History Main / FreestateAmsterdam

-->-- '''Jules Winfield''' from ''Film/PulpFiction''... and everybody else who's ever met somebody who's been to Amsterdam.

* The level "Flight of Fancy" in ''Franchise/SlyCooper [[VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves 3]]'' is set (on the ground) in the rural version as well, complete with rural farmhouses and windmills...but justifies it by being set around an actual such location, at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmills_at_Kinderdijk Kinderdijk]].

* Played with in ''Film/TheWay''. [[FunnyForeigner Joost]] TheStoner is Dutch and he claims that pot is "nothing by Dutch standards". He then offers Tom two "alternatives" to help him sleep at night... Ambien and ear plugs.

* ''Sex, Drugs & Democracy'' is a documentary film that explores Hollands liberal attitude towards drugs, prostitution, porn, sex education, and homosexuality making the argument that it has not increased crime rates and otherwise negatively effected Dutch society.

* 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.

-->'''Dutch Cabdriver''':Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.

* '''Sex, Drugs & Democracy''' is a documentary film that explores Hollands liberal attitude towards drugs, prostitution, porn, sex education, and homosexuality making the argument that it has not increased crime rates and otherwise negatively effected Dutch society.

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, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and have your fries with mayonnaise]].

* In an episode of ''Series/TheOffice'' Jim asks his co-workers about possible vacation destinations. Toby recommends Amsterdam, stating that after his divorce, he went there for about a week... or maybe a month... he seemed a bit hazy on the details for obvious reasons.

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 (same as UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} and [[RussiansWithRustingRockets the Russian Navy]], which also have X-designs on their flags). 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]].)

* [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=marijuana&defid=83756 This]] in UrbanDictionary. Apparently Amsterdam is the only country (yes, ''country'') where marijuana is legal. Amusingly the statement isn't even correct if applied to Netherlands as a whole; marijuana is legal in Bangladesh, Portugal, Peru, and Uruguay but not in the Netherlands (where it's merely decriminalized).

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<<|HollywoodAtlas|>>

* Parodied and lampshaded in ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' by the [[MoeAnthropomorphism character representing the Netherlands]] who's described as a depraved chain-smoker, apparently is somewhat of a {{lolicon}} and uses some kinds of 'shady drugs', whatever they are. Hilariously, a recently translated strip featuring him showed a profile shot of him with his nostrils missing, leading to comments that he may have done some damage to them with his habits...

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,[[note]]The most liberal drug laws in Europe are actually in UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} and UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic, where most drugs are decriminalized in personal-use quantities[[/note]] 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 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.

* Interestingly the 2007 film ''Nightwatching'' plays this trope completely straight despite being set almost 400 years ago during the Dutch Golden Age. Amsterdam is depicted as a WretchedHive infested with murder, corruption and [[spoiler:child ]]prostitution, sadly this was TruthInTelevision during the time period.

* One game of ''Greatest Hits'' in ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' started with Drew Carey taking suggestions for "a city where you would go to have a great time". Amsterdam is one of the suggestions called out, and judging from the players' and even the audience's eventual reactions, [[GenreSavvy they all know what kind of time one would have there.]] Sadly they went with Paris. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKqC8verxPM 2:30 here.]]

The rest of UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands is just one field of tulips after another with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.

The rest of UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands is pretty much just one field of tulips after another with the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.

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,[[note]]The most liberal drug laws in Europe are actually in UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}} and UsefulNotes/TheCzechRepublic, where most drugs are decriminalized in personal-use quantities[[/note]] 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.

Any natives of the country you meet anywhere are pretty much guaranteed to have a last name that starts with [[TheVonTropeFamily 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.

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

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comicbooks]]
* The Belgian comic ''ComicStrip/{{Urbanus}}'' has an issue called "De laatste Hollander" (the last Dutchman) which features this version of Amsterdam.

[[folder:FanWorks]]

* The level "Flight of Fancy" in ''Franchise/SlyCooper [[VideoGame/SlyCooper3HonorAmongThieves 3]]'' is set (on the ground) in the rural version as well, complete with rural farmhouses and windmills...but justifies it by being set around an actual such location, at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmills_at_Kinderdijk Kinderdijk]].

* [[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=marijuana&defid=83756 This]] in UrbanDictionary. Apparently Amsterdam is the only country (yes, ''country'') where marijuana is legal.
** Amusingly the statement isn't even correct if applied to Netherlands as a whole; marijuana is also legal in Bangladesh, Portugal, Peru, and Uruguay.