The general atmosphere of Amsterdam was pretty apparent from walking through the city. Constant bombardment with sex seemed to be as easy to find here as bakeries had been in Bonn. Over the course of the weekend, I got used to this pretty quickly. By the end of the 2 days, the city definitely seemed more normal to me and my shock tolerance was a good deal higher. Maybe I’ll start to think Bonn is a bit prudish once I'm back. The other thing that was rampant throughout the city was "coffee" shops. I guess that’s understandable since this is one of the only places in the developed world where you can get “coffee” legally. Obviously, our group had to at least check out the inside of one of these shops just to see what it was like. It was a bit bizarre and almost the exact stereotype that I had always imagined. I guess this counts as “getting cultured”. Other than the sex and drugs which Amsterdam is famous for, the city was actually surprisingly beautiful. With its awesome location amongst the canals and old-style architecture, it was easy to see how so many had fallen in love with the city. The shopping was also quite good and offered a range of items from the standard tourist shot glasses to more Netherlands specific items.
One of the main activities of our weekend was the Van Gogh Museum. The museum was GIGANTIC. We spent a good three hours there looking around, but I’m sure we could have spent the entire day if we had really taken our time. I had tried reading all the exhibits and really learning everything I could at the beginning, but by the end of the museum I was skipping entire rooms simply due to lack of time. I really feel like weekend doesn't even begin to give me a full overview of this city. Regardless of time constraints, the museum was very cool. I got to see some of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings. Well actually we got to see almost all of Van Gogh’s major works as well as a great deal of the works of his contemporaries. Like I said, this place was huge. By the end of it, I definitely felt like I had a better understanding of Van Gogh. The set-up showing his progression as an artist was especially helpful for this. The exhibitions for restoration and research at the end were also especially interesting, though we had to skip through the majority of them.
Though the Red Light District didn’t take up a large part of our time and was really just a short stroll through some streets, it certainly stood out as one of the oddest parts of the trip. When we found the area, it was like stumbling into a completely new world. I could never see a place like this existing in any part of the US. In fact, I could really never see a place like this existing in Europe either, yet here it was. Passing the girls in the windows was odd to say the least, and I felt a bit uncomfortable to see it. It was almost like looking into a zoo. Instead of lions and tigers and bears, this zoo was full of girls, not all of them being the stereotypical girls you would imagine. I didn’t expect it to affect me in quite the way it did. Though it was probably the most interesting thing I saw this weekend, it was also depressing in a way. Regardless, I’m glad I got to experience it. As a rather conservative guy, I can’t say that Amsterdam was my usual cup of tea. That being said, I would LOVE to have the chance to come back to visit another time. I can certainly see myself spending entire weeks here and still seeing new things every day. If nothing else, anyone who has ever visited definitely has to admit that this city has a unique culture. I was sad to go but looking forward to my next week in Bonn.
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