Hans gave Linda, Ed, and I a ride into the centre of IJmuiden where we caught a bus into Amsterdam. As we neared the city, farmland gave way to huge factories, which then gave way to orderly rows of houses. The bus dropped us off at the edge of Amsterdam’s quiet centre, almost free of cars and connected by a series of semicircular canals. The quiet streets were cobbled and tree-lined, and we made our way slowly towards the railway station, which stands in the very centre of the town.
The area was alive with people, but as we made our way into the older part of town, the streets became quiet again. Soon we began to see shops selling sex aids and pornography, and on every corner, marked by a red neon light, were groups of windows behind which sat prostitutes, clad in revealing underwear, plying the passers-by for trade. Some of them, very few, were quite attractive, sultry, Middle Eastern women, but most looked worn out and abused.
We wandered the streets for a couple of hours browsing in the shops which all sold an array of pornographic magazines and videos and all manner of sex aids, bondage gear, and smoking paraphernalia. We each went into a peep show cubicle and watched one gilder’s worth of pornography. Linda watched some black men fucking a white woman, and I chose one featuring a woman expelling water from her arse. But before the show, in a darkened cubicle with semen spattered about on the floor, came to its climax, so to speak, the video cut out, requiring another coin, so I left it at that.
CurseOfTheTraveller 