Well yesterday was the main Queens day celebrations in Amsterdam. So we were out all day long walking around soaking up the atmosphere. A tradition for local residents on the tiny streets of this packed city, is to bring out stuff they want to sell to little stalls they put up in-front of where they live. The streets are lined with people selling their old stuff. A lot of junk, a lot of interesting things. Kids were out on the streets busking, concentrating extremely hard as they played their chosen instrument for the bounty of a few Euros tossed into their little collection hats, baskets or tins.

Surprisingly their was a distinct and noticeable lack of Police. In the entire day we saw only a handful of Police officers in a city that was bulging beyond capacity with locals spilled out onto the streets as well as the years highest number of visitors. The usually quiet canals were heaving with boats precariously packed with people, most of whom were standing up singing, or dancing, but all of whom were drinking.

We stopped in at a little back street bar whose owner is known to our host Mark. It was before lunch so the though of beer was far from my mind, but this was Queens day, so for the majority the thought of beer was nearly the first only thing on their minds. We sat and watched people walk past on the warm but fairly cloudy day. It was perfect weather for Queens Day strolling, not too hot for walking around, but not at all cold. I wish it had been as sunny as Friday purely because my pictures would have been nicer. However according to Mark, the sun would have bought out even more people and moving around would have become a nightmare, so we had the perfect medium. It was a very relaxed way to spend the day. Walking a little, sitting for a while, walking a little more.

After dinner we headed back to Marks apartment at Wester Park in the Jordaan where we chilled for a little while. Will and I then headed out again on our own as Mark was exhausted from walking so much after a long week at work. We wandered around the city streets that were already clearing as people retreated to their homes or hotel rooms to sleep off two days of drinking and all kinds of other bodily abuse, hoping the Sunday hangover would be a long time coming.

The street cleaners were out in force, sweeping away the mountains of plastic cups formerly full to the brim with European beer. Washing down the pavements with high powered jets of chemically enhanced water. So with the main streets already nearing death we decided to see if the fabled ‘red light district’ was any busier. Despite two days of drinking for many of the people in Amsterdam, red light district was still packed with a mixture of beered up guys, curious couples, drug dealers and various other unsavory looking characters all milling around on streets lit by neon signs promising to reveal unmentionable things and the glow of red lights from windows where prostitutes sat in various stages of undress.

The place had a strange atmosphere with hoards of people slowly walking past windows where girls bathed in red light sat trying to maintain a sexy look that would hopefully earn them their keep. I’d heard so much of the red light district of Amsterdam but the place still surprised me. I consider myself an broad-minded person, but this place sits out on the extreme edge of open-mindness. In the end, after walking around the tiny little streets for a while I just felt sad for the girls who sit in their little red lit windows looking out at the endless sea of faces that peer in at them like zoo animals. These girls surely didn’t make conscious career decisions to move to Amsterdam and become prostitutes committing umpteen sexual acts with faceless strangers who knows how many times a night.

If these streets are the only streets Amsterdam is famous for then that is a great sadness. In a place so rich in culture and serenity, the red light district could only be considered as its dark underbelly, and perhaps a dark underbelly of society in general.

Today we’re going out on bikes, and the sun is shining.