The city of Amsterdam has been my home for 15 years or so. My first house was an old, bright apartment on the edge town. Blue walls, blue bathroom. I had lived in the of Utrecht for 4 years. Utrecht was easy for a country girl like me, but Amsterdam was different. The Amsterdam streets were just if not busier during the nights as during daytime. I got shouted at if I waited in front of a RED (!) trafficlight by the other cyclist and my upstairs neighbours ran both an illegal hotel and an a weedplantage in their apartment. All those things seemed perfectly normal in this city but I needed months to finally have the courage to buy my food at the tiny moroccon foodstore.
Just across the corner from where I lived was this bar, called Same Place. This bar intrigued me. Somehow it looked different than all the other bars but it had a very feminist slogan on it's front, something like
we are all the same. I didn't know wether it was a lesbian bar, a gay bar or just a congregation place of a feminist group. For years I passed it by without knowing and my curiosity dissapeared. A couple of years ago I cycled pas again and all of a sudden I realized: Oh it is a swingersbar. I laughed at myself. So blue for years.
Today I cycled past again and waited in front of a red traffic light. (like every one does these days) and overheard a mum say to her teenage boy; " That is a swingersplace, isn't that crazy?' The boy shrugged and I crossed the corner. A guy looked at me and said "Love the smile". Yes Amsterdam. You still bring a smile to face.
