The trip my was 14th, and my girlfriends 6th, and our 6th together.
FRIDAY DAY 1
We took the afternoon flight from Liverpool, enjoying the usual traditional delights of the airport, a few beers, cheap duty free liquour and of course the abligatory several greedy squirts of aftershave from a tester bottle.
The flight was excellent. On time, short and sweet, and we arrived no problem at Schiphol, picked up our cases, caught the train and were at Central at 6.45pm.
After the several pints and Jack Daniels & cokes on the plane, by the time I stepped foot onto the Damrak, snaked through the crowds and turned left and faced the towering emerald lit Grasshopper, I was for want of a better phrase, in the fucking mood for this.
The city was busy, and I don't mean busy, I mean heaving, every terrace table was packed and the streets looked like the fall out from a concert of football match, I hadn't seen Amsterdam like this before, and with 850euros in our arse pockets, I was ready to take whatever Amsterdam had to offer.
Up the Warmoesstraat taking huge lungfuls of the thick green peppery smell the Baba had to offer, left through the red lights, onto the canal, and checked into the Bulldog around 7pm, up to the top room, opened the window, got showered, got changed and cut back through the red lights again, this time Stoofsteg, through Barnsteg, and onto the Neumarket to check out Voyagers, which I had never been to before.
Half way down the Gelderksade, I realised I didn't have my ID and I'd heard on here Voyagers was pretty strict for it, deciding I could speak my way through it with a bit of charm, and the fact I am 25 and my girlfriend 28, there should be no problem.
There was, the southern bud tender ( Highly blessed ), politely asked for ID, I explained I thoroughly respected he had a job to do, and how her feet were hurting and it was actually my 25th birthday and we had both walked from the Bulldog. He stuck to his guns, I accepted, and we arranged that I'd come back later.
After having a few pints, we came back later, and received excellent service, seeing all the buds on offer. Great menu, but a lot of the buds to me seemed very similar in appearance and scent, until I smelt the super bio lemon haze . It had that extreme lemon cif fresh lingering smell that only the top hazes have, the bud looked illuminous but beautifully fluffy. I took a gram, and a gram of og kush simply because I hadn't ever smoked it before.
After smelling the lemon again in my bag, I asked for a top up and took another gram, which he threw in the original bag and gave me a free Voyagers lighter, I was impressed, he was a nice lad and stuck to his guns with the ID which I respect.
Purchases made, got back to the bottom of the Warmoesstraat and wanted a smoker friendly bar that wasn't too packed, got into Stones. I used to think it was great in here, but realistically the music too loud and it's full of men and it can become a bit of a macho fest in my eyes, which isn't my cup of tea, especially in Amsterdam.
Quick pint and a joint of the Lemon, which took my breath away with effect and taste, if anything it was too strong, but I did make a fully loaded joint.
Next stop The Heffer, this pub is right by Baba, and has a huge bar, everytime I've been it is full of really friendly people, mixed ages and sexes. I've suspicion it's a gay pub, or at least gay friendly, still I love the atmosphere in there, and it's become a bit of a regular spot now for all trips.
We go back to the hotel, and rounded the night off with a few more beers, a couple of joints and went to bed happy.
Super Bio Lemon Haze
OG Kush
SATURDAY DAY 2
Woke up with the usual shower and change. The plan was pretty much to take it easy for the day, recover from last night, and get back on it later on and go to Escape on the Rembrantplein.
Well, the opposite happened!
She decided to line up to Heinikens at 11am, as our favourite member of staff and friend was working the bar, and the beer flowed fast for hours.
Joint, pint, joint, pint, joint, pint pint, joint joint, was the order, all soundtracked by some great mix tape tunes coming from the system, especially Oasis - Wonderwall.
Ten pints later, and all the weed gone, we got changed again, and went out into the evening.
Stopping at Wok to Walk, and opting for our usual selections, but we actually sat in to eat the meal this time and got the food in bowl / plates, instead of boxes. This was a great move, and it was really nice to sit in and enjoy it, even better when a lad came in looking slightly worse for wear dressed in trainers and a dress.
Obviously we did the right thing, avoided eye contact, looked at the floor, made small talk and waited for our meals awkwardly avoiding his attention.
No we didn't we sat him down next to us, spoke to him, and all shared our absolute love for the fast, neat and delicious chinese food that Wok to Walk provides, we finished up and left him, nice lad.
To cut a long story short, we were both drunk at this point, although approachable and friendly and often making passing talk with other other tourists, we decided it wasnt in our best interests to go to Escape, so we headed to Greenplace as we were out of weed.
I'd never been here before, but read good reviews, and was eager to try out new shops, so there we were.
The two guys working there were very nice, and we chatted about the Liverpool trend of coming to Amsterdam for various reasons, and the reputation both good and bad scousers carry in Amsterdam and other places.
I'm not a hash man. But that caramello was something else, it was like a piece of chocolate or fudge, with a rich earthy flowery smell, as simply described as a very strong generic morroccan smell, but this reeked so potently and overpoweringly it was beautiful and a dream to touch and bend, and it was very cheap.
I didn't know hash like this existed, and I will always look at the hashes next time I am in the Dam.
So we made it back to the hotel safely, I obviously was worse for wear, because I have a video on my phone of me trying on a red visor style hat in some sort of market shop, which I don't remember doing.
She crashed out, I had sobered up slightly, so stuck some money in my pocket, the bag of blue cheese and went in search of 420 for a night cap smoke and a soft drink to sober up. I took the wrong cut off the Damrak, and couldn't find it in my mindless state, so continued walking onto Spuistraat and found Abraxas Too, which I was accussing the budtender of lying to me because I thought it was Anyday and he seemed it very funny when I kept calling him a 'crafty bastard', we even engaged in some sort of strange Fresh Prince of Bel Air style handshake.
Rolled up the blue cheese, bought a coke, and went on their internet. A group of rich southern young boys came in, and I gave one of them a pull and watched the colour drain out of his face, it was some seriously knock out stinking indica.
Finished up there, with another fucked up hand shake, and made my way back sharpish to check girlfriend was safe and sound.
On the way back, as I got near Chickitas, only what can be described as an old slapper, with a Scottish accent, stumbled near me, looked me up and down and said 'you're from Liverpool, I know you are', I dismissed it as some sort of scam or she was a known drunk or maybe even street prostitute as she wasn't bad for her age, and walked on, she said something else but I didn't look back. It just another surreal Amsterdam moment that we all are subjected to every trip we go on.
Got to the room, stripped off, put the telly on, fell asleep, stoned, pissed, and miffed how noisy it was outisde, with allsorts of singing, arguing and cars outside. Drifted off.
SUNDAY DAY THREE
Woke up again, feeling worse for wear.
Eventually decided to go for a walk and do a bit of souveneir shopping before the Liverpool game against Man City at 5pm.
Walked all the way down Kalverstraat stopping at Intertoys ( reccomended for toys, cheap and good selection ), make shops, I checked out the Dampkring, I didn't check out De Klos ( still never been and I'm a massive meat fan! ) , then walked back up to the Albert Heijn behind Dam Square, picked up a Tuna Delight pasta box ( reccomended ) and a Salmon bagel ( reccomended ). Also I don't know whether you all know but the Gal & Gal liquor store downstairs there is incredibly cheap for Jagermeister, 1.75 litre for 30 euros. In the UK it's about the same price for a litre.
I needed more weed, so decided to go to the Grey Area. We got there, the que was out the door. OK it's a popular shop, that means the bud is great, so I had no problem waiting and I have had great bud from here before. However, there is waiting and there is waiting and this was waiting.
I'd say I was seventh in the que, again no problem, didn't mind, enjoyed taking in the ambience of the shop. However, the budtender was having a full blown personal conversation with the guy at the front, knowing the que was out the door, this wasn't a quick good service, this was taking the piss.
I didn't need to listen to the conversation, or indeed wait for it to finish, I give it a further ten minutes and deccided to leave for Utopia.
The very smiley chinese budtender served me 1g Casey Jones , 1g Champagne Haze.
Champagne
Casey Jones
I was impressed with both. They both however were unusual with taste, they both carried this extremely smooth quality, almost tasteless, just very very very smooth smoke and not at all harsh on the throat or lungs. Weed you could smoke all day with regards to how they effect your mouth, but effect wise the champagne was typical confused head high very trippy and laughy and many times asking questions like 'wow you're stoned, are you ok? go get a red bull!' and the casey being a more couch locking mellow chilled out stone.
We watched the game, then sat again with a few beers, and smoked through the weed, on our way to Wok when we were again worse for wear, on St.Annenstraat, a girls window was completely smashed and her panic alarm going off, I suggesting we both walked towards it to check it out.
The window looked like it had been kicked through by an angry punter and they were waiting for the police and landlord to arrive, a strange scene, especially with it being a Sunday night, which is usually DEAD, this was busier than the Saturday!
Anyway, to Wok, I decided against it leaving her in the que, going down to the Burger Bar to get a takeaway, instead I arrived back at Wok with a bong and a packet of cherry flavoured papers, typical me really.
A few bongs, and a few beets more in the hotel, I ended the night with walking to the pizza slice shop on Damstraat, grabbing a few slices and a coke inside watching the TV and got back to the hotel to bed.
MONDAY DAY FOUR
Feeling a lot better and fresh this morning, we checked out, and had a few more pints in the bar.
We needed to kill a few hours so we ventured to the Damrak and to kill time booked onto a tourbus for 11.95e and took the full 1 hour 45 minutes drive round Amsterdam the Jordan, Heiniken Experience, Amstel, Zoo etc, we stopped at the Diamond Factory and had the tour there. It isn't my cup of tea that typical tourist nonsense, but it was great all the same, and killed a few hours.
We rounded the trip off with a few more pints, and I bonged the rest of the weed.
We ended up almost late for the plane, made it by about half an hour which isn't like us, part of us both wanted to miss the plane so we could stay another night and just face the expense when we got home.
I don't know, part of me wishes we did, part of me wishes we live there and didn't have to worry about missing planes and trains. It is to me still a place that creates an atmopshere like no other, where the general rule is tolerance, acceptance and relaxation however this atmopshere is complimented by the safety and security of the anti aggression and hard drugs stance that I believe we need in the UK.
The dutch have managed to give the people something back and allow them to unwind in a way free from prosecution, judgement and criminalisation, instead in the UK we have prohibition and condemnation which has driven the cannabis and pub culture into the hands of violent criminals.
Usually when I come home I am absolutely fine with it because I know I am only an hour away on a plane and Amsterdam will be there with welcome arms. However this time, it has hit me harder that with the 'wietpass' and tourist ban coming closer, and I am left with a deep concern that the Amsterdam I have grew up with will never be the same and I feel like I am losing a chapter of my life.
I literally hope and pray that with the vote coming up on the 12th of September, that the coffeeshops do stay open and allow people to engage freely in something that really isn't so bad and enjoy it. Unless they really will have a mess on their hands with low life money hungry criminals running the business and not the smokers themselves who are in it for the right reasons.
Hope you enjoyed the report.
Benstraat.
Nice write up lad 