Strangely enough (or not), every time I step outside that invisible boundary of the USA guarded by passport stamping immigration officials and illegal substance sniffing dogs , I feel free.
It is funny how that these invisible “boundaries” create such division within this world, leading to discriminations and misunderstandings and sometimes violence. I had a 12 hour layover in Amsterdam, and spent 9 of those exploring the city. Unfortunately it was a gloomy day, but the Australian tour guide that showed us around lightened up the mood with his quirky attitude and knowledge about the city.
I normally don’t use tour guides because I prefer to explore cities on my own but because I had so little time, this was a great way to get a preview trailer of the city. NewEurope tours, try it out if you haven’t already. They do free tours (working for tips) of a lot of European cities.
I made conversation with the other members of the group and quickly found that I had forgotten how much I enjoy traveling and listening to life stories and sharing some of mine.
Amsterdam is a lovely city with its winding canals, crooked angled buildings, speeding bikers, pee deflectors, “Feel Good” coffee shops, camera smashing red light district females and salted herring. I learned something I didn’t know before: Technically marijuana is illegal but the cops turn the other way because they want to use that money instead on cracking down on harder drugs – and according to my tour guide it has been successful since then.
Fun fact: Most of the marijuana is smoked by tourists and Italy takes the #1 spot in Europe for the most users, while New Zealand takes the #1 spot in the world.
I plan on coming back to this wonderful city.
PS Who can tell me the significance of this picture with the orange dress and vuvuzula out of place at the history museum?
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