UPDATE - THURSDAY NOVEMBER 1, CONTINUED...
Ah, man it's nice to have the time to stretch out and relax here in the Dam. By thursday we were eating up a storm, little meals throughout the day accented by a coffee or the more frequent hot chocomel. We felt like we were sadly neglecting our 'usual' favorites and felt like visiting old friends. Earlier it was the Bluebird (where we actual sat downstairs for the first time) and now it was time for
GREY AREA...like the Greenhouse (Centrum, that's it, the Greenhouse CENTRUM) before, the Grey Area was our first "must visit" location 10 plus years ago but many other years we simply didn't bother. This time we decided to hit it before the weekend crowds REALLY kicked in. It was quiet, two tenders were behind the bar, neither of which I recognized but both were VERY friendly and showed each item we mentioned even if we were already asking straight out to purchase (like the chocolope). Nothing on the menu was "out of stock" so we, of course, first chose the CHOCOLOPE: again, like the Greenhouse Centrum before we were blown away by fragrance and visual appeal. Big, well developed buds that rewarded us with a delicious taste and INSTANT high. My brain IS slowly starting to adjust to the increasing potency and despite our constant purchases we have chosen to take it slower than we normally would on a shorter stay resulting in a still sensative enough brain to notice and appreciate the quality of bud we're smoking. As a result were quite happy that the MOTHER'S FINEST, a virtually COMPLETELY red haired sativa bud sent us soaring into the ultimate "upbeat" high experience. Carefully choosing our indica's and sativa's by time of day and what we plan on doing has paid off and we have found ourselves sleeping only about 5 - 6 hours a day with no naps since day one! The GA, however, was still too busy to sit in (even though they had a couple of bar stools free) so we left to smoke back in the apartment.
I ask the wife if we can swing back by GREENHOUSE CENTRUM to try their MALANA JUNGLY CREAM hasj. Since we had such a good experience earlier we figured, why not? Now it's around early evening on a Thursday so we KNOW the days of chilling in empty coffeeshops will soon come to an end until Monday so it's no surprise that GH is busier than usual and, I think, maybe the first time we've had to wait to see the menu/budtender. We still had time for a quick chat and he appreciated my choice of hasj, especially since the asst. tender next to him sounded like he was questioning our choice! It was, in my opinion, worth the rather steep 18 e/g price because it seems like that old-school north Indian hasj is harder & harder TO spot. This was rather soft but not squishy with the traditional black w/a few gravel looking spots flecked througout and gave us that nice, heady, heavy "black" high. The gram LOOKS big, too. Funny, EVERYONE (well, almost everyone) is weighing the stuff in front of us. Some bags look fatter than others still...
This is our first time wandering around the red light at night this trip. Normally we get all tourist cheesy our first night and gawk at the windows and porn shops and dodge the dudes on the corner whispering "coca, extasy, coca, extasy, charlie...do you know charlie?" but, strangely, two things happened. One, NO ONE approached us offering. Well, ok, TWO guys did approach us but it felt like Amsterdam has significantly cleaned up that element of the streets...can't say I'm not pleased. BUT when we met up with some friends (who were, like half our age!) they told me ALL day and all night they were hit up. Guess we're getting too old and, hopefully, too 'confident' to be bothered! And two...WE got bored in about 10 minutes, felt claustrophobic with all the tourists and yearned for the quieter scene. I guess we really DO appreciate a less touristy environment, man - that's about as mature as I plan on getting!
So we decide to leave Dodge and head back to the TWEEDE so we can sample more RifMAN. Minutes later we're walking into a QUIET tweede with EVERY table free and the tender just hanging. We promised Lee from Liverpool on our visit here the other day to try their white russian but SOLD OUT! How about some HASH PLANT HAZE? suggested the tender. Sure, and give me a g of the RIFMAN MALAKI - this time we skipped over the next 2 or 3 rifman's and went STRAIGHT to the 'good stuff' (lol) @ 15 e/g. Fudgy brown in texture, it was squishy and oil rich (YES folks, I DO have a pic - although each sample was NEVER full size!) and tasted and smoked rather devine. These Rifmans REALLY are the perfect example of Moroccan hasj! We sat at the most comfortable table - well, the ONLY comfortable table! You know, the one with 4 CUSHIONED chairs that actual have backs on them? Funny, all my geezerly aches and pains have diminished with 4 1/2 days of constant walking, stoning and sitting on little benches! Soon enought, though, we 'brought in the crowd' and before long every seat was filled and line snaked out the door. Rifman joint later (yeah, I know, I've YET to smoke ANY product in a pipe this trip!), couple of orange fantas and we're out the door.
Well, that's all we purchased thursday, November 1, 2007. We've still been working on some of the above purchases (the wife is rolling a Jungly Cream as I write!) and we're hoping to hit the Overkant later today.
The next day was to bring us MANY a surprise, so stay tuned - same bud time, same bud channel...
