art With Some Guy Who Cut His Ear Off
One of the days in Amsterdam I spent primarily at the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum. Both museums are quite nice. What was surprising is the number of works of Van Gogh I recognized from the show I saw with John and Jennifer. A large number of his most improtant works had made it to LA so I simply revisited them. The collection by no means ended there they had many more of his works as well as other artists. They had a nice exhibit of Art Nouveau as well.

The Rijksmuseum was dedicated to the culture and histroy of The Netherlands primarily shown through art. I need to look up more information on some of the works. There is a tremendous painting as you walk in, the detail of the work is amazing. If you go to my pictures it is 233 I believe. I plan on reading more on the piece and the artist I was impressed. Rembrandt's Nightwatch is here, a great work in itself, but not as amazing as some of his other works I think. Well, that is enough for tonight, I am tired. I should have taken more pics of the paintings, but photos just can't do art justie, such as the brush strokes in Van Gogh's later works, you have to see it for yourself. Good night all, more to come