And who doesn't know Amsterdam?

Welcome to the adult Disneyland, where freedom reigns: here you can do whatever you want! But be careful: if you don't control your mind, you risk ruining yourself. No one imposes limits on you — in Amsterdam, you're the one who has to find them.

You know what I think? Man seeks freedom, but does he really know how to handle it on his own without destroying himself?

Anyway, it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. I noticed something, though: I visited it first as a tourist, and later I worked there. As a worker, I saw it differently — it wasn't the same Amsterdam. I asked myself: 'Have I changed? Am I seeing it differently? What's going on?' Then it hit me: what we are in a given moment changes our reality.

Do you follow what I mean? Amsterdam isn't the same for everyone. Here's an example: a tourist sees freedom, trapped as he is by the restrictions of his own country. A worker perceives it differently. A customer in front of a window sees it as transgressive. And I wondered: what must it be like to see it from the other side, from where those girls wait? We look from outside in — what must it feel like to look from inside out?

That's where Amsterdam Love Storytellers was born. The book was written right in this square. To be precise, on the fourth floor of one of these windows. The Smokey, the coffeeshop you can see in one of the photos, was always packed with people drawn in by freedoms denied to them elsewhere. As for the canals... well, they were, and still are, an exhibition — an art exhibit painted in shades of purple-red, evoking forbidden nuances for some, lust, power and money for others... while for the shyer ones — because they exist too — pure discomfort.

This city shows us two souls: the daytime one, made of tulips and warm sunlight, and the nighttime one, burning red. This union creates the perfect balance between good and evil, between the forbidden and the permitted. Then again — who decides what is good and what is evil?