July 15, 2014
Amsterdam Day 3 (10 of 21)
Amsterdam in the daylight or at the dark of night is
extraordinary. I say this because it is more than I had imagined in my wildest
of dreams. I was not really prepared for the lifestyle here that is “free
living”. Anything goes here. I was walking down the street and what did I see?
I saw a postcard spinning rack full of postcards that your and my mother would
be SO shocked to receive in the
mail. Just let me give you a few examples in the most decent form of the word,
decent. A woman’s bottom painted like a map. Not just any map but one that left
nothing to the imagination. I blushed! Another example is a pair of juicy red
lips kissing something. I thought the postcard was saying love from Amsterdam;
it was not! It was a pair of juicy red lips but they were kissing a penis. I am
sure that some of you are appalled at my graphic descriptions, but just think
how I felt thinking of purchasing it to send to my mother.
I walked through Amsterdam today searching for the
price of a dozen eggs, a liter of milk, and the price of rib eye steak per kg.
Why you ask? Because this is my task to ensure that I see the difference in the
areas of town. Unlike Paris, Amsterdam is a dense city with a population of
tourist that doubles if not triples the number of natives in this town.
Bicycles, trains, cars, and people walking fill the streets here much like Las
Vegas, Nevada in America.
Sin City is the name we (Americans) give to Las
Vegas. Well, I want to be the first to inform you, Las Vegas is much like
church camp compared to Amsterdam. Here in Amsterdam everything goes. There is
marijuana, hash, beer, live sex, and legal prostitution. Yeah, this is the true
“sin city”. One more thing, there must not be an age limit to imbibe because I
see young students from other countries, not TNCIS students, drinking. I
thought it was just me because I am a mature graduate student. This means I am
old enough to be most, if not all, of these students’ mother. But I spoke with
another student from our group that is over it as well. Sometimes young people
think that their parents do not want them to have fun, but that is not the
case. Parents just want their children to live a respectable life while they
are young so that they can walk with their heads up when they get old. Live so
there are no regrets, but not such a wild life that everybody knows your name. I am flabbergasted when I see how nonchalant
some of the people here respond or react to the streets of Amsterdam. There are
museums and great art work, along with oh so much more. This is a fantastic
city to visit as it is filled with history that we only read about in books. It
is ironic that at the end of every sin filled street is what? A church! My
photo describes Amsterdam best: see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil!
