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.

A Permanent Carnival

Maybe it’s my lack of big-city experience, but my past weekend in Amsterdam made me realize how much a place can be defined by its visitors, not its natives.

After a chat on the train with a group of middle-aged Englishmen leaving their wives behind to celebrate birthdays collectively, I knew Amsterdam must be a destination for party-ers, not just history buffs and intellectual travelers. Upon entering a main drag of the city after a short jaunt from the train station, my senses were overloaded by masses of people, clouds of weed smoke and bright, glowing business signs. It was like I had just entered a carnival but didn’t pay any admission. Quickly I wrote this first impression off and convinced myself this area misrepresented the cultural and historical values of an alternate Amsterdam.

A short rest in our (not) spacious hostel provided much needed energy for what I hoped was a great learning experience. Wandering the city was quite the experience; and wandering is what I did most of the weekend. I was sideswiped by well-dressed bikers, ambled through the overtly touristy Red Light District, and was generally lost in the mass of people and towering buildings. Of the people I encountered, most were not Dutch. There were large amounts of English, American, and other less-foreign accents I noticed. This provided me some comfort, but also made me long for a place more off the beaten path.

Physically, the city is beautiful. The buildings are old, the architecture has a uniquely Dutch feel, and the canals provide a European ambiance. There is also a cramped quality to the space. Businesses nearly always have residences occupying many floors above them and there is limited natural area apart from several parks. Clearly the city needs to pack a lot of people into it; its physical structure allows this to be accomplished. But the cultural distinctiveness of Amsterdam is separated from the overwhelming and luxurious distinctiveness of the physical layout.

Whenever I noticed what I thought was a native Amsterdam-mer, he or she was already a hundred feet away on a bike. It seemed that natives were always on the move on the bike path, never enjoying the sights and sounds of the city. Maybe they had important plans or I just interpreted them incorrectly, but to me it felt as if they did not want to be in the city, especially on such a busy weekend. The whole atmosphere is built on novelty; novelty mainly found in such places as the Red Light District, the “coffeeshops,” and multitude of stores selling strange items. In the coffeeshops and restaurants I visited, I got the distinct feeling from the workers that the novelty has worn off on the people who live in and around the city. They looked tired, apathetic, and worn out by the barrage of out-of-towners. It was as if they just wanted the mass of people to leave, even though it would mean the end of business. The visitors providing the business to the city dictate the territory and culture of the natives. The only aspect of the Amsterdam I felt belonged to the inhabitants was the bike path. There was certainly a culture surrounding biking; it was one thing with which foreigners, like myself, were out of the loop.

At night, the party atmosphere of the city meshed with the novelty atmosphere and provided a fun time. Clearly people came to Amsterdam to enjoy themselves and the good times the city offers. Although this scene did not disappoint me, I sometimes wished I could find the more unique activities of Amsterdam nightlife aside from drinking and clubs. Maybe this doesn’t exist in any big city, but I felt like Amsterdam’s uniqueness was drained long ago by the party-seekers.

Europe is definitely a party, and Amsterdam is a great party destination. It has a lot to offer in terms of history and culture, but this is distinctly separated from the realm of entertainment and novelty that dominates the city’s personality. It was a tiring and fun-filled whirlwind weekend, but it left me trying to grasp unsuccessfully at the city's cultural and intellectual roots. Maybe Amsterdam is just unique in that its culture is novelty, not anything deeper. Or maybe I just caught up in the novelty atmosphere and couldn't get out.