Dance Valley August 2010

[djreign]

Amsterdam 5th – 9th August – Dance Valley 15

I apologise as this is wordy but

Preface (feel free to skip)

As I’m new to posting and as such do not have much of a profile I thought some background may be nice and maybe interesting to some?

I’m a very happily married and father of one boy age 5. Been married for 11 years this year so quite a success so far. The boy gets better every day and constantly makes me laugh.

In my early years I was an athlete and represented England several times at middle distance and cross country. I grew up in pubs and I certainly never smoked a thing. In fact the smell made me physically sick. As I aged and did my degree I also attended and promoted hardcore events on the south coast of England. It was at once such event I met my partner for the travelogue who is called Hair (as he had some crazy hair) I was now smoking lots – from what I know now all of it rubbish.

Left university, with a standard degree and went home and tried for a year to get any job, didn’t know what I wanted. It’s the mid nineties now and a pal from uni got a job selling advertising on a magazine earning £12,000. I was wowed and immediately did the same. Did this for a few years and jumped to the buying side of the media industry. Met future wife again (originally met at school) and moved to north London. All was well. I was now getting fairly good weed mostly thai/Jamaican) and dodgy hash. Times got better and I started to get skunk.

Now 2000 proposed to wife and had a stag weekend in Amsterdam from then I proceded to visit this great city at least 2/3 times a year which brings us to the present day.

Hair – I met him at a rave in the early 90’s and recognised him from my local Gateways (then Somerfield and now Co-op) where he is a manager. He’s a few years older than me and the best person to have on a night out. Always entertaining and always make sure you get home no matter how fucked we are. He’s been married, divorced and is still the most positive man I know. The glass is always full to the brim.

Now; onto the trip.

5th August
I got up at 0430 for a 0515 cab to Stanstead. Cab turned up and whooshed me there in 30 mins. Hair; travelling further and from Southampton got up around midnight and tried to sleep in the terminal. We were both on 0700 flights so would be in Schippol by 0900.

I arrive in schippol and settle down in the burger king for coffee having got the train tickets. We agreed here as it was easily found for Hair and we were worried his phone may not work. It did, we hooked up, Hair screamed we hugged it out (man style) and got the train to Centraal. We got to the Winston Hotel on ??? and checked in, settled the bill and lodged bags.

Weed time and we’re as giddy as school kids.

I had originally intended to go straight to Rokerij on the Singel for Laughing Buddah as I always love this strain and tend to start with this or bubblegum if I can find it. This time I really wanted to try a new shop we headed to Basjoe for some special. It was only about 10ish by now so it was obviously not open. Luckily Rusland was so we went straight in to get espresso and weed. Went in and intended to get some nice haze as had decided to only smoke Sativa in the days and Indica in the evenings. NEW FOR ME. Ordered drinks and had a look at the menu. We went for some amnesia haze as I have always read such glowing reviews on this forum.
It was absolutely stunning. A real clean high that was instant as we were sitting in the glorious sunshine. As we both like our wine we had already decide to try and liken the weed to wine while trying to explain. My (not copious) notes tell me we felt it to be fluffy, and comforting like a nice cote du rhone. Notes say something about a ballsy red?????

Had a couple of joints sat there and then the urge to go get our bike on came on really suddenly. The Amnesia had certainly given us some crazy energy. That and the espressos I guess. Off we trot towards Fredeic Bikes on Brouwersgracht. We decided to go via Dampkring 1 as Hair had never been there. We picked up a gram of jungle haze and some Chees Skunk which I have always loved. Really stinks. I remember sharing a J of this with an American roadie on my brothers tour there last Feb. The guy couldn’t believe the smell of the stuff. The Jungle haze was a real nice smoke and kept us fully invigorated. We decided to save the Cheese for later in the evening. Anyway, I drigress.

So we get to and hire the bikes (as shown above) and Hair proceeds to get really paranoid having not cycled in 20 years. He is literally freaking out. We spend 20 mins with him cycling back and fourth on Brouwesgract as he acclimatises to the bike. It was at this point we had a brief moment where he got really angry at me for going to fast and leaving him. We’ve never argued in all the years we’ve known each other so all I could was laugh in his face. This obviously made him laugh so we set off to try and find Katsu.

A fare cycle but ambled along and were there in 15/20 mins. I was really excited for some Chocolope and the chance of another new shop with glowing review. We got 2 grams for €20 and sat and sparked one up and one for the road. Holy shit….this stuff comes up, says hello and smacks you right in the kisser. Absolutely beautiful, the nicest weed I have smoked and such a clear heady high and we were grinning from ear to ear.

We finished the joint, and got our bearings and set back off. It was such a beautiful day and we stopped for the traveller on the intersection of Brouwersgracht and Keizersgracht. We rolled another of the Chocolope as it was just so nice sat there in the sun. My notes tell me that Hair felt the Choco was making him concentrate on things rather than crash which he was pleased with. He was concentrating so much that he spent 20 minutes telling me about his new work shoes. He also told me he was absolutely fucked but okay so far.

We sat here for an hour or so and at one point a police officer came up on his bike and just sat right next to us. He asked us if we were having a nice day and did not even mention the joint we were smoking. Amazing place this city.

We decided after this and that we needed food. Amazing we had lasted so long. We set off for some chips etc thinking a stomach full of carbs would be good. At some point we passed a Febo and Hair insisted on getting something. I had a sate kroket which was brilliant.


It was shortly after this that Hair went, shall we say, green. He suddenly came on all sick and I mean really sick. I have never seen him so rough. He balmed it on the Chocolope and was really suffering. We decided best course was to get back to the hotel so he could have a lie down. We got to the room just in time as Hair ran for the traditionally small bathroom and decorated the porcelain. Really decorated it. It was at this point that I left him for a few hours and went off for a ride around on my own. Headed off and found myself Rokerij on Singel again. Gram of laughing buddah and an espresso and a couple of hours flew by. I really do like the laughing buddah - I think?

I went back to the hotel a couple of hours later and woke Hair up. It was now 4ish so we showered and got back out for about 5ish after a few more chocos in the room.



Hair banged on and on about the evil Chocolope although I argued it may have been the Febo, chips and milk shake concotin he wolfed down in about 10 mins. No it was the Chocolope and he was having none of it again. I was convinced it was not that lovely weed and vowed to sneak him some later in the trip.

So we are out again and decide its burger time. I go for the Wagyu and Hair the Black Angus. Both damn good.

Fri 6th August

We decided to have an early start after breakfast in the hotel. Lots of coffee, bread, cheese, peanut butter and chocolate spread. After filling up nicely head to Barneys Lounge looking for some of the famous Dr Grinspoon. Luckily they had and we quickly got a gram and a couple of espressos and frappes. It was a beautiful morning as we sat outside in the sunshine. The budtender came out for a chat. If memory serves he was dutch but had spent a lot of his time in Spain. Really friendly and a real nice guy. Hair decided the Grinspoon was giving him hints of nettles and elderflowers.

From here we went back towards centrum and ended up getting some purple haze from Rockland as I have always enjoyed it from here and it’s a nice daytime smoke. We got some and it was as I have always had. Good for a filler through the day.

From here we set off for a sit down in the sun. We took the intersection of herengracht and Brouwersgract(?) and sat for an hour or two smoking the purple, chocolope. I decided to see if it really was the chocolope that had sent Hair into all sorts of problems on Thursday and sneakily passed him a joint saying it was Jungle haze again. We set off from here and dropped the bikes back. From there we walked on and grabbed some Top Sahara from Rokerij on Singel and my notes tell me we liked it a lot. A short time later Hair informed me he was feeling really rough again. The chocolope really did not agree with him and we ended up going back to the Hotel for him to throw up again. I felt mildly guilty but it was funny all the same. I went for a wander for a couple of hours while he slept and gathered himself. I know I sat outside City Hall (?? Next to Greenhouse) but I did not buy anything apart from coffee.

That evening we had a wander down to Old Amsterdam as there was a strain I wanted to try…..can’t remember what it was and I ended up getting some Blueberry which was a decent example. The BT in there was a right moody bastard.

On the walk down to OA we passed through what I think was GayPride warm up. 2 blokes walking through this, we felt we kind of fitted in LOL.



I know the walk seemed to take forever but I did find myself in parts of town that I had never found before.

We ate something, we continued smoking and found our way back to The Winston for midnight.

Sat 6th August

The day of Dance Valley and were were damn excited. We had breakfast in the hotel and a couple J’s of the remaining Grinspoon and we were ready. Hair wanted to do some shopping before we got the train so we were out early. I decided I was certainly not going to be dragged round the shops so told Hair I would wait in Kandinsky as I wanted to get some more weed to take to DV. I got some Jack Herer and smoked a few waiting for Hair. It really was a lovely smoke and I have never been disappointed by anything I have bought here. I also really like the tiny area upstairs with a TV that just plays random shit. After a while I got acall from Hair who was lost. I explained where I was – basically across the road and 45 minutes later he appeared.
It was time to go back to hotel and get showered changed and off to DV.

It seemed to be Gay pride today and everyone was getting involved and not letting the rain dampen their spirits.



At the hotel I ground up 5 gms of the weed we had leaving the Sahara and Cheese for when we returned and we set off. Got a train somewhere and then a bus to the Dance Valley site. A short walk from the bus drop off and we were queueing for the entrance. A long queue but one that moved very fast. As we approached the searches the security asked if I had any drugs on me. For some reason, and still to this day I don’t know why, but I proclaimed only my weed and produced all the bags expecting them to wave me through. At this point all hell broke loose and she called over the Police. They decided I could not take any in. Gutted. As hair was right behind me in the queue he quickly put his weed down the back of his pants and we were in.

DV started off great and then the clouds started closing in. I was boasting to Hair that I was glad I had brought my waterproof and ripping him for not having anything to keep him. He eventually got a cheap poncho thing. The weather got worse and worse and the rain was pouring down. I was now getting rather drenched as my Ralph Lauren waterproof was anything but and I was soaked to the skin. I mean really soaked. Hair was nice and dry under his poncho and gave me enough shit about it. I was really close to saying fuck it, I’m going home, when we finally found the trance stage where Gareth Emery was playing.


Brilliant set followed swiftly by Armin Van Burren. We tried in vain to skin up under the few shelters and managed a few blunts which we had already decided in advance we would have when Armin was on. I pushed on through and the rain eventually stopped.

We pushed on through and left at midnight having in hindsight had a great day.

We got back from the site to Centraal in 30 mins. It was ridiculously well organised. If only UK festivals could work so well.

We headed for food and a shop to top up from. As it was gone midnight it was not as easy as we thought to find some decent food. My notes tell me ended with a subway near the single so we then also went in Rokerij. We got some laughing buddah and Top Sahara again. Back to hotel, knackered, stoned and everything that goes with it. We smoked the Cheese Skunk from Damkring and it was a lovely smoke.

Sunday 7th August

Woke up with a bang on the Laughing buddah then headed down for breakfast. Coffee, bread cheese, ham etc etc. Great start to the day. We wandered from shop to shop and stopped in Paradox for about 3 hours.

We got 2 gramms of Chocolope (for me) and a gram of LA Confidential for Hair. Also got a gram of White Widow too. The Chocolope was great again and gave me the soaring high I wanted. The LA Conf was a little lacking imo. From here we went back to Barneys Lounge and then onto Sanameratang (?) where we got some haze pollen.

It was nice and the lady like my Beatles drum and bass T shirt. The haze pollen was a nice smoke but did feel a little old. From here we headed back for a chill in the Hotel stopping at Greenhouse on Harlmestraat and grabbed some Super Lemon Haze. It was rubbish. The day fizzled out……into the night.

That night we headed for an Indian (Samrat) which was pretty good. Considering I had lost the bet and was footing the bill Hair was restrained and we only had one beer with dinner. We finished the night with the White Widow and we sat in Greenhouse. We also watched some football somewhere but I have no notes as to where and cannot remember. I also got some King Kush and Cheese from Greenhouse. Controversial I know but I have to say that on this occasion both were really good.

Monday 8th August

Spent the day wandering around and smoking everything we had left and we also took a boat trip on which Hair brought a picnic of snacks.



All in all a great trip.

[Dimon]

Good one ,I was there around the same dates and remember all that rainy days very good.I left on August 5.Nice read

[The_Green_Bastard]

Thanks for posting up your report. Mmm I could eat a burgerbar burger right now...

[puffpuffgive]

awesome, hilarious report. hahah can't believe the cholope made him sick twice! lol