Blog 12.12.19 - Admiring Amsterdam's Amazing Alleways

Blog 12.12.19 - Admiring Amsterdam's Amazing Alleways

I started writing this on Thursday evening and fell asleep before I was finished. The text would be really annoying to rewrite in past tense so I won't. Haha.

Today is Thursday the 12th of December, in the year of our Lord MMXIX. On this fateful day, I took my first steps on the hallowed soil of the Mecca of Mayhem, Den of Debauchery, the Temple of Torpor and Travesty... It's Amsterdam, I'm talking about Amsterdam.

We spent this evening waddling our way through Amsterdam Centraal, with no particular goals in mind and oh my was it an adventure and a half. It was a bit too late for me to visit Rijksmuseum, which unfortunately closes its doors at 5pm, but all the other stores were open for business as usual. There were plenty of places to see and alleways to explore and so we did.

Local pottery

Amsterdam's center is a tourist trap, simply put. It's packed to the brim with stores that sell tourist trash, same things across the entire city. Also weed. Devil's lettuce. A little green.

"Coffee Shops" are absolutely everywhere. There's only one in Hoorn, but Amsterdam seems to have these greeneries at least 80 per square kilometer. With the constant smell of the world's number one bud burning around every corner, one might get a contact high just from walking around the city. Reminds me of my apartment building back home.

The profitability of drug tourism is very evident even outside of the myriad of coffee shops. Edibles and pot memoribilia make up a large portion of the regular tourist junk for sale. We even saw "cannabis energy drinks"... What a country, huh.

Sharp contrast

All of these arguably trashy places of business stand in sharp contrast to the old stone buildings that house them. One one hand, Amsterdam is a beautiful city with picturesque canals and wonderful old architecture, on the other it's a trashy drug den with casinos and brothels dotting the streets. This contrast is quite interesting to behold in person, pictures have a hard time doing it justice.

So anyway, here's a pircture that doesn't do it justice.

Another trip comin' up this weekend. It's Rijksmuseum time.

- Unimpressively dry tourist, Tuomo