Monday 1st February
Wonderful reds streak in the right side of the plane as we begin our descent. The Netherlands looks suspiciously white from up here. The weather suddenly wraps around the plane and I see flashes of light around the wingtips. I realise quickly it is actually snowing quite heavily but the landing itself is textbook. A group of tits at the back of the plane applaud the pilot as he completes an everyday task. My ears are blocked; I’d really like to fly once without ear-blockage!
I am quickly through the tiny airport, through the snow and on the two euro bus to the city centre. After twenty-five minutes I am walking through the cold to the hotel along a roughly memorised route. I check in, my room is in a house opposite reception, very basic, two single beds and a shared bathroom but clean at least. The rules say I can’t smoke in my room and are written in such a way that I believe them. (Fire brigade calling is mentioned!)
I am straight out of the room and walk around the corner to The Pink, where I get a €7.50 bag of Northern Lights (0.96g). The Pink has re-opened recently having been shut down for a year due to being found with a significant multiple of the legally allowed 500 grams on premises. Before this it was seemingly one of the most popular coffeeshops in the centre of town but since re-opening it has not gotten its menu back up to scratch I have read. The place is nice, decorated with some photographic art, the staff friendly and the music pretty decent. Unfortunately the Northern Lights was way too dry and not an encouraging sample, it does however get me suitably stoned, and soon I leave to find food. I stumble into a café bar, which promises food, and the staff deals with my stonedness admirably. I get a massive portion of Stamppot, which is far too much for me and have to explain that I did enjoy it despite leaving the vast majority uneaten. Nice people here in this friendly quiet bar with locals smoking cigarettes and singing along to awful music. After paying I leave to find the next smoking stop. Around the corner and not far is The Grasshopper (no relation
) but it is very small, the music very loud and I need a stroll to help digest my dinner so I walk on.I slide along the icy paths towards the tall church spire I can see ahead and find Café 't Begijntje, a bar with people clearly toking spliffs inside. I enter the door beside the bar and climb the staircase to the related Upstairs coffeeshop. At the top of the stairs I am presented with a big red button, the type you suspect you shouldn’t press, which opens a star trek style sliding glass door leading to a small room taken up by a large dealer’s bar. I bought a €12 bag of Jack Herer that contained approximately 1.5g. This weed looked much better than the NL I had earlier and I go through the glass partition to the smoking room which forms the remainder of the shop. This is a nice place to chill out, especially given the option of the attached bar below. Here there are a few people scattered around the small room and I enjoy a couple of joints here before deciding to have an early-ish night. (I can never sleep the night before a trip). Oh unfortunately the Herer seems to be not very well flushed and from my research this seems to be common enough in the Eindhoven coffeeshop scene where it is obvious most coffeeshops are drawing from exactly the same supply. Anyway I trek out in the cold again, grab lots of munch and head to my room. I munch down, roll a joint and smoke it on the abandoned street outside before sleep.
Tuesday 2nd February
Today I am off to Tilburg so soon after rising I head to the station and purchase a return ticket for €12. Luckily for me the train is running slightly late and I manage to make it aboard. Within a half hour I am in Tilburg and passing the Grass Company I head straight for my destination Coffeeshop Toermalijn. I have read many wonderful reviews of this coffeeshop and it is a multiple winner of some of the “better than the cannabis cup” cups. It is a decent sized place with a large bar in front with bar stool seating (and hooks under the bar, these always get a place some bonus points from me), the dealer bar at the back with some tables and chairs and a big garden out the back which looked fabulous for the summer. The menu is real nice, easily the best menu I have seen so far on this trip with a big selection of hazes for which they are famous. I buy a €12 bag of California Orange Haze as I am in the mood for a balanced hybrid rather than a mostly sativa one. I get a hot chocolate and sit down at the back of the shop to roll up. The Cali Orange Haze is delicious and I mean really delicious. The stone/high is unremarkable for about half an hour until I realise how nicely stoned and high I am. This is a really really busy shop with the bud bar doing as much business as a bank might. The cross-section of people buying here is remarkable. After a little while a dutch chap asks if he can join me at my table as it is so busy and I say of course. He was a nice chap and we chatted for a couple of hours as we killed a €12 bag of haze each (without sharing of course). He had come from nearby Den Bosch by train to shop at Toermalijn. He told me he did not usually use coffeeshops but was between harvests at the moment so was forced to. He also said that this was the only coffeeshop in North Brabant that he uses due to quality being high and the bud clean. He was right in that the smoke from here was much better than anywhere else and indeed better than most places in Amsterdam. The flavours and the stone were suberb and the grass clearly well grown. It was interesting to speak to a local at length about coffeeshops and the dutch attitude to weed. Incidentally he recommended Boerejongens as one of the only shops in Amsterdam he would bother purchasing from which was reassuring as it was already one of my highest priorities to visit next time I am dam-ward. Bud in Tilburg is only slightly cheaper than Amsterdam really but the drinks and food are cheaper so over a day of coffeeshops you would definitely make a saving. After my friend left I had a nice cheese and ham roll and a cup of tea before heading out again.
I spend some hours shopping before eventually conceding it time to visit a smoke stop. I found De Muze after a while and entered what is a fairly spacious shop with another decent menu. I ordered 2g of Kush Haze for €10/g, got a drink and rolled a tasty powerful joint. De Muze was another excellent shop but after my joint and my hot chocolate I wasn’t sure what to do with myself so decided to find a coffeeshop/bar that supposedly did food so set off again.
It was dark now and as I approached where I thought this coffeeshop was supposed to be the heavens opened and it began to rain. After a while of getting wet and not finding the coffeeshop I diverted back to nearby Toermalijn. At the bud bar I bought a bag of Diamond Haze and a bag of White Widow to smoke now and the budtender asked me the best question ever; ‘Would you like a free joint or free papers?’ I had papers so went for the joint! I sat at the bar supping tea and toked my skunk joint, not bad at all. I rolled a Widow spliff and seeing that the rain had subsided I went to find food.
I walked towards the train station back to The Grass Company which is a huge establishment on a street corner. I was immediately checked for ID when I entered as everybody was. The dealer bar was directly ahead of me, up the stairs was a headshop and through the doors to the right was the massive coffeeshop/restaurant. I entered and enquired about food to be told there was table service and to simply be seated, so I took a seat. Not only a very large establishment but also very busy with an extensive food and (non-alcoholic) drinks menu. I had a couple of drinks and a tuna steak with veg and chips all for less than €20 and it was very good, I could definitely see myself coming to place like this for food if I live in Tilburg, it was a really nice experience. Even though I had a white widow spliff to smoke (which I did, it was yummerlicious) and had been advised against it I could not resist sampling some weed from the Grass Company so decided to buy some Hindu Kush. I went for the €15 deal which arrived in a small plastic box and an additional 20 cent surcharge for the privilege (this is to prevent littering apparently some political issue the grass company had). Anyway for €15.20 I got 2.14g of Kush which I saved for later. The only comparison for the HK I have is Club Media’s organic Hindu Kush and tbh the Grass Company’s sample just wasn’t as nice, not organic I suppose and the flavours said as much, still not a terrible example but I’ve had better of this. Anyway the day was drawing to a close and at about ten or eleven I made my way back to the train and Eindhoven satisfied with my day in Tilburg.
Wednesday 3rd February
Last night I discovered a little roof garden through the door beside the toilet which did nicely for a smoke or two! This morning I pack my bags into one bag for the flight and leave before eleven. My flight is early this evening so I intend to just bum about Eindhoven a bit. I pass The Grasshopper and decide to have a look inside. Its small and too busy so I decide to pass as it does not appeal for chilling out, being smokey and loud to boot, with an awful song belting out of the stereo but more importantly no where obvious to sit in peace. So I stroll through town and out of the centre a little bit to Coffeeshop Eurogarden which was a nice airy chilled kind of place. Here I got a €8.50 bag of Amnesia Haze which tasted great and did the job I wanted of it. Not really my type of music here but decent atmosphere, comfortable and free internet terminals. The Amnesia was damn good to be honest but I needed to get some cash to buy tobacco for my friend so left but after I had done that I decided to return to Eurogarden and tried an €8.50 bag of Brabant’s Wiet which was another decent quality smoke that I enjoyed toking as I killed the hours. Soon enough it was time to go the station and airport but before I did I picked up a pre-rolled Widow joint to smoke outside the airport. This joint certainly did its job as I was whacked by the time I arrived in departures. Nice small airport in Eindhoven makes it convenient and quick to get through and so ended another stoned adventure in the Netherlands.
Some Thoughts
Flying to Eindhoven unfortunately does not seem practical any longer for getting to Amsterdam as the train now costs approx €50 return and the bus about €38 means you are as well off to pay any difference and fly direct to Amsterdam. I would however thoroughly recommend a visit to Tilburg with Toermalijn alone worth the effort. If you are around Eindhoven it is well worth the twenty minute train journey.
Tilburg is a pretty town with some nice coffeeshops and some friendly people. I would highly recommend buying some of Toermalijn’s weeds and enjoying it with a meal in the Grass Company. In fact Toermalijn’s weed was all wonderful with the hazes being excellent but tbh the White Widow was outstanding. At only €35 for 5g I can see why it’s the most popular item on the menu.
My advise if you ever find yourself in Eindhoven is to go out of the centre to find coffeeshops (Indian was recommended by the guy in Toermalijn as the only worthwhile shop in Eindhoven) or simply go to Tilburg!
