A former prostitute named Chantall led us all around the Red Light District, but our first stop as the Prostitution Information Center, started by another former prostitute, Mariska Majoor. She was absolutely amazing and completely candid about her work in the sex industry. Her main mission is to educate visitors and sex workers, and above all, to cultivate the respect that sex workers deserve. Sex work is not a field that women choose to enter as their career choice or life path, but it is work like any other, and the women who participate are worthy of the same respect of any other worker. I am not pro-prostitution; I don't think anyone is. But like drugs, prostitution has and always will exist, and it's probably much better to make it safe and monitor it than it is to sweep it under the rug and ignore it, which subsequently endangers all the parties involved.
Pictures were only allowed in certain parts of the district, such as on this bridge. The pink elephant behind me is the sign for the world's largest live sex show theatre. As part of the tour we were offered a discount to see it. I passed.
I didn't take this picture, but this is Belle, a statue that Mariska placed in the square of the Oudekerk as a reminder to respect prostitutes, who are just as much humans and women as anyone else.
After I returned from the Red Light District tour, I took a walk around my area to see what was up on a Friday night. I saw an enormous group of people around my age going into some bar, so I decided to go in. It turns out it was a huge pub crawl (almost all the participants were foreigners). I ended up joining in and didn't make it back until 3:45 this morning. Amsterdam parties a little later than Colby, or even Athens. The 2 AM last call does not exist.
I'm embarrassed to say that I'm just now getting ready to start my day. Isn't some of my exhaustion still from jetlag? I would like to think so.
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