Actual Written: June 6, 2008
We've spent three days here in Amsterdam, and mostly because of the great vibe here, it's probably my favorite country so far (as hippie-ish as that sounds).
So an actual update from Amsterdam, with, as always, random thoughts:
The Fabled White Widow: I already posted my thoughts about Amsterdam's more lenient policies here yesterday, but I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about those same soft drugs a bit more. Yes, I tried the fabled White Widow, and yes, it was in fact amazing. Yes, it's pretty powerful, and yes, it's probably better than the stuff you have at home. The thing is, it's not as if it's any more powerful or any better than the strong stuff coming from the pot capitals of America (namely, Northern California, Vermont and Upstate New York). The fact of the matter is, what really sets smoking here apart from the rest of the world is the experience (an experience that, as I noted yesterday, may soon disappear anyway).
The thing that makes the experience unique and amazing in the Netherlands is that the high they have here is the high of the free (for lack of a better, less lame sounding phrase). Gone is the paranoia that your parents may stumble into your room and catch you. Same with the nagging fear that comes with being a fourteen year old smoking a crudely put together joint at the AM/PM parking lot, hoping the suburban police have better things to do. The fact of the matter is, even the most hardened stoners live in fear of the man. All of them. You know - the guy that keeps a vaporizer attached to his car battery. the kid that claims he has a bunch of clones under some specialized lights in his loft. The stoner so permanently fried his entire vocabulary seems culled from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. It's completely natural. At any given moment, it's completely possible that the war on drugs could land them a steep fine, or worse, in courthouse or jail cell. I mean, if they got Chong, then no one's safe, right?
That kind of fear doesn't exist in Amsterdam. Coffee shop workers hand people bongs as they would a steaming espresso. Slack jawed tourists (usually amateur hour smokers) are given over the counter advice about which strains will keep them functional (and less annoying to everyone else). Workers go into shops in the early morning to pick up their pot as if they were picking up groceries for the week, all the while cops pass right on by, completely aware of what's going on. Hell - the only time I ever saw anybody get yelled at a coffee shop was when my friend sat at the shop without buying anything.
No, the high here isn't more powerful. In a lot of ways though, it's just a lot better.
Big American Asshole Part Three (The Waiter): We were at a restaurant in Amsterdam when a waiter asked my group where we were from. We told him we were from California, and he responded by stating, within the confines of a few phrases, everything he knew about the state. It was all very stream of consciousness.
"California! Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego. Surf, beaches, Hollywood!" he said.
I thought it was kind of funny, but then I realized it'd probably be the same if I had to do the same for him.
"Amsterdam!" I'd say. "Pot, hookers, bicycles and clogs?"
I guess we all have a bit to learn about each other.
Absinthe: Had absinthe for the first time the other night. No Moulin Rouge style hallucinations for me there, but it was powerful enough to make my lips numb after one. I now totally understand why Van Gogh cut his ear off after a few. Shit's intense, yo.
The Red Light District: We made it a point to head over to the Red Light District, which, if you're not aware, consists of a bunch of the coffee shops, bars, and prostitutes working behind glass windows literally lit by, well, red lights.
I'm not gonna go into the whole idea of it all - that could be someone's entire thesis. On the one hand, it all seems more than vaguely sad and the misogynistic implications are a bit depressing (there aren't really any streets lined with guys, save a street I was sure was filled with transvestites). At the same time, the entire trade is highly regulated (with scheduled STD tests) and some of them are even in a loose union. Anyway, Amsterdam's trying to cut down on the hookers too, so it's not something that's gonna be around for long, anyway.
The one thing that struck me during the whole thing, though, was how bored they all looked. There wasn't anything really erotic about what happened behind the windows to lure you in besides their outfits (or lack thereof). The women would sit, converse with other girls nearby or be texting on their cell phones. At one point, I passed by a window and accidentally made full eye contact. The girl there quickly put away here phone and hastily made a quick move to give me a come hither stare. It was a move that seemed purely out of obligation more than anything.
That's when I realized that to these women, this was just their job. Hell, put a laptop in their booths with Facebook on it and they'd look exactly the way I do in the office.
You know, except with a G-String on.
The Van Gogh Museum: The biggest collection of the artist's work is in Amsterdam, and it's truly fantastic. They have some of his most famous works (The Potato Eaters, some of the more popularly known self portraits, and Crows Over a Wheat Field, his so called suicide note on canvas), along with really illuminating letters written to his brother Theo (who, along with his widow were responsible for the creation and maintenance of his brother's legacy). As always, it's a real treat to see a full retrospective of an artist's work: you can really trace his evolution from self taught amateur to true master.
Also, it's a great place to go when you've eaten a Space Cake or two.
Munchies: If I didn't know better, I'd think that the whole place was designed with potheads in mind. Spread throughout the city are centers for mad munchie attacks. Sweets shops with chocolate covered waffles and enormous pastries line the streets along with stands selling mayonnaise covered French Fries (Bloggers Note: eww, Europe, eww.) and popular wok establishments. This is why the Dutch government's soft drug crackdown makes no sense to me. It seems that they'd just be putting a lot people out of work, right?
A Quick Note: Looking back at this post, it seems all I did in Amsterdam was engage in various vices. Not true at all. I also nearly got run over by a lot of bikes.
Next stop: Berlin, baby! Das is supa cool (that's German for "That is super cool."). Word.
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