Amsterdam: a hedonist's paradise?

Right now, for a brief fleeting moment, I am in Amsterdam. This visit, nearing completion, was very short but very sweet. Let me explain.

Amsterdam is a city I have wanted to visit since eighth grade, when my friend Alyssa and I realized that the plane that was taking our eighth grade class to Washington DC was continuing on to Amsterdam and we tried to convince our teacher to let us stay on the place and have our field trip there. Needless to say, she didn’t go for it, but Amsterdam because that kind of El Doradoesque travel destination for me: more of an unattainable myth than a reality.

But here I am. When I got out of the train station, jet-lagged but excited, and saw the beautiful old world buildings and canals, I had two immediate reactions: 1) I love this city and I could live here for years; 2) Okay, I’ve seen Amsterdam, let’s get to Jerusalem! Now, waiting at my gate for my flight to Tel Aviv, both feelings remain.

My visit has been short – I was away from the airport for about 6 hours – but I feel like it could be an “Amsterdam Greatest Hits” trip. I took the train, I walked a lot, I saw a lot of canals, I admired the brick and the cobblestone, I went to the Van Gogh Museum, visited a coffee shop, drank peach juice, rode the tram, walked some more, I was accosted twice by the employees of the red light district, I smelled tulips, I took a little nap on the tram, I admired more brick canals, and I walked some more. It was great.

There’s a lot about this city that I’ve been contemplating; it’s my first continental European city I’ve visited – and actually the first time, I’m pretty sure, I’ve been in a place where I did not speak the language – and there’s a lot of newness to this experience. Dutch is a funny language. I kept confusing people speaking Dutch with German, and tired to use my minute knowledge of Yiddish to access German to access Dutch. It didn’t work. Some English cognates helped, but mostly I giggled to myself about spelling words with two aa’s (I’m also finding it really hard to be a relativist with regards to spelling).

Everyone I talked to was helpful, although not necessarily nice. I think that might have something to do with my own clichéd persona – American tourist comes to Amsterdam in the summer etc. the Dutch must hate summertime. The city is crawling with foreigners, many of them young, early 20’s American/British/German/Korean hippie-type backpackers. They were starting to annoy me by the end of the day and I’m a tourist too.

Which leads me to my main thought of the day: what exactly is the MO of Amsterdam’s culture? It occurred to me after I got the shit scared out of me by a fugly looking prostitute beckoning to me behind a cage of glass that Amsterdam is really a city for hedonists. Gay marriage is legal. Prostitution is legal (I think) here. Marijuana is legal (for the most part). Heroin addicts are given clean needles (try letting that program fly under this US administration). It’s like the European version of Las Vegas, except dignified (and without the gambling). The Amsterdamites have proven that you can have a society that offers many vices many Americans believe are evil and have it flourish.

This isn’t a new argument, but it didn’t really mean anything to me until I was here and saw it in action. And when I could really compare it America – or even California, where Gay marriage is legal, but still tenuously and still heavily disapproved, where medicinal (medicinal!) marijuana use is still questionable, and where heroin addicts are treated like criminals instead of people who desperately need care and support. It’s just bizarre how different many of the cultural and social institutions are, and yet in Amsterdam, they also have McDonalds and Starbucks. Go figure.

Now I’m feeling icky and smelly and gross, and when the cappuccino wears off I’m going to crash harder than Oceanic flight 815, so before that happens I’m going to head off to my gate to board my plane for Tel Aviv!

PS. I’m also wondering what it says about the Dutch that official names for some cities contain a definite article. Is it necessary? Case in point: The Hague. It took me years to realize that The Hague was an actual city, and not just the building for the International Court of Justice (thank you West Wing for that). And the name of the country! THE Netherlands. Is there another Netherlands? Are we going to forget which Netherlands we’re traveling to?