Solo Trip - Four Days In Amsterdam - RLD Included!
Posted: Fri 28th Feb 2014 01:05 am
My first visit to Amsterdam & a solo trip as well.......... Feb 14th - 18th (Fri-Tue)
Day 1:
Fingers crossed the weather is better 'there' than 'here'..... Not so sunny England!
Couldn't believe how quick it took to arrive from Gatwick. Seemed to take longer to get everyone on the plane & all hand luggage put away than the actual flight!
It's just my opinion but the Schiphol Airport to hotel shuttle is a waste of time if your hotel is centrally located. We had to wait about 40mins for a van to turn up & after other drop offs it was approx 90 minutes before I got to The Avenue hotel. Considering the return to Schiphol via a walk to the train station & the 20mins train journey after getting a ticket (5 euros) from the vending machine took only about 30-40mins I'd definitely get the train next time. Just a quick tip!
Now the fun begins..... within 20 mins of checking in at the hotel I'd already been to 2 head shops for a grinder, cones (I'm an embarrassment at rolling J's) and a couple of lighters. I'd completely underappreciated how small the centre of town is so instead of going to Homegrown Fantasy I stopped off at Ben's coffeeshop first. Its a bit dingy but I quite like that and there were a couple of Cali students to bullshit with whilst I induldged in my first joint in Amsterdam. Bubblegum!! Very nice toke it was too. Although I can't say I was too impressed with the Sour Diesel as it made me cough a lot & didn't have much of an effect.
First impressions: Head shops are EVERYWHERE here and coming from England its hard to put into words how cool it is to just sit & have a smoke with other laid back people and not to feel like its anything 'wrong' or 'criminal'.
Anyway, after an hour (or so) I made my way to Homegrown Fantasy to try their famous Cheese. The best recommendation I can say is that on the 4th day of my trip I went to Homegrown Seeds & got a pack of Homegrown Cheese seeds to take home for my friend! Awesome stone but super nice feeing with it. Also you guys might want to try the Critical from HF. Great HEAVY indica if you know what I mean.... And a special mention to the budtenders in there. Two of the nicest people you could wish to meet (an older lady & a student type) which along with the chilled out ambience made it my favorite coffeeshop of the trip and that is without mentioning the psychedelic, trippy toilet! Epic is the word!!!!
Day 2:
Saturday.... soooooo.... Culture & filth! Checked out the Rijksmuseum & Van Gogh Museum. Both were excellent and I would have gone to the Anne Frank House but the queues were waaaay too long for me. I will check it out 'next time'. Also managed to go on a canal 'pizza' cruise in the evening for a change of pace. Very nice pizza!
Obviously there was toking involved during the day! Grey Area was heaving so I made my way to Paradox. Nice place but the strain I bought there.... Meh! Purple (sativa) the guy said it was called & did almost nothing for me. Still, I had some Cheese, Blueberry & Bubblegum left which lasted me the rest of the day/night including a cruise of the RLD. What can I say about that? 4/10!! Seemed a small area to what I thought it would be and nothing there to exactly 'tempt me' as you might say! I did check out a live sex show. Not really an experience I want again. The guy was making too much eye contact for my liking.
Quick Note: Mario head shop in the City Centre (opposite Blues Brothers) is the best of its kind. It has everything you could need & nice easy going staff.
Day 3:
Woke up with a good feeling. Felt energised & ready for a good day. Wandered over to The Pancake Bakery on Prinsengracht. Worth the walk! Awesome apple & banana pancake. Yum! For some reason I felt like a chill day so spent the day wandering the city and via HF (2g's of Cheese & 1g of Critical) I ended up in a brown bar for the Arsenal v Liverpool FA Cup game. Four heinekens & some Cheese later all I can say is - mashed!! So it probably wasn't a good idea to have some Critical on the way back to the hotel!
Sleep young man sleep! It all must have caught up with me as I put my head down for a quick nap after making a couple of cones in the bedroom. Next thing I knew it was night time & instead of having a can or 3 of Monster I ran a bath. Needless to say I could hardly drag myself out of there & slept the rest of the night.... Damn indica's!
Observation: Having spent a good part of the day walking around it's fair to say The Dam is a beautiful place. Great architecture & reminded me a little of Prague. I guess this place must have been (relatively) unspoilt from WW2.
Day 4:
Confession time... one of my main goals on this trip was to visit De Dampkring. I love 'that' scene in Ocean's 12 and the place doesn't disappoint. It wa relatively quiet when I got there - approx 11:30am and no queues at the bar or weed counter. It looks great inside as I expected it would & so bought 2g of the Jack Herer strain. Never had it before, would love to have it again! It took me to space camp city and I almost fell off my stool when a party of tourists on a guided tour stopped outside and seemed to be staring at me for what felt like hours! Loved the 60's/70's rock they were playing on the stereo but one thing I observed on my trip - why no Monster Magnet on the playlist in any of the coffeeshops???
Another observation: Chips! They are so good here I never want another soggy, fat laden English 'chip shop' chip again. Special mention to Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx which is located the next street up from De Dampkring. Its easy to see why the place has been here for over 50 years.... I think I must have put on a stone in 4 days!!!
Obviously I needed a bit more culture so I checked out the Medieval Torture Museum (the guillotine being my favorite instrument and it was nice to be stoned & stood there imagining D.Cameron's head on the block) & the Marijuana Museum.... both are well worth a visit methinks.
Day 5:
Hometime!!!! Of course there was time for a milkshake & a pre-rolled Northern Lights joint(still my favorite strain) in Hill Street Blues on the way to the station. Actually I had my final smoke outside the airport but there you go!
I've left a lot out (mainly the bars ect) but all I need to say is I'm coming back in early April with friends so it was obviously an awesome trip..... happy toking one & all!
Shops Visited & Rating:
Ben's - 6/10
Homegrown Fantasy - 10
Paradox - 5
Grasshopper - 4 (hip hop staff who seemed bored to be there)
De Dampkring - 9
Betty Boop - 6
Kuil/420 - 7 (nice music & people in here)
Hill Street Blues - 7
Kroon - 5
Prix D'Ami - 4 (far too plastic & touristy for my liking)
Day 1:
Fingers crossed the weather is better 'there' than 'here'..... Not so sunny England!
Couldn't believe how quick it took to arrive from Gatwick. Seemed to take longer to get everyone on the plane & all hand luggage put away than the actual flight!
It's just my opinion but the Schiphol Airport to hotel shuttle is a waste of time if your hotel is centrally located. We had to wait about 40mins for a van to turn up & after other drop offs it was approx 90 minutes before I got to The Avenue hotel. Considering the return to Schiphol via a walk to the train station & the 20mins train journey after getting a ticket (5 euros) from the vending machine took only about 30-40mins I'd definitely get the train next time. Just a quick tip!
Now the fun begins..... within 20 mins of checking in at the hotel I'd already been to 2 head shops for a grinder, cones (I'm an embarrassment at rolling J's) and a couple of lighters. I'd completely underappreciated how small the centre of town is so instead of going to Homegrown Fantasy I stopped off at Ben's coffeeshop first. Its a bit dingy but I quite like that and there were a couple of Cali students to bullshit with whilst I induldged in my first joint in Amsterdam. Bubblegum!! Very nice toke it was too. Although I can't say I was too impressed with the Sour Diesel as it made me cough a lot & didn't have much of an effect.
First impressions: Head shops are EVERYWHERE here and coming from England its hard to put into words how cool it is to just sit & have a smoke with other laid back people and not to feel like its anything 'wrong' or 'criminal'.
Anyway, after an hour (or so) I made my way to Homegrown Fantasy to try their famous Cheese. The best recommendation I can say is that on the 4th day of my trip I went to Homegrown Seeds & got a pack of Homegrown Cheese seeds to take home for my friend! Awesome stone but super nice feeing with it. Also you guys might want to try the Critical from HF. Great HEAVY indica if you know what I mean.... And a special mention to the budtenders in there. Two of the nicest people you could wish to meet (an older lady & a student type) which along with the chilled out ambience made it my favorite coffeeshop of the trip and that is without mentioning the psychedelic, trippy toilet! Epic is the word!!!!
Day 2:
Saturday.... soooooo.... Culture & filth! Checked out the Rijksmuseum & Van Gogh Museum. Both were excellent and I would have gone to the Anne Frank House but the queues were waaaay too long for me. I will check it out 'next time'. Also managed to go on a canal 'pizza' cruise in the evening for a change of pace. Very nice pizza!
Obviously there was toking involved during the day! Grey Area was heaving so I made my way to Paradox. Nice place but the strain I bought there.... Meh! Purple (sativa) the guy said it was called & did almost nothing for me. Still, I had some Cheese, Blueberry & Bubblegum left which lasted me the rest of the day/night including a cruise of the RLD. What can I say about that? 4/10!! Seemed a small area to what I thought it would be and nothing there to exactly 'tempt me' as you might say! I did check out a live sex show. Not really an experience I want again. The guy was making too much eye contact for my liking.
Quick Note: Mario head shop in the City Centre (opposite Blues Brothers) is the best of its kind. It has everything you could need & nice easy going staff.
Day 3:
Woke up with a good feeling. Felt energised & ready for a good day. Wandered over to The Pancake Bakery on Prinsengracht. Worth the walk! Awesome apple & banana pancake. Yum! For some reason I felt like a chill day so spent the day wandering the city and via HF (2g's of Cheese & 1g of Critical) I ended up in a brown bar for the Arsenal v Liverpool FA Cup game. Four heinekens & some Cheese later all I can say is - mashed!! So it probably wasn't a good idea to have some Critical on the way back to the hotel!
Sleep young man sleep! It all must have caught up with me as I put my head down for a quick nap after making a couple of cones in the bedroom. Next thing I knew it was night time & instead of having a can or 3 of Monster I ran a bath. Needless to say I could hardly drag myself out of there & slept the rest of the night.... Damn indica's!
Observation: Having spent a good part of the day walking around it's fair to say The Dam is a beautiful place. Great architecture & reminded me a little of Prague. I guess this place must have been (relatively) unspoilt from WW2.
Day 4:
Confession time... one of my main goals on this trip was to visit De Dampkring. I love 'that' scene in Ocean's 12 and the place doesn't disappoint. It wa relatively quiet when I got there - approx 11:30am and no queues at the bar or weed counter. It looks great inside as I expected it would & so bought 2g of the Jack Herer strain. Never had it before, would love to have it again! It took me to space camp city and I almost fell off my stool when a party of tourists on a guided tour stopped outside and seemed to be staring at me for what felt like hours! Loved the 60's/70's rock they were playing on the stereo but one thing I observed on my trip - why no Monster Magnet on the playlist in any of the coffeeshops???
Another observation: Chips! They are so good here I never want another soggy, fat laden English 'chip shop' chip again. Special mention to Vlaams Friteshuis Vleminckx which is located the next street up from De Dampkring. Its easy to see why the place has been here for over 50 years.... I think I must have put on a stone in 4 days!!!
Obviously I needed a bit more culture so I checked out the Medieval Torture Museum (the guillotine being my favorite instrument and it was nice to be stoned & stood there imagining D.Cameron's head on the block) & the Marijuana Museum.... both are well worth a visit methinks.
Day 5:
Hometime!!!! Of course there was time for a milkshake & a pre-rolled Northern Lights joint(still my favorite strain) in Hill Street Blues on the way to the station. Actually I had my final smoke outside the airport but there you go!
I've left a lot out (mainly the bars ect) but all I need to say is I'm coming back in early April with friends so it was obviously an awesome trip..... happy toking one & all!
Shops Visited & Rating:
Ben's - 6/10
Homegrown Fantasy - 10
Paradox - 5
Grasshopper - 4 (hip hop staff who seemed bored to be there)
De Dampkring - 9
Betty Boop - 6
Kuil/420 - 7 (nice music & people in here)
Hill Street Blues - 7
Kroon - 5
Prix D'Ami - 4 (far too plastic & touristy for my liking)
