Sex, drugs and wooden shoes

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Everybody knows that Holland is a must in any European trip, so here we are, arriving in Amsterdam. Of course we were curious to see how works the prostitution, the drugs etc.

- Don't blame me, everybody also think Brasilians walk in bikinis the whole day and dance samba before they can walk. That's what is stereotype for! -

The first subject to investigate was the Red Light District, just because our hostel was right in the centre of it! I thought it would be a strange place full of people hiding themselves and sneaking into the doors, but to my surprise it is the opposite. Nicely illuminated streets full of families, couples and friends walking peacefully around as if they were in a park, looking the girls the same way you would look to a standard shop window. To complete the friendly environment, there are nice bars where you can have a beer, and watch the crowd coming and going.

But Amsterdam is not the Holland we were expecting to see. Where are the flowers? Where are the windmills? So we decide to go a bit more into the country. We went to the train station, hopped on the first train going north (How good is the Europass ticket!) and waited to see where it would stop. Bingo! from the window we could already see the traditional Holland: flowers (just the fields in this time of the year), windmills and..... cheese!! We stopped by chance in Edam, the city of the famous cheese!! Couldn't be bigger coincidence!

Always when we meet dutch travellers they ask us how we ended up there.

After a few days eating lots of that cheese, we went back to Amsterdam to visit some museums and go to the next destination!

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Photos

Wooden shoes
How about hiking on them?

Cheeeeeeeese
Edan main export product.

Amsterdan tradition
Out this world! Want some weed? No problem, all under the law!

Public toilets
So public you risk pissing at someone in the streets!

Gay parade
That was our reception in Amsterdam. The annual (don't miss read!) gay parade.

Wind mills
I took this picture for my mama. How could we go to Holland and not have a picture of a Wind Mill.