Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Ok, we'll play catchup later.

I like real-time posting better anyway.

Amsterdam's an awesome city, but I'm tired, and ready to go home for a bit and feel like I'm getting ready for normal life with going to Michigan and all (though I still have not heard from NYU or Columbia). Today was Anne Frank's house and the Amsterdam Historical Museum, which was really cool - Amsterdam is really a fascinating city. After that I just did not have the energy for an art museum and didn't feel like paying the 10€ they wanted at the Rijksmuseum, so that makes me like 0 for 3000 or so on Amsterdam's art Museums. Ah well. And I'm doing the Red Light District tonight with the same tour group that did my walking tour (free and the best I've had so far in any city), so I'll get to see all about that.

I felt like I got the good Amsterdam experience though. The last few days have been a haze of walking tours, biking, drinking, and coffeeshops, so, well, haze. It's actually really hard to escape the smoke here, though they're banning indoor cigarette smoke. So yeah, no more hash at coffeeshops. It's another big difference between Americans and Europeans - we all smoke straight weed, but the Brits here are appalled and frightened by the idea of weed without tobacco. It's kinda funny.

One of the more interesting things I've learned about here is Dutch politics. They didn't just become suddenly more liberal in the 70's. Amsterdam grew up as a trading town, so they saw all different culture and exposure breeds tolerance. Also, they have all historically been merchants that controlled the city, not a king, so they were always willing to compromise puritanical moral standing for the more profitable route. Thus, we have one of the most liberal cities in the world for a long time. And since Amsterdam is the capital and has the most votes in Parliament, as goes Amterdam, goes the country.

However, for the first time, maybe ever, the Dutch government is in the hands of Christian conservatives. The smoking ban alone will close about 1/3 of coffeeshops, and they're passing more laws to restrict the weed and prositution via red tape. Rotterdam and The Hague have like 3 coffeeshops each, and apparently they want to get down to that number here. It's a little nuts, and no one knows what will happen, specifically to tourism. But that's sorta the point for the government. They don't want people coming to Amsterdam just to get wasted out fo their mind. The Brits are about half the tourists at any time here, just in for the weekend, and apparently have been known to get wasted and cause trouble. They figure the tourism will survive like any other European city. I bet it will, but if they kill off the drug culture, not anywhere near at these levels. No chance.

Oh, and one other awesome thing I wanna share. Tax law is at the root of some of the distinctiveness of Amsterdam (and maybe most original Dutch?) architecture. Property tax was assessed based on the width of the house (they're mostly built as brownstones, all together). This caused people to build narrow and straight up, causing all the stairs in the city to be absurdly steep. (I had already noticed this in my hostel, where I'm sure I drunkenly bruised my shin.) Because the stairs are so steep, you can't get furniture up them, and Dutch people move in through the windows. Thus all the windows are huge, and most houses have hooks for a pulley in front off the roof. And apparently, they realized that if you haul a couch up a vertical wall, you'll destroy the wall as it bangs into every floor. So what did they do? They designed houses leaning forward. Crazy, no? I have pics. Soon. Nowadays they seem to move with fire engine ladder type conveyor belts (saw someone moving in, and anyway, it makes more sense), so the lean is no longer necessary, but there are plenty of older houses that do.

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