More Red Lights

Okay,

So, the last post was at the beginnig of the day, and I was short on internet time. So, here's what happened the rest of the day.

Basically, the first day I just used to familiarize myself with the town. The layout is really quite good. You have the Central station, which is located on a dam. From there, the canals and streets spread out in a cobweb fashion away from the station. Just about everything to see or do in Amsterdam is located in the city center, at an average of 5-10 minutes walk from the station, and never further than 30 minutes. You can't get lost, since you can just walk along one of the "horizontal" parts of the cobweb until you reach an intersection. Then you look left or right. One one side or another, you will see the central station, and you know where you are.

So, yesterday I just wandered about. I went back to the hotel to rest a bit, and headed back out again at midnight. My travel book informed me that Friday night is tourist night in the red light district. I wanted to see.

Now, imagine the seedy side of say, Vancouver. Now, looking like a tourist, would you want to go there at midnight on your own? Would you fell safe doing so? Would you expect the streets PACKED with others just like you? No? Then imagine the complete opposite, and that's Amsterdam.

The two canals (narrow walkway on each side of it, so 4 walkways) that make up the red light district can accommodate about six people walking side by side. All 4 walkways were packed. All along the side is house after house, with red lights in the windows, and scantly clad women of all ages (18 -> 40+) are advertising themselves. The windows are door/window combinations. If you find a "lady of the night" you like, you can knock, the door opens, and you negotiate a price. The bed is right there in the window, and if "business" is agreed upon, the blinds are drawn, and the customer enters. This became apparent when every second window or so had the blinds closed, and every once in a while you would see the door open, and a happy looking guy came out.

Mixed in among the prostitution houses are more "live sex show" theaters, peep shows, nude bars, and adult stores (usually with huge window displays of every variety of sex toy you could imagine) than you have ever seen, or though could exist in one spot. It's crazy there, definitely worth seeing. No wonder it's a tourist hot spot. By the way, I was offered cocaine 5 times and ecstasy twice by big black guys.

Today, I went to the "Reijksmuseum". It features 17'th century Dutch art, old weapons, and the highlight of the museum, "The Night Watch". I was not too impressed by the museum. For the most part, it was a bunch of portraits of rich people you've never heard of in Victorian clothes. The "Night Watch" was thoroughly disappointing. Simply more of the above, but in a militia group, and the painting is huge. Meh. If you ever go there, don't do it for the "Night Watch", but for the cool paintings of Dutch landscapes, witch are quite nice. Not sure it was worth 9 Euros, though.

After the museum, I took place in an anti-Bush demonstration. Well, not really took part, but looked at and walked through. Today, old W is coming to southern Holland for a WWII memorial (BTW, the Canadian Military is here, too, for the same reason. By the length of the parade, it must have been the whole armed forces :-).

I know I said it yesterday, but tonight I am going to a club. Now that I have a public transport card, and I know the area, and I saved up a little change.

This computer actually has a USB port, but it is Win98, so I need to install drivers, and I don't have the rights to do that. I think I will have to wait until my memory card is full. Then I will have the contents burned to a CD, which should be easier to share from. I'll do a gallery post then.

Later