I AMsterdam

Amsterdam is the greenest city I have been in for two reasons… Nearly everyone living in Amsterdam rides bikes wherever they need to go, there are bikes everywhere you look. With bikes comes the chance of being ran over by one, which quickly found out that if we didn’t want to get hit my an oncoming bicyclist we would need to quickly jump to the side of the street when we heard a bell ring, and this happened quite often! The second reason why Amsterdam is a green city is of course the fact that marijuana is legal to buy, grow, and smoke. While we decided not to try any, you could still smell it in the air when we were walking through the streets or nearby coffeeshops.

Have you ever seen a two story parking garages for bikes?!

At a local coffeeshop, they had this painting, I thought that it was interesting, look closely to what he is reaching for

There were two main things that I enjoyed in Amsterdam, the Van Gogh Museum and the architecture in and around the city. I could not believe that I actually got to see the Van Gogh Museum! We rented bikes for the day and took a short ride over to the museum, I didn’t think much about the reality of the situation while cruising through streets with only triangular shaped roof buildings, but once we arrived to the museum, it just kind of hit me that I was actually in Amsterdam getting a chance to see some real life paintings of one of the most famous artists. The only thing about the Van Gogh Museum that was a let down is that we were unable to find the “Starry Night” painting.

Biking to the Van Gogh Museum

Their "I AMsterdam" monument was difficult to get to

Finally, the Van Gogh Museum

As I mentioned, all of the buildings had triangular shaped roofs, I felt that this was unique because I had never seen a place where nearly every single house had the same basic design. Another thing that I noticed was how nearly every other building had either sunk on one side or had began leaning out into the street a little bit. I found this is be very interesting. Lastly, I noticed how similar Amsterdam is to Venice simply because of the fact of the numerous canals weaving and winding throughout the city.

Perfect Picture of Amsterdam, the bikes, the canals, the buildings...

Notice the Triangular Shaped Roofs

The last and probably most funny part of the trip was the Red Light District. We left from our hostel, took an immediate right and we were already in the Red Light District, I quickly began disgusted when I saw 350 pound woman after 350 pound woman flaunting their large bodies behind a door and waving at me to come near them, luckily we had no trouble getting away because they didnt leave their booths so we just continued walking. We eventually wandered around and found the real Red Light District. I felt a little uneasy and awkward walking around buildings with nearly naked women literally throwing themselves toward passing by men and even women.

The perfect ending to the best day ever!

Looking back on it, it just seems hard to imagine a place that legally allows marijuana and prostitution; I can’t imagine raising a family in an environment like that. All in all it was a great weekend in the “Adult Disneyworld”.