Yesterday the weather was terrible. When we fist got up it
was pouring rain and when we first went out it hailed. Naturally, this didn’t
give us much to look forward to outside our hostel. We decided to stay in for
the most of the day relaxing. Our only excursion in the morning was to I *heart
shape* Kebab. This place was pretty
nice for a kebab shop and it was nice to chill and read there as we ate. Our
main outing of the day was in the evening when the weather had cleared. After
our dinner of delicious and discounted burgers at the hostel-affiliated
restaurant we went out in search of the Hash, Marihuana and Hemp Museum and a
supermarket. The museum wasn’t that big and was a bit of a tourist trap, if I’m
honest, but it was still neat to see the displays of cannabis history and of
all the products that can me made out of hemp. It came with a fairly
interesting guidebook of which I have already lost. After grabbing snacks at
the grocery store we headed home for the night.
I have been asked to
comment about the culture of Amsterdam and now seems as good a time as any. The
small slice of Amsterdam culture of which I have experienced has been one of
relaxation and calm. There are very few cars in the downtown of the city and
people choose to walk or bike everywhere. Police seem to be much more of a
rarity then you would expect from a small area packed with tourists and though
the laws are much laxer than in the Americas I haven’t noticed any crime.
My most prominent
feeling about Amsterdam is that it would be a lovely place to be a writer. You
can get good coffee nearly everywhere, not to mention you can smoke inside and
drink outside. Just seems like the type of place a writer could find a
comfortable spot and write for years with never a discomfort in the world.
I sometime wondered if the relaxed laws on marihuana and sex would make Amsterdam more open to crime, but from your observations, that is not the case. One reason for not allowing the legalization of prostitution in Toronto is that it will increase the crime rate. If Amsterdam is any indication, crime would not increase. I think Rio has legalized prostitution and it has a very high rate of crime. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI keep typing up comments, but they say i'm not logged in, and don't work. Rio has a lot of drug problems, and i have heard amsterdam with legal prostitution there is little to no rape because if someone wants sex they can go out at purchase it.
ReplyDeleteThe prohibition on prostitution is dumb, I have never read anything that supports a good argument for it. Most of the problem associated with prostitution stem from the exploitation and criminality associated with it being illegal.
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