I finally made it to Amsterdam. That one European city you hear about all the time since you were about the age of 15. Why? Because there is legal marijuana and the Red Light District of course!

So, my objective of this blog post is to erase that image that people have of Amsterdam. The marijuana and the Red Light District is just a fraction of what the city has to offer. Sure, you can argue that it brings tourism which equals business which equals jobs which equals money, but in reality, it’s the wrong kind of tourism because it just brings people that will most likely disrespect the city (Las Vegas, that includes you too).

What I am trying to get to here is that Amsterdam is one of the best cities I have ever been too so far. Everything from the friendly people, to the endless canals, to the bicycles, to the variety of food, to the parks, Amsterdam is everything a city should be. Sure, the marijuana doesn’t hurt. This city has something to offer to everyone. If you enjoy museums, I recommend you check out the Anne Frank House (yes, I never actually realized she lived in Amsterdam), the Van Gogh Museum, and the EYE Museum of film. I also recommend exploring the city by bicycle, which was my favorite part of the city. They truly are the only bicycle city in this world. A fact that I learned from someone I met over there said that the canals are about 6 meters deep (roughly 18 feet), and that 3 meters of it is old bicycles dumped into the canals. Oh ya, and there are more canals than Venice, Italy. So that just gives you an idea of how many bicycles there are in Amsterdam!

Below are some of my favorite pictures from the trip. Of course I had a lot more where that came from, but I want to save some maybe for a future post, depending if you liked the pictures or not!

-Ben