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Me and my friend arrived in Amsterdam after a stop in Riga, Latvia about 13h. At this point we had absolutely no idea where we were going to sleep, not even where we could find a place to sleep. Thank god we atleast knew where we had to stop on our way from the airport to the centrum. You could say that we were totally lost at that point. The Gay Pride -festival was going on when we arrived so every single youth hostel was full when we went to the info at Damrak. We kind of felt like Maria and Josef at Christmas if you get religious.
Then luckily, we were able to get a place to sleep 50m away from the main street Damrak! It wasn't cheap but worth the cost. It was on the 4th floor and it had the most narrow door I've ever seen.
Amsterdam wasn't my friends cup of tea nor was it my favourite of all time, but I did learn how to get around in there quite fast. We met an old man, who asked what we were thinking about Amsterdam. He said he lived 20km away and came to Amsterdam to have a vacation every once in a while. We kind of guessed that he wasn't just a nice man chatting with us, but it was about 14h so we were in no danger. We asked if Amsterdam had proper restaurants because we had only seen late-night-pizza-slize shops. He showed us a place but in the meantime asked if we liked to see him snog one of the prostitutes in the red light district or him masturbating. We thanked for his help and said goodbye at that point. Athough Amsterdam is very liberal about drugs and everything we didn't witness any bad behaviour. It was a laidback town, with tourists including familys with young children. We heard that the government was buying the little glass windows were the prostitutes were working and one by one turning them into artists' ateliers, which I believe is making severe damage to the citys cultural heritage.
In the evening we went to Rembrant Square, where we bumped into a student from Houston, Texas. It was a nice change to talk to someone who spoke fluent english. He said he was spending a few months in Amsterdam, studying law. And according to him, he had spent it smoking marijuana by the beautiful canals of dam while pondering about life. We also met a man from Latvia, who was just "hangin" in dam, stealing food, clothes and drinks while sleeping in different hostels every night without paying. Seemed like he was enjoying it. In Amsterdam, people truly were more open-minded, then anywhere I've been. And not just about sexuality, also about your opinions and values. They accepted your believes and were eager to disscuss about them. And because of that, the city and it's people didn't have to hide anything unlike in Finland, where people are mostly quiet about personal matters. That to me, was the main aspect in the greatness of Amsterdam.
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