First off: I gotta say just how much I missed y'all before, during AND after the me & the wife went back to A'dam in February. I didn't realize just how much I relied on this group for info and inspiration! Good to have everyone back!
Ok, let's see...
WED 1/30/08 & THURS 1/31/08
We departed from Logan Thursday night Jan. 30. Our flight was scheduled for 7:15pm but was delayed two hours because our plane was missing a transponder and wasn't allowed to travel across the Atlantic without it (not a bad thing I imagine). Our airline, Northwest was VERY apologetic and even sent us an extra thousand miles on our account and a letter of apology about a week or so after our vacation which we found thoughtful. The flight was bumpy but the plane half empty so that made up for it.
We arrived thursday morning around 11am and since we had JUST been in Amsterdam November it felt like we never left (what a great feeling!). Due to prohibitively high euro/dollar exchange rates we passed on our own apartment and booked the NH City Centre on the spui instead. Next to door to Tweede and Softland it seemed like a no-brainer. AND when we arrived to a vacant lobby I immediately requested a canal view room and were rewarded with a tiny room with 4 nearly floor to ceiling windows overlooking the singel and the magnificent 17th & 17th century homes along the canel.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... mview2.jpg
The weather was INSANE - far more severe than Boston and we were grateful we brought our winter gear. Near gale force winds beat us down with horiontal rain and, after checking in and dropping off our suitcases made the entrance to our first coffeeshop even THAT much more dramatic! Coming in out of the cold we returned to November '07's "favorite coffeeshop"...SOFTLAND:
Quick bit of history, Softland was my favorite last time around for two reasons: the king hassan (though not the strongest was my all around favorite) and the staff, in particular this one goateed heavy set fellow who we chatted up alot. AND they have the freakin' biggest hot chocomels in town. So we nearly run down the spui in anticipation anxiously awaiting that first moment of stepping into your first coffeeshop of the trip! The inclement weather only added to the drama and when we stepped through the door into a near empty shop I could barely contain myself!
The wife settles in and I head right up to the counter. This time it's my buddy's cousin behind the counter but, surprise surprise, he smiles up at me in recognition and says "king hassan, right?". My face lights up and we shake hands, reaquainting ourselves and exchanging greetings. Man, our goal this trip is to solidify the brief contacts we made in November and this is one HELL of a good start.
Of course, I order up a g of the king at 14 e/g...crack open an american spirit and begin the ceremonial process of spinning up the first jay-bar of the trip. Right off I could tell that THIS king lacked the regal qualities of his predecessor and it smoked B to B+...PERFECT for the first stomach settling joint of the trip but this batch will not make the final 5 hashes of the trip.
Not to worry, the company MORE than made up for it and we wandered off the second shop of the day...
TWEEDE KAMER:
Compared to the stagnent menu at Softland, the TWEEDE'S menu was
visibly different and, since we still had 1/2 gram of King left we went straight for the MEXICAN HAZE at 12.5 e/g. Tweede was empty save a customer or two and we settled in for a smoke in the cozy window nook to the left of the doorway. Boy, this bud was SERIOUS I tells ya. Opting for a haze strain since its early in the day, this bud was PURE PURE sativa and tasted like a gourmet version of the Mexican Christmas-tree buds I used to smoke back in the early '80's. Matched with a strong cup of coffee we left hungry and ready to take on the town!
Can't remember where we ate...I think it was broojes at the bakery next to the City Centre. WORD OF ADVICE: OPEN THE WINDOWS AT THE CITY CENTRE! We didn't realize that we had stayed at the City Centre before, maybe 10 years ago and had security in our room for setting off the smoke alarms. Yep, a decade later, we did it again! "Please open the windows" the manager kindly asked, completely ignoring the buds and hasj on the bed. Not a problem!
Since our goal is eventual residence in this fair town (be it temporary or permanent), ANY Dutch mistaken identy is welcomed and brings a smile to our faces every time. We're approached in Nederlese more and more so we start asking the locals how to say "thanks" and "hello", stuff like that. The woman at the Albert Hejn was more than happy to give us impromptu language lessions and off we went armed with our newfound phrases that our stoner mind quickly forgot as we approached shop #3...
DUTCH FLOWERS:
Didn't visit back in November AND, like Grey Area, Barney's & Greenhouse this shop has its detractors and supportors alike. By mid-afternoon the shops began to pick up a little bit and we found the only available spot to be at the counter and approached the budtender for selection. "Do we order our drinks here or with the guy?" I asked. "I'll be happy to take your order" the budtender smiled and recommended the SILVER PEARL herb at 7.5 e/g and the MELANA CREAM hasj at 12.5 e/g. Talkative and informative, the attractive female budtenders choice of bud had a nice bite ESPECIALLY for the low price. Since the bud was pretty slick and the company very pleasant we hang out longer and spun up a fatty of the melana. Oily, black and STRONG is possessed that Indian vibe and elicited a huge coughing storm that quickly brought a cold glass of water to my plate (without asking too!) and a warm smile from our friendly tender. This, my friends, quickly put Dutch Flowers to the top of our list.
Back to the room for snoozes, smokes and phenominal views - we experienced a vast array of weather cycles on our trip. In one day we had sun, rain, snow and thunder and lightning!
Ok, even though I'm at home it IS Saturday and I've smoke one blunt too many so off to bed. More updates to come.
Thanks for listening,
HD
HasjDreamer trip report: 1/31/08 - 2/4/08
-
HasjDreamer
- Posts: 368
- Joined: Mon 10th Sep 2007 01:03 am
- Location: New England, US
-
HasjDreamer
- Posts: 368
- Joined: Mon 10th Sep 2007 01:03 am
- Location: New England, US
-
HasjDreamer
- Posts: 368
- Joined: Mon 10th Sep 2007 01:03 am
- Location: New England, US
Thanks guys!
Ok, where was I?
Day 1, Thursday January 31, 2008...
Post-snooze brought us groggily next door to SOFTLAND. You know, if we didn't have such a good experience befriending the owner/managers earlier on we MAY have found this place sketchy! We arrive and our buddy is no where to be found and a strange budtender greets us (if you could call it that!) with a wary look. We pick up a gram of EIDELWEIS at 7 e and settle down with fresh cafes. Don't recall the Eidelweis...I forgot to jott down a review but, if I recall correctly, it was a good stone for the price. While sitting and relaxing our buddy pops in and heads right for us, smiling and greeting us with shoulder pats before heading back behind the bar. Before you know it, unknown sketchy guy #1 is at our table wiping it down and cleaning it up. After that we were greeted warmly at every turn! Softland is also the only place playing cheesy r&b videos and footie on two flat screens with a pumping sound system. We got kinda addicted to the tunes and vibe over the week and found ourselves hanging in Softland (even if we weren't buying).
Running low on hasj we head to the Tweede for the last purchase of the day:
On a side note... We've VOWED "no isolator" since the euro is beating the piss out of the dollar at every turn. We've exchanged $300 us & received back a mere 180e - and THIS is at the fair GWK WITH a no-fee voucher in hand. Besides I've been reading Robert Clarke's Hashish book on the trip and was anxious to put his quality tests to work on the new & improved imported (especially the maroc's) imports circulating throughout town so I figured 40 - 60e per gram for icolator (that, truth be told NEVER tastes as good as an import) was just too much.
So, back at the Tweede we start big with the indica-based SHEHERAZADE at 14 e/g. Immaculate as to be expected with a caramel gooey consistency and a taste and stone to be reckoned with! For herb we Indica'd up again with ALEGRIA. Now the Tweede continues to dominate the coffeeshop scene with selection price and quality. At a MERE 8 e/g this bud was divinely cured and packed that sharp lung attack that I long for. The bud left us heavily stoned and comfy to end our first night back in heaven. We settle in and get ready for Friday, day 2...
Ok, where was I?
Day 1, Thursday January 31, 2008...
Post-snooze brought us groggily next door to SOFTLAND. You know, if we didn't have such a good experience befriending the owner/managers earlier on we MAY have found this place sketchy! We arrive and our buddy is no where to be found and a strange budtender greets us (if you could call it that!) with a wary look. We pick up a gram of EIDELWEIS at 7 e and settle down with fresh cafes. Don't recall the Eidelweis...I forgot to jott down a review but, if I recall correctly, it was a good stone for the price. While sitting and relaxing our buddy pops in and heads right for us, smiling and greeting us with shoulder pats before heading back behind the bar. Before you know it, unknown sketchy guy #1 is at our table wiping it down and cleaning it up. After that we were greeted warmly at every turn! Softland is also the only place playing cheesy r&b videos and footie on two flat screens with a pumping sound system. We got kinda addicted to the tunes and vibe over the week and found ourselves hanging in Softland (even if we weren't buying).
Running low on hasj we head to the Tweede for the last purchase of the day:
On a side note... We've VOWED "no isolator" since the euro is beating the piss out of the dollar at every turn. We've exchanged $300 us & received back a mere 180e - and THIS is at the fair GWK WITH a no-fee voucher in hand. Besides I've been reading Robert Clarke's Hashish book on the trip and was anxious to put his quality tests to work on the new & improved imported (especially the maroc's) imports circulating throughout town so I figured 40 - 60e per gram for icolator (that, truth be told NEVER tastes as good as an import) was just too much.
So, back at the Tweede we start big with the indica-based SHEHERAZADE at 14 e/g. Immaculate as to be expected with a caramel gooey consistency and a taste and stone to be reckoned with! For herb we Indica'd up again with ALEGRIA. Now the Tweede continues to dominate the coffeeshop scene with selection price and quality. At a MERE 8 e/g this bud was divinely cured and packed that sharp lung attack that I long for. The bud left us heavily stoned and comfy to end our first night back in heaven. We settle in and get ready for Friday, day 2...
its bouquet sweet & pungent, its bite will roast
-
HasjDreamer
- Posts: 368
- Joined: Mon 10th Sep 2007 01:03 am
- Location: New England, US
Thanks for the encouragement! Ok, off to day 2...
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 2008
We wake up to groundhog day in Amsterdam and can only DREAM of the Bill Murray movie experience
The weather is a bit better but not much. The wind has died down but the moisture in the air makes us happy we packed our heavy winter jackets. Before we hit the coffeeshop circuit we wake & bake in our room enjoying the view and watching dutch tv and heading dowstairs to enjoy our freebie breakfast buffet. Now, if you've read my previous travelogue you know how much we ADORED betty boop. No longer 'round the corner from our residence we take the 15 odd minute walk and hope Mikey, the budtender, is in AND still remembers us. On our first excursion to Betty's we walked into Buddha Bar lounge music (and I'm a Buddha Bar addict still!) and, lo-and-behold, we step into a empty shop with pulsating lounge pumping out at the perfect volume. We sit in our former usual spot but no budtender in site until Mikey pops his head up from behind the bar, gives us this look like "I know you, wait, am I stoned?" and we smile, and I ask "hey, what's that music playing?" teasing him about our first vist. He smiles, gives us each a big hug and welcomes us back. It IS good to be back!
I'm fresh out of blonde so I ask Mikey (who is kind enough to hook the wife up with a fresh birthday lighter) what do you recommend?
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... ettys2.jpg
..."the Super Maroc, for sure" Mikey insists. At 15 e for 2/g it's quite the bargain. It's not as squishy as the Sheharazade but when broken up the oil content kicks into gear rewarding us with a tasty, traditional Maroccan treat that would have made Rober Clarke proud! Clean burn, nice morning high on the STRONG side and, of course, good company. We start chatting about music (it happens to be buddha bar 8 on the player) and Mikey kindly lends us his discount card to FAME so I can get it a bit cheaper. At FAME, the slacker dude behind the counter unintentionally compliments me by mumbling something to me in Dutch when I hand him his card. Embarrassed I reply "excuse me?" and he laughs and says "what's up?".
Next stop, Haarlamstraat and POPEYE'S.
Thanks and see ya soon,
HD
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 2008
We wake up to groundhog day in Amsterdam and can only DREAM of the Bill Murray movie experience
The weather is a bit better but not much. The wind has died down but the moisture in the air makes us happy we packed our heavy winter jackets. Before we hit the coffeeshop circuit we wake & bake in our room enjoying the view and watching dutch tv and heading dowstairs to enjoy our freebie breakfast buffet. Now, if you've read my previous travelogue you know how much we ADORED betty boop. No longer 'round the corner from our residence we take the 15 odd minute walk and hope Mikey, the budtender, is in AND still remembers us. On our first excursion to Betty's we walked into Buddha Bar lounge music (and I'm a Buddha Bar addict still!) and, lo-and-behold, we step into a empty shop with pulsating lounge pumping out at the perfect volume. We sit in our former usual spot but no budtender in site until Mikey pops his head up from behind the bar, gives us this look like "I know you, wait, am I stoned?" and we smile, and I ask "hey, what's that music playing?" teasing him about our first vist. He smiles, gives us each a big hug and welcomes us back. It IS good to be back!
I'm fresh out of blonde so I ask Mikey (who is kind enough to hook the wife up with a fresh birthday lighter) what do you recommend?
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... ettys2.jpg
..."the Super Maroc, for sure" Mikey insists. At 15 e for 2/g it's quite the bargain. It's not as squishy as the Sheharazade but when broken up the oil content kicks into gear rewarding us with a tasty, traditional Maroccan treat that would have made Rober Clarke proud! Clean burn, nice morning high on the STRONG side and, of course, good company. We start chatting about music (it happens to be buddha bar 8 on the player) and Mikey kindly lends us his discount card to FAME so I can get it a bit cheaper. At FAME, the slacker dude behind the counter unintentionally compliments me by mumbling something to me in Dutch when I hand him his card. Embarrassed I reply "excuse me?" and he laughs and says "what's up?".
Next stop, Haarlamstraat and POPEYE'S.
Thanks and see ya soon,
HD
its bouquet sweet & pungent, its bite will roast
-
HasjDreamer
- Posts: 368
- Joined: Mon 10th Sep 2007 01:03 am
- Location: New England, US
DAY 2, PART 2...
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 2008
Leaving hasj baked from Betty's we pass by the notorious "La Canna" on our way to get some curry fries on the Dam. The weather seems to improve by the hour although it always SEEMS friggin' freezing when we step out of the comfy confines of a coffeeshop all warm & toasty but quickly warm up as we walk about town. We head towards Popeye's hoping that our buddy "Attilla" will be working enjoying the best fries on earth on the way.
We enter POPEYE'S and neither Attilla, Johnny nor the "3rd tenor" were around BUT both ALLADIN'S CHOCOLATE and PINK KUSH were! We settle downstairs for the first time and meet the first of many puppies on our trip: a gorgeous 3 or 4 month mastiff with a group of teens. These kids looked like punks (er, don't ALL kids these days?) but were treating this pup like GOLD. We settled in with cafe & ALLADIN'S CHOCOLATE. At 15 e/g it was even better then we remembered...very "rifman-like" with its amazing consistancy, delish taste and fantastic high. We return to the spui & our hotel room to sample the PINK KUSH...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... nkKush.jpg
...and it's as good as we remember from last time! Now, the wife and I are BIG Simpson's fans (geezer enough to have watched from season 1) BUT we had yet to see the movie (still haven't!) and were thrilled to death that our hotel featured it as a pay per view. We settled down to watch and INSTEAD "Rattatoule" comes on! It's hard to REALLY be dissapointed in Amsterdam so instead we settle down with fine bud & hasj and enjoy an alternate cartoon. Ah, the sacrifices we must make!
Well, back to the report. Following our hotel stop over we head into the tourist part of town to hit up the Greenhouse Centrum and others. Now you know the routine - we ALL lust over the menu photos on fly-by-nites site in anticipation of our trips and I had been checking out Goa's menu for a bit now so GOA is our first stop down-town.
Being "Hasj Dreamer" and all AND carrying the Robert Clarke book around (well it's in my hotel room anyway) I'm in search of rarities and the GOA menu has been flaunting two unusual items, both of which we had to pick up: TURKISH at 15/e/g and AFGHANI POLLEN at 15 e/0.80 grams. Now I haven't had Turkish since '02 at the Overkant and I know it's pretty unusual nowadays but Afghani at 15 euro's? And, yes that's not a typo, for less than a gram? Now THAT I had to taste!
We settle in and rather enjoy the fact that this place has not changed in the ten plus years we've been coming to the 'dam. Besides, we haven't been here in a few trips and the hasj DOES come in those cool test tubes! We roll up a fine Turkish spliff and it's MUCH better than expected..clean as a whistle, black as night with almost a sieved maroc taste. Good job! Later on we sample the mysteriouso afghani. Now I'm thinking, is this like the mythical hasj of the late '60's hippie-hash trail? Are some Afghans returning to the ye olde days of hasj making? All this anticipation is BOUND to be bad and the results were, well...not bad. Not bad at all, in fact REALLY nice. BUT, for the price? We smoked about 1/2 a gram, got a great high but it didn't seem ALL that impressive and only a bit better than the tora bora I'll report on later.
Heavy handed on the hasj (what a shock!) we head right across the canal to GREENHOUSE CENTRUM. Being a Friday night it's getting pretty busy. I mean, not TOO busy but too busy to say. We wait a behind a couple of people to scope out the menu (two budtenders tonight to keep up with the tourists) and I find myself happy I stocked up on solids because EVERY hasj is "out of stock"! Since I'm baked & here for herb I don't even ask but EVERY haze variety is there. We settle on Arjan's Ultra Haze #1 at 12 e/g and Tasman Haze @ 11 e/g. Another really good experience at the G'House. The budtenders are very helpful, showing us each variety and allowing us a big ol' sniff & peek of each as well as providing us with detailed opinions. A return back to the spui for dinner and chillage and we sampled the GH hazes...first up: ARJAN'S #1. Pungent sativa, nice bite and great clean high. The TASMAN HAZE was equally good and both gave us the head strength to make it to our last stop of the night: TWEEDE KAMER.
I love shopping for end-of-night product! It's always "give me yer strongest" and tonight was no exception. We hasj'd up with Rifman #2 HABIB at 13 e/g and herbed up with LAUGHING BUDDHA. The Habib continued the Rifman dominance with a top-notch sativa-ish high. We enjoyed having the time to run our sample through some of Clarke's quality tests and, of course, it passed with highing colors! The Laughing Buddha put us comfortably to bed with visions of The Cuypstraat and Bushdoctor dancing in our head!
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1ST, 2008
Leaving hasj baked from Betty's we pass by the notorious "La Canna" on our way to get some curry fries on the Dam. The weather seems to improve by the hour although it always SEEMS friggin' freezing when we step out of the comfy confines of a coffeeshop all warm & toasty but quickly warm up as we walk about town. We head towards Popeye's hoping that our buddy "Attilla" will be working enjoying the best fries on earth on the way.
We enter POPEYE'S and neither Attilla, Johnny nor the "3rd tenor" were around BUT both ALLADIN'S CHOCOLATE and PINK KUSH were! We settle downstairs for the first time and meet the first of many puppies on our trip: a gorgeous 3 or 4 month mastiff with a group of teens. These kids looked like punks (er, don't ALL kids these days?) but were treating this pup like GOLD. We settled in with cafe & ALLADIN'S CHOCOLATE. At 15 e/g it was even better then we remembered...very "rifman-like" with its amazing consistancy, delish taste and fantastic high. We return to the spui & our hotel room to sample the PINK KUSH...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... nkKush.jpg
...and it's as good as we remember from last time! Now, the wife and I are BIG Simpson's fans (geezer enough to have watched from season 1) BUT we had yet to see the movie (still haven't!) and were thrilled to death that our hotel featured it as a pay per view. We settled down to watch and INSTEAD "Rattatoule" comes on! It's hard to REALLY be dissapointed in Amsterdam so instead we settle down with fine bud & hasj and enjoy an alternate cartoon. Ah, the sacrifices we must make!
Well, back to the report. Following our hotel stop over we head into the tourist part of town to hit up the Greenhouse Centrum and others. Now you know the routine - we ALL lust over the menu photos on fly-by-nites site in anticipation of our trips and I had been checking out Goa's menu for a bit now so GOA is our first stop down-town.
Being "Hasj Dreamer" and all AND carrying the Robert Clarke book around (well it's in my hotel room anyway) I'm in search of rarities and the GOA menu has been flaunting two unusual items, both of which we had to pick up: TURKISH at 15/e/g and AFGHANI POLLEN at 15 e/0.80 grams. Now I haven't had Turkish since '02 at the Overkant and I know it's pretty unusual nowadays but Afghani at 15 euro's? And, yes that's not a typo, for less than a gram? Now THAT I had to taste!
We settle in and rather enjoy the fact that this place has not changed in the ten plus years we've been coming to the 'dam. Besides, we haven't been here in a few trips and the hasj DOES come in those cool test tubes! We roll up a fine Turkish spliff and it's MUCH better than expected..clean as a whistle, black as night with almost a sieved maroc taste. Good job! Later on we sample the mysteriouso afghani. Now I'm thinking, is this like the mythical hasj of the late '60's hippie-hash trail? Are some Afghans returning to the ye olde days of hasj making? All this anticipation is BOUND to be bad and the results were, well...not bad. Not bad at all, in fact REALLY nice. BUT, for the price? We smoked about 1/2 a gram, got a great high but it didn't seem ALL that impressive and only a bit better than the tora bora I'll report on later.
Heavy handed on the hasj (what a shock!) we head right across the canal to GREENHOUSE CENTRUM. Being a Friday night it's getting pretty busy. I mean, not TOO busy but too busy to say. We wait a behind a couple of people to scope out the menu (two budtenders tonight to keep up with the tourists) and I find myself happy I stocked up on solids because EVERY hasj is "out of stock"! Since I'm baked & here for herb I don't even ask but EVERY haze variety is there. We settle on Arjan's Ultra Haze #1 at 12 e/g and Tasman Haze @ 11 e/g. Another really good experience at the G'House. The budtenders are very helpful, showing us each variety and allowing us a big ol' sniff & peek of each as well as providing us with detailed opinions. A return back to the spui for dinner and chillage and we sampled the GH hazes...first up: ARJAN'S #1. Pungent sativa, nice bite and great clean high. The TASMAN HAZE was equally good and both gave us the head strength to make it to our last stop of the night: TWEEDE KAMER.
I love shopping for end-of-night product! It's always "give me yer strongest" and tonight was no exception. We hasj'd up with Rifman #2 HABIB at 13 e/g and herbed up with LAUGHING BUDDHA. The Habib continued the Rifman dominance with a top-notch sativa-ish high. We enjoyed having the time to run our sample through some of Clarke's quality tests and, of course, it passed with highing colors! The Laughing Buddha put us comfortably to bed with visions of The Cuypstraat and Bushdoctor dancing in our head!
its bouquet sweet & pungent, its bite will roast
