An evening with Rose

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Finally, a night in Amsterdam and while I didn't have a great deal of time with the camera, these are some of the images I was able to grab on my walk. Even though I only have one night here, my main goal of the evening wasn't photography.

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I love these buildings that line Damrak.

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It started to rain heavily and while I could have made it to the hotel I am staying at around the corner, I instead ducked into a bar for a glass of wine. I am still there.

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Amsterdam is a lovely city weather permitting and tomorrow morning I plan on getting up relatively early so I can get a little shopping done before I head back home. The prompt from @Smallsteps for this trip is "fox" and she set another reference pint of I can manage it of "necklace". She is getting pretty spoiled.

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Talking of shopping, the walk to the hotel runs through the Redlight District. I have been through there before, but it still surprises me how these kinds of places exist. I don't care what people do, but I wonder of these women would choose this line of work if they has options to earn the same doing something else. Probably not.

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While I didn't have time to set any shots up as it was a fly by night session, I enjoyed spending some time walking. The last few days I have barely moved outside and it was good to get sone fresh air.

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But depspite the beauty of Amsterdam and the opportunity to shoot more of it, I opted for something different instead. A micro Steem meetup.

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With the fabulous @soyrosa!

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Thank you very much for taking the time out of your Friday night to spend the might with me and share some food and wine. I had a great time and hope to come back and do a little more of local Amsterdam next time 😘

I think it is time for a disco nap as I am crashing hard as I have been up near 24 hours and have barely slept since I left Finland on Tuesday. Hopefully this hotel is quieter and more comfortable than the last.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

Onboarding



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34 comments
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Hehe, knew it!

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There is only one person worth meeting in the Netherlands I think :D

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I will not tell the members of my 50 members long Dutchies On Steem list you said that :P

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:P You've at least showed you actually read our posts! :D

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I know, I had better be careful. I'll be getting a bad rep for that sort of thing! :0D

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Talking of shopping, the walk to the hotel runs through the Redlight District. I have been through there before, but it still surprises me how these kinds of places exist.

Really? It’s not called the oldest profession for nothing.

I don't care what people do, but I wonder of these women would choose this line of work if they has options to earn the same doing something else. Probably not.

Apart from being in violation of social norms, making money can be a lot easier in that line of work than learning some difficult skill and becoming a professional. That’s actually what some prostitutes have said in interviews
I’ve read.

Posted using Partiko iOS

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In this day and age. As said, if they could make the same money doing something else, would they do this still. I don't think most would. I would suspect that most would prefer not to spend their time with drunken strangers they have no real interest in.

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(Edited)

In this day and age.

Prostitution is not going anywhere. That's a fact. As long as there is demand, there will be supply.

As said, if they could make the same money doing something else, would they do this still. I don't think most would. I would suspect that most would prefer not to spend their time with drunken strangers they have no real interest in.

The window prostitutes of Dutch big cities are probably not paid very well. They tend to be foreigners who need pimps to arrange things for them, so they don't probably make that much.

But I've read blogs written and interviews given by independent prostitutes and based on what they say, what seduces them is the easy money. They tend to be selective of their customers. They don't have to accept drunken clients and they do not often even have to meet strangers but repeat customers.

Suppose a prostitute can charge €100 to €200 per hour per client. Even if all the taxes and pension contributions were paid, how many clients would a prostitute have to accept per week to earn a pretty good income? At a rate of €150 per hour, five hours of work generates €750. One hour of work per day generates over €3000 per month.

That kind of hourly pay is impossible to achieve except for the top of the law or medical profession or something like that. Suppose you're a pretty young woman and not very good at delaying gratification, you've not done very well at school, and are an excitement seeker. You love shopping, fashion, hand bags, travel and shit like that. You tend to sleep around anyway. I'm guessing many such girls might be tempted to try sex work for the quick and easy money.

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You don't seem to understand. I know why they exist, I just don't think most of those girls would choose that line of work with other options. And yes, as long as there is demand... Tells something about the clientele perhaps when they are willing to pick a girl from a window. As you just said, te girls in the window might not make that much.. Sounds like exploitation and middlemen, doesn't it?

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(Edited)

You don't seem to understand. I know why they exist, I just don't think most of those girls would choose that line of work with other options. And yes, as long as there is demand... Tells something about the clientele perhaps when they are willing to pick a girl from a window. As you just said, te girls in the window might not make that much.. Sounds like exploitation and middlemen, doesn't it?

Are you talking about the window girls in particular? Yes, they most likely get a lot less than they could get if they were natives. And yes the window brothels, or brothels in general, are no doubt a middleman dominated business.

I think the brothels exist because they're legal and because there are enough foreign girls willing to work for the kind of money paid to them for it even under the conditions offered. I'm not surprised one bit that they exist because in spite of everything as the money might be good for the typically foreign girls working in them.

As to the clients picking a prostitute sitting on full display at a window, at least they know what they're getting unlike when they're soliciting someone who advertises their services on the internet. But yes, it is quite demeaning towards the girls to have them sit a window like that for relatively small pay after all the middlemen have taken their cut. I think brothels should be outlawed. But trying to outlaw the entire industry would be futile and would be in nobody's interest. Sex workers themselves are against making soliciting prostitutes illegal like it is in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland because that makes their working conditions less safe by making them stigma even worse.

When it comes to independents, asking whether they would do it if they had better paid options available to them is kind of moot because that kind of hourly pay is simply unattainable except for individuals with much higher than average IQ and self-discipline. What they pay for their choice is their honor in the eyes of mainstream society and in some cases themselves in the end as well.

Say, if a prostitute makes €6000 a month by working 15 hours per week, being a doctor could actually be the worse choice except for the fact that doctors are respected and prostitutes are looked down upon. Doctors are responsible for people's lives and have had to study medicine for seven years and have to constantly update their knowledge. Being a doctor is stressful and hard work. A small percentage of the population are capable of becoming professionals like medical doctors in the first place. Perhaps an even smaller percentage of prostitutes have what it takes. The choice for them is to work full-time for a fraction of the pay.

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I find the idea of paying for sex quite pathetic.

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(Edited)

I know but the world does not care about that opinion.

What I've found is that the younger generation doesn't seem to consider sexual conquests to be anything to brag about. About 15-20 years ago pickup artists were a thing on the web. A lot of guys would pay self-styled pickup gurus for lessons in the art of picking up girls. That seems to have abated quite a bit. A change from that culture is clear. I think there is something healthy about because having your self-esteem dependent on the approval of members of the opposite sex is frankly speaking pathetic, too. Normal self-esteem should be a given. Sex is just an enjoyable activity that you can engage in in relationships with members of your preferred sex or by hooking up. It's nothing to get too worked up about.

I should add that seeing sex as some kind of a competition is unhealthy also in the sense that it objectifies the partner like paying to a prostitute does (or like the prostitute sees the client as a money object).

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(Edited)

It started to rain heavily and while I could have made it to the hotel I am staying at around the corner, I instead ducked into a bar for a glass of wine. I am still there.

Uhm, I dunno exactly why. But for some strange reason that highlighted sentence in bold in the quote, was pictured in my mind like the perfect moment and place so that you and I would had our very first close encounter of the third kind for a personal face to face nutritious chitchat introducing each other in between and over a few gallons and glasses of your favorite wine before your arrival back to home in Funland. }:)

By the way, lovely picture that one with the fabulous @soyrosa and you both showing that splendorous full of teeth smile. If I had been there with you, also sharing my fortuitous happiness, no wonder that my enthusiasm would be similar and also would be highlighted in the photo, but probably with my usual humongous seriousness instead.

Since I'm pretty aware that the real beauty of our faces, precisely resides in our teeth. ;D

Hahaha, looking forward for the next time!!

Cheers!!

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Going into the bar was pretty much my only option... Because I wanted some wine.

That image is disturbing :D

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That image is disturbing :D

Haha, well, in this picture they at least have brows, like me. ;)

If you like, I can even provide you a few where they have no brows nor teeth. I mean, just to creep up the disturbing feeling higher in those moments when your only option is go to a bar to drink some wine alone. LoL

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Aww... You two look so happy and cute ☺️

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It was really nice to have a mini-meetup and some good food. I even got my nose booped by what I think was a racist grandma. :D

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Can't say no to good food and meet up :)

I even got my nose booped by what I think was a racist grandma. :D

Lol.

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:') That was hilarious. Not the racist part although I didn't hear enough about what they had to say about Black Pete to draw a conclusion :D

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Yes, I obviously didn't understand either, other than the name I heard. In Finnish it is Musta Pekka :)

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Nice place. The place of yellow color. Happy to see this.

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(Edited)

Hi @tarazkp

Those are Very nice pictures. My night shots with lights never come out like that. The buildings are usually Yo dark to see and the lights look terrible. So I especially appreciated your photos.

It looks like a beautiful city at night.

In regards to the red light district I wonder the same things myself. I imagine there are some who massage it into easy money with regulars and for some it may be very unpleasant.

The picture with @soytisa is a special treat. While we all know the Steemit nicknames and blogs are by real people , it must be very special to actually see Steemians you have followed in the flesh. Probably an uncomfortable situation but meeting them after reading their thoughts put to words must be unique because they are strangers but not strangers at the same time. I assume you and @soyarosa have met before by her smile, but that’s my assumption. It could be your first time meeting as far as I know.

I travel a lot for work, but not yet for pleasure. That’s on my to do list.

Take care, get some sleep and don’t for get the necklace for @smallsteps

✍️ @shortsegments

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I don't think there are many regulars in this street, seems to be tourists.

Yep, @soyrosa and I met at Steemfest3 in Poland last year.

Traveling for pleasure is much nicer for sure, but there are perks to the work travel also, like free hotels :)

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It is a very beautiful city!

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Yeah it is very pretty. I would have loved more time to walk around, but today is only a third of a day due to my flight.

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Lovely photography, with good lighting and atmosphere :-)

Amsterdam seems like a lovely city to live in, very quaint indeed. Also, I like your inclusion of the little Fiat 500 (with a pretty reflection in the water).

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The reflection of the light off the waters makes them look so lovely.

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The reflection of
The light off the waters makes
Them look so lovely.

                 - mydivathings


I'm a bot. I detect haiku.

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Awesome capture of Amsterdam. It is a great place to visit.

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