January 9, 2017

Alrighty – Here is the second and final ones from Amsterdam. It’s been really fun revisiting these. I have added some captions for you too!

Hope you enjoy!

Next up, Paris photos.. I have 638 photos to ideally narrow down to 80.. haha. We will see..

January 7, 2017

Alrighty! Here is the first batch of Amsterdam photos. I still can not get over the architecture in this city. One of the coolest I’ve seen. You will notice that each building has a hook on the top, that is so they can hoist furniture up with a rope and through the windows as the stairways inside are extremely narrow and steep! In addition, the buildings also lean outwards in the direction of the hook so when you hoist the furniture up it doesn’t hit the exterior walls! It makes for a trippy landscape of seemingly dancing buildings scattered along! Some lean out more than others, it’s really cool to see and I have written in the captions on the photos below that show the leaning the most! Besides the buildings, everyone knows that weed is legal in Amsterdam and it has a huge weed tourism sector. The majority of the city centre smells like the finest of cannabis. The places where you buy it are called “Coffee shops” which, to no surprise, also sell coffee! The majority of the regular bars are free to smoke as you wish as well. It’s a trip! In addition, besides the buildings and weed, the third thing that stood out about Amsterdam was the Red Light District. It is unlike any place on Earth and I still couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it! Prostitution is legal in Amsterdam and there is a large section of the city centre called the Red Light District where the majority of the prostitution takes place. It has an overwhelming about of “red” lights and signs that can’t be missed. The streets and alleys are filled with glass doors with women standing in them available for their services. They stand behind the glass doors and when they get a client, they pull a curtain over the window and that’s how you know their place is “in use.” Therefore, the alleys are lined with half “in use” and half “open for business” rooms. Basically, as you walk by the girls eye f*ck you and tap on the window to get your attention. As seedy as it seems as I write this, it doesn’t feel too dodgy when walking through the streets of the Red Light District. The area itself is incredibly famous, quite clean and it’s extremely busy. So you have families and couples walking around to see this famous, unique area who aren’t actually there for sex. I would say the vast majority of people are there just to have a look around. It is quite a sight to see and in most things of life, I have no judgements on anyone involved. It extremely quite cordial and is gonna happen no matter what so may as well be in a way that the girls are safe. And as always, to each their own 😀 I just should have probably worn a rainbow flag or something so they wouldn’t waste their breathe on me 😀 haha I have a couple photos of this area which I’ll put in the next photo album. Also, something that is undeniable about Amsterdam is the array of food. Ironic that there is epic munchie food in a place that has legal weed? I think not. 😀 You can find any type of food scattered along the city. I would love to go back and just eat my way though this city! haha And lastly, the number one thing that I would say that stands out when I think of Amsterdam are the amount of bikes on the road. Holland in general is extremely flat which makes biking a great option when trying to get around from place to place. Out of all the places we went, Amsterdam was the place where I constantly kept nearly getting hit by.. no not a car.. a bike! Coming from all directions at all times, there are tons of bikes constantly zipping past. I mean hundreds.. I still don’t know how people manage to find their bikes when they park them. There even are places which have multistory bike parking “garages.” I have a photo below but there are literally thousands of bikes parked in these structures at any given time. It’s incredible.

Anyway’s, all in all, Amsterdam is such a unique place. The Dutch are some of the nicest people I met on the road and it was reflected in the people I met here as well. The place is chaotic but so peaceful at the same time. I would love to go back one day and recommend it to anyone heading to Europe!

Below are the photos I have gone through so far.. I have been spending tons of time learning Lightroom and probably spend about 8 hours just on these photos alone. Whenever I wanted to do something and I didn’t know how, I would YouTube Lightroom tutorials. I’ve been taking courses online in attempt to start freelancing photo editing for some extra cash on the side. Still a long way to go, but it’s a start!

Anyway’s, again, I have wrote a novel when I intended to briefly write a caption. Speaking of captions, I wrote some on select photos so have a look

Cheers!