First of all, the city is beautiful. Great restaurants, great shopping, great museums and galleries. I loved being in this city, even for only a short while.
My ultimate favorite part about this city was the amount of bike riders and bikes everywhere. I couldn’t walk a block without seeing at least 50 bikes. And everyone from every age group imaginable was riding a bike somewhere. It was breathtaking.
Another gorgeous part about this city was the canals everywhere. There were bridges to get around on almost every block.
So. I guess now I will start in on the prostitution and the drug use. It is exactly how it is described in books and films and wherever you have heard about Amsterdam. I went out exploring in the Red light district in the evening and was asked by a man if I wanted to go somewhere and smoke and drunk; I politely declined and when he smiled at me I realized that he had GOLD teeth. This was only the begging of my night. The rest of the night was filled with tons and tons of red lights in windows with half naked girls behind the glass; who would tap on the glass when men walked by to get their attention. As if they needed any help getting attention. There were streets that were so narrow that when I walked down them I could have spread my arms out to either side and touched two glass windows with naked girls behind them. On every corner there is a sex store of some kind as well as a live sex show or something of that nature. I walked around this town as if in a dream almost not sure what to believe and what to assume was only imagined.
While in Amsterdam I visited the Sex Museum, a photography museum called Foam, ate my first Thai food in months and mostly explored a whole new type of city that I couldn’t have imagined in my craziest dreams.
From what I have read about this city it seems very progressive and open-minded, which I guess it must be since so much is legal there. One thing that I noticed was the amount of bike police that were present in the Red Light District at night, it made me feel safer knowing that they were around but also made me think that perhaps it wasn’t the local people of Amsterdam that were getting in trouble, but most likely the tourists that come to the city to party. I couldn’t help but think of how annoyed most of the locals must be with the pot head tourists who come to the city just to sit around and be totally out of it.
We went into many chocolate shops and passed by many more.
Next we went on a canal tour of the city which was extremely interesting, I enjoyed it because we didn’t get the chance to get to Venice to see the canals there. As much as I would have loved to see those canals, honestly, I’ve heard it smells terrible and I found the ones in Bruge to be just lovely.
At the end of the day the rain started to come down, and come down hard. So Becc and I just called it a day and headed back to our dear Dunkurque.
While we have been staying here in Dunkurque, France we have had the opportunity to watch a few French films, all of which have been amazing.
Je Vais Bien, Ne T’en Fais Pas
Dînner des Cons
Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis
The second film was a comedy that is apparently very popular here in France. And the final film was one that although it didnt win any césars this past year, i was the most viewed movie at a theater in France. The movie was so very funny and it really taught me a lot about the French culture and more specifically the differences between Northern and Southern France.
When we are not drinking tea and eating fancy French meals we entertain ourselves by watching French films or going to see the local hockey team play a game, sometimes we even venture out to get a drink, However, I would not recommend that night life here in Dunkurque. Here are a few photos of Katie’s lovely home that she has so generously welcomed us into.
If I have not mentioned this before, Katie is our friend from Bellingham who is living here and teaching English at a local school. Katie majored in French so she can get around quite well. Becc and I love to hear stories about Katie’s students, she teaches junior high school age and all of the boys have crushes on her and try to make eyes at her while she teaches. Katie is constantly reminding them that she is about 10 years older than all of them. They reply with “ ce n’est pas grave“ which means, “It doesn’t matter.”
I would venture to say that Becca attempts to eat at least one a day.
Sometimes many more.
We all enjoy these desserts, but no where near as much as our dear Becca does
Today was our final day for sight seeing in the beautiful city of Paris. After an uneventful yet smelly ride on the metro we arrive at the Effle Tower which is much bigger than I thought it would be, even though people have told me that most people have the same thought. We do the whole tourist thing with tons of silly and cute pictures with this symbol of the city.
Then we head to the Montmontre which was not only beautiful but also had a great view of the whole city and was the spot where many scenes from the movie Amalie was filmed. After all of this sight seeing we are famished so we head to a cute café where we get a late lunch and laugh about all of our Paris adventures.
On the way back to the train we walked through a few streets with lots of tourist shopping and some great graffiti art. We almost missed our train due to the distractions on the streets but we made it safely and I was able to listen to girltalk on Becca’s Ipod and look at my new Paris Vogue, which made my heart so very happy.
