A Red Light District Adventure

Having all be up for in excess of 24 hours, we decided to have a quick snooze before heading out to sample the delights of Amsterdam, but to be more specific, the delights of the infamous Red Light District!

One of our first destinations was a coffee shop but somehow we managed to walk into probably the only coffee shop in Amsterdam that only sells coffee and doesn’t allow smoking! At least coffee is cheap here… but at the same time ridiculously overpriced given how much it costs them to make!

We eventually found a genuine coffee shop and found ourselves being led down a basement which is where the magic happens. Even though the place was a legit as such a place can be, I couldn’t help but fear we had stumbled upon some strange sex club and were about to be given the Pulp Fiction treatment!

Afterwards, we went from alley to alley and no matter what street we were on, we found ourselves in a giftshop of some sort. I think we’ve stocked up on enough novelty t-shirts, keyrings and mugs to not give to our own families, but pass on to further generations as well! We met a lovely couple from Cork who were telling us their story… then they tried to sell us drugs! After we declined their kind offer, they warned us not to buy anything off of the blacks as they’ll only try to rip us off! I think that’s called sour grapes rather than actually caring!

We’ve only seen the real Amsterdam on one or two occassions, when we unwittingly wandered outside of the Red Light District! I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll go explore. The weather will have to be better though as it’s done nothing but rain since we got here. The only sun we saw was at 30,000ft… and I don’t think I can get that high…