Amsterdam and the Red Light District: the European Las Vegas

While I was sitting on the train on my way to Amsterdam, Holland my hands were literally shaking with excitement. With my travel friend Chris sitting across from me, we were accompanied by a young man who was obviously European. He was wearing tight black pants, a white t-shirt, a gray blazer, a bright red scarf which resembled a rose, and had long curly brown hair about shoulder length. Chris and I were chatting about the weekend when this boy suddenly asked us if we were Americans. Obviously we responded by saying yes and that we were traveling to Amsterdam for the weekend. After a few introductions, we found out his name was Michael (pronounced Michelle) and was from the city of Amsterdam. This opportunity to gain more insight about the place I thought to be very laid-back was too good to give up. Chris and I asked him to describe Amsterdam to us. To sum it up, Michael told us that “Amsterdam is very similar America”. After asking what he meant he had trouble explaining how they were similar, most likely because the only place in America he had traveled to was Maine. For the rest of the weekend I made it my job to see the ways which Amsterdam was similar and different to America. The only conclusion I could come up with: Amsterdam, specifically the Red Light District, is the Las Vegas of Europe with of course with a few differences here and there.

Once we arrived in Amsterdam after a painstakingly anxious six hour train ride from Luxembourg, I was immediately overwhelmed by how fast the city moved. Chris and I along with the 6 others we were traveling with had to walk the streets to find our hotel. As we were making our trek to Hotel Traveler, bumping into people and avoiding the bike lanes along the way, I couldn’t help but get my first smell of the overwhelming musty, spicy aroma of an herb; it was a coffeeshop.

Two stores down from the first coffeeshop, I saw a large sign with yellow lights all around it reading “Casino”, immediately making me think of Las Vegas.

After we checked into our hotel, it was time to roam the busy, people infested streets of the Red Light District. The first thing that I noticed was the abundance of sex shops, sex shows, and strip clubs.

Again, this gave me the feeling like I was in sin city, except for fewer skyscrapers, amazingly old history, and the thousands of miles between the two cities. As the night went on I realized that the city of Amsterdam was a very tolerant and open minded place, similar to Las Vegas. Along with the sex shops, coffeeshops (where it’s legal to consume and possess marijuana), and casinos, there is also legalized prostitution. Even though the only institution in Amsterdam which resembles America is the legalized gambling, it was the lights of the Red Light District which allowed me to see that it could be compared similarly to Las Vegas. At night the Red Light District had distinct neon pink lights above the doors in alleys and along the street sides where prostitutes solicited. This combined with the vast bright-neon green, blue, red, and yellow lights above sex shops and coffeeshops gave Amsterdam the appearance of a European Las Vegas.

After a night of roaming the streets on Thursday, I felt much more relaxed about being in Amsterdam for the following two days. On Thursday I was so overwhelmed with all the lights, smells, and sights I was not able to pinpoint the major differences between America (specifically Las Vegas) and Amsterdam. One major difference was the use of bikes. Amsterdam was built on four main canals which run through the city. As a result, the city was built off of these canals and not built on a grid like American cities. Since the city was built to fit to the canals, many streets are narrow and not used for car transportation. Since these narrow streets are even crowded to walk around on foot, bikes are the best mode of transportation. Instead of roads for cars, there are bike lanes specifically for bikers. Another difference between a place such as Las Vegas and Amsterdam is the climate. Las Vegas is in the desert and gets very hot during the day. Amsterdam is as far north as Canada and is located right on the North Sea. As a result, the temperature didn’t get above 70 all week :)















All in all I had a great weekend. I got to see and in some cases experience new things such as sex shops, coffeeshops, and legal prostitution which I may never be able to see again in my life. Even though Amsterdam was not just like America as Michael described, it shares many similarities and differences to certain places in America such as Las Vegas. It is the similarities and differences together in Amsterdam which make it such a unique place. With that being said, it is my goal one day to make it back to my bizarro European Las Vegas.