Thanks for the kind words...Fly-By-Night is my HERO and I'm more than happy to help him fill in his menu pages! Not a purchase goes by that I don't ask (unless the menu is exactly the same like Babylon).
GO HOLLAND!!! HUP HUP, LET'S WIN THE CUP!!
MONDAY, JUNE 14, 2010:
Finally full and pleasantly stoned, we climb aboard our trusty Gil and head into town. The weather, while sunny and gorgeous is still a wee bit cooler than back in New England and the North Sea cuts through the air like a sharp knife through butter so we brace ourselves and hit the straats of Amsterdam.
It's game day so Orange is EVERYWHERE... flags, bikes, wigs and hair...even dogs. The Dutch pride is evident: "we're the best team in the world that's never won a championship!" and it seems like half the population of Amsterdam are donning the official nike oranje shirt (funny, nobody was wearing the home white with blue and red striping). We drive around a bit heading in the general direction of the centre and get our bearings again. Even though we're on our 11th trip and 3rd with a scooter, we STILL manage to get lost and I even manage to partially collide with a bicycle when I stop short to take a left turn (and she's passing me on the left). I get the finger-waving, chastised look and a few words that were thankfully spoken in Dutch 'cause I'm pretty sure they weren't "you're SO good looking" and all was forgotten and forgiven, time to move on. Of course, I found myself overshooting rather than stopping short until I got the appropriate feel of the bicycle paths.
A quick word about these bicycle paths: they ARE scooter friendly but you have to be driving a limited, 25 kph, 50cc scooter where a helmet is not required. Of course, our scooter topped off a WEE bit more than that!
Sitting at a bicycle red light during rush hour traffic is a TRIP...scooters and bikes all lined up and when the light changes to green it's like bumper cars at an amusement park - we're all jockeying for the limited space of the path but somehow we all manage to fit in. I found myself following locals on their 50cc's and we'd be cruising down the Vijzelstraat like a bunch of junior bikers (let's sing together: "Born to be MILD!").
The wife hadn't been to Betty's yet so we wind our way closer to the centre and pull over to stretch and grab a smoke. We meet our buddy and grab some fresh coffee, lounging outside on the exquisite terrace. We're smoking back and forth hasj ciggies and backwoods sweets for herb (more hasj than weed tho') and we don't pick up anything new but smoke what's on hand.
Fresh baked like local croissant we board Gil and scoot back towards the Oud Zuid and TRY and make our way "home" so we can eat and catch the match at 1:30. High and distracted it was easy to caught up in the matrix-like "loop" that would haunt our first two days. We'd come up to the Heineken brewery and take a LEFT toward the Pijp instead of a RIGHT - dang! We'd figure it out eventually and we land at our Vondelpark address and grab a couple of fresh broodjes next door to bring upstairs. Complimented with some olives and crisps we start watching the Dutch game in our living room, munching and rooting and catching Oranje fever!
At half time we run out, hop on Gil and shoot straight (or KINDA straight) to De Graal for the 2nd half and some GOALS!
Our buddy would tell us how "hungry" the Dutch players were. "We are hungry, our appetite is large!"
We were hungry too...for some "twizla" hasj, at 8.50 a gram:
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0841.jpg
I THINK it came from Pacific: my notes are a bit conflicting and I'm not even SURE we went back to Pacific. I kinda remember not getting a menu shot 'cause we were leaving and we didn't want to interrupt someone making a purchase. ANYWAY it was REAL good apparently: "Very soft, squishy...potent and heavy" ready my notes.
At de Graal we also pick up 5 euro bags each of "Super Cheese" and trusty "Amnesia". The Super was REAL nice, heavy cheese taste and immaculate cure. They would run out by mid week but it's a regular on the menu so I'm sure it's back by posting time. The Amnesia was as good as ever, and we smoked while we watched the Dutch kick some SERIOUS ass! Apparently, Holland was hungry for Danish!
Following such a great game and an equally impressive smoke session, we bid our new found friends a good afternoon and head back to the apartment 'cause we actually have planned out our dinner tonight. We put on non-stoner clothes (khaki's for me, skinny jeans and sandals for her) and head to CAFE LOETJE for what was, perhaps, THE best steak I've ever encountered! Certainly the best meal I've ever had in Amsterdam. Located between museum park and the beginning of Albert Cuypstraat it looks like every OTHER cafe/pub that you see (and we rarely even go into them) with local business types mixed with couples of all ages but few, if any, tourists. It's quiet, between lunch and dinner, and we're told to just seat ourselves. We settle in knowing exACTly what we want to order: the Beef Steak with fries on the side and a couple of beers. The beef steak, at 15 euro by the way, is seemingly legendary from what we've read and from the fact that a reserved table for 8 next to us sat waiting with steak knives at the ready. The steak, a pure "prime" filet, is perfectly prepared: the owner made his living as a butcher for years before opening up the restaurant and it shows. Mine, served medium rare, was smaller and thicker than my wife's medium that was larger but not as thick (but PLENTY thick!) and BOTH were served alone on a plate of THE most exquisite butter sauce you can imagine. Each velvety bite, dipped in the sauce was an amazing culinary experience. Sitting at old wooden tables with fresh-from-the-tap heineken and piping hot fries certainly added to the ambiance! We finished up, scooping every last drop of butter sauce with the few remaining lonely fries and thanked our servers for our meal.
We scooter home, fire up while watching the news hoping to find us on the telly blowing vuvu's but, ah, no luck! Instead we watch cheesy American and British shows, change back into our jeans and head out for a scooter cruise where we encounter the dreaded "loop": I would be thinking I was going somewhere but, no...I'm not going ANYWHERE and we wind up right where we started! Hey, we pass some cool stuff along the way and it's WARM, still light out and we're comforted by the herbal blanket that surrounds us like Linus in Peanuts. Lost? Merely an opportunity!
My notes, like my memory, are blank but I KNOW we wound up back at home-base...de Graal for some hash sampling:
A visit to Lebanon ensues with 5 grams each:
White Gold
Red Gold
and a 10 sack of
Maroc Cream
The Lebs were nice, I was told the white was a sativa and the red an indica and the maroc cream was WOW...soft and pliable and a nice long-lasting high.
We last the night and go searching for food but settle on snacks. We find this SUPER cool late-night market that has like EVERYTHING you could imagine. Of course, we would drive around for a half hour or more in search of it later in the week with no luck. Alas, a fleeting visit to the land of chocolate american cereal, beer/water/soda/milk/chocomel etc., candies, cakes (Oreo cakesters are fucking aMAZing when you're baked!!!) and snacks would have to suffice and we loaded up on enough to last us 'till the morning.
We eventually find our way back in the apartment where munchie madness overcomes us and we eat like extras in a zombie movie. Saturated and satisfied, we smoke and crash hard and wake to our cellphone alarm at 7:00am on Tuesday...
-HD
... so I find myself feeling more and more like a local; a very gezellig feeling indeed! We tell the woman, "not much" and she hands us the vuvu's and t-shirts and tells us to wait. Now we're DYING we're so hungry but what can we do? We're hanging with a couple of construction workers and a few rowdy pre-partiers getting ready for today's BIG BIG match between Holland and Denmark. Finally, after what feels like an hour but is probably like 20 minutes, we're called over to the center of the plein. 
