Amsterdam...

...I can barely remember, but it held true to form. Good people with sincere good naturedness, lots of marijuana (so much so I found scraps of it stuck to my laundry in Paris) and too much shopping.

So most people assume two things about Amsterdam: marijuana and hookers. This is entirely fair. But these two sinful activities are surrounded by the most wholesome looking town you've ever seen, so much so that it would be easy to forget that those two were so synonymous with Amsterdam... if you weren't so high.

Here is Amsterdam's dirtiest little secret, the one they never warn you about in the guidebooks, and it is one that can do far more damage to your bank account than the Red Light District or the Coffee Shops. H&M. Yes, H&M. According to HM.com/nl/storelocator, there are only 10. I beg to differ. I went into 10, so there is no way that I found them all. And according to Amsterdam.info, there are only 751,000. That is one H&M for every 75,000 people. And if you've ever been to H&M on a Saturday afternoon, that number is just about right.