After spending the whole month in Belgium with friends, we suddenly planned to go to Holland by our car. With friends Rehmanullah Momand, Misal Khan Shenwari and two of his friends, we flew from Brussels, Belgium to Holland for almost a day. We left Brussels at 12 o’clock. As we headed west from Brussels, we enjoyed the scenic beauty on the way. After traveling 55 kilometers, we reached the outskirts of Antwerp, Belgium’s second largest city. Without entering this city, We went ahead. But the interesting thing is that, crossing the border in all thirty countries of Europe, you will nether see the army or the police check post, nor there will be a system of immigration to interrogate you. In this way we were also talking about whether we are still traveling in Belgium or we have entered the Netherlands. We had the same discussion but to cover some distance Later when the “Welcome to Holland” messages started appearing on our mobile phones, we found out that we have now entered the Netherlands.
After traveling from Brussels for an hour and a half, when we crossed the river, through a suspension bridge, we entered a city called Rotterdam. A friend Misal Khan Shenwari had to offer condolences to his friends here. We prayed in a mosque there. It was strange to see this mosque because there are no separate mosques with minarets like in our Muslim countries. We then set off for Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, but went to a Sunday market on the outskirts of Amsterdam with the request that there ,Afghani Pakhtuns, had a famous restaurant where we can get Pakistani food and especially chapli kebabs. After entering the hotel, I was welcomed in Pashto for the first time which had a very pleasant effect on me. There we ate only chapli kebabs as well as Enjoyed Peshawar’s Qahwa separately
. It was about six o’clock in the evening, but in Europe the sunset is at eight o’clock in the month of May. At that time we were twenty-five kilometers away from the city of Amsterdam. When I entered Amsterdam, i felt very strange. Because this city is much cleaner than Brussels, Paris, Rome, Milan and many other cities. Cycling was very common. Every man, woman and old child riding a bicycle seemed to be a city of bicycles. We parked the car in one place and started walking in the city which had its own fun. We reached the open space in Amsterdam which is also called Dam Square or Grand Plus. There was a huge rush of tourists. We walked a short distance to the lush place of Amsterdam called Red Light Street. There was a canal with many different types of coffee shops and brothels which is why it is called Red Light Street. But Belgium’s Red Light Street is many times better and bigger than Amsterdam’s Red Light Street.
If you go around Europe, you will find that the whole of Europe is almost the same. But Amsterdam Dam is very different from other cities of Europe for two reasons. It is legally permissible to purchase and smoke marijuana (bhang) and hashish to a certain extent. And secondly, the fact that there are too many and innumerable canals here in the city and in the whole country as well, are the reasons for its fame. In these coffee shops you can legally buy five grams of hashish (Charas) or cannabis while the shopkeeper can keep five hundred grams or half a kilo to sell with. We have seen cannabis in these shops besides hashish. Here Cannabis is called weed or marijuana as well
. I have also seen hashish and hemp or marijuana cigarettes for sale in these shops. Cannabis mixed cakes and pastries are also very popular here which is very favourit food of druggs addicted people By the way, people from all over Europe are big lovers of travel and entertainment, but those who come to the Netherlands and especially Amsterdam, more than half of them come not for travel and entertainment, but to buy and take marijuana and cannabis, which are legal here. The other thing is the countless canals here. It is said that the city of Amsterdam Dam was a swamp where these canals were dug in the seventeenth century. These canals are used for boating and Cargo ships are operated as well. It is said that in Amsterdam alone there are 165 small and large canals with 1281 bridges built over them. Here people ride bicycles with great enthusiasm and every resident have one with him.
The main reason for this is that the people of the Netherlands are more civilized and sympathetic than the rest of the Europeans,Therefore, keeping in view the country, these people use bicycles instead of cars to a large extent to bring reduction in pollution .When you come here, you will feel for a moment that this is a cycling city. The Netherlands is also famous for its tulip flowers and wind turbines. Here Tulips are grown on acres of land and then exported to the outside world, they generate a very reasonable income for this flower industry.
We enjoyed these things very much.it was 8 o’clock and we drive for Belgium for 210km.
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