May 9th Amsterdam

We've been in Amsterdam for a few days now, a lots been going on but and Bryce and I have been having fun (mostly legal too). I'll just leave it at that. We went to the Anne Frank house two days ago luckily there wasn't much of a line like there usually is. It was really somber and a touch creepy, I never read the book but it was really interesting to see how 8 people lived for months in just a few rooms.

Yesterday two guys from Prince George moved in, we started drinking with them and two girls from Toronto. In preparation for a pub crawl. The pub crawl didn't end up happening, there wasn't enough people. The host still gave us three free bottles of vodka, and between Bryce, myself and the two guys from PG we polished off two in an hour. The ladies from Toronto helped on the third, as well as a few others. Daulton one of the guys from PG was pretty shit faced by the time we left, and we kept losing him on the street. I was amazed he made it through the night without passing out or puking. We wandered the streets of the red light district looking at the girls and constantly being asked if we needed anything special (coke, heroin, roofies). It's a pretty crazy place, coffee shops selling weed, porn stores, sex shows, and prostitutes in their booths line two canals and many alley ways. There isn't many bars here which is pretty strange, and there's only one strip club that I've seen (I guess it isn't really necessary when prostitutes line the streets). Another thing I couldn't believe is that after two nights of stumbling around the red light district drunk I saw zero police officers. There's cameras on some street corners but I didn't see one cop. But I haven't seen anyone being an asshole or overly aggressive to other tourists or the girls.

It's pretty interesting to see totally legalized prostitution in action, the Dutch are incredibly open and liberal people but we're told by our hostel staff and bartenders that it's not like it used to be. Apparently the red light district was much bigger, and in coffee shops you could get weed as well as psilocybin mushrooms. Mushrooms were made illegal awhile back (but there are still signs advertising "magic truffles" in many pharmacy windows) and by this time next year marijuana in coffee shops will only be available to Dutch citizens. I guess the politicians don't want the biggest and most famous city in The Netherlands to be just about drugs and sex. There's some benefits though, I've overheard tour guides say that in areas where sex is easily available murder rates are incredibly low. Also the girls are registered with the government and are regularly tested. If people are going to do it at least it's safe and some tax money is generated.

We've been doing a lot of wandering around here, there's a tattoo parlor nearby that does some very traditional sailor type stuff and has been around since 1955. My tattoo artist told me another guy in the shop back in Edmonton actually started there. So Bryce and I talked to the guys there about that. They had some pretty crazy stories.

I think we're off to Paris this weekend. Bryce and I really wanna hit up Thailand (flights can be as little as 500 bucks) and Australia. Cam split off again to meet his girl friend in Scotland for three weeks. I don't know where we'll meet up with him again.