Photo Essay: Canals, Bicycles and Coffee Shops

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This time three years ago, I had handed in my thesis and was on the road with two close friends of mine. On that thursday night, the idea came up to hit the road and so, with no set plan, we drove our way up to Amsterdam. 

We drove for at least 6 hours, and only arrived in the dutch capital at about 1 or 2 am. Excited about our arrival, we parked the car and stepped out to take a first quick glimpse on the city of sins. Me parked next to what - in my naïve mind - was a department store. But to my surprise, the store's mannequins were... alive. Not that I didn't knew about Amsterdam's Red Light District. I did. But we weren't exactly in the red light district yet and, besides, I had never seen anything similar to this before. 

We walked to what was the actual Red Light District but soon realized we were out-placed as the only people still wandering on the streets were men looking to window-shop. Note: it didn't really feel unsafe for 3 girls, men were far too focussed on what was going on behind the windows. 

The next morning, we started our journey through the city of canals, bicycles and coffee shops.

One of Amsterdam's many canals

Uncountable number of bicycles

Having dutch beer during lunch time

Inside a Coffee Shop

Ever since, I've been back to Amsterdam twice, but always for work. Still, I find this city, and particularly the parts that aren't extremely touristic, charming and worth the visit. I know many people think of it as a touristic cliché - that wherever you go, you'll see groups of young tourists high or drunk. I'm not going to lie - you can find pretty freaky people out there. However, Amsterdam has much more to offer than a couple of coffee shops (which may I say, is still part of the experience). My personal favorite area up to now has been the restaurant/bar/boutique area in and around Spuistraat. 

Anyway, I'll leave you, as usual, with 5 (quite surprising!) facts about Amsterdam.

1. Amsterdam's Airport (Schiphol) is 4 meters below sea level. This means that, if global warming causes the sea level to rise, Amsterdam would be one of the first cities to drown
2. There are estimated to be 1 million bikes in Amsterdam vs. approximately 750.000 people. The number of bicycles actually is estimated to have doubled the number of cars
3. Measured per square meter, Amsterdam is the city with the highest number of Museums worldwide - the city's administration counts 51 museums!
4. There are over 200 coffee shops spread across the city. Since 2007, customer can only smoke pure cannabis joints in coffee shops but can not mix them with tobacco 
5. The famous magic mushrooms - dry or fresh - are both illegal since December 2008 (after a couple of bad tourist incidents)

Have you ever been to Amsterdam? If so, which are your thoughts - is it too touristy? 

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By the way, one of my pictures was featured over at Christine's C'est Christine on her Share the Love Sundays feature, check it out!