39,327
edits
Freestate Amsterdam: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (revise quote template spacing) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:180px-Flag_of_Amsterdam.optimized.png|frame|Rated XXX. No, seriously --[["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer|''that's'' their city flag]].]]
{{quote|"So tell me again about the hash bars."|[[Pulp Fiction|Jules Winfield]]... and everybody else who's ever met somebody who's been to Amsterdam.}}
Amsterdam is the modern Sodom and Gomorrah. You can do everything in Amsterdam. You can do drugs till you drop, explore the wildest boundaries of sexual debauchery, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and have your fries with mayonnaise]].
The rest of the Netherlands is pretty much just one field of tulips after another with the [[wikipedia:Port of Rotterdam|odd windmill]] here and there; from the way people talk about it, you'd figure the Netherlands and Amsterdam were different countries.
As Freestate Amsterdam is wall-to-wall nightlife, it's never day there.
There is at least a grain of truth in this, since the Netherlands do have fairly lenient soft-drug laws and a thriving sex industry... and the Dutch do eat far more mayonnaise than most countries. However, Amsterdam is hardly more liberal than other major cities in Europe, and in many aspects more restricted. Holding an open can of beer on the street is officially illegal (although it will rarely if ever get you a fine), smoking a joint outside is frowned on by the locals. The red light district doesn't differ all that much from the ones in, say, Brussels or Hamburg - except the prostitutes in Amsterdam at least look happier. Magic mushrooms have been banned (though the mayor flat-out refuses to order police raids to check and [[Exact Words|Truffles are not banned]] ). And the sex museums, dildo shops and weed shrines? That stuff's just for tourists. The city has no stoner subculture to speak of (you either smoke or you don't, but it doesn't make you part of a social group) and most of the true hippies are stranded Americans looking for some change. Mentioning weed to most people over 50 (or Christian) gets pretty much the same reaction as it would in the States. As for the wooden shoes - nobody really wears them anymore. There are some small rural villages (e.g. Spakenburg) where people still occasionally dress in traditional clothing, of which wooden shoes can be a part - but for the rest, the only places where you'll see the things are kitschy souvenir shops.
And any natives of the country you meet anywhere are pretty much guaranteed to have a last name that starts with [[The Von Trope Family|Van, De, Van de, Van den, or Van der]]. In reality, a sizable minority of the Dutch have such last names, but don't expect to meet any of the others in any work of fiction.
Line 31:
* After the characters win the eponymous [[Beerfest]], they stumble across Willie Nelson in an Amsterdam back-alley, who invites them to join Weedfest.
* ''Hostel'' starts out here, but then [[Developing Doomed Characters|the characters get bored with all the sex and drugs in Amsterdam]] and head east for even more exotic delights in Slovakia. This turns out to be a [[Hell Hotel|Very Bad Idea]] ...
* The ''Pizza'' round-the-world delivery arc involves a trip to a more realistic version of Amsterdam... where the delivery is put in jeopardy (again) when the cast [[Intoxication Ensues|get high]].
* ''[[Deuce Bigalow]]: European Gigolo'', even though the promotional poster shows him in Italy. He even wears a T-shirt with the page image above. {{spoiler|Interestingly, the villain of the movie is [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|a manwhore killer out to remove this image of his city]].}}
* Surprisingly, considering the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' series' tendency to have 007 visit [[The Theme Park Version]] of any given country (see ''[[Octopussy]]''), when he visits in ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'' all he really indulges in is a rather vicious fight in a lift.
| |||