Amsterdam and the Dutch Countryside
- Daniele Iannarone
- Aug 26, 2016
- 4 min read
I Amsterdam. Yeah… it would have been cooler to see without ALL THESE TOURISTS, but it was cool nonetheless. I mean, there was even A LINEUP to climb on top of the letters.
In all honesty though, Amsterdam was AMAZING. They call it the ‘Venice of the North,’ and rightfully so. The city is kind of like a ‘partial-Venice’ in the sense that canals flow through the entire city but there are enough streets and pedestrian walking areas that cars can still pass. It’s an interesting dynamic. Also, the city is structured in the form of a wave/ripple effect. There’s the centre of the city by the water, and then the city slowly expands outwards, each section split off by a canal. Especially walking across the bridges was really impressive.
Of course, you’ll never find more typical Dutch architecture than in the capital of the Netherlands.
And it’s along the way we hit up a few museums… like the Hash and Sex Museums...
Sex is obviously a central theme in Amsterdam. In fact, even the Amsterdam flag (pictured above) is sexual, essentially featuring two red stripes with a black stripe in the middle with three white X’s on it, you can’t get more sexual than that.
And on that note, it’s time to talk about the nightlife and the Red Light District. So, I knew that prostitution was legal in the Netherlands for a while, this is no secret to anyone, but seeing the Red Light District first hand was actually a really crazy experience. First off, the city takes on a completely different tone at night. Everywhere you walk there is an unavoidable stench of weed, of course, since it’s legal, and the Red Light District is like the hotspot of everything.
So immediately once you step onto the street, all the windows are illuminated, in red of course, and there are prostitutes at every window. Usually behind the prostitutes there would be a door half open featuring a bedroom and a bed. I read up a little bit about prostitution culture there in Amsterdam because I was curious, and learned that most of the prostitutes are white and the prostitutes there are actually more attractive than prostitutes elsewhere because since it’s regulated it’s a more attractive market for them. White prostitutes, apparently, go for around €50 for 15 minutes, whereas African-American ones go for a little cheaper, around €30 for 15 minutes, price increasing by this amount every additional 15 minutes. And, given this, men were lining up and handing over crisp €50 banknotes for the more attractive prostitutes. You really have to wonder how many clients they attract per evening, and how regulated this business really is though.
Also, it has to be said that there were no male prostitutes at all, perhaps there were in some hidden corners of the city, but, as probably expected, the main attraction was, of course, the women.
Ok, enough about prostitution, let’s move on to another huge Amsterdam phenomenon: biking.
You almost get the sense that there are more bikes than people in this city. Everywhere you looked there are people on bikes, and there are designated bike lanes on every single street without exception. You’d be hard-pressed to find a pole, lamppost or railing without a bike locked onto it, and I get the feeling that bike thefts are actually pretty high in this city.
Who could criticize a city where everyone gets their fair share of exercise, however. And, of course, when in Amsterdam, do as the Amsterdamians do… So Samo and I decided to rent a bike on our last day in Amsterdam, and it was really cheap too, €7.50 for 24 hours.
After quickly touring the city by bike, we set out to reach bigger and better heights, so naturally we decided to venture 25km from the city to the Dutch beach, which is along the English Channel.
We got lost along the way, however, and thus encountered some cute small villages, some typical Dutch windmills and a really impressive town called Haarlem. This epitomizes my year abroad: it’s all about the journey, not the destination.
24km later (but probably longer since we got lost), we finally arrived at the beach, bodies, especially legs, aching beyond belief, but totally worth the journey, this time for the destination.
Not the prettiest beach I’ve seen all year, and the water was probably really cold, but hey, we made it and there was some pride in that!
Of course, at this point it was time to go all the way back to Amsterdam. I was in so much pain when we got back, but it was a day extremely well spent, and I felt like I must have been in pretty good shape if I managed 50km by bike without any real difficulty.
After Amsterdam, it was back to Brussels for my final 24 hours in Europe.
-Daniele
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