Bongs, Blunts, and Busty Babes

We left A'dam (Amsterdam) this morning after spending two nights there. Overall, I guess I didn't like it that much. Sure, it was pretty with the canals and neat old tall narrow apartment buildings crammed together and stuff, but it seems like unless you are there for the sex and drugs then it doesn't offer a whole lot. I guess I like the "whatever goes" nature of the place, but it is just too debaucherous for my taste. We ended up staying at a Christian hostel right in the middle of the infamous Red Light District (kind of ironic?). We didn't know that it was a Christian hostel until shortly before we arrived there and had already made our reservation, but it ended up being fine. They had some Jesus stuff posted on the walls, but they didn't try to turn us into born-again christians or anything.

Since we were pretty much right in the Red Light district, we ended up walking through there a few times trying to find dinner and stuff. Basically there are just lots of sex shops, porn stores, and lots of flirty women dancing in their underwear in the window trying to get the attention of the guys (or girls) walking by on the sidewalk. Some of them were pretty good looking, but you only have to look at them for a second before they start winking and gesturing at you and it just made me think, "stop looking, and walk away quickly." I don't know, the whole thing just wasn't my cup of tea at all.

A'dam's other main attraction (of the green leafy variety) didn't bother me though. I didn't partake (yeah, I know, when in Rome do as the other tourists go to Rome to do...), but I certainly got some whiffs of it walking by the "coffeeshops."

So all in all Amsterdam seemed pricey, a little touristy, and just a little too sleazy, but don't let that stop you from going! Today we are in a smaller town called Utrecht, just a half an hour down the road from Amsterdam, then tomorrow I guess we're going to The Hague to see the M.C. Escher museum, and then we'll be going to Dusseldorf for a few nights and then hopefully renting a car for a few days...