This morning was pretty much an extra day in Amsterdam.  I spent the first few hours in a coffee shop near the hostel.  After, I went on a walking tour which started at about 11AM and ended at 1:30pm.  The tour guide, Natasha, did a great job and showed us many things about Amsterdam I otherwise wouldn’t have known including:

• Rooms in the red light district rent for between 80 and 200 Euros/day.  Rooms facing alleys are more expensive than rooms facing the Main Street (for privacy reasons).  Average visit is 8 minutes and average price paid by a guy is 50 euros for full service 
• Amsterdam is a tolerant city because it has historically been lived in by Jews, christians, and muslims. If people weren’t tolerant of different faiths and sects, than they wouldn’t succeed business-wise
• The location of the Jewish district and history of Jews in Amsterdam. 90% of Amsterdam Jews died in the holocaust, the Jewish quarter was destroyed/looted, and Dutch citizens that turned in Jews, took ownership of their homes
• History of drugs/prostitution in Amsterdam (sailors needing prostitutes, hippies bringing weed and heroin into Amsterdam, and hippies being a large part of the reason that the city has remained a bicycle city

The tour was a bit more interesting because I was high.  During the tour, I branched away for a few minutes and smoked.  After the tour, I ate a lot of food including an ice cream cone, coffee, Greek yogurt, fruits, vegetable focaccia and many more things I can’t remember.

I walked to Vondelpark, spent a couple hours in a coffee shop there and then walked back to the hostel to pick up my luggage.  Now, I’m waiting in the station for a red eye bus ride to Berlin.

Today was a good example of why I don’t like weed.  It makes me unproductive, too short-term oriented, and have too much of an appetite.  I’m concerned about Marijuana becoming legal recreationally, and all of the additional temptation I’ll have to withstand.

Like smoking marijuana, there are many other vices which can be traced back to much deeper/inner issues.  For example, excessive smoking, porn, eating, etc can be traced to the following deeper issues:

• Inability to maintain control over oneself through positive self-talk
• Lack of self confidence
• Avoidance/ignoring of deeper issues/problems that need attention 

Instead of addressing the surface issues of dozens of addictions, it would be smarter to just focus on the deeper/root issues.

Also, I need to better plan my activities in each city.  Otherwise, I’ll end up scheduling activities in an inefficient way.

University of Amsterdam (former sailor building)

University of Amsterdam (former sailor building)