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Amsterdam, The Eternal Temptation

Amsterdam: miracles and temptations.

Writing about Amsterdam is very easy, there's so much to tell. Writing about Amsterdam is very difficult, so much to tell ... .. Where to start?

Amsterdam, daily miracles.

It's Sunday. One o'clock sharp.

In the Basilica of St. Nicholas, opposite Amsterdam Centraal Station, is officiated Mass in Castilian as the apostolic Roman rite. Usually visit the temple five hundred parishioners, including thirty children preparing for First Communion. They also attend some of the Latino transgender nights often encourage the city and tourists, those eternal confused and curious.

We're all Hispanic speakers, but not all legal residents in the Netherlands. At two o'clock, on the steps of temple, opens a market that offers arepas, hand cheese, sausage, black pudding, pies and candy Creoles. Meeting, taste, friendship and news that are passed by word of mouth.

In Amsterdam speak English and the second language is the Dutchman or Dutch. In third place we can put into Castilian. Unofficial statistics say that in Amsterdam there are over fifty bars, restaurants and shops where people speak Castilian and also passionately danced salsa, reagatton, zouk, tango and flamenco.

Red, red, pink.

Behind St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas, the patron saint of the city from the thirteenth century, is the Oudekerk, the old church of this saint who could not remove the Alteration or Reform the end of the sixteenth century. The building is as old as Oudekerk Amsterdam. It was rebuilt many times, but kept the original location.

Today is the heart of De Wallen, the red, the red light district, the famous windows. In the verb wallen Dutchman does fall into temptation. On one side is the Oudekerk Prostitution Information Center, PIC, a civil organization that provides information on the sexual services that are rendered in Amsterdam.

The PIC is an initiative of the former prostitute Mariska Majoor Netherlands. Its serene beauty combines with local offering erotic souvenirs, printed in several languages and the valuable information that offers its expertise. The center answers questions from those who wish to offer servicos sex, of those who seek and also of the curious, who have desires in check but want to know the details.

Tend to walk by there a curvaceous blonde named Petra. She is president of the guild of prostitutes, the institution that fight in the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases and offers advice on legal and tax issues of these workers and freelancers.

The exhibit showcases where prostitutes operate seven days a week for around the clock. These booths are rented by the hour for periods of 8 hours. There is a masonry pedestal where it is placed a mattress, a sink and a toilet. The space is only the basics and cleanliness is perfect but without luxury.

In Amsterdam there are three red zones in this system, but the bulk of supply is in sex clubs, apartments, private parties and of course online. Around the Oudekerk, and next to the PIC, there were the prostitutes were black. On the other side but hidden in the maze of cross streets, there twenties southern and eastern Europe.

The bikinis are small, a chest that sticks out of the bra free jumps. Attitude is provocative, even when one of these women expressed disdain or pretends to not pay attention. The wait is tense, they tend to stand defiantly on the heels very long or sitting on high stools playing with different poses. There are closed doors ajar.

Sometimes two professionals share a single post to see who comes alive with the task and with the price. Men lengthen the conversation: there is much detail that prospective customers want to know. The eyes explore the anatomy and Babel did not seem that many languages as those that are heard here. There are moments of peace in the streets when several of the cubicle are closing their doors and extend a heavy red curtain that provides privacy and allows the agreement is in place.

There is a gap between the seven past five p.m., dinner the only hot meal that is usually taken in the Netherlands, and the time required for family reunification. Payment is in advance and in cash. The condom use is strictly without exception. If there is any inconvenience the police arrive, which is always present with uniform officers if surveillance cameras located in the streets. Photos and videos in the red zone are prohibited.

Are we all? Or are all homos?

Each year in the first week of August, without fail, we make the gay pride march in a parade on water Prinsengracht, a canal which central banks is the Anne Frank House, the busiest museum in Amsterdam. The boat parade starts at noon and around Amsterdam is installed on the banks of the canal to enjoy the show of colors, carefree, music, singing and dancing.

In 2008, highlighted the flowers and fruits. The festivities begin a week earlier and conclude a week later. Arrive gays and lesbians around the world and the boats are no names of multinational companies that sponsor the parade of gay and lesbian employees.

But Amsterdam's gay population plus five percent, some forty thousand people. The holidays are public and all are welcome.

Hasta la vista Amsterdam!

In the ink left without writing thousands of words related to windmills, tulips, bicycles, cheese, clogs, beer, diamonds, rock and roll, the day of the Queen, marinated herring , the giant pancake, embroidered cloths, ships, architecture, and who knows what else.

Amsterdam was the city's medieval miracle trescientos the year nineteen forty-five and over two hundred years it attracted pilgrims to the style of Santiago de Compostela and Lourdes. After the Reformation was one hundred years of glory in those years commercial and historical city was built. It was the time of Rembrandt and his Jewish customers, time MyFlow pioneers who gathered in the Noorderkerk, the time when the Huguenots were dreaming of the French Revolution.

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