Sooo, this weekend my roomates and I flew up to Amsterdam, a historic canal-town in the Netherlands. Very crazy place, but pretty fun. We stayed in supposedly the top rated youth hostel in the city, which just happens to be in the heart of the Red Light district. If you haven't heard, prostitution there is legal. Yes, you read that correctly--legal as in government owned and operated. After the novelty wears off, though, it's kind of sad. They're basically just bikini-clad girls inside a glass cage available for rent. Really degrading, I think. Makes you feel bad. It's all just cold money transactions. "Tragedy reduced to numbers," as Allen Ginsberg says.
Other than that the coffeeshops are great. Real chill and relaxing. The Van Gogh museum was interesting, too. I never realized how much he changed the color scheme of painting. His most famous one, Self Portrait, was pretty incredible. We also shot over to the Rembrandt museum on Saturday. It was fun because we had one of my roomates thoroughly convinced that Rembrandt invented toothpaste, and that that was why all the people in his paintings have white teeth. Actually, now that I think of it, we didn't let him know it was a joke. Oh, well. I'll get around to it sometime before leaving. I want to see how far it can go first.
On the plane ride home, I also realized that this was my last trip outside of Italy. So, off the top of my head, I've made a bare bones list of my top five favorite cities. I don't know why, but ever since coming over here, I've had the sudden urge to make lists. Anyway, here it is:
- 1. Munich, Germany
- 2. San Gimignano, Italy
- 3. Barcelona, Spain
- 4. Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 5. Orvieto, Italy
That's just a rough draft, though. I'll have a more comprehensive and fleshed out list in the future. Until next time, Cya!