This is a bit slow in the posting being a trip back in October ’09, but with 420 on the horizon, well nothing act’s better than deadline.
An easy ride out to Heathrow, Sunday morning 11am, pretty easy going an absolutely beautiful October day, no problems boarding etc. And we’re soon up into the sky and it’s Showtime. It’s the first time by air for a good few years, I usually go on the Harwich Ferry, so I was quite amazed how big Schipol is. We land and are taxi-ing for miles to get to the terminal which we eventually do and before too long out the front with the bag and decide as my hotel is in the south of Amsterdam by the Rijksmuseum the shuttle-bus will do, more expensive but straight to hotel door which is OK. So still buzzing nicely from my pre-flight vape I check straight in, room OK, but why are the singles always at the bloody back? I shall discuss that point with the manager, but not right now. So time to hit the ground, mooching rather than running, this is the first time I’ve been away solo for years and I am feeling very liberated, and a bit apprehensive. Out of that hotel door turn right, past the front of the Rijks cross the road, bridge over the Amstel and start my little adventure. Turning left I fall into that left foot follows the right foot follows the left foot mode just buzzing but eventually my brain sensed an interesting coffeeshop close to starboard (we’re hard wired for it), so in me and the brain went. “Dutch Flowers” it’s a nice place to have a cup of tea and a smoke. I bought my first smoke of the trip in here, and I’m annoyed with myself that this tale has taken so long in the telling, because my notes have gone walkabout, well I say notes but it’s really random words, sometimes whole phrases, scrawled,,,,, on anything really, flyers, backs of flight/hotel instructions etc. in fact anywhere but in a notebook. I can’t remember what it was, but it was a nice gentle smoke with a cup of earl grey or two, perhaps someone can help me out with a picture of their menu because I would love to recall the name which I’ve not heard before, but if not it will give me a reason to call in again, which I will because it’s a pretty good little place . That was a nice gentle return to Amsterdam and I determined that I would continue in that mode, so I would return rested not ravaged lol. As I was hoping to meet a few peeps from round here I did think some ravaging could happen though. Well there had been a m&g. posted for the 18th. Unfortunately poor Stuart had experienced transport problems but I decided to go for a stroll up through the city with the Dampkring as my destination.
Admiring the Elephants along the way.
So off I meandered through the thinning Sunday evening crowds and the streets of a thousand remembered vices lol, and arrived at Haarlemmer Straat the location of several current ones.
This was my first visit to Dampkring but I‘ve walked past it and I saw it was very modern, so I was excited to check it out, anyway I paid a visit to the herb counter for a gram of silver haze, saw that it was not very busy it being as I said Sunday evening so grabbed a tea and trying not to look nosy tried to see if any one looked like they might be on a blind date ACD style. I was a bit early and I was sure someone would show from the half dozen or so members who were in town that day. So I went to the middle floor, pretty quiet just a couple of folks up there no ACD maps on tables, so made myself comfortable, put my map on the table and rolled up a little neat one from my recent purchase and “tripped out” as we used to say. Well after a bit when I had returned to the here and now I felt I ought to get myself a looza so down stairs scored one saw there was a lot more people down there and so I plucked up my courage and asked a couple of younger guys if they were meeting up with anyone etc. Which seemed to cause a bit of a freak out, I thought stone me these guys have probably been in stoking up since Friday night it’s now Sunday and they think I’m their dad or something, ho hum! So I went back up to my seat, sat down and tried not to stare at everyone coming up the stairs. I did see one girl “Moo” who had posted I’m sure and she was going to be with her dad (my age), but as he wasn’t with her and she is only about 20 I didn’t feel right going up and talking to her with no one else about, that would have been a bit scary for her maybe. There was a big group upstairs but they sounded louder than I probably could have dealt with. So no matter I’m in the Mokum with a nice four days (good weather forecasts) ahead of me and the lovely haze is giving me that “let’s go walkies” feeling and off I go making my way back towards the Museumplein by way of the Jordan. I stopped by a bar along the way got a beer and it seemed cool so I sat outside with a discreet one I had rolled in the Dampkring feeling a million miles away, but right there too. I can’t remember feeding and watering details apart from when I am really, really high, and then my fall-back position is usually Pasta, simple. Its only when I’m really stoned that I’ll go through the full card. Anyway slumber
beckons so back to base and Zzzzzzzzz.
So the first proper day dawns, and the sun is shining round the curtains, it’s a beautiful October autumn morning. Pinch myself, stick a bit of haze in the iolite and away we go.
As it’s the first time they’ve let me out on my own for a while I have a bit of a plan to keep me from wandering completely off the planet, today the Reiksmuseum, visible as you can see from my bedroom window (after my relocation, see below). Breakfast was not in the hotel deal so instead of a 15euro continental I’m heading for the grill just down the road from Mellow Yellow, this is all in the plan, but first, down to reception. “Room at back blah blah, noisy freezer fans outside window blah blah, cooking smells blah bl!!.” No problem so sorry sir we will find you a new room later. Lovely people.
So off we go and yes an impressive plate of cholesterol, 2 cups of joe, and a few steps along the road to Mellow Yellow for a little Monday morning elevensies, although it’s actually about 10ish, but stuff to do etc. There’s a few people in and around the place but not a lot, a few older guy’s my age mainly I recall any way all very hospitable, I got a gram of super silver haze from here, a coffee and half an hour outside sitting on the bench in the fresh air enjoying the sheer delight of a Mokum moment.
We’ve got a few more meet and greets on the board so I’m looking forward to them as the week goes on but back to now it’s off to the Reiks’, for which I’d got my ticket on-line so don’t have to queue. Well as everybody probably knows it’s been having a major renovations for the last very long time so there’s only a limited part of the collection open , mainly as you would expect the Dutch Masters and the Golden Age Collection, but still a couple of hours sauntering around with the audio guide (well worth a couple of extra euro’s imo).
Cisco’s m&g at 420 4.20 is next up so its early afternoon and to be honest I’m still buzzing from my morning haze so I’m not gagging to hit the c/s’s, I guess that’s a benefit of reaching my age, a little goes a long way. The magic for me of the Netherlands is that you can if you want. So it’s time for a nice “meander” through town which I will tell you now is something I did/do a lot of, very boring reading mostly, but a wonderful thing to do. Well 420, another first for me, well I think so, what I mean is, back in the dim and distant when the area was a very different place in many ways to what it is now, the waterway beside the Damrak which is slowly being built over around Central Station and all along to the east and west was full of cargo ships and barges, and of course no one had invented the Coffee shop yet. There was though, as with any port I ever went to plenty of sailors bringing in plenty of smokeables, and those little alleyways back then where 420 is were full of bars and other dens of iniquity where we drank and smoked away our shore time. I’m no historian, but I’d bet that’s where the scene started, it was the same in London, Bremen, Hamburg etc. It’s just that the Dutch seemed cool about it.
Sorry about that, been for a wander around the block again, ho hum.
So to the T&T. First impression of 420, loved it, felt a great buzz as I walked in the door and just knew this was a happening one. Well a good few people in the shop but not crowded, walked straight through to the back of the shop and there in front of me is a big table with an ACD map on it and a big smiling face. Hello Cisco, hello Spidergawd, nice. Cisco introduces me to his mate, who for some reason I still think is called Stewart as well (different spelling?). So as I said it wasn’t too busy and noisy that we couldn’t have a bit of a gab about this and that, which with a few joints we did. Anyway who else is here? I’m getting good at this and looking round I straight away spot a fellow Deadhead, hello Socratesfriend and Diana and right at the next table is Willjay and Robyn (I remembered Robyn, without notes) and their friend whose name, shame on me, I don’t remember. Greetings greetings all round, what a gas, lots of cannabis, Toking and Talking, probably as much nonsense as anything else, stoned small talk I think, most enjoyable company. Anyway after a while of this, I’m watching with great interest the goings on with the vaporisers and balloons, these things are a bit new on me because I haven’t stayed in Amsterdam for a while I’ve mostly been biking around when I go. Anyway we stuck with the joints and Socrate’s (I think) pipe which was nice.
You know how it is when you’re high, a large, maybe 30 or so, group of people materialised in the Coffeeshop, they looked cool enough, a bit like the town council with their suits and smiles, what is going on we ask ourselves? They have people with cameras and microphones with them and they talk to the staff and take notes. I must find out what this strange unexpected sub plot is so I buttonhole one of the characters and she (it is a she, blonde, Swedish, very good looking) tells me they are, as I suspected by now, a “fact finding” delegation from our very own European Tower of Brussels where all speak with many tongues. Whether they were Elected Members or a committee of officials I didn’t find out as 420 had got really full with all these extra bodies in there and noise levels had just about reached my cut off point. So having witnessed the undoubted expenditure of a chunk of my Euro taxes, I was left wondering if it might be money well spent, who knows. Some day when I reach a state of terminal boredom I might spend some time on the EU website, I assume reports, discussion papers etc. are published.
So it was a nice T&T, cheers Cisco. LOL, it must have been like having your Uncles and Aunts round wasn’t it matey? What with our agesLOL.
Time for a wander now, south towards my Hotel, I stopped in some unremembered spots for beer and smoke, dined on Febo Kipkrokket and wandered into the hotel to find that I had a lovely room at the front (see pictures) and my stuff was all moved for me. Big up for Best Western. They have 2 PC’s with internet in reception for guests so spent a bit of chill out time surfing, and then to bed a happy bunny. Roll on tomorrow.
More later.
