History Main / FreestateAmsterdam

[[caption-width-right:180:Rated XXX. [[labelnote: By the way]] [[NotMakingUpThisDisclaimer We're not kidding when we say that's the actual city flag of Amsterdam.]] [[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:180:Rated XXX. [[labelnote: By the way]] We're not kidding when we say that's the actual city flag of Amsterdam [[/labelnote]]]]

* Found in ''PassingStrange'' - The Youth gets into implied threesomes at a marijuana cafe in beautiful AMMMSTEEERDAAAAM!

* Mostly averted by ''LiteratureTheFaultInOurStars'' (Creator/JohnGreen ''really'' likes Amsterdam and goes whenever chance he gets), although the 16-year-old protagonists are served champagne in a restaurant quite openly.

* In ''[[FamilyGuyS3E20RoadToEurope Road to Europe]] from WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, Brian and Stewie wind up in a hash bar in Amsterdam, and the duo gets ''extremely'' high on the marijuana smoke that's thick in the air at the bar.

* In ''[[FamilyGuyS33E20RoadToEurope Road to Europe]] from WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, Brian and Stewie wind up in a hash bar in Amsterdam, and the duo gets ''extremely'' high on the marijuana smoke that's thick in the air at the bar.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' Brian and Stewie went to a coffee shop in Amsterdam... and got ''really'' high from just sitting in it because it was full of young people smoking marijuana.

* In ''FamilyGuy'' Brian and Stewie went to a coffee shop in Amsterdam... and got ''really'' high from just sitting in it because it was full of young people smoking marijuana.

[[caption-width-right:180:Rated XXX. [[labelnote: By the way]] We're not kidding when we say that's the actual city flag of Amsterdam [[/labelnote]]]]]]

[[caption-width-right:180:Rated XXX. No, seriously -- that's the official city flag.]]

* Mostly averted by ''TheFaultInOurStars'' (Creator/JohnGreen ''really'' likes Amsterdam and goes whenever chance he gets), although the 16-year-old protagonists are served champagne in a restaurant quite openly.

* Mostly averted by ''TheFaultInOurStars'' (JohnGreen ''really'' likes Amsterdam and goes whenever chance he gets), although the 16-year-old protagonists are served champagne in a restaurant quite openly.

* The Dutch brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen were less than happy when Sammy Hagar composed "Amsterdam", with lyrics such as "oh Amsterdam, stone you like nothin' else can".

** Amusingly the statement isn't even correct if applied to Netherlands as a whole, marijuana is also legal in Bangladesh, Portugal and Peru.

* Star Trek Month by WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic features a cameo by Sci-Fi-Guy who says he owns a copy of the Star Trek Holiday Special (a parody of the StarWarsHolidaySpecial) and it's so bad, it is only legal in Amsterdam.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' version of Holland is explored in ''Fanfiction/TheBlackSheep''. In true Pratchett tradition, Sto Kerrig is Holland with all the knobs turned UpToEleven. Windmills, clogs, Edam cheese, canals and tulips are all involved. The state capital, DamHamster, boasts ''kaffeehuisen'' where strange mind-altering and appetite-enhancing tobaccos are smoked in abundance. There is also a SexMusee celebrating all aspects and variations of the human sexual experience. A [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} Quirmian]] visitor is suitably moved by both.

[[caption-width-right:180:Rated XXX. No, seriously --''that's'' the city flag.]]

* The ''{{Discworld}}'' version of Holland is explored in ''Fanfiction/TheBlackSheep''. In true Pratchett tradition, Sto Kerrig is Holland with all the knobs turned UpToEleven. Windmills, clogs, Edam cheese, canals and tulips are all involved. The state capital, DamHamster, boasts ''kaffeehuisen'' where strange mind-altering and appetite-enhancing tobaccos are smoked in abundance. There is also a SexMusee celebrating all aspects and variations of the human sexual experience. A [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} Quirmian]] visitor is suitably moved by both.

* CheechAndChong's ''Still Smokin'''.

* Mostly averted by ''TheFaultInOurStars'', although the 16-year-old protagonists are served champagne in a restaurant quite openly.

[[caption-width-right:180:Rated XXX. No, seriously --''[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer that's]]'' [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer the city flag]].]]

* Star Trek Month by TheNostalgiaCritic features a cameo by Sci-Fi-Guy who says he owns a copy of the Star Trek Holiday Special (a parody of the StarWarsHolidaySpecial) and it's so bad, it is only legal in Amsterdam.

* Star Trek Month by NostalgiaCritic features a cameo by Sci-Fi-Guy who says he owns a copy of the Star Trek Holiday Special (a parody of the StarWarsHolidaySpecial) and it's so bad, it is only legal in Amsterdam.

There is at least a grain of truth in this, since the Netherlands does 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 [[ExactWords truffles are not banned]]), and Marijuana is actually only decriminalized rather than flat-out legal, meaning you simply won't be fined. 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 and/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 the only other places you'll see the things are kitschy souvenir shops.

Note about the flag: Rated XXX, that sounds pretty cool, but actually it's much older: each of those [=Xs=] are St. Andrew's crosses, in honor of the city's patron saint. The official explanation of the three crosses is that they represent the biggest threats in Amsterdam's history: fire, because medieval houses were made of timber and stand next to each other, increasing risks of huge fires; flood, because the River Amstel often flooded; and plague, because the canals were filthy and one could contract all kinds of diseases from the water therein. Another theory goes that the crosses were part of the coat-of-arms of an old noble family, who were patrons of the town of some sort, and so the town adopted their design in its own coat of arms, but it is not known which family that was. (Probably not [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily that one]].)