A Weekend in Amsterdam

By Nathan DeWitt

Leaning buildings at water's edge

I spent this past weekend in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Before leaving, I hadn’t ever heard much about Amsterdam or The Netherlands (aside from The Red Light District in the media), and I didn’t do much research on the city before traveling there. I didn’t want to have any preconceived notions about a totally foreign country and city before I explored it for myself.

I wrote my last blog entry on my experience in Paris, and I will start this blog with the principle thought from my time in Amsterdam: it was different than anything I had ever seen or imagined before in a city. I have been to most of the major cities in the United States, and only London and Paris in Europe, but Amsterdam was the first time I had been to a city and experienced multiple “wow” moments. I knew how the museums and tours were going to go, so I’ll discuss some other observations I made.

There were plenty of aspects of this city that made it “different” to me. The clothes the people wear were different from clothes people wear in London and Paris and the US. I never saw a common theme in clothing like I have in these other cities. Same went for the restaurants – they had food I hadn’t seen before, including multiple pancake houses with full menus and any topping you can imagine, frites with different sauces, and much more. There were street dancing teams who clearly made a living off tips from passers-by, and buildings that slanted like we don’t see in the US or even London. There were clogs (wooden shoes) for sale. There were winding rivers and beautiful boats. And yes, there were drugs and prostitutes.

While I won’t dwell on that aspect of the city, it is impossible to spend time in Amsterdam or write about it without mentioning this. There are places on every single street in the city selling drugs legally, and at night when the building’s red lights come on, the prostitutes stand in their windows waiting for business. Seeing all this up-close and in-person for the first time was one of those “wow” moments, and it wasn’t a positive “wow.”

Frankly, it was kind of amazing to me that a city labeled the “drug and sex capital of the world” was so clean, fresh, and beautiful as a whole. Amsterdam is the biggest and most successful city in the country and while its economy may be largely stimulated by tourists, I saw no signs of the Red Light District having negative effects on the rest of the city and its people, history, or beauty.

I strongly recommend anyone to visit Amsterdam, especially Americans who haven’t been outside the country yet. It is a city that you have to visit yourself to truly understand just how different the culture is.