Along with all the history and art, Amsterdam has a rather famous seedy and wild side that we only peeked around the edge of. Don't let the swans below fool you, the Red Light District is pretty crazy. Every corner is covered in sex shops, lingerie stores or glass doors with prostitutes flaunting their wares to passersby. Weirdly enough the area always felt safe despite the bawdy nature of it, no doubt in part to a steady police presence and daily cleanup crew, but we saw families with children wandering around at 9 at night without concern so its clearly not too bad.
Even more prolific than the brothels, Coffee Shops are peppered through every corner of the downtown core. Here you can buy pot from the guy at the counter or just get a coffee and smoke your own if you want. Every little souvenir shop within 100 yards of one of these places also sells pot, mushrooms, salvia and pretty much any soft drug you can imagine.
Even vice gets its own museum there, with 3 floors of exhibits covering everything from the history of burlesque to fetishes and an animatronic Marilyn Monroe posing for photo shoots. Also included are a number of artifacts from various cultures dating back hundreds of years, showing that mankind has been giving this particular subject a lot of thought for a long time.
Even being green hippys from Vancouver we found Amsterdam to have an unexpectedly liberal and unrestrained feeling which took some getting used to but became enjoyable after a day or two. I imagine that living in the downtown core would get exhausting pretty quick however.
Even more prolific than the brothels, Coffee Shops are peppered through every corner of the downtown core. Here you can buy pot from the guy at the counter or just get a coffee and smoke your own if you want. Every little souvenir shop within 100 yards of one of these places also sells pot, mushrooms, salvia and pretty much any soft drug you can imagine.
Even vice gets its own museum there, with 3 floors of exhibits covering everything from the history of burlesque to fetishes and an animatronic Marilyn Monroe posing for photo shoots. Also included are a number of artifacts from various cultures dating back hundreds of years, showing that mankind has been giving this particular subject a lot of thought for a long time.
Even being green hippys from Vancouver we found Amsterdam to have an unexpectedly liberal and unrestrained feeling which took some getting used to but became enjoyable after a day or two. I imagine that living in the downtown core would get exhausting pretty quick however.
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