A LONG read about my first 4 days in Amsterdam
Posted: Fri 5th Apr 2013 08:48 am
I enjoyed reading a lot of travelogues on here so I decided to post my own. I've only just written this 7-8 months after it happened so some details have been forgotten. I'm back in Amsterdam tomorrow and DAMN I'm excited 
. Hope you enjoy my last trip
First trip to Amsterdam, 16th - 19th August 2012
16.08.12 - Day One - Traveling.
We set off to Heathrow from Bournemouth at around lunchtime on a Thursday. My brother drives in his green Ford Ka, we listen to a few CDs on the way, with Original Pirate Material by The Streets being the most memorable listen as the excitement for the trip was building. We make good time and after parking up and getting to the airport we're there before check in time, luckily we had checked in online beforehand and didn't have any luggage to check, with each of us carrying a backpack, we were able to go straight on through to the departure area.
No matter what time a Brit arrives at an airport it is customary for us to have a beer, so we head up to the Wetherspoons for an overpriced pint of Stella. After this we take out time looking around the shops, replacing the shower gel and whatever toiletries we were unable to take through security with us. We wonder around the duty free store, checking out our favourite spirits at reduced prices, ultimately deciding it was unnecessary to pick up a bottle for the hotel room. We were amazed by the great selection of whisky and the way that many of them had notes on the smell, taste and finish of the whisky. We then notice a shop called The World of Whiskys which takes out interest, whilst looking around the unbelievable selection we overhear the elderly gentleman who was running the store giving advice to an Asian-American woman who ultimately bought three bottles of expensive whisky. Hearing this mans knowledge and passion as well as being amazed by the vast selection we both decided that we were going to make whisky our drink of choice, something that we would learn to appreciate properly.
Before long it is time to board our flight, Easyjet operates somewhat like a bus with free for all seating, but we were some of the first people to get onto the Aeroplane and easily get seats together. I unzip my rucksack to get my iPod out for the journey and the zip for the bag breaks, great start. I fiddle with the zip for a while, trying to fix it to no avail before giving up and pulling a couple of the elastic straps at the front of the bag all the way around it keeping it somewhat shut and I put it in the overhead storage. A short while after take-off the pilot announces a nice tailwind that should have us arriving in Schiphol airport earlier than scheduled, excellent. After listening to about half of an album on my iPod (Us by Brother Ali, if memory serves) the Pilot announces that we were going to land in around ten minutes. My brother and I look at each other in amazement, we can't believe how fast the flight had been. I set my watch an hour forward so that I'm on local time, turn data off on my phone do I don't end up incurring ridiculous roaming charges and we get off the plane. I'd never travelled without check in luggage before and it felt amazing being able to just walk off of the plane without having anything to wait around for afterwards.
Once in Schiphol my brother heads off to use the toilets so I sit down trying to fix the backpack so it could close. I could not. When my brother returns he tells me the bag has a rain cover that pulls out of the bottom and covers the whole bag (I have borrowed this bag from him). This does the job, however the cover is made from a bright red polyester so I look like a royal bell end, but not to worry at least I'm not going to have anything fall out of my bag. I already knew that there was a train station underneath the airport from research that I'd done online, so we look about for an escalator. After finding the escalator leading down to the train platform we go to a ticket machine to purchase train tickets to Amsterdam Centraal (after arguing with my brother, who was convinced that we were already at Amsterdam Centraal and that was what the airport was called) we realise that we needed change to use the machine. We each buy a Bic lighter in order to break a note each, buy our tickets and get on the train, the excitement has been with me for a while and was only building, only a short train journey and we would be in Amsterdam!
We get off the train and find a way out of the station. I check the maps on my phone, I'd previously downloaded the map of Amsterdam so I could navigate the city without using any data, but in a recent update my phone had gotten rid of my saved maps, balls. I'm pretty confident I know where I'm going in order to get to the hotel so we set off. We had managed to exit the station using the back entrance so we had to walk around the station and cross a couple of bridges before heading in the general direction that I believed our hotel to be in. We're greeted by the sight of many coffeeshops, paintings of marijuana leaves and headshops selling bongs, pipes and the rest. After a short walk I start to doubt my navigational skills but then I see a road sign confirming that I've got this covered and we were on the road of our hotel. We check in to the Cornerhouse Hotel, put our bags in our rooms and waste no time going to the nearest coffeeshop.
There was a coffeshop called Homegrown Fantasy which was under a one minute walk away from the hotel that has a fantastic reputation, so naturally that was our first port of call. I go inside, it's a small shop with a nice interior but I didn't spent much time inside of there. There was an Asian bloke sat at the counter ripping a bong whilst I looked at the menu, I ordered a gram of northern lights and two coca colas which came in glass bottles. They had a dispenser for king sized rolling papers and a bowl full of roach tips on the counter. We go outside and sit at a metal table ready to roll the first spliff of the trip, I then realise that I forgot to pick up and rizla so my brother heads back in, buying a grinder as well. I roll the first spiff and spark up. You could instantly tell that the weed was strong, despite being the cheapest thing on the menu at €9. Neither of us had smoked cannabis in a while so we ended up letting the joint go out two thirds of the way through, sitting there somewhere between comfortably and very high. After sitting there for a few minutes enjoying our colas we finished off the rest of the spliff. It was surreal sitting at a table on the side of a relatively busy road smoking an illegal drug, with passers by not batting an eyelid. We have another spliff outside of Homegrown Fantasy, the bud tender had at least three spiffs in the doorway of the shop in a much shorted period of time than we had our two between us. The details of the trip get a little bit 'Amsterdammed' from this point on.
We set off exploring the city which we were already in love with, keeping an eye out for somewhere to eat. We eventually ended up settling on a somewhat Italian looking place and went in for a pizza and beer or two each, lovely. I orded one with salami and my brother, being a vegetarian ordered the quattro formaggi. Now whilst mine was absolutely delicious, I was intensely jelous of my brothers pizza with his having much more cheese than mine. After this we wondered the city aimlessly, with very little idea as to where we were before stumbling upon a well-known coffeshop called Barneys. Stepping foot in this place I was amazed, not only was this place done up very nicely and modern looking, there was a digital Volcano vaporiser on every table (these cost £400 each!). I decide it would be nice to try out a hash this time, I deceded again to go for the cheapest thing on the menu in order to ease our way into the Amsterdam experience, however they were out of stock of this particular hash so I went for the next one up which I can say with absolutely no confidence was the Nepali temple ball. I asked for a bag to vaporise the hash into, however after looking about the bud tender was unable to find one so I asked for the regular bag for using cannabis instead and if it was okay to smoke something that I had bought from somewhere else. "Yeah that's your problem" he said, joking that anything bought elsewhere was inferior product, and proceeded to give us a demonstration on how the vaporiser worked. We filled and inhaled many bags full of vapour, chatting and admiring the decor which included a trophy cabinet just above our heads with awards from 'The Cannabis Cup'. Because the weed that we were consuming was not being burned, it was difficult to tell that we were having any, you could feel it slightly but it seemed like a much lighter experience. Once we stood up to leave it became obvious that it had more of an effect than was initially apparent, though not in a bad way and we left the coffeeshop to slowly wonder back to the hotel feeling very good.
Once we neared our hotel we spotted a bar next door to Homegrown Fantasy called Tantra Cafe which we decided to go into. We got a pint of Juliper each and took a seat at a table. It turns out that this was somewhat of a sports bar, with three TVs showing some kind of sport or other. I start to skin up another spliff, to either take into the smoking area or to the outside seating area, as there is a smoking ban in Amsterdam which applies to the tobacco we were mixing the hash with. Whilst rolling a bar woman comes over with a smile on her face and places an ashtray down for us to use, apparently this smoking ban isn't strictly enforced. We smoke a few joints with both hash and weed mixed together whilst enjoying a couple of beers each. It turned out that the hash had a much more 'stoney' high that the slightly uplifting weed that we were smoking, so after we sink these beers and finish a few spliffs we head back to our hotel and go to bed very happy that our trip was off to a good start.
17.08.12 - Day Two - The Zoo.
Shortly after waking up we decide on our plans for the day, to go to the zoo. Now the Artis Royal Zoo is about a twenty five minute walk away so I download the google maps to my phone so that we don't end up stuck if we get lost and we shower and get ready to go out. First things first though, before walking far we need to get breakfast. After walking down the street for a for twenty seconds we see a small juice bar/breakfast cafe called La Frutería which had a certain charm that drew us in. This is by far the smallest shop I have been into in my life, there was a counter with a till and behind there was two powerful blenders and some basic cooking equipment. There were two stools at a counter by the window and enough room for about two people to stand comfortably and order their food. We order two large smoothies as well as a chocolate crêpe each. As we watched our smoothies being made we couldn't believe the amount of whole fruit that went into each one. I'm pretty sure that I exceeded my 'five a day' considerably with that one drink. We sat down and enjoyed our incredible smoothies, which were absolutely delicious, and ate our equally tasty albeit rather messy crêpes. After cleaning our faces and hands from the melted chocolate we continue towards the zoo.
On the walk we decide that it would be a good day to try out a space cake so go into the next coffeeshop we walk past on the way to Artis. We stumble upon two coffeeshops side by side, neither looking particularly appealing, nevertheless we pop into the coffeeshop on the right hand side as it looked like the nicer out of the two and order a chocolate flavoured space cake. We were aware of the effect eating too strong of a cannabis edible could have, and unable to gage the strength or the effect the cakes would have on us we split the one cake between us, eating sat on the seating out front of the coffeeshop. Again we head towards the zoo. As we near we get to a moveable bridge, which is raised in order to let a boat past. Waiting here we spot a pleasant looking grassy area, a mini park called Wertheimpark. Once the bridge is back to being a bridge we cross over and head towards the park entrance. We sit on the grass by the canal and roll a joint. We sit here happily relaxing and watching the ducks swim along the canal before getting up and heading off to the zoo for the final time.
The zoo was enormous so I won't go into detail on every animal we saw and I will skim over the highlights. After watching the baboons play on a pyramid structure surrounded by many wooden posts with ropes connecting them we headed deeper into the zoo. We see an area separated by a body of water then a concrete wall. Curious, we head over to see what was over there and are greeted by the most magnificent lion. He gets up from lying comfortably and heads over to a raised angled log. He walks half way up the log, pausing to stretch majestically, arching his back before continuing to the top of the log. He stood there calmly staring out, in charge. Another highlight of the trip to the zoo was watching a giant tortoise who was struggling to eat an apple. Every time he picked it up it would fall out of his mouth as he was too slow to bite it. The apple would roll away and he would follow it slowly, pick it up again and repeat the process. Poor sod. Then there were the seals. There were five laying out on a giant rock platform resting and basking in the sun. There were then two teenaged seals playing in the water, splashing about and play fighting. Occasionally they would join the others on the rock island, however it was never long before they started playing again and getting told off and shouted at by the big daddy seal and having to go back into the water to play. I will skim past most of the animals including the aquarium with all kinds of fish including small sharks and the clown fish (in separate tanks), the camels, giraffes, reindeer, kangaroos and the monkey which was carrying her baby around with the baby clinging on two one of her arms. One of the main attractions were the penguins. There were seats all around so people could take their time watching the penguins play, dive, swim and just generally be penguins. After this we had seen just about everything and it was time to end our very enjoyable (though tiring due the size of the place) visit to the zoo.
We head off to find a place to get lunch, stopping back at the mini park that we were so fond of before visiting the zoo and sat and rested our legs which were tired after walking all day. After a few spliffs we feel sufficiently rested and set off for a late lunch. After finding a suitable place we take a table outside and order some nachos. I don't remember what it was about them exactly made them so good, but these were the best nachos I'd had in my life, they were incredible. Once we'd finished our meal we walked off to find a the WeSC clothing shop which my brother wanted to visit. After looking around the store we wondered back towards the centre, stopping by at Greenhouse coffeeshop. It was relatively busy so I secured seats and a table outside overlooking the canal, while by brother went inside to buy some coffees and some cannabis. He didn't remember what kind of weed he had bought as he went for a second choice but that didn't matter, it was a very enjoyable smoke. The coffee was easily the tastiest of the entire trip, it was fantastic. After smoking our joint the American couple on the table next to ours get up to leave, the women comes over to us and gives us the rest of her weed and a packet of skins "take this, I can't have anymore" we thank her and she leaves.
We return to the hotel briefly for a short rest and to get ready for the evening. We headed central and had a wonder about. After choosing a restaurant we sit down and have a proper look at the menu, and after thinking it over we both decide that this wasn't the restaurant for us and we wanted another pizza so we went next door to a nice place where they did have pizza on the menu. We each had a quattro formaggi and a couple of beers. The waitresses became curious to where we were from as they could not pinpoint our accents. After our meal we walked around, stopping at a few places to have a drink and a smoke. We headed back to the sports bar we ended the previous night in, sitting outside initially think it would be nice to smoke outside and I order a pint of Juliper from the waitress. After having a few sips of my drink we decide to head inside and smoke in there, it was busy outside and we were finding the drunk tourists annoying. We have a few beers and spliffs and then head back to the hotel.
18.08.12 - Day Three - Vondelpark
We wake up a bit later than we did the previous day and lay in bed a tad longer than we should. My brother gets up and gets in the shower so I take this opportunity to have a few more minutes sleep until it's my turn in there. Once we're both ready we head outside. The weather was perfect and we knew exactly what we wanted to do, walk out to Amsterdam's largest and most popular park. Near to our hotel was an Albert Heijn supermarket. We had been dying to try some Dutch cheeses so we went to get some supplies for our picnic in the park. We get a packet of sliced Leerdammer as well as some Edam and some breads, as well as a pack of stroopwafels, some crisps and water for us to drink. Before heading off we go back to the Homegrown Fantasy coffeeshop and buy a space cake each. The last one we consumed had little effect and we wanted to give the experience another try. I ate all of mine quickly, as it was rather tasty and rolled a spliff. My brother was still a bit cautious about the experience and chose to eat half of his and take it from there. Once we'd finished at Homegrown Fantasy we headed off on our journey to Vondelpark.
Vondelpark was about a half hour walk away and I'm not a big fan of using maps as I believe finding places on your own to be part of the fun and it can be quite fun to get a little bit lost and end up somewhere that you would otherwise never been. I did, however, end up checking my phone's GPS once or twice on the journey to ensure that we were on the right tracks. On the way to the park we stumble upon an indie skate shop called Independent Outlet and we decide to go in and have a look. It didn't look like much from the outside, but inside it was massive and had a huge selection of clothing. We spent quite a long time in this shop though I didn't end up buying anything. I wanted to get a t-shirt that said Amsterdam on it and a snapback hat while on holiday, but none if the hats massively appealed to me and they only had a one style of t-shirt in different colour-ways which had 'Amsterdam' written on them and I thought that I'd likely find one that I preferred later on. My brother bought a camouflage style t-shirt with the shop's logo in it and we continued towards Vondelpark, stopping by one more significantly less impressive clothing store on the way. As we neared the park I was getting very hungry so we stopped briefly and got the stroopwafels out of the backpack and ate a couple each. A few minutes later we reached the park entrance. We started walking into the park and I was thinking "this is pretty big for such a compact city where everything else is packed in tightly", we continue walking through the park as there was path that appeared to be leading somewhere. We were still walking along this path several minutes later when suddenly the park opened up much, much wider. Wow! This place was huge! We'd already walked pretty far into the park and we weren't even one fifth of the way into it, so we decide to sit down and relax for a while. We smoke a joint then start out lunch. Our cheeses were delicious, as was everything else. We smoke again and then lay back starting at the sky and the branches and leaves above us from the surrounding trees, it really was a beautiful place. An aeroplane flies past leaving a contrail and we probably see one hundred people pass by on their bikes in the hour or two that we sat there.
After relaxing at the park for a sufficient amount of time we walk back to the centre. We get a pint of lager each from our hotels bar and sit outside in the sun for a while, having one more spliff. After this we go back into the hotel to lay down and relax after all the walking that we had done that day. We walk into Dam square, looking about for a while before deciding to take a brief stroll through De Wallen which is Amsterdam's best known red-light district. As soon as we get there I see an incredibly attractive woman with a slight Eastern European look to her. She smiles and waves at me, which causes me to involuntarily let out a schoolgirlish giggle and walk off quite quickly. We walk through the alley ways, some with girls stood in the windows and a couple with closed curtains where 'business' was being conducted. Most of the girls were stood there smiling, with a couple of them looking bored. Overall they were rather attractive, though of course there were some ugly ones and some older ones too.
We leave De Wallen and head north-west to find somewhere to eat. We again each decide to again get pizza, whilst it's not exactly a healthy option, we're on holiday and we were indulging in the things we liked the best. I order my second quattro formaggi of the holiday and my brother orders his third. At least we ignored the McDonalds and KFC unlike so many other tourists. We wash our pizzas down with a couple of beers and then go to a couple of unmemorable bars. In evenings of the busiest areas of Amsterdam you well get unsavoury looking gentlemen, most often black men or Moroccans, whom whisper towards you "Cocaine, ecstasy". It's a little bit disconcerting, however you always feel safe in there busy areas and it is mildly amusing.
We walk around for a while and come to a large open area located in a central area, filled with seats and benches from the bars and restaurants opposite on each side. There were also some picnic style benches belonging to the coffeeshop Betty Boop, so we took a seat for a second before I headed inside to use the toilets and buy us some coca colas, we smoked and appreciated the central location before heading back sticking to what we knew and finishing our night in Tantra, the sports bar.
19.08.12 - Day Four - Our Last Day
Now throughout the entire trip we were blessed with excellent warm weather. This was surprising as Amsterdam is not exactly known for it's pleasant weather. On our final day we were not so fortunate. No, we didn't experience Amsterdam's famous rain, nor was it cold. In fact, to put it simply, it was just too bloody hot. Unbelievably so. We spent the entire day uncomfortably hot, I probably could have filled a few buckets had I decided to collect my sweat.
First thing in the morning I rolled up a spliff, using up most of the hash we had left. My brother would have to drive us back home after the flight later and chose not to smoke this day. Once I rolled the joint I head over to Albert Heijn to pick up a couple of drinks. After going to the supermarket I take the spliff out of my pocket and smoke most of it sat on the step of a random building opposite our hotel. This got me thoroughly stoned and once I had finished the joint I go back into the hotel to get my brother so that we can go for breakfast. We go into Dam square and get some waffles, deciding afterwards to go back to the juice bar from the first morning and get a smoothie each.
We head back to the hotel, pack our backpacks and check-out. We had a lot of money left over for this last day, having spent less each day than we budgeted for, so we decide to do a bit of shopping. We had passed a shop many times on this holiday called Point Blank Clothing, noticing through the window that they sold the brands Dickies and Brixton, so we walk to the store. We get to the shop and go to the upstairs area where the Brixton clothing was, there was a particular hat that I had seen in the shop window that I wanted so I dry my sweaty head the best I can and try it on. It was an awesome looking cap, it was a dark navy blue with an orange peak and button on top with Brixton MFG. CO. written on the front in white, unfortunately the fit was terrible and the hat was unusually tall, my brother had the same experience trying on a different Brixton cap so we put the hats back and exited the shop. After wondering around a few shops, with me also trying on a pair of Dickies chinos in one of them, we stumble across a shop where about 90% of the stock was snapback hats. We look around for a while before we realise that the shop was bigger than we realised and there was a smaller second area. In this area I found a beige/cream coloured Mitchell & Ness cap with the Chicago Blackhawks logo of a Native American's head on a white badge on the front. Rather than having the typical Mitchell & Ness snapback, it had a brown leather strap and metal fastener. I adjust the strap and try the hat on, it fit perfectly and looked awesome so I bought it and we left the shop. Shortly later we enter a Footlocker store and my brother buys a denim style NY New Era cap.
We continue shopping for a short while before having to duck into a nearby pub to get out of the blistering heat and we have a couple of pints. My brother wants for us to start heading off towards the airport, but I'm convinced that it's far too early and didn't want to end up waiting around the airport for an eternity. Ultimately my brother convinces me it's time to go and I decide that it would be better to get to Schiphol early than to cut it too fine and risk messing up so we get the train from Amsterdam Centraal. On the train ride I realise I still have a bit of hash in my pocket and sadly ended up having to leave it on the train. The train arrives in the airport and we are there ridiculously early.
We walk around the airport, going in the shops but not buying anything before going to a nice restaurant/bar. I order a plate of nachos and a pint of Heineken and we sit around for a while. We then go to the Starbucks and get a 'Venti' sized coffee each. The term venti comes from the Italian word for twenty, meaning that the coffee was 20 ounces, exactly a pint. After sitting around and finishing our giant coffees we get some milk shakes from McDonalds. Before too long it is time to board our aeroplane and fly home. On the plane we debate buying an incredibly cheap bottle of Gordon's gin, but remembering the alcohol at the duty free store said that it was for both arrivals and departures we decide to hold off. When we get off the plane we are disappointed to find that we didn't end up back in the large duty free shop so we go straight to the bus service taking us to the car park and head back home. It was an amazing experience and we had an absolutely fantastic time. We spend much of the drive home discussing when we can return to the beautiful city of Amsterdam.
. Hope you enjoy my last trip First trip to Amsterdam, 16th - 19th August 2012
16.08.12 - Day One - Traveling.
We set off to Heathrow from Bournemouth at around lunchtime on a Thursday. My brother drives in his green Ford Ka, we listen to a few CDs on the way, with Original Pirate Material by The Streets being the most memorable listen as the excitement for the trip was building. We make good time and after parking up and getting to the airport we're there before check in time, luckily we had checked in online beforehand and didn't have any luggage to check, with each of us carrying a backpack, we were able to go straight on through to the departure area.
No matter what time a Brit arrives at an airport it is customary for us to have a beer, so we head up to the Wetherspoons for an overpriced pint of Stella. After this we take out time looking around the shops, replacing the shower gel and whatever toiletries we were unable to take through security with us. We wonder around the duty free store, checking out our favourite spirits at reduced prices, ultimately deciding it was unnecessary to pick up a bottle for the hotel room. We were amazed by the great selection of whisky and the way that many of them had notes on the smell, taste and finish of the whisky. We then notice a shop called The World of Whiskys which takes out interest, whilst looking around the unbelievable selection we overhear the elderly gentleman who was running the store giving advice to an Asian-American woman who ultimately bought three bottles of expensive whisky. Hearing this mans knowledge and passion as well as being amazed by the vast selection we both decided that we were going to make whisky our drink of choice, something that we would learn to appreciate properly.
Before long it is time to board our flight, Easyjet operates somewhat like a bus with free for all seating, but we were some of the first people to get onto the Aeroplane and easily get seats together. I unzip my rucksack to get my iPod out for the journey and the zip for the bag breaks, great start. I fiddle with the zip for a while, trying to fix it to no avail before giving up and pulling a couple of the elastic straps at the front of the bag all the way around it keeping it somewhat shut and I put it in the overhead storage. A short while after take-off the pilot announces a nice tailwind that should have us arriving in Schiphol airport earlier than scheduled, excellent. After listening to about half of an album on my iPod (Us by Brother Ali, if memory serves) the Pilot announces that we were going to land in around ten minutes. My brother and I look at each other in amazement, we can't believe how fast the flight had been. I set my watch an hour forward so that I'm on local time, turn data off on my phone do I don't end up incurring ridiculous roaming charges and we get off the plane. I'd never travelled without check in luggage before and it felt amazing being able to just walk off of the plane without having anything to wait around for afterwards.
Once in Schiphol my brother heads off to use the toilets so I sit down trying to fix the backpack so it could close. I could not. When my brother returns he tells me the bag has a rain cover that pulls out of the bottom and covers the whole bag (I have borrowed this bag from him). This does the job, however the cover is made from a bright red polyester so I look like a royal bell end, but not to worry at least I'm not going to have anything fall out of my bag. I already knew that there was a train station underneath the airport from research that I'd done online, so we look about for an escalator. After finding the escalator leading down to the train platform we go to a ticket machine to purchase train tickets to Amsterdam Centraal (after arguing with my brother, who was convinced that we were already at Amsterdam Centraal and that was what the airport was called) we realise that we needed change to use the machine. We each buy a Bic lighter in order to break a note each, buy our tickets and get on the train, the excitement has been with me for a while and was only building, only a short train journey and we would be in Amsterdam!
We get off the train and find a way out of the station. I check the maps on my phone, I'd previously downloaded the map of Amsterdam so I could navigate the city without using any data, but in a recent update my phone had gotten rid of my saved maps, balls. I'm pretty confident I know where I'm going in order to get to the hotel so we set off. We had managed to exit the station using the back entrance so we had to walk around the station and cross a couple of bridges before heading in the general direction that I believed our hotel to be in. We're greeted by the sight of many coffeeshops, paintings of marijuana leaves and headshops selling bongs, pipes and the rest. After a short walk I start to doubt my navigational skills but then I see a road sign confirming that I've got this covered and we were on the road of our hotel. We check in to the Cornerhouse Hotel, put our bags in our rooms and waste no time going to the nearest coffeeshop.
There was a coffeshop called Homegrown Fantasy which was under a one minute walk away from the hotel that has a fantastic reputation, so naturally that was our first port of call. I go inside, it's a small shop with a nice interior but I didn't spent much time inside of there. There was an Asian bloke sat at the counter ripping a bong whilst I looked at the menu, I ordered a gram of northern lights and two coca colas which came in glass bottles. They had a dispenser for king sized rolling papers and a bowl full of roach tips on the counter. We go outside and sit at a metal table ready to roll the first spliff of the trip, I then realise that I forgot to pick up and rizla so my brother heads back in, buying a grinder as well. I roll the first spiff and spark up. You could instantly tell that the weed was strong, despite being the cheapest thing on the menu at €9. Neither of us had smoked cannabis in a while so we ended up letting the joint go out two thirds of the way through, sitting there somewhere between comfortably and very high. After sitting there for a few minutes enjoying our colas we finished off the rest of the spliff. It was surreal sitting at a table on the side of a relatively busy road smoking an illegal drug, with passers by not batting an eyelid. We have another spliff outside of Homegrown Fantasy, the bud tender had at least three spiffs in the doorway of the shop in a much shorted period of time than we had our two between us. The details of the trip get a little bit 'Amsterdammed' from this point on.
We set off exploring the city which we were already in love with, keeping an eye out for somewhere to eat. We eventually ended up settling on a somewhat Italian looking place and went in for a pizza and beer or two each, lovely. I orded one with salami and my brother, being a vegetarian ordered the quattro formaggi. Now whilst mine was absolutely delicious, I was intensely jelous of my brothers pizza with his having much more cheese than mine. After this we wondered the city aimlessly, with very little idea as to where we were before stumbling upon a well-known coffeshop called Barneys. Stepping foot in this place I was amazed, not only was this place done up very nicely and modern looking, there was a digital Volcano vaporiser on every table (these cost £400 each!). I decide it would be nice to try out a hash this time, I deceded again to go for the cheapest thing on the menu in order to ease our way into the Amsterdam experience, however they were out of stock of this particular hash so I went for the next one up which I can say with absolutely no confidence was the Nepali temple ball. I asked for a bag to vaporise the hash into, however after looking about the bud tender was unable to find one so I asked for the regular bag for using cannabis instead and if it was okay to smoke something that I had bought from somewhere else. "Yeah that's your problem" he said, joking that anything bought elsewhere was inferior product, and proceeded to give us a demonstration on how the vaporiser worked. We filled and inhaled many bags full of vapour, chatting and admiring the decor which included a trophy cabinet just above our heads with awards from 'The Cannabis Cup'. Because the weed that we were consuming was not being burned, it was difficult to tell that we were having any, you could feel it slightly but it seemed like a much lighter experience. Once we stood up to leave it became obvious that it had more of an effect than was initially apparent, though not in a bad way and we left the coffeeshop to slowly wonder back to the hotel feeling very good.
Once we neared our hotel we spotted a bar next door to Homegrown Fantasy called Tantra Cafe which we decided to go into. We got a pint of Juliper each and took a seat at a table. It turns out that this was somewhat of a sports bar, with three TVs showing some kind of sport or other. I start to skin up another spliff, to either take into the smoking area or to the outside seating area, as there is a smoking ban in Amsterdam which applies to the tobacco we were mixing the hash with. Whilst rolling a bar woman comes over with a smile on her face and places an ashtray down for us to use, apparently this smoking ban isn't strictly enforced. We smoke a few joints with both hash and weed mixed together whilst enjoying a couple of beers each. It turned out that the hash had a much more 'stoney' high that the slightly uplifting weed that we were smoking, so after we sink these beers and finish a few spliffs we head back to our hotel and go to bed very happy that our trip was off to a good start.
17.08.12 - Day Two - The Zoo.
Shortly after waking up we decide on our plans for the day, to go to the zoo. Now the Artis Royal Zoo is about a twenty five minute walk away so I download the google maps to my phone so that we don't end up stuck if we get lost and we shower and get ready to go out. First things first though, before walking far we need to get breakfast. After walking down the street for a for twenty seconds we see a small juice bar/breakfast cafe called La Frutería which had a certain charm that drew us in. This is by far the smallest shop I have been into in my life, there was a counter with a till and behind there was two powerful blenders and some basic cooking equipment. There were two stools at a counter by the window and enough room for about two people to stand comfortably and order their food. We order two large smoothies as well as a chocolate crêpe each. As we watched our smoothies being made we couldn't believe the amount of whole fruit that went into each one. I'm pretty sure that I exceeded my 'five a day' considerably with that one drink. We sat down and enjoyed our incredible smoothies, which were absolutely delicious, and ate our equally tasty albeit rather messy crêpes. After cleaning our faces and hands from the melted chocolate we continue towards the zoo.
On the walk we decide that it would be a good day to try out a space cake so go into the next coffeeshop we walk past on the way to Artis. We stumble upon two coffeeshops side by side, neither looking particularly appealing, nevertheless we pop into the coffeeshop on the right hand side as it looked like the nicer out of the two and order a chocolate flavoured space cake. We were aware of the effect eating too strong of a cannabis edible could have, and unable to gage the strength or the effect the cakes would have on us we split the one cake between us, eating sat on the seating out front of the coffeeshop. Again we head towards the zoo. As we near we get to a moveable bridge, which is raised in order to let a boat past. Waiting here we spot a pleasant looking grassy area, a mini park called Wertheimpark. Once the bridge is back to being a bridge we cross over and head towards the park entrance. We sit on the grass by the canal and roll a joint. We sit here happily relaxing and watching the ducks swim along the canal before getting up and heading off to the zoo for the final time.
The zoo was enormous so I won't go into detail on every animal we saw and I will skim over the highlights. After watching the baboons play on a pyramid structure surrounded by many wooden posts with ropes connecting them we headed deeper into the zoo. We see an area separated by a body of water then a concrete wall. Curious, we head over to see what was over there and are greeted by the most magnificent lion. He gets up from lying comfortably and heads over to a raised angled log. He walks half way up the log, pausing to stretch majestically, arching his back before continuing to the top of the log. He stood there calmly staring out, in charge. Another highlight of the trip to the zoo was watching a giant tortoise who was struggling to eat an apple. Every time he picked it up it would fall out of his mouth as he was too slow to bite it. The apple would roll away and he would follow it slowly, pick it up again and repeat the process. Poor sod. Then there were the seals. There were five laying out on a giant rock platform resting and basking in the sun. There were then two teenaged seals playing in the water, splashing about and play fighting. Occasionally they would join the others on the rock island, however it was never long before they started playing again and getting told off and shouted at by the big daddy seal and having to go back into the water to play. I will skim past most of the animals including the aquarium with all kinds of fish including small sharks and the clown fish (in separate tanks), the camels, giraffes, reindeer, kangaroos and the monkey which was carrying her baby around with the baby clinging on two one of her arms. One of the main attractions were the penguins. There were seats all around so people could take their time watching the penguins play, dive, swim and just generally be penguins. After this we had seen just about everything and it was time to end our very enjoyable (though tiring due the size of the place) visit to the zoo.
We head off to find a place to get lunch, stopping back at the mini park that we were so fond of before visiting the zoo and sat and rested our legs which were tired after walking all day. After a few spliffs we feel sufficiently rested and set off for a late lunch. After finding a suitable place we take a table outside and order some nachos. I don't remember what it was about them exactly made them so good, but these were the best nachos I'd had in my life, they were incredible. Once we'd finished our meal we walked off to find a the WeSC clothing shop which my brother wanted to visit. After looking around the store we wondered back towards the centre, stopping by at Greenhouse coffeeshop. It was relatively busy so I secured seats and a table outside overlooking the canal, while by brother went inside to buy some coffees and some cannabis. He didn't remember what kind of weed he had bought as he went for a second choice but that didn't matter, it was a very enjoyable smoke. The coffee was easily the tastiest of the entire trip, it was fantastic. After smoking our joint the American couple on the table next to ours get up to leave, the women comes over to us and gives us the rest of her weed and a packet of skins "take this, I can't have anymore" we thank her and she leaves.
We return to the hotel briefly for a short rest and to get ready for the evening. We headed central and had a wonder about. After choosing a restaurant we sit down and have a proper look at the menu, and after thinking it over we both decide that this wasn't the restaurant for us and we wanted another pizza so we went next door to a nice place where they did have pizza on the menu. We each had a quattro formaggi and a couple of beers. The waitresses became curious to where we were from as they could not pinpoint our accents. After our meal we walked around, stopping at a few places to have a drink and a smoke. We headed back to the sports bar we ended the previous night in, sitting outside initially think it would be nice to smoke outside and I order a pint of Juliper from the waitress. After having a few sips of my drink we decide to head inside and smoke in there, it was busy outside and we were finding the drunk tourists annoying. We have a few beers and spliffs and then head back to the hotel.
18.08.12 - Day Three - Vondelpark
We wake up a bit later than we did the previous day and lay in bed a tad longer than we should. My brother gets up and gets in the shower so I take this opportunity to have a few more minutes sleep until it's my turn in there. Once we're both ready we head outside. The weather was perfect and we knew exactly what we wanted to do, walk out to Amsterdam's largest and most popular park. Near to our hotel was an Albert Heijn supermarket. We had been dying to try some Dutch cheeses so we went to get some supplies for our picnic in the park. We get a packet of sliced Leerdammer as well as some Edam and some breads, as well as a pack of stroopwafels, some crisps and water for us to drink. Before heading off we go back to the Homegrown Fantasy coffeeshop and buy a space cake each. The last one we consumed had little effect and we wanted to give the experience another try. I ate all of mine quickly, as it was rather tasty and rolled a spliff. My brother was still a bit cautious about the experience and chose to eat half of his and take it from there. Once we'd finished at Homegrown Fantasy we headed off on our journey to Vondelpark.
Vondelpark was about a half hour walk away and I'm not a big fan of using maps as I believe finding places on your own to be part of the fun and it can be quite fun to get a little bit lost and end up somewhere that you would otherwise never been. I did, however, end up checking my phone's GPS once or twice on the journey to ensure that we were on the right tracks. On the way to the park we stumble upon an indie skate shop called Independent Outlet and we decide to go in and have a look. It didn't look like much from the outside, but inside it was massive and had a huge selection of clothing. We spent quite a long time in this shop though I didn't end up buying anything. I wanted to get a t-shirt that said Amsterdam on it and a snapback hat while on holiday, but none if the hats massively appealed to me and they only had a one style of t-shirt in different colour-ways which had 'Amsterdam' written on them and I thought that I'd likely find one that I preferred later on. My brother bought a camouflage style t-shirt with the shop's logo in it and we continued towards Vondelpark, stopping by one more significantly less impressive clothing store on the way. As we neared the park I was getting very hungry so we stopped briefly and got the stroopwafels out of the backpack and ate a couple each. A few minutes later we reached the park entrance. We started walking into the park and I was thinking "this is pretty big for such a compact city where everything else is packed in tightly", we continue walking through the park as there was path that appeared to be leading somewhere. We were still walking along this path several minutes later when suddenly the park opened up much, much wider. Wow! This place was huge! We'd already walked pretty far into the park and we weren't even one fifth of the way into it, so we decide to sit down and relax for a while. We smoke a joint then start out lunch. Our cheeses were delicious, as was everything else. We smoke again and then lay back starting at the sky and the branches and leaves above us from the surrounding trees, it really was a beautiful place. An aeroplane flies past leaving a contrail and we probably see one hundred people pass by on their bikes in the hour or two that we sat there.
After relaxing at the park for a sufficient amount of time we walk back to the centre. We get a pint of lager each from our hotels bar and sit outside in the sun for a while, having one more spliff. After this we go back into the hotel to lay down and relax after all the walking that we had done that day. We walk into Dam square, looking about for a while before deciding to take a brief stroll through De Wallen which is Amsterdam's best known red-light district. As soon as we get there I see an incredibly attractive woman with a slight Eastern European look to her. She smiles and waves at me, which causes me to involuntarily let out a schoolgirlish giggle and walk off quite quickly. We walk through the alley ways, some with girls stood in the windows and a couple with closed curtains where 'business' was being conducted. Most of the girls were stood there smiling, with a couple of them looking bored. Overall they were rather attractive, though of course there were some ugly ones and some older ones too.
We leave De Wallen and head north-west to find somewhere to eat. We again each decide to again get pizza, whilst it's not exactly a healthy option, we're on holiday and we were indulging in the things we liked the best. I order my second quattro formaggi of the holiday and my brother orders his third. At least we ignored the McDonalds and KFC unlike so many other tourists. We wash our pizzas down with a couple of beers and then go to a couple of unmemorable bars. In evenings of the busiest areas of Amsterdam you well get unsavoury looking gentlemen, most often black men or Moroccans, whom whisper towards you "Cocaine, ecstasy". It's a little bit disconcerting, however you always feel safe in there busy areas and it is mildly amusing.
We walk around for a while and come to a large open area located in a central area, filled with seats and benches from the bars and restaurants opposite on each side. There were also some picnic style benches belonging to the coffeeshop Betty Boop, so we took a seat for a second before I headed inside to use the toilets and buy us some coca colas, we smoked and appreciated the central location before heading back sticking to what we knew and finishing our night in Tantra, the sports bar.
19.08.12 - Day Four - Our Last Day
Now throughout the entire trip we were blessed with excellent warm weather. This was surprising as Amsterdam is not exactly known for it's pleasant weather. On our final day we were not so fortunate. No, we didn't experience Amsterdam's famous rain, nor was it cold. In fact, to put it simply, it was just too bloody hot. Unbelievably so. We spent the entire day uncomfortably hot, I probably could have filled a few buckets had I decided to collect my sweat.
First thing in the morning I rolled up a spliff, using up most of the hash we had left. My brother would have to drive us back home after the flight later and chose not to smoke this day. Once I rolled the joint I head over to Albert Heijn to pick up a couple of drinks. After going to the supermarket I take the spliff out of my pocket and smoke most of it sat on the step of a random building opposite our hotel. This got me thoroughly stoned and once I had finished the joint I go back into the hotel to get my brother so that we can go for breakfast. We go into Dam square and get some waffles, deciding afterwards to go back to the juice bar from the first morning and get a smoothie each.
We head back to the hotel, pack our backpacks and check-out. We had a lot of money left over for this last day, having spent less each day than we budgeted for, so we decide to do a bit of shopping. We had passed a shop many times on this holiday called Point Blank Clothing, noticing through the window that they sold the brands Dickies and Brixton, so we walk to the store. We get to the shop and go to the upstairs area where the Brixton clothing was, there was a particular hat that I had seen in the shop window that I wanted so I dry my sweaty head the best I can and try it on. It was an awesome looking cap, it was a dark navy blue with an orange peak and button on top with Brixton MFG. CO. written on the front in white, unfortunately the fit was terrible and the hat was unusually tall, my brother had the same experience trying on a different Brixton cap so we put the hats back and exited the shop. After wondering around a few shops, with me also trying on a pair of Dickies chinos in one of them, we stumble across a shop where about 90% of the stock was snapback hats. We look around for a while before we realise that the shop was bigger than we realised and there was a smaller second area. In this area I found a beige/cream coloured Mitchell & Ness cap with the Chicago Blackhawks logo of a Native American's head on a white badge on the front. Rather than having the typical Mitchell & Ness snapback, it had a brown leather strap and metal fastener. I adjust the strap and try the hat on, it fit perfectly and looked awesome so I bought it and we left the shop. Shortly later we enter a Footlocker store and my brother buys a denim style NY New Era cap.
We continue shopping for a short while before having to duck into a nearby pub to get out of the blistering heat and we have a couple of pints. My brother wants for us to start heading off towards the airport, but I'm convinced that it's far too early and didn't want to end up waiting around the airport for an eternity. Ultimately my brother convinces me it's time to go and I decide that it would be better to get to Schiphol early than to cut it too fine and risk messing up so we get the train from Amsterdam Centraal. On the train ride I realise I still have a bit of hash in my pocket and sadly ended up having to leave it on the train. The train arrives in the airport and we are there ridiculously early.
We walk around the airport, going in the shops but not buying anything before going to a nice restaurant/bar. I order a plate of nachos and a pint of Heineken and we sit around for a while. We then go to the Starbucks and get a 'Venti' sized coffee each. The term venti comes from the Italian word for twenty, meaning that the coffee was 20 ounces, exactly a pint. After sitting around and finishing our giant coffees we get some milk shakes from McDonalds. Before too long it is time to board our aeroplane and fly home. On the plane we debate buying an incredibly cheap bottle of Gordon's gin, but remembering the alcohol at the duty free store said that it was for both arrivals and departures we decide to hold off. When we get off the plane we are disappointed to find that we didn't end up back in the large duty free shop so we go straight to the bus service taking us to the car park and head back home. It was an amazing experience and we had an absolutely fantastic time. We spend much of the drive home discussing when we can return to the beautiful city of Amsterdam.
nice thread. I got the jitters,Cause i'm gonna be in the Dam in 2weeks...JOY!
Brilliant.