The Coffee Shop

Next stop Amsterdam, home to decriminalized marijuana, and institutionalized prostitution. Neither of which are really of any interest to me, especially having seen them up close. The whole place is entirely too in your face to actually be comfortable, and the two unique services they offer absolutely require your comfort to partake.

If anything, those two scenes in Amsterdam have become a parody of themselves, the red light district, such as it is, is ridiculous. For every red light in the window, 90% are empty, and the one or two that are open are surrounded by what I assume to be at least one "protector of female integrity" (read: pimp).

As for the other scene that Amsterdam is so famous for... the less said the better. Every customer looked like they had just gotten off the plane from Byron Bay, and the places look like the kind of place you would avoid at all costs in any other city.

The food was good though. And the souvenir shops selling mary jane leaf tea towels and hardcore playing cards outnumbered everything else by at least a factor of two. Overall, the place is colourful enough, which was a nice change from the almost limitless shades of gray that Paris had to offer.