7 days late july
Posted: Wed 28th Jul 2010 07:09 pm
Hello everyone. First time posting here but long time lurker. This report will probably bore a lot of you as it is quite long. Anyways maybe some of you will enjoy it.
Trip to Amsterdam
Part 1
Got up at 4a.m. day of trip. Ides was to be up 12 hours before we started flying to be sleepy and sleep on the flight. Good in theory but very bad in actual practice.
Drove to Houston. Pleasant drive. First time I took 290 to Houston instead of I-10 Got to the parking lot at 12:45 had a bumpy ride on a crappy bus and then got dropped off at
the wrong terminal. Navigated our way to correct terminal. Plane is very full and we spend $500 to upgrade just so we can sit together. Retrospect: worth it. except fart man
in front of us
.
4:20 p.m. we take off from Houston. Everything is seemingly ok and then the smells start coming from fart man in the seat front of us. He pretty much farted every 15 minutes
for about 7 hours of the 9 hour flight. I managed to sleep approximately 1 hour on the plane and it was not real sleep. Nikki managed to sleep quite a bit but imagine it was
un restful also.
7:00 a.m London time. Heathrow airport is a very nice airport. Had a really nice chai coffee at a coffee stand called girrafe. I loved this airport.
10:30 Amsterdam time. We arrived! Plane ride over was uneventful other than me realizing that I am very tired. Basically been up almost 24 hours at this point. We walk
zombiefied through schipolairport. Collect our baggage. Get directions at the vvv. Somehow manage our way onto a train and get to centraal station. zombie walk to the hotel.
Would have been a pleasant walk but no sleep and confusion makes it not so fun. It was a longer walk than we should have walked at that point. After about 20 or so minute walk
we finally get to the hotel.
12:45 local. Hotel! So happy to be here. Unfortunately room wont be available until 3:00 p.m. Store our luggage and sit down to recharge phone and a slight brain recharge. We
basically zombie walked around the immediate area and stopped at a small asian food place. (tasty asian) I wasn’t really hungry before we went in and we both actually felt
like if we ate we would vomit. We agreed we should try and eat though. Once we got inside we got our appetites back. Food was pretty good and its right outside the hotel.
3:00 p.m local got our room
3:15 p.m. local fell asleep
5:30 p.m. woke up and though we had somehow slept an entire day. Nah that’s just dumb….back to sleep
7:33 p.m. Woke up feeling very refreshed. Had the urge to smoke so I woke up nikki.
8:00 p.m(maybe) we went to Arabica lounge which is about a block from the hotel. I had stopped in earlier to have a quick look and it smelled great. We bought 1g of white
widow, some paper, a lighter, 2 oj, and a space cake. I got ww for obvious reasons. Been smoking it for a few months and with still only 4 hours sleep wanted to play safe for
first smoke. Met a nice girl from ohio.
8:45 p.m. came back to hotel and started watching t.v. and writing this enjoying a nice buzz. Prolly just gonna go back to sleep in a bit unless we need to eat again.
Day 2
12:00 a.m. couldn’t sleep so at 12:07 a.m took two Tylenol p.m. and set the alarm for 7:00
7:00 a.m. snooze button.
7:09 a.m. still sleep from it only being 12:00 a.m. to my body I get out of bed determined to see early morning life here. First order of the day. Breakfast!
Wandered around looking for barneys shop close to here, I was hoping was the breakfast coffeeshop. Sadly it was not. Found our way back to a place we saw earlier. I forget the
name but it’s a pub. Had a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon, some coffee and fresh oj,
I do not have reference for time until 2:00 p.m. at this point on.
Next order of business exchange some cash for euro. Took the tram to centraal station and tried to get a public transport ticket. We were short 6 euro so we had to go get
cash. Finally got some euro and went back to pay for our tickets.
I wanted to see some shops on haarlem street so we walked there. Stopped at de dampkring and I bought a joint of super silver haze pre rolled. 6 euro. A few puffs later and it
was time to walk and see this city
.
We basically walked around for several hours prolly between 4 and 5 hours. We stopped and had lunch in a French bakery type shop, decent sandwhiches. I wanted to smoke some
more so we went o basjoes, I bought 1g northern lights 7,5 euro. They have an outdoor patio, I was happy to see that. We finished off the joint of ssh and stashed the NL for
later.
The walking around part was really awesome. Theres so much to see. It kind of weird to see some of the areas that are so touristy. We found our time split between those areas
and the more out of the way areas surrounding the touristy parts. Its really nice in those parts. Saw an awesome playgroiund and some assumingly dutch children. Of course
there are so many different people here it could have been any nationality children
.
2:00 p.m. I knew we were close to the hotel from basjoes so we needed a pit stop. Here we are now, looks like nikki is gonna take a nap. I may or may not join her. I am
determined to see the night life of this city so a quick couple hours sleep may be wise.
A couple notes on the weed so far
White widow at Arabica: this did exactly what I expected it to do with white widow. Not a noticeable difference between this and stuff at home. Great way to begin the trip and
get comfortable with the idea of smoking in public.
Super silver haze at dampkring. Very good high for being awake and aware. it’s a head high for sure, perfect for walking around. Not too strong and no real body high to speak
of. Being a sativa that’s its job.
Northern lights at basjoes: not smoked yet but it looks pretty good.
3:00 set the alarm for 2 hours for some sleep.
5:00 p.m. sleep is very light and halfway between awake and asleep. Somewhere on the verge of both.
5:45 or so we finally get out of the hotel. We only had 75 euro at this point so we decided to go get some more before we did anything else. Hopped on the tram. A nice local
lady suggested we go out and see the area she lives in. I forget the name but we wrote it down and maybe we will get out there. I wanted to see the abraxus shop. So we walked
over there and I bought 1g of chocolope. A few puffs later on the chocolope and we were off. Also had a strawberry juice drink. It was good. Unfortunately it was not the shop
I wanted to see. Abraxus too is the shop I want to see. Oh well always tomorrow.
We decided to check out the red light doistrict as it was close to 8:00 p.m. I think. Walked over there and I suppose it was still early in the evening. It gets dark around
10:00 p.m. here. There were a few women in the windows and the place seemed to be pretty crowded overall. They have live sex shows all up and down the block. Most of he women
were very good looking that I saw. I am pretty sure this place gets really going after dark. I do want to see the real late night out here and other parts of the city before
we leave.
After the red light district nikkis feet were hurting her so we stopped for a bit on a bench by a canal. Prolly sat there for 30 minutes.
Oh yeah I forgot. Right after we exchanged money we checked out the sex museum. I got some pics of interesting things in there. Pretty cool museum. There were a lot of pics of
all the ages from the 20’s up. Also many older things in there. Lots of erotic artwork.
So it looked like rain may be coming so we left the park bench. It was time to eat dinner. At rembrandtplein we found a nice pub with outdoor seats open to eat and enjoy the
evening. We got 2 medium Heinekens and both ordered fish and chips 22 euro. Beer was great and food was ok nothing special but got the job done. It was nice sitting there with
nikki and watching th nighttime come on. I wanted to go smoke some more and I had rolled a nice joint of that northern lights earlier in the evening.
We walked to the canal directly opposite the hotel. They have a nice dock across the street and we sat here and smoked about half the northern lights joint. I massaged my
wifes lovely feet. She has a blister right below her big toe on both feet. I am afraid this is going to make the next few days more difficult for us since walking is a major
part of this city, she did say she felt like we were rushing things. Walking a lot.
Anyway we sat on the dock for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. The northern lights was decent but I wanted to smoke more before that hour was up so it must not be that strong. I
did manage a couple more hits off the chocolope joint.
11:30 back in the hotel room. Been here about 2 hours. I need to go to bed. I havent really had a lot of sleep but im doing pretty good with the amount I have gotten.
A few notes on the food and drinks we have had. Almost all the oj you order is fresh squeezed. We stopped in a store that had juice in bottles and some yougurt drinks I had
seen people drinking. The juice had chunks of fruit in it and tasted real fresh. The yogurt drink was good but it was midafternoon and it weighed heavily on my stomach. All
the food we have had has been good. The coffee we have had has all been outstanding. I love coffee at home but it seems different here. Maybe it’s the setting.
Updated notes on weed
Northern lights from basjoes. I thought since it is a pure indica it would be a great nightcap. Something toput me to bed. it’s a good smoke but not heavy enough for what I
wanted at the time. I need something real strong for a nightcap. Maybe some g-13 tomorrow. Cont..
NL would be a great daytime indica to smoke as a complemental body high to a nice sativa.
Chocolope from abraxus. This is definitely a step up from the super silver haze in terms of high. it’s a good kick in the brain and wont stop you from wanting to walk around.
it’s a bit more cerebral and psychadelic than the SSH. Definitely the highlight so far. I got some cones earlier and packed a nice joint for tomorrow of this wonderful herb.
The taste and smell of this is really unique. Spicy and aromatic.
Day 3
Umm I didn’t write anything at all ON day 3 so I am writing this on day 4. I already went to barneys this morning and finished off half a joint of super silver haze I bought
yesterday so we’ll see….
Ok so day 3 started with a 9:00 a.m. alarm.after falling asleep around 1a.m. I got up and decided to go get some coffee for nikki and I and let her sleep a bit more if she
liked. Commercial coffeeshop (just coffee) right next door is convenient. They have good coffee drinks at least.
Had coffee. Why do I keep saying coffee? I was also going to get nikki some bandages for her blisters. Front desk didn’t have any needles to pop them and pointed me in the
direction of the Etnos (Ahh-yet-nose). Etnos is a drug store without a pharmacy. They have some realy cool blister bandages that basically form a fake skin over the real skin.
I wanted some more heady sativa but not chocolope. So I went looking for more super silver haze. Arabica didn’t have any. He suggested amnesia haze. I went to rokerji up the
street. They had SSH so got a gram 9 euro? Cool shop. You gotta go downstairs to the budtender. Music was pink floyd covered by a reggae band. Few puffs later it was time to
go.
Had breakfast at the same place as yesterday. I had the same thing. Good again. Nikki wanted ham and egg but got cheese and egg. I think she still liked it.
I think we decided to go to the flower market at this point. Of course with most things we do here we went way out of the way to get there. We decided to take a tram and walk
over. So we did. Later on we realized its like 3 blocks walking from the hotel.
Flower market is really cool. One side is all flower needs and souveniers and the other side is souvenier shops. Some nice specialty shops and cafes. We went into a really
cool asian shop. We got a few things from there. We got some flower and cactus seed. We also got some tulip bulbs hoping we can get them to flower.
So we wanted to go to waterlooplein (flea market) but we only had like 10 euro on us at this point. We wandered around for a while looking for a place to change money. No luck
in the vicinity so we tram back to damrak. Super crowded and the early morning cool weather was turning into afternoon heat and sunshine. We were walking quite a bit again and
I was determined to try and slow things down today. While looking for money we walked a lot and it felt rushed. So I stopped us in a shady part for a few minutes rest. Still
had a ways to go so we moved on but a little more refreshed.
We got our money changed and really wanted to get off the crowded damrak street. It was hot so we decided to get ice cream. We got haggen daz in waffle cones and sat across
the street in rembrandtplein. We watched the people for a while and decided it was a good idea to eat. I probably smoked somewhere and something in this time but I cant
remember
.
We had dinner at a pub called The Old Bell. we had a heneinken and nikki had a pint of guniess and I had a pretty good wheat beer. Nikki had a chicken and mushroom English pie
and I had a rump steak dinner. Basically a piece of rump roast cooked like a steak. Both meals came with fries and a salad. It was pretty decent.
By this time it was getting cold outside so we needed a change of clothes. I wanted a hash joint so I got one from Arabica lounge. 3 euro. We sat on the dock and I smoked
pretty much the whole thing. I got a buzz but that was from all the tobacco I think. I couldn’t even tell if there was even hash in it to be honest. Worst smoke of the trip
next to northern lights so far. NL was not bad of course. The hash joint made my stomach hurt and I wanted to get the taste and smell of tobacco off of me. Washed up and we
decided to see about renting a boat. It was too late to rent a boat but we did see a late evening cruise through the canals. We navigated our way to the start. We walked the
right way then decided it was the wrong way….turned around…..THAT turned out to be the wrong way so we walked back the original way. that’s the way it has been so far this
trip.
Finally made it too the cruise. It was 90 minutes and took us out into the harbor. It was a nice cruise in the canals and harbor. Saw a lot of cool buildings at night. Next
thing I remember we got off the cruise boat. It was around 11:30 p.m. at this point and I decided it was a good idea to spark up the chocolope joint I had rolled earlier. I
smoked about 2 or 3 times as much as I have been since it was late and I really wanted to see how it was in a bit of excess. What a wonderful taste this herb has. We ended up
in a real trendy club area called leidesplein and there were tons of people and some crazy soccer ball street performers. These guys were awesome.
It was just a few minutes into that chocolope high that it kicked the back of my head in right as I was watching the street performers. I thought for a second I might get sick
but I just needed to move around. Wow this weed is so good. We both wanted coffee. Unfortunately no coffee to be found after 12:00 a.m. it was funny because we asked the
bartender in the hotel lobby and he said “coffee is finished” and waved his hand in a downward swipe. I know it doesn’t sound funny to read it but I was really high and nikki
was feeling good on some space cake she had eaten before the cruise boat. Back to the room we watched a movie. Couples retreat then sleep. It was close to 3:00 a.m. and set an
alarm for 9:00 a.m.
Day 4
8:52 a.m. I got up and took a bath. Then I left nikki half asleep and headed for barneys up the street. Budtender suggested honey b as his personal favorite. He smokes that
while working. Clear head but still high. I actually just rolled this up for next smoke.
I sat outside and had a coffee and finshed off a joint of super silver haze. I figured so far it has not let me down as a good day smoke so why mess with perfection. Oh wait I
forgot before I did all that I rode the tram and exchanged money.
10:40 a.m. Back at the hotel I felt ackward because a guy stared at me at the elevator and I know I smelled like weed because I had just smoked that joint. Back in the room
niiki is up and she seemed a bit annoyed that I had left or maybe it was because I had not left any euro at the room for her. My fault.
So we wanted to go to the waterlooplein still from yesterday. I had us off to a good start since I exchanged money early. Flea market was cool and we bought a few things there
for gifts. We had seen the hermitage the night before on the cruise and its right next to the waterlooplein. Of course right inbetween the waterlooplein and the hermitage is
the greenhouse coffeshop. I of course had to stop in there. Picked up a gram of arjans haze stopped at a café and had coffee and ham tomatoe and cheese tostys.
So we went to the hermitage and saw some art. Its really nice looking at art. I was kind of worried I might not like seeing art. I did really enjoy it. We got some postcards
in the gift shop. Then off to Arabica for fresh squeezed oj and smoke some of the arjans haze. Wonderful smoke there. Its been several hours and I just realized I have no idea
yet what we did after I smoked that.
Oh yeah I remember now. We went to haarlem in search of chocolate. We walked around and got some bread. Some truffles. Some more bread with cheese and these really awesome
cheese stuffed sweet peppers in oil. Also stopped at the albert hein and got some fresh squeezed juice.
We stopped at a park and ate our snacks. Then heheheheh nikki had to take a shit. So we navigated our way back to the hotel. Just rolled up a joint of honey b and wrote here.
Well back to the grind.
Ok well its only been a few minutes since I last wrote. Nikki is asleep so I decided to go smoke the honey B joint I rolled a bit ago. The plane in my head was o stop across
the street on the dock then have a coffee somewhere close by. I got as far as smoking more than half the joint and coming back to the room. I am only about 10 minutes into the
high so far but its not overwhelming in the relative safety of my room. I am actually very stoned but I have such a clear head.
I think I will tray and remember some random thoughts I have thought about writing down.
The last thought I had and have had so far is that I notice they don’t label the herb you buy. I figured this would cause a problem at some point since I was not writing the
names down on bags myself. It has officially caused a problem. I have bought 6 different types of weed and I have been trying to keep track in my head of which bags were
which. I have failed at this and now I have a couple bags that I don’t remember for sure which ones they are.
Solution? Smoke them all tonight and start fresh with names tomorrow? Man that would be awesome but its not really about smoking a lot its about smoking a lot of variety.
Random thought: I am having a lot of fun but I really miss mia a lot more than I could imagine I would. Maybe its because my mom sent an email and we responded and have sent
other emails and noone has responded. I just want word everything is ok. I am not really worried anything has happened I just want reassurance. I called and got the answering
machine at my moms house. I left a message to please send us an email telling us how things are going.
Random thought: nikki has a great idea to make our headboard and put pictures of our trip all over it. I hope she follows though with this and I hope she will alllow me to
help her with it. It sounds like a fabulous idea to me.
Random thought: I could see myself living here. Make me wish I was rich just so we could travel the world and live the relaxed lifestyle we have experienced these last few
days. Of course after hearing about the prices people pay to live here I am amazed ANYONE can afford to live here. Much less 1 million people. Tour guide lady said people pay
5-7000 euro a WEEK to live in some of the apartments. Also some aprtments go for 300 euro a square meter. Houseboats cost 15 euro a year to live in but the city does not hand
out any new licenses so they range in price from 250,000 to 700,000 euro to purchase
Random thought: I am hungry.
Random thought: nikki seems to be having a lot of fun with me. I hope she finds some time to go out by herself. I have really enjoyed my small morning excursions away by
myself. Of course that’s not because I want to be away from her in any way but since I am so much like my dad I can imagine its pretty annoying to be with me every waking hour
of the day. I love you dear!
Random thought: Honey B is a very easy going stone with a clear headed high. Very soaring. I know I am stoned but I am so clear headed.
Random thought: I did not mean for this trip to turn into a heavy sativa smoke but that’s all I have really bought. I am just really loving the sativa. I do want to get a
really heavy indica. I should look online and see what people are suggesting for a real heavy high and where at.
Random thought: I feel a lot more comfortable about taking trams and getting around the city. Theres still so much I want to do but at the same time I am really enjoying the
relaxing times without feeling like we need to cram a bunch of things into the trip. I just hope nikki doesn’t get bored and feel like we just wasted a bunch of time and
didn’t get a lot of museums in.
Random thought: the row houses here are not straight. They are all crooked and in some places they are so out of line its crazy. There is an 85 foot tower here dates to the
16th century. Old protestant church. The tower is 109 centimeters out of center now. that’s insane!
Random thought: they have urinals right on the street. Like literally on the corners of major intersections.
Random thought: bikes and cars and trams and buses galore. I really have no idea how there are not accidents all day every day here. There seems to be no real traffic laws
that I can figure out. Its like a crazy mess that just somehow flows along in some kind of crazy traffic dance. I honestly wish I could watch a video from an above view on
traffic flows. There are so many bikes here. Some estimates around 1 million bikes. Tons of vespas, a few motorcycles, at least 1 classic 60’s era camaro. 1 full size pick up
truck and no suvs. At least not any big suvs. Seen a few range rovers and such.
Random thought: everything here is done with the utmost efficiency. I mean everything that happens is done so efficiently. Theres no real room for big trucks so all the “work”
vans I have seen have shelves and what not for them to be able to organize tools they need. We saw a truck with a lift on it working and it was blocking a whole street. Cars
would turn the corner and have to back up and go the other way. No big deal right? Well the major observation of that was that there are no signs announcing road work or that
the road is even blocked ahead. Its just you turn a corner and realize you cant go that way so turn around. You would never see that in america. Prolly insurance reasons.
Random thought: I think everyone in the world smokes cigarettes here. It seems that EVERYONE smokes tobacco. I havent had a craving for a cigarette in years but I had one
yesterday. that’s the reason I bought the hash joint in the first place.
Random thought: I am hungry. I hope nikki wakes up soon. I may have to wake her up to go eat dinner. Yep definitely time to eat.
Random thought: I hope anyone who reads these crazy things enjoys them.
11.38 p.m. back from dinner. We went to an argentinian steakhouse. These resteraunts are all over the edges of the club and tourist areas. The area right behind our hotel is
rembrandtplein. Lovely square to people watch during the day, lit up and louder at night with young clubbers running around. We seem to be in an area with quite a few
gay/lesbian clubs. Im not sure if this particular area has more of them than others.
Anyway we had a nice dinner. I had spare ribs and a pint. Nikki had pork tenderloin. Both came with fries and salad of course. My ribs were good and nikki really liked the
tenderloin, definitely on the pricey side for non special items. 15 euro for ribs or 30 euro for ribeye. We stopped by a shop called balou. Got a prerolled pure of the cheese.
Nice smoke. Decent high. It tasted good.
Tried calling my moms house again. No answer. Nikki is feeling sad about not hearing from mia. I just wish we could get an email or phone answered.
Were back in the hotel and nikki is upset with me at the moment. Im sure it’s a combination of homesickness and me just saying the wrong thing to her.
Day 5
8:35 a.m.: I fell asleep around midnight last night and here I am. Nikki couldn’t sleep and she finally called mia around 2:00 a.m. woo hoo we got to talk to her and now were
reassured everything is ok. My brother told me mom is having problems with her pc and that’s why we have not heard from them. I was more than asleep at the time but I got up
to speak to mia for a second. She was eating dinner and I told her I love her and she of course responded with “I love mommy!”. it was good to hear her voice at least. Im
worried about what these calls are gonna cost us. Oh well we havent spent a whole lot of money anyways since we have been here. I get the feeling museums are gonna change that
some today. Well time to get in the shower and start this day. That cheese joint did a great job putting me to sleep last night. Van Gogh museum for sure today. Gonna hit it
early and also try and see the Amsterdam history museum.
Well unfortunately I didn’t write anything down after that last passage and I am currently sitting in the airport on the way home. I am gonna try and remember some of the
things we did on the last few days
Well I can pretty much gurantee we had breakfast at the same place we had it all week. The morning time is so nice here. Its cool and not too many people milling about all
over the place.
I wanted to be at the van Gogh museum at 10:00 to avoid a super long line. We got there close to 10:45 and the line was long but it moved quickly. The van Gogh art is really
nice. He really was a talented artist but compared to artists like Rembrandt its so much different. Van Gogh is almost like a child painting compared to Rembrandt. Not that I
could paint like that.
Hmm lets see what did we do next? Ahh yes ice cream and pizza. Well we stopped and grabbed some ice cream. Did I mention everyone here eats ice cream. A lot of ice cream.
don’t remember anything about this particular ice cream. We had lunch at one of the many “Italian” resteraunts all over the place. We had margherita pizza (cheese, and tomato
sauce) the pizza is really good here. They put garlic sauce on the crust and its light and fluffy crust. I stopped in a sensi seeds shop and inquired about seeds. I was
advised to not mail directly out of Amsterdam. To take a train to the next small village and mail from there. A lot of people use Amsterdam as a stop over on a larger Europe
trip and mail from the next place. I was also told not to order on the internet. Not for security reasons but because the mail order seed shops are not really trustworthy to
send the correct item.
So after lunch we had seen some shops on the way to museum plain we wanted to browse in. I was also close to grey area and knew I wanted to stop there for what is reported as
very good east coast sour diesel. I did manage to get a prerolled pure of this very nice smoke. Taste was so good and the high was incredible from this. I had already decided
I was not going to buy any more full gram bags. Prerolled from here on out..
Right across the street from grey area was our first time walking into a chocolate shop called puccina. OMG as soon as you walk in the smell of chocolate is so strong. We got
4 pieces of chocolate 7.50 euro. Man this chocolate is so delicious. Notice I said it was our FIRST time in the shop.
It was time for a pit stop. We had bought some cheese earlier. We had also stopped in an albert hein grocery store for juice. Its funny because they don’t use grocery carts.
They have what we know as carry baskets but theres have a fold out handle and are on wheels they can pull behind them. Anyhow we also got some plain crackers and some
pistachios. For any future trips I may take here, this is the place to shop for food on the cheap. Nothing is cheap here but grocery store is a great place to get food for a
bit cheaper.
So we got back to the room. I wanted cheese and crackers. Also seeing all the people drink wine all week had me wanting some. So I went to the close albert hein to go and
grabbed a bottle of inexpensive red wine. It was actually a very light, rose colored wine. So we ate cheese and crackers in bed and drank a bottle of wine.
I think we may have taken a nap after wine. The photos on my camera show the next morning after the wine. I do know for sure we got up and it was dark outside. We left the
hotel for a walk across the canal. For some reason I left the camera in the hotel room. That was a big mistake because the views and setting are fantastic across the water at
night. We walked a pretty good ways and saw a bunch of shops we wanted to visit tomorrow. I think before we left on the walk grinded all the loose weed I still had and rolled
2 big joints of mixed weed. I smoked one on this walk. This walk will probably stand out as the best walk we had on the trip and believe me we walked a fuckload.
After this I suppose we went to bed.
Day 6.
Had breakfast again at the same café. Delicious again of course. I could eat there every day and be happy for the rest of my life. We bought a couple prints from a street
artist. We each picked one out and nikki said later that night that our picks represent each of us very well.
I wanted to get back on the water since the cruise we had taken a few days ago. They have paddle boats called canal bikes. So we got one for a couple hours. We had a nice
paddle through some canals. It had started to sprinkle on us near the end so we stopped at the next drop off point. It was fun. Nikki got a lot of great pictures on the boat
ride.
Correction from above. I remember now I did not start smoking the 2 big joints until this particular boat ride. In the morning of day 6. I prolly smoked chocolope the night
before on the walk.
So as we were walking we saw an old protestant church and noticed it was a museum so we stopped in. this place was so beautiful. Everything was so grand inside. They had just
reopened so none of the art was up but you could still see the giant organ. It was built in 1655. The floor is all these rectangular stones that are lids to burial chambers
beneath. At least until 1675 when burials in the church were not permitted anymore.
We had lunch. Very good sandwiches. We both ordered a coffee drink. Man these drinks were like liquor with a splash of coffee.
It was time to go shop at the shops we saw the night before. They have these awesome toy stores all over the place. I think most of them are French shops. A lot of the items
seem very French to me anyways. One of the shops was full of stuffed animals but they were crazy expensive. Everything in the shops in this little district was expensive. It
was just one of those areas I guess.
After this we sat in Rembrandtplein and watched people for probably about an hour.
After a pit stop at the hotel we ate dinner at tasty asia. It was kind of fitting that one of our last meals would be at the same place our first meal here was. I thought
maybe it was smuelwicz café but that was last night. (very delicious food there btw) after dinner I really wanted to get some pictures from across the canal after dark again.
We walked across but ended up going a different direction than the previous night. I did get some great pictures on this walk though. I think there was a nap in there I
missed. Did I mention vacation is tiring?
Day 7
Morning again. I got up and left nikki sleeping. I had a couple shops I wanted to hit and get some shirts. This is going to be our last day so if were gonna get any more
shopping done this is it. We had no set plans for the trip and today was the same way. Just do what we feel. I did decide that we should not miss the Rijksmuseum since all the
books say if your only gonna go to one museum that should be the one. This is also where Rembrandts paintings and a ton of other dutch artists paintings are.
I went to greenhouse coffeeshop looking for seeds first. I was told to go to greenhouse souvenier shop as the budtender didn’t know much about the growing side of the
business.
‘
I opted to go to sensi seeds first. I ended up buying 10 white rhino seeds from sensi seeds and a t-shirt. The lady in there was nice but since it was still early she didn’t
seem to be in a conversation mood
Back at the hotel to get nikki. She was up and we went for breakfast…..yep same place.
We hit waterlooplein to get some things we had seen a few days before. I ended up buying a really awesome zip up hoodie. Its brown and orange with Amsterdam across the front
and a small Amsterdam patch on one sleeve. I really love it. Too bad we don’t get much winter here. We picked up a few more items at the market and headed over for lunch.
Another pizza shop across the street. Then ice cream (when in Holland……)
At this point we went to the Rijksmuseum. We had done a serious amount of walking this trip. I was fine with it but nikki really suffered from muscle aches and fatigue. I
wanted to get a quick trip in at the museum. I basically went through fairly quickly while nikki looked around at her own pace.
This museum is amazing. I really enjoyed seeing the silver works in the first floor. I am amazed at the detail and the time it must have taken to do the things they did back
in the 1600’s. it truly was art amongst itself. Then there were the dollhouses on display. Wow! I mean we fret over trivial things like a $40 dollhouse at wal mart and then
too see them like this is just amazing. I am not entirely sure they were meant as play dollhouses or if they just were made as a replica of the estates they were part of
originally.
Upstairs to the Rembrandts! I was really excited too see the dutch masters paintings. I was not let down. Its amazing how these artists were able to put some of the detail in
their paintings. So awesome. The lighting and every aspect of them is really something to admire. There are some great artists on display including many Rembrandts. Everyone
talks about Rembrandts.”the night watch“. It was really good but not my favorite. Maybe they enjoy it so much because its so big. don’t get me wrong it was impressive but I
thought there were better Rembrandts on display.
Nikki and I had been joking all along about the Chinese massage parlors and happy endings but nonetheless she wanted a massage. So we went to one on damrak and I decided I was
going to search out greenhouse seeds. Luckily we were literally right across the street from the shop.
It was well into the afternoon at this point and the lady in there was super nice and we talked for quite a bit about growing and laws relating to dutch. I found out they
don’t clone over there because its illegal (government doesn’t regulate it so doesn’t get taxes from clone sales). Of course theres not really a reason to since you can easily
get more seeds or just breed a seed line yourself. She told me the legal drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for liquor, 16 for cigarettes, 18 for marijuana, and 18 to
get a drivers license. She also told me its 5 euro an hour to have your car in the city center. Its one way to discourage driving in the city. It was also amazing to be able
to talk about growing herb and not get in trouble. Here in the states you cant even talk about growing it in a place that sells light bulbs. Freedom of speech huh?
She was very talkative and extremely friendly. I think she was probably the friendliest Dutch person I met the whole trip. Not that I met any rude people (not many) but noone
was as nice as she was. I could have talked to her about growing and many other topics for a long time but I knew nikki only signed up for a half hour massage and I needed to
get back. I ended up buying a 5 pack of feminized super lemon haze and a t-shirt from here.
You probably notice by now I don’t have any more updates about what I smoked and when I smoked it for a while now in the journal. that’s because I didn’t write anything while
in Holland for the last 3 days and damn if I can remember what and when I smoked.
I will say at this point I wanted to find a prerolled since I only had a few hours left. I went to a dozen shops and none had any prerolled I wanted. (most were white widow)
after an hour of searching I finally stopped at rokerji thinking they would have what I wanted. Nope. So I just bought a gram of rokerji sour diesel. Sadly I had passed
earlier on at greenhouse on getting a gram of super lemon haze because I had not wanted to buy a whole gram. Rolled one up and headed to the old bell to meet nikki for dinner
and beer. I smoked the joint on the short walk and we had a beer at old bell. service here sucks(even for dutch standards I imagine)
We headed to smuelwickz and had dinner inside since it was chilly and we weren’t dressed for chilly.
Back at the hotel we changed and decided to go out for a final walk. I had already decided earlier in the day that the final smoke was going to be northern lights since I
still had most of that gram left anyways. So we headed to Arabica for a last glass of fresh OJ. If your ever in Amsterdam and near Arabica lounge I recommend the OJ here. They
keep the oranges cold so its nice and cold OJ. Not a lot of places have cold beverages here. We walked down to the corner of the canal and sat on a park bench and I smoked the
whole joint of NL. I wanted to give the NL one final chance and it did not disappoint this time around.
Unfortunately I had gotten a tremendous headache from the rokerji sour diesel and had not taken any Tylenol. So after we walked back into the hotel room I basically went to
the room with an insane headache and had to lie down. Nikki came in and I asked her for some Tylenol and a glass of water. Other than the terrible headache the northern lights
was kicking my ass. It was damn good this time. I think other than the white widow I had bought first day the NL was the only other indica I had. We had to be up at 3:00 a.m.
and it was about 10:00 p.m. at this point so off to dream land for a few hours.
3:00 a.m. time to get up and get to the airport. We got checked out and went to a bus stop to catch a bus at 4:01 a.m.. We had just missed the 3:37 bus and had to wait. Our
final interaction was a bum coming up and aggressively begging for change. Not exactly the last thought about Amsterdam I wanted but oh well. I pretty much expected that to be
the case at such and early (late?) hour. Flight home was long and pretty uneventful.
Got our car and drove home from Houston. Considering we got our car just after 4:30 p.m. in Houston I made damn good time to my moms house to get mia. We pulled into her
driveway about 6:45 p.m. (normally almost a 3 hour drive). 90 mph will do that!
Now here I sit back in the land of paranoia every time I want to take a puff. It felt so food to be somewhere and have the feeling of being free to smoke herb when I feel like
it and not get in trouble.
My final thought about Amsterdam is this. As a stoner for quite some time now I always imagined going to Amsterdam would be so awesome because I could get stoned all day and
night and that would be the focus of a trip there. After being there I feel sad for people who want to go there just for that reason alone. don’t get me wrong it’s a good
reason but its such a minor thing there. The place has so many great things to offer. The people, the buildings, the history, the art, the city itself is reason enough to want
to be there. Being able to smoke and enjoy a high in a beautiful place takes a back seat to everything else.
Trip to Amsterdam
Part 1
Got up at 4a.m. day of trip. Ides was to be up 12 hours before we started flying to be sleepy and sleep on the flight. Good in theory but very bad in actual practice.
Drove to Houston. Pleasant drive. First time I took 290 to Houston instead of I-10 Got to the parking lot at 12:45 had a bumpy ride on a crappy bus and then got dropped off at
the wrong terminal. Navigated our way to correct terminal. Plane is very full and we spend $500 to upgrade just so we can sit together. Retrospect: worth it. except fart man
in front of us
.
4:20 p.m. we take off from Houston. Everything is seemingly ok and then the smells start coming from fart man in the seat front of us. He pretty much farted every 15 minutes
for about 7 hours of the 9 hour flight. I managed to sleep approximately 1 hour on the plane and it was not real sleep. Nikki managed to sleep quite a bit but imagine it was
un restful also.
7:00 a.m London time. Heathrow airport is a very nice airport. Had a really nice chai coffee at a coffee stand called girrafe. I loved this airport.
10:30 Amsterdam time. We arrived! Plane ride over was uneventful other than me realizing that I am very tired. Basically been up almost 24 hours at this point. We walk
zombiefied through schipolairport. Collect our baggage. Get directions at the vvv. Somehow manage our way onto a train and get to centraal station. zombie walk to the hotel.
Would have been a pleasant walk but no sleep and confusion makes it not so fun. It was a longer walk than we should have walked at that point. After about 20 or so minute walk
we finally get to the hotel.
12:45 local. Hotel! So happy to be here. Unfortunately room wont be available until 3:00 p.m. Store our luggage and sit down to recharge phone and a slight brain recharge. We
basically zombie walked around the immediate area and stopped at a small asian food place. (tasty asian) I wasn’t really hungry before we went in and we both actually felt
like if we ate we would vomit. We agreed we should try and eat though. Once we got inside we got our appetites back. Food was pretty good and its right outside the hotel.
3:00 p.m local got our room
3:15 p.m. local fell asleep
5:30 p.m. woke up and though we had somehow slept an entire day. Nah that’s just dumb….back to sleep
7:33 p.m. Woke up feeling very refreshed. Had the urge to smoke so I woke up nikki.
8:00 p.m(maybe) we went to Arabica lounge which is about a block from the hotel. I had stopped in earlier to have a quick look and it smelled great. We bought 1g of white
widow, some paper, a lighter, 2 oj, and a space cake. I got ww for obvious reasons. Been smoking it for a few months and with still only 4 hours sleep wanted to play safe for
first smoke. Met a nice girl from ohio.
8:45 p.m. came back to hotel and started watching t.v. and writing this enjoying a nice buzz. Prolly just gonna go back to sleep in a bit unless we need to eat again.
Day 2
12:00 a.m. couldn’t sleep so at 12:07 a.m took two Tylenol p.m. and set the alarm for 7:00
7:00 a.m. snooze button.
7:09 a.m. still sleep from it only being 12:00 a.m. to my body I get out of bed determined to see early morning life here. First order of the day. Breakfast!
Wandered around looking for barneys shop close to here, I was hoping was the breakfast coffeeshop. Sadly it was not. Found our way back to a place we saw earlier. I forget the
name but it’s a pub. Had a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon, some coffee and fresh oj,
I do not have reference for time until 2:00 p.m. at this point on.
Next order of business exchange some cash for euro. Took the tram to centraal station and tried to get a public transport ticket. We were short 6 euro so we had to go get
cash. Finally got some euro and went back to pay for our tickets.
I wanted to see some shops on haarlem street so we walked there. Stopped at de dampkring and I bought a joint of super silver haze pre rolled. 6 euro. A few puffs later and it
was time to walk and see this city
.
We basically walked around for several hours prolly between 4 and 5 hours. We stopped and had lunch in a French bakery type shop, decent sandwhiches. I wanted to smoke some
more so we went o basjoes, I bought 1g northern lights 7,5 euro. They have an outdoor patio, I was happy to see that. We finished off the joint of ssh and stashed the NL for
later.
The walking around part was really awesome. Theres so much to see. It kind of weird to see some of the areas that are so touristy. We found our time split between those areas
and the more out of the way areas surrounding the touristy parts. Its really nice in those parts. Saw an awesome playgroiund and some assumingly dutch children. Of course
there are so many different people here it could have been any nationality children
.
2:00 p.m. I knew we were close to the hotel from basjoes so we needed a pit stop. Here we are now, looks like nikki is gonna take a nap. I may or may not join her. I am
determined to see the night life of this city so a quick couple hours sleep may be wise.
A couple notes on the weed so far
White widow at Arabica: this did exactly what I expected it to do with white widow. Not a noticeable difference between this and stuff at home. Great way to begin the trip and
get comfortable with the idea of smoking in public.
Super silver haze at dampkring. Very good high for being awake and aware. it’s a head high for sure, perfect for walking around. Not too strong and no real body high to speak
of. Being a sativa that’s its job.
Northern lights at basjoes: not smoked yet but it looks pretty good.
3:00 set the alarm for 2 hours for some sleep.
5:00 p.m. sleep is very light and halfway between awake and asleep. Somewhere on the verge of both.
5:45 or so we finally get out of the hotel. We only had 75 euro at this point so we decided to go get some more before we did anything else. Hopped on the tram. A nice local
lady suggested we go out and see the area she lives in. I forget the name but we wrote it down and maybe we will get out there. I wanted to see the abraxus shop. So we walked
over there and I bought 1g of chocolope. A few puffs later on the chocolope and we were off. Also had a strawberry juice drink. It was good. Unfortunately it was not the shop
I wanted to see. Abraxus too is the shop I want to see. Oh well always tomorrow.
We decided to check out the red light doistrict as it was close to 8:00 p.m. I think. Walked over there and I suppose it was still early in the evening. It gets dark around
10:00 p.m. here. There were a few women in the windows and the place seemed to be pretty crowded overall. They have live sex shows all up and down the block. Most of he women
were very good looking that I saw. I am pretty sure this place gets really going after dark. I do want to see the real late night out here and other parts of the city before
we leave.
After the red light district nikkis feet were hurting her so we stopped for a bit on a bench by a canal. Prolly sat there for 30 minutes.
Oh yeah I forgot. Right after we exchanged money we checked out the sex museum. I got some pics of interesting things in there. Pretty cool museum. There were a lot of pics of
all the ages from the 20’s up. Also many older things in there. Lots of erotic artwork.
So it looked like rain may be coming so we left the park bench. It was time to eat dinner. At rembrandtplein we found a nice pub with outdoor seats open to eat and enjoy the
evening. We got 2 medium Heinekens and both ordered fish and chips 22 euro. Beer was great and food was ok nothing special but got the job done. It was nice sitting there with
nikki and watching th nighttime come on. I wanted to go smoke some more and I had rolled a nice joint of that northern lights earlier in the evening.
We walked to the canal directly opposite the hotel. They have a nice dock across the street and we sat here and smoked about half the northern lights joint. I massaged my
wifes lovely feet. She has a blister right below her big toe on both feet. I am afraid this is going to make the next few days more difficult for us since walking is a major
part of this city, she did say she felt like we were rushing things. Walking a lot.
Anyway we sat on the dock for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. The northern lights was decent but I wanted to smoke more before that hour was up so it must not be that strong. I
did manage a couple more hits off the chocolope joint.
11:30 back in the hotel room. Been here about 2 hours. I need to go to bed. I havent really had a lot of sleep but im doing pretty good with the amount I have gotten.
A few notes on the food and drinks we have had. Almost all the oj you order is fresh squeezed. We stopped in a store that had juice in bottles and some yougurt drinks I had
seen people drinking. The juice had chunks of fruit in it and tasted real fresh. The yogurt drink was good but it was midafternoon and it weighed heavily on my stomach. All
the food we have had has been good. The coffee we have had has all been outstanding. I love coffee at home but it seems different here. Maybe it’s the setting.
Updated notes on weed
Northern lights from basjoes. I thought since it is a pure indica it would be a great nightcap. Something toput me to bed. it’s a good smoke but not heavy enough for what I
wanted at the time. I need something real strong for a nightcap. Maybe some g-13 tomorrow. Cont..
NL would be a great daytime indica to smoke as a complemental body high to a nice sativa.
Chocolope from abraxus. This is definitely a step up from the super silver haze in terms of high. it’s a good kick in the brain and wont stop you from wanting to walk around.
it’s a bit more cerebral and psychadelic than the SSH. Definitely the highlight so far. I got some cones earlier and packed a nice joint for tomorrow of this wonderful herb.
The taste and smell of this is really unique. Spicy and aromatic.
Day 3
Umm I didn’t write anything at all ON day 3 so I am writing this on day 4. I already went to barneys this morning and finished off half a joint of super silver haze I bought
yesterday so we’ll see….
Ok so day 3 started with a 9:00 a.m. alarm.after falling asleep around 1a.m. I got up and decided to go get some coffee for nikki and I and let her sleep a bit more if she
liked. Commercial coffeeshop (just coffee) right next door is convenient. They have good coffee drinks at least.
Had coffee. Why do I keep saying coffee? I was also going to get nikki some bandages for her blisters. Front desk didn’t have any needles to pop them and pointed me in the
direction of the Etnos (Ahh-yet-nose). Etnos is a drug store without a pharmacy. They have some realy cool blister bandages that basically form a fake skin over the real skin.
I wanted some more heady sativa but not chocolope. So I went looking for more super silver haze. Arabica didn’t have any. He suggested amnesia haze. I went to rokerji up the
street. They had SSH so got a gram 9 euro? Cool shop. You gotta go downstairs to the budtender. Music was pink floyd covered by a reggae band. Few puffs later it was time to
go.
Had breakfast at the same place as yesterday. I had the same thing. Good again. Nikki wanted ham and egg but got cheese and egg. I think she still liked it.
I think we decided to go to the flower market at this point. Of course with most things we do here we went way out of the way to get there. We decided to take a tram and walk
over. So we did. Later on we realized its like 3 blocks walking from the hotel.
Flower market is really cool. One side is all flower needs and souveniers and the other side is souvenier shops. Some nice specialty shops and cafes. We went into a really
cool asian shop. We got a few things from there. We got some flower and cactus seed. We also got some tulip bulbs hoping we can get them to flower.
So we wanted to go to waterlooplein (flea market) but we only had like 10 euro on us at this point. We wandered around for a while looking for a place to change money. No luck
in the vicinity so we tram back to damrak. Super crowded and the early morning cool weather was turning into afternoon heat and sunshine. We were walking quite a bit again and
I was determined to try and slow things down today. While looking for money we walked a lot and it felt rushed. So I stopped us in a shady part for a few minutes rest. Still
had a ways to go so we moved on but a little more refreshed.
We got our money changed and really wanted to get off the crowded damrak street. It was hot so we decided to get ice cream. We got haggen daz in waffle cones and sat across
the street in rembrandtplein. We watched the people for a while and decided it was a good idea to eat. I probably smoked somewhere and something in this time but I cant
remember
.
We had dinner at a pub called The Old Bell. we had a heneinken and nikki had a pint of guniess and I had a pretty good wheat beer. Nikki had a chicken and mushroom English pie
and I had a rump steak dinner. Basically a piece of rump roast cooked like a steak. Both meals came with fries and a salad. It was pretty decent.
By this time it was getting cold outside so we needed a change of clothes. I wanted a hash joint so I got one from Arabica lounge. 3 euro. We sat on the dock and I smoked
pretty much the whole thing. I got a buzz but that was from all the tobacco I think. I couldn’t even tell if there was even hash in it to be honest. Worst smoke of the trip
next to northern lights so far. NL was not bad of course. The hash joint made my stomach hurt and I wanted to get the taste and smell of tobacco off of me. Washed up and we
decided to see about renting a boat. It was too late to rent a boat but we did see a late evening cruise through the canals. We navigated our way to the start. We walked the
right way then decided it was the wrong way….turned around…..THAT turned out to be the wrong way so we walked back the original way. that’s the way it has been so far this
trip.
Finally made it too the cruise. It was 90 minutes and took us out into the harbor. It was a nice cruise in the canals and harbor. Saw a lot of cool buildings at night. Next
thing I remember we got off the cruise boat. It was around 11:30 p.m. at this point and I decided it was a good idea to spark up the chocolope joint I had rolled earlier. I
smoked about 2 or 3 times as much as I have been since it was late and I really wanted to see how it was in a bit of excess. What a wonderful taste this herb has. We ended up
in a real trendy club area called leidesplein and there were tons of people and some crazy soccer ball street performers. These guys were awesome.
It was just a few minutes into that chocolope high that it kicked the back of my head in right as I was watching the street performers. I thought for a second I might get sick
but I just needed to move around. Wow this weed is so good. We both wanted coffee. Unfortunately no coffee to be found after 12:00 a.m. it was funny because we asked the
bartender in the hotel lobby and he said “coffee is finished” and waved his hand in a downward swipe. I know it doesn’t sound funny to read it but I was really high and nikki
was feeling good on some space cake she had eaten before the cruise boat. Back to the room we watched a movie. Couples retreat then sleep. It was close to 3:00 a.m. and set an
alarm for 9:00 a.m.
Day 4
8:52 a.m. I got up and took a bath. Then I left nikki half asleep and headed for barneys up the street. Budtender suggested honey b as his personal favorite. He smokes that
while working. Clear head but still high. I actually just rolled this up for next smoke.
I sat outside and had a coffee and finshed off a joint of super silver haze. I figured so far it has not let me down as a good day smoke so why mess with perfection. Oh wait I
forgot before I did all that I rode the tram and exchanged money.
10:40 a.m. Back at the hotel I felt ackward because a guy stared at me at the elevator and I know I smelled like weed because I had just smoked that joint. Back in the room
niiki is up and she seemed a bit annoyed that I had left or maybe it was because I had not left any euro at the room for her. My fault.
So we wanted to go to the waterlooplein still from yesterday. I had us off to a good start since I exchanged money early. Flea market was cool and we bought a few things there
for gifts. We had seen the hermitage the night before on the cruise and its right next to the waterlooplein. Of course right inbetween the waterlooplein and the hermitage is
the greenhouse coffeshop. I of course had to stop in there. Picked up a gram of arjans haze stopped at a café and had coffee and ham tomatoe and cheese tostys.
So we went to the hermitage and saw some art. Its really nice looking at art. I was kind of worried I might not like seeing art. I did really enjoy it. We got some postcards
in the gift shop. Then off to Arabica for fresh squeezed oj and smoke some of the arjans haze. Wonderful smoke there. Its been several hours and I just realized I have no idea
yet what we did after I smoked that.
Oh yeah I remember now. We went to haarlem in search of chocolate. We walked around and got some bread. Some truffles. Some more bread with cheese and these really awesome
cheese stuffed sweet peppers in oil. Also stopped at the albert hein and got some fresh squeezed juice.
We stopped at a park and ate our snacks. Then heheheheh nikki had to take a shit. So we navigated our way back to the hotel. Just rolled up a joint of honey b and wrote here.
Well back to the grind.
Ok well its only been a few minutes since I last wrote. Nikki is asleep so I decided to go smoke the honey B joint I rolled a bit ago. The plane in my head was o stop across
the street on the dock then have a coffee somewhere close by. I got as far as smoking more than half the joint and coming back to the room. I am only about 10 minutes into the
high so far but its not overwhelming in the relative safety of my room. I am actually very stoned but I have such a clear head.
I think I will tray and remember some random thoughts I have thought about writing down.
The last thought I had and have had so far is that I notice they don’t label the herb you buy. I figured this would cause a problem at some point since I was not writing the
names down on bags myself. It has officially caused a problem. I have bought 6 different types of weed and I have been trying to keep track in my head of which bags were
which. I have failed at this and now I have a couple bags that I don’t remember for sure which ones they are.
Solution? Smoke them all tonight and start fresh with names tomorrow? Man that would be awesome but its not really about smoking a lot its about smoking a lot of variety.
Random thought: I am having a lot of fun but I really miss mia a lot more than I could imagine I would. Maybe its because my mom sent an email and we responded and have sent
other emails and noone has responded. I just want word everything is ok. I am not really worried anything has happened I just want reassurance. I called and got the answering
machine at my moms house. I left a message to please send us an email telling us how things are going.
Random thought: nikki has a great idea to make our headboard and put pictures of our trip all over it. I hope she follows though with this and I hope she will alllow me to
help her with it. It sounds like a fabulous idea to me.
Random thought: I could see myself living here. Make me wish I was rich just so we could travel the world and live the relaxed lifestyle we have experienced these last few
days. Of course after hearing about the prices people pay to live here I am amazed ANYONE can afford to live here. Much less 1 million people. Tour guide lady said people pay
5-7000 euro a WEEK to live in some of the apartments. Also some aprtments go for 300 euro a square meter. Houseboats cost 15 euro a year to live in but the city does not hand
out any new licenses so they range in price from 250,000 to 700,000 euro to purchase
Random thought: I am hungry.
Random thought: nikki seems to be having a lot of fun with me. I hope she finds some time to go out by herself. I have really enjoyed my small morning excursions away by
myself. Of course that’s not because I want to be away from her in any way but since I am so much like my dad I can imagine its pretty annoying to be with me every waking hour
of the day. I love you dear!
Random thought: Honey B is a very easy going stone with a clear headed high. Very soaring. I know I am stoned but I am so clear headed.
Random thought: I did not mean for this trip to turn into a heavy sativa smoke but that’s all I have really bought. I am just really loving the sativa. I do want to get a
really heavy indica. I should look online and see what people are suggesting for a real heavy high and where at.
Random thought: I feel a lot more comfortable about taking trams and getting around the city. Theres still so much I want to do but at the same time I am really enjoying the
relaxing times without feeling like we need to cram a bunch of things into the trip. I just hope nikki doesn’t get bored and feel like we just wasted a bunch of time and
didn’t get a lot of museums in.
Random thought: the row houses here are not straight. They are all crooked and in some places they are so out of line its crazy. There is an 85 foot tower here dates to the
16th century. Old protestant church. The tower is 109 centimeters out of center now. that’s insane!
Random thought: they have urinals right on the street. Like literally on the corners of major intersections.
Random thought: bikes and cars and trams and buses galore. I really have no idea how there are not accidents all day every day here. There seems to be no real traffic laws
that I can figure out. Its like a crazy mess that just somehow flows along in some kind of crazy traffic dance. I honestly wish I could watch a video from an above view on
traffic flows. There are so many bikes here. Some estimates around 1 million bikes. Tons of vespas, a few motorcycles, at least 1 classic 60’s era camaro. 1 full size pick up
truck and no suvs. At least not any big suvs. Seen a few range rovers and such.
Random thought: everything here is done with the utmost efficiency. I mean everything that happens is done so efficiently. Theres no real room for big trucks so all the “work”
vans I have seen have shelves and what not for them to be able to organize tools they need. We saw a truck with a lift on it working and it was blocking a whole street. Cars
would turn the corner and have to back up and go the other way. No big deal right? Well the major observation of that was that there are no signs announcing road work or that
the road is even blocked ahead. Its just you turn a corner and realize you cant go that way so turn around. You would never see that in america. Prolly insurance reasons.
Random thought: I think everyone in the world smokes cigarettes here. It seems that EVERYONE smokes tobacco. I havent had a craving for a cigarette in years but I had one
yesterday. that’s the reason I bought the hash joint in the first place.
Random thought: I am hungry. I hope nikki wakes up soon. I may have to wake her up to go eat dinner. Yep definitely time to eat.
Random thought: I hope anyone who reads these crazy things enjoys them.
11.38 p.m. back from dinner. We went to an argentinian steakhouse. These resteraunts are all over the edges of the club and tourist areas. The area right behind our hotel is
rembrandtplein. Lovely square to people watch during the day, lit up and louder at night with young clubbers running around. We seem to be in an area with quite a few
gay/lesbian clubs. Im not sure if this particular area has more of them than others.
Anyway we had a nice dinner. I had spare ribs and a pint. Nikki had pork tenderloin. Both came with fries and salad of course. My ribs were good and nikki really liked the
tenderloin, definitely on the pricey side for non special items. 15 euro for ribs or 30 euro for ribeye. We stopped by a shop called balou. Got a prerolled pure of the cheese.
Nice smoke. Decent high. It tasted good.
Tried calling my moms house again. No answer. Nikki is feeling sad about not hearing from mia. I just wish we could get an email or phone answered.
Were back in the hotel and nikki is upset with me at the moment. Im sure it’s a combination of homesickness and me just saying the wrong thing to her.
Day 5
8:35 a.m.: I fell asleep around midnight last night and here I am. Nikki couldn’t sleep and she finally called mia around 2:00 a.m. woo hoo we got to talk to her and now were
reassured everything is ok. My brother told me mom is having problems with her pc and that’s why we have not heard from them. I was more than asleep at the time but I got up
to speak to mia for a second. She was eating dinner and I told her I love her and she of course responded with “I love mommy!”. it was good to hear her voice at least. Im
worried about what these calls are gonna cost us. Oh well we havent spent a whole lot of money anyways since we have been here. I get the feeling museums are gonna change that
some today. Well time to get in the shower and start this day. That cheese joint did a great job putting me to sleep last night. Van Gogh museum for sure today. Gonna hit it
early and also try and see the Amsterdam history museum.
Well unfortunately I didn’t write anything down after that last passage and I am currently sitting in the airport on the way home. I am gonna try and remember some of the
things we did on the last few days
Well I can pretty much gurantee we had breakfast at the same place we had it all week. The morning time is so nice here. Its cool and not too many people milling about all
over the place.
I wanted to be at the van Gogh museum at 10:00 to avoid a super long line. We got there close to 10:45 and the line was long but it moved quickly. The van Gogh art is really
nice. He really was a talented artist but compared to artists like Rembrandt its so much different. Van Gogh is almost like a child painting compared to Rembrandt. Not that I
could paint like that.
Hmm lets see what did we do next? Ahh yes ice cream and pizza. Well we stopped and grabbed some ice cream. Did I mention everyone here eats ice cream. A lot of ice cream.
don’t remember anything about this particular ice cream. We had lunch at one of the many “Italian” resteraunts all over the place. We had margherita pizza (cheese, and tomato
sauce) the pizza is really good here. They put garlic sauce on the crust and its light and fluffy crust. I stopped in a sensi seeds shop and inquired about seeds. I was
advised to not mail directly out of Amsterdam. To take a train to the next small village and mail from there. A lot of people use Amsterdam as a stop over on a larger Europe
trip and mail from the next place. I was also told not to order on the internet. Not for security reasons but because the mail order seed shops are not really trustworthy to
send the correct item.
So after lunch we had seen some shops on the way to museum plain we wanted to browse in. I was also close to grey area and knew I wanted to stop there for what is reported as
very good east coast sour diesel. I did manage to get a prerolled pure of this very nice smoke. Taste was so good and the high was incredible from this. I had already decided
I was not going to buy any more full gram bags. Prerolled from here on out..
Right across the street from grey area was our first time walking into a chocolate shop called puccina. OMG as soon as you walk in the smell of chocolate is so strong. We got
4 pieces of chocolate 7.50 euro. Man this chocolate is so delicious. Notice I said it was our FIRST time in the shop.
It was time for a pit stop. We had bought some cheese earlier. We had also stopped in an albert hein grocery store for juice. Its funny because they don’t use grocery carts.
They have what we know as carry baskets but theres have a fold out handle and are on wheels they can pull behind them. Anyhow we also got some plain crackers and some
pistachios. For any future trips I may take here, this is the place to shop for food on the cheap. Nothing is cheap here but grocery store is a great place to get food for a
bit cheaper.
So we got back to the room. I wanted cheese and crackers. Also seeing all the people drink wine all week had me wanting some. So I went to the close albert hein to go and
grabbed a bottle of inexpensive red wine. It was actually a very light, rose colored wine. So we ate cheese and crackers in bed and drank a bottle of wine.
I think we may have taken a nap after wine. The photos on my camera show the next morning after the wine. I do know for sure we got up and it was dark outside. We left the
hotel for a walk across the canal. For some reason I left the camera in the hotel room. That was a big mistake because the views and setting are fantastic across the water at
night. We walked a pretty good ways and saw a bunch of shops we wanted to visit tomorrow. I think before we left on the walk grinded all the loose weed I still had and rolled
2 big joints of mixed weed. I smoked one on this walk. This walk will probably stand out as the best walk we had on the trip and believe me we walked a fuckload.
After this I suppose we went to bed.
Day 6.
Had breakfast again at the same café. Delicious again of course. I could eat there every day and be happy for the rest of my life. We bought a couple prints from a street
artist. We each picked one out and nikki said later that night that our picks represent each of us very well.
I wanted to get back on the water since the cruise we had taken a few days ago. They have paddle boats called canal bikes. So we got one for a couple hours. We had a nice
paddle through some canals. It had started to sprinkle on us near the end so we stopped at the next drop off point. It was fun. Nikki got a lot of great pictures on the boat
ride.
Correction from above. I remember now I did not start smoking the 2 big joints until this particular boat ride. In the morning of day 6. I prolly smoked chocolope the night
before on the walk.
So as we were walking we saw an old protestant church and noticed it was a museum so we stopped in. this place was so beautiful. Everything was so grand inside. They had just
reopened so none of the art was up but you could still see the giant organ. It was built in 1655. The floor is all these rectangular stones that are lids to burial chambers
beneath. At least until 1675 when burials in the church were not permitted anymore.
We had lunch. Very good sandwiches. We both ordered a coffee drink. Man these drinks were like liquor with a splash of coffee.
It was time to go shop at the shops we saw the night before. They have these awesome toy stores all over the place. I think most of them are French shops. A lot of the items
seem very French to me anyways. One of the shops was full of stuffed animals but they were crazy expensive. Everything in the shops in this little district was expensive. It
was just one of those areas I guess.
After this we sat in Rembrandtplein and watched people for probably about an hour.
After a pit stop at the hotel we ate dinner at tasty asia. It was kind of fitting that one of our last meals would be at the same place our first meal here was. I thought
maybe it was smuelwicz café but that was last night. (very delicious food there btw) after dinner I really wanted to get some pictures from across the canal after dark again.
We walked across but ended up going a different direction than the previous night. I did get some great pictures on this walk though. I think there was a nap in there I
missed. Did I mention vacation is tiring?
Day 7
Morning again. I got up and left nikki sleeping. I had a couple shops I wanted to hit and get some shirts. This is going to be our last day so if were gonna get any more
shopping done this is it. We had no set plans for the trip and today was the same way. Just do what we feel. I did decide that we should not miss the Rijksmuseum since all the
books say if your only gonna go to one museum that should be the one. This is also where Rembrandts paintings and a ton of other dutch artists paintings are.
I went to greenhouse coffeeshop looking for seeds first. I was told to go to greenhouse souvenier shop as the budtender didn’t know much about the growing side of the
business.
‘
I opted to go to sensi seeds first. I ended up buying 10 white rhino seeds from sensi seeds and a t-shirt. The lady in there was nice but since it was still early she didn’t
seem to be in a conversation mood
Back at the hotel to get nikki. She was up and we went for breakfast…..yep same place.
We hit waterlooplein to get some things we had seen a few days before. I ended up buying a really awesome zip up hoodie. Its brown and orange with Amsterdam across the front
and a small Amsterdam patch on one sleeve. I really love it. Too bad we don’t get much winter here. We picked up a few more items at the market and headed over for lunch.
Another pizza shop across the street. Then ice cream (when in Holland……)
At this point we went to the Rijksmuseum. We had done a serious amount of walking this trip. I was fine with it but nikki really suffered from muscle aches and fatigue. I
wanted to get a quick trip in at the museum. I basically went through fairly quickly while nikki looked around at her own pace.
This museum is amazing. I really enjoyed seeing the silver works in the first floor. I am amazed at the detail and the time it must have taken to do the things they did back
in the 1600’s. it truly was art amongst itself. Then there were the dollhouses on display. Wow! I mean we fret over trivial things like a $40 dollhouse at wal mart and then
too see them like this is just amazing. I am not entirely sure they were meant as play dollhouses or if they just were made as a replica of the estates they were part of
originally.
Upstairs to the Rembrandts! I was really excited too see the dutch masters paintings. I was not let down. Its amazing how these artists were able to put some of the detail in
their paintings. So awesome. The lighting and every aspect of them is really something to admire. There are some great artists on display including many Rembrandts. Everyone
talks about Rembrandts.”the night watch“. It was really good but not my favorite. Maybe they enjoy it so much because its so big. don’t get me wrong it was impressive but I
thought there were better Rembrandts on display.
Nikki and I had been joking all along about the Chinese massage parlors and happy endings but nonetheless she wanted a massage. So we went to one on damrak and I decided I was
going to search out greenhouse seeds. Luckily we were literally right across the street from the shop.
It was well into the afternoon at this point and the lady in there was super nice and we talked for quite a bit about growing and laws relating to dutch. I found out they
don’t clone over there because its illegal (government doesn’t regulate it so doesn’t get taxes from clone sales). Of course theres not really a reason to since you can easily
get more seeds or just breed a seed line yourself. She told me the legal drinking age is 16 for beer and wine, 18 for liquor, 16 for cigarettes, 18 for marijuana, and 18 to
get a drivers license. She also told me its 5 euro an hour to have your car in the city center. Its one way to discourage driving in the city. It was also amazing to be able
to talk about growing herb and not get in trouble. Here in the states you cant even talk about growing it in a place that sells light bulbs. Freedom of speech huh?
She was very talkative and extremely friendly. I think she was probably the friendliest Dutch person I met the whole trip. Not that I met any rude people (not many) but noone
was as nice as she was. I could have talked to her about growing and many other topics for a long time but I knew nikki only signed up for a half hour massage and I needed to
get back. I ended up buying a 5 pack of feminized super lemon haze and a t-shirt from here.
You probably notice by now I don’t have any more updates about what I smoked and when I smoked it for a while now in the journal. that’s because I didn’t write anything while
in Holland for the last 3 days and damn if I can remember what and when I smoked.
I will say at this point I wanted to find a prerolled since I only had a few hours left. I went to a dozen shops and none had any prerolled I wanted. (most were white widow)
after an hour of searching I finally stopped at rokerji thinking they would have what I wanted. Nope. So I just bought a gram of rokerji sour diesel. Sadly I had passed
earlier on at greenhouse on getting a gram of super lemon haze because I had not wanted to buy a whole gram. Rolled one up and headed to the old bell to meet nikki for dinner
and beer. I smoked the joint on the short walk and we had a beer at old bell. service here sucks(even for dutch standards I imagine)
We headed to smuelwickz and had dinner inside since it was chilly and we weren’t dressed for chilly.
Back at the hotel we changed and decided to go out for a final walk. I had already decided earlier in the day that the final smoke was going to be northern lights since I
still had most of that gram left anyways. So we headed to Arabica for a last glass of fresh OJ. If your ever in Amsterdam and near Arabica lounge I recommend the OJ here. They
keep the oranges cold so its nice and cold OJ. Not a lot of places have cold beverages here. We walked down to the corner of the canal and sat on a park bench and I smoked the
whole joint of NL. I wanted to give the NL one final chance and it did not disappoint this time around.
Unfortunately I had gotten a tremendous headache from the rokerji sour diesel and had not taken any Tylenol. So after we walked back into the hotel room I basically went to
the room with an insane headache and had to lie down. Nikki came in and I asked her for some Tylenol and a glass of water. Other than the terrible headache the northern lights
was kicking my ass. It was damn good this time. I think other than the white widow I had bought first day the NL was the only other indica I had. We had to be up at 3:00 a.m.
and it was about 10:00 p.m. at this point so off to dream land for a few hours.
3:00 a.m. time to get up and get to the airport. We got checked out and went to a bus stop to catch a bus at 4:01 a.m.. We had just missed the 3:37 bus and had to wait. Our
final interaction was a bum coming up and aggressively begging for change. Not exactly the last thought about Amsterdam I wanted but oh well. I pretty much expected that to be
the case at such and early (late?) hour. Flight home was long and pretty uneventful.
Got our car and drove home from Houston. Considering we got our car just after 4:30 p.m. in Houston I made damn good time to my moms house to get mia. We pulled into her
driveway about 6:45 p.m. (normally almost a 3 hour drive). 90 mph will do that!
Now here I sit back in the land of paranoia every time I want to take a puff. It felt so food to be somewhere and have the feeling of being free to smoke herb when I feel like
it and not get in trouble.
My final thought about Amsterdam is this. As a stoner for quite some time now I always imagined going to Amsterdam would be so awesome because I could get stoned all day and
night and that would be the focus of a trip there. After being there I feel sad for people who want to go there just for that reason alone. don’t get me wrong it’s a good
reason but its such a minor thing there. The place has so many great things to offer. The people, the buildings, the history, the art, the city itself is reason enough to want
to be there. Being able to smoke and enjoy a high in a beautiful place takes a back seat to everything else.
Cheers.