HASJ DREAMER - October 30 - November 6,2009

[Cisco]

Holy smoke batman £95-140 !!! jeez louise thats expensive are the tickets not like €30 ?

Glad you had a wicked time anyway looking forward to the rest

jus had a look at your pics o the ticks €71 bit of a mark up !? but hey that sounds one hell o a game

[Nice Dreams]

Great report there HasjDreamer. You couldn't have picked a better game to go and watch looks like you had a great time. I bet the atmosphere was electric especialy with a 5-1 win for Ajax.
Although the tickets were expensive they are hard to get hold of unless you pay through the nose for them. When you move out there you can become a member of Ajax and then you can get tickets at face value.

[HasjDreamer]

Yeah, the tickets WEREN'T cheap but on vacation it seems more affordable somehow...Even the vicious exchange rate didn't deter us from enjoy ourselves to the fullest extent!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST CONTINUED

We take off with our luggage from the GHE an head towards the Nes, the location of our apartment for the duration of the trip: "China Town". Unfortunately it begins to rain...and rain something FIERCE! We're pretty soaked upon arrival and settle in for a spell to dry off before we plan our evening. The apartment is on the 3rd floor (another CRAZY narrow staircase) and it's a small studio but neat and clean and perfectly efficient! My only complaint would be the size of the tv (you wind up watching from your bed like a hotel room and it's too damn small from there) and the ability to open the big window during warmer weather. I would NOT recommend this apartment in the summer unless that window opens! The view out the window is the Nes itself and the Brasserie across the street that we went to last May/June.

The location is NICE - EVERYWHERE is easy to get to: take a right and we're at Kandinsky (the old Cum Laude) and the Rokin, take a left and we're at the RLD, Nieuwmarkt and beyond to Rembrandt Square. We pick up two 5 euro umbrella's and off we go..

It's to rainy to pick up Gil (who is still parked in Nieuwmarkt Square) so we walk past the Bluebird and go next door to REEFER

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HEY FLY-BY-NITE, THE MENU MARKED GREENHOUSE HAARLEMERSTRAAT IS REEFER!!

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It's quiet and a nice alternative for those of us who prefer to avoid the big crowds at Bluebird. We peruse the menu and are about to pick a customary Maroc but something catches our eye...

"Mexican Ice" @ 15 e/g. It sparked a memory of the Bush Doc's Mexi-Ice and the price was good so we order up a gram.

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The budtender agreed with our purchase and we settled in dry and comfy enjoying the open window breeze, cup of coffee and soon to be smoked chunk-o-hash. The mexi burned up nice - sharp, clean...not much of a taste but a nice soaring high. Very nice, highly recommended!

We break for some Italian food - lasagna, salami pizza and a couple of beers. Good stuff - I love the pizza over here, I mean where we live we have some REALLY nice pizza (being a town with a strong Italian heritage) but the ingredients they use over here just can't be had back in the states unless you got some serious spending money for your food.

We're across the street from the Spui and decide to pop into SOFTLAND to check our email, grab some product and score a couple of hot chocolates with whip cream. If you got a hankering for a hot chocomel and you're in the neighborhood be sure to stop in - they take their time and froth up the chocomel REAL good, covering the top with hwipped cream in a mountainous fasion in big-ass cups. We settle in for a g of...

"White Smurf" at, I think, 7.50 euro for the gram. Good price for a nice white crystal covered nugget of a bag. Nice toasty stone, the email is checked and we're warm and full from our hot coco-ey treat!

The rain has let up enough so we decide to pick up Gil at Nieuwmarkt. He looks happy to see us as we hop aboard and take our first ride of the day! It's brief 'cause we're dodging the sketchy weather (something we'd be doing for the rest of our vacation) as we head back to the Nes and park him for the night.

It's nice to have that coffeeshop around the corner for your first smoke and cafe of the day so having KANDINSKY a few meters away was a treat! We head over and order some cokes - my throat is dry as a som' bitch as my cold starts creeping in. I'm in a serious state of denial thinkin' it's just a reaction to all the smoke in the Arena today (there WAS a lot but not THAT much). I hate the thought of catching a cold on vacation so I bury the thought in a haze of quality hasj and weit!

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The shop is quiet and we score the beloved window seat. We approach the dude behind the counter and ask for the "best" - now, once again, I absolutely LOVE it when a coffeeshop DOESN'T then offer you the most expensive hasj on the menu (the King Hassan), instead we're told "definitely the Caramello" at 9 e/g or so...

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We hang out a bit, talking briefly with the budtender and amongst ourselves but mostly just staring out the window, enjoying the evening...

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Being Sunday night the town's getting pretty, pretty, pretty quiet so we decide to stop in somewhere for some grab-and-go and some water, chocolates, lemon Fanta (IF we can find it) and various snacks. Our food destination: Albert Heijn on the Damrak (with the most friendly and talkative cashier!). Our gear destination?

BEN

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Where we are greeted by perhaps THE most enthusiastic budtender of the trip so far (if not the whole trip)! Nice little shop, surprisingly "local" vibe for a shop in the Centrum. The 'tender gleefully pulls out containers and offers us advice. Night's end Indica? Well, THAT was easy - they only had one Indica in stock

"K2"

Mellow, relatively inexpensive (not sure of the exact amount) so we were told "roll them bigger"! Morning bud? he pulls out the

"Amnesia Haze" and we're impressed enough...

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Kudos to BEN - you know, we're learning to not pass on EVERY commercial looking shop sitting in the Centrum...you'll be surprised at what you find. In fact, our FAVORITE shop of the ENTIRE trip was hiding in plain site the whole time!

We're loaded up with goodies but can't resist ONE more stop en route to the apartment...

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...for some waffles and powdered sugar. Oh yeah!

We're in bed early - a trend that would last the whole week. I'd be feelin' fine and healthy in the day time but start to feel more and more like shit as the night approached putting me between the sheets by midnight each night.

Funny, even not feeling 100% (thus slightly restricting my quantity of smoke) the trip was kicking off in a way that was better than any other...maybe the perspective of moving over there (for real too, not just the someday scenario!) made me think "hey, this is what it's like to be SICK here in Amsterdam, pretty cool"!

I hack and cough a bit laying down and it takes a bit for me to fall asleep but la la land comes soon enough and we DON'T set the alarm...

Tomorrow, we have the best morning session of the trip!

-HD

The buds are big, bad and well cured. BEAUTIFUL coloring and great tas

[AzLaker]

Nice write up HasjDreamer.... weed will cure everything, so hang in there.

AzLaker

[darkglobe]

Hi HD ...enjoying youre Travelogue Whens the next chapter ???
Sorry i didnt make it to the T and T...I was sat in Kashmir Lounge,watching the rain lashing down and my byke looking drenched,so i bailed...i did manage to make it across the road to the bar after a bit tho ...

[Oslodunc]

Nice log.
But how the hell did you get hold of those match tickets??
The only ones we could get were E149 and waaaaayyyyyyy back.
We ended up watching the match in a bar.

[HasjDreamer]

Hey, sorry for the giGANTO delay in posting...busy as all hell!

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009

We wake late, maybe 10:00am or so & I'm feeling pretty good with no real signs of the cold coming on yesterday. Each day would follow a similar pattern of feeling good in the morning and afternoon and start to feel lousy around dinner time. So we take FULL advantage of my "fine" health and, after smoking left over sativa from the night before, we head down the street to Kandinsky to smoke left-over hasj and drink our first cup of cafe of the day.

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It's been raining but not too bad (besides, it's only a 3 minute walk if that) and we walk into the shop and score the coveted window seat. We notice a couple of young, cocky student aged guys sitting next to the budtender spot and they noisily get up with one of the guys trying to get the attention of the VERY fetching blonde female budtender behind the counter. She brushes him off and he's all "why are you treating me like that?" as they head out the door, leaving their belongings behind at the table. The wife and I are thinking, man - what a couple of tools! We settle in, get our cafe and I'm rolling a hasj spleef when they return and park back in their old spots. Soon we realize these guys really DO know the budtender as she runs over to read the notes one of the dude's professors wrote on his test. Jeez, first impressions CAN be misleading - before we know it, we start budding in on their conversation (it WAS rather loud and public!) about one of the kids getting jumped in Amsterdam Noord. It prompted me to ask the budtender "I was wondering the catch - properties cost 1/3 less in the north". She said that the neighborhood was kinda sketchy, VERY white and (my interpretation) "trailer park trash". This began a rather lengthy and interesting discussion that kept going on and on. From Obama's presidency ("he seems like a Hollywood prop") to the current conservative trend in France and other parts of Europe to the moral implications of traveling to 3rd world countries and benefiting from buying their cheaply produced products. My wife was even getting shopping tips from the budtender (they shared the same micro-sized pants!) and we were soon getting names of stores and addresses to check out some clothes. The two dudes were students, one from France (studying music) and the other German, wound up being SUPER cool. I mean, I'm like - what - pushing twice their age and was treated with genuine respect and "cafe friendship"! The smoking-hot Dutch budtender, born-and-raised locally was working at Kandinsky part-time and working in the high fashion field part-time. She thanked us for chatting, claiming that far too few patrons are willing to talk and she finds her job quite boring when they are too "stoned quiet"! I laughed when she complained about the shops cd selection ("do you have an iPod on you?") saying they were too "typical coffeeshop" sounding (I'm beginning to understand that 'sound'). Reggae? ForGET about it! She said it makes the patrons sit silently stoned...heads nodding to Marley!

Another two coffees, another two spliffs and a pear Looza and we realize it's been a good 2 plus hours and the skies are clearing. Perhaps a scooter ride will be in order? Our departure is met with genuine "oh, you're leaving already?" as our impromptu "hosts" start munching on lunch time muffins. Ya see, THIS is one of the many reasons why we WILL be moving over to Amsterdam. It's a genuinely warm town that doesn't give it away but rewards you for your persistence!

Alright, won't wait so long for the next post...gotta go, the dog is giving me that look so it's time for a walk!

-HD