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Well here it comes again... Another trip to the city of fun has come around!

Flying out Monday afternoon/early evening, returning again Thursday night!

I have one plan. See below.

Step 1. There is no plan.

Step 2. See above.

There we are - now I don't have to worry about not finding the time to visit this coffeeshop and go to that bar/club/whatever that I had planned to see this time around.

There's always something that seems to crop up, whether it be the vagaries of the Dutch weather, or just getting so hammered by a particular weed, that I no longer stress out over anything that happens when I'm away...

Ok, so there are one or two events that will always occur during my trips to Amsterdam. Firstly will be my pilgrimage to De Kuil. Always first on the list and often the location for my last few hours before catching the plane back home.

The Lemongrass Wok on the corner of Oudebrugsteeg and Damrak will also be receiving plenty of my hard-earned €'s... a better place for food is hard to find for €7,50, and so quick and fresh!

Amnesia is usually my second home from home - I was quite concerned that the refurbishments and new decor would have messed this place up when I was there last month, but apart from looking a little snazzier and losing the side door on Bergstraat, there didn't seem to be much change. The service was as good as I've always had there and the weed was equally excellent, with a few more additions that I hadn't seen on my previous visit.

I've seen that some people have had sketchy service here, but I've never experienced this first-hand, and indeed the only time I have seen trouble here was when a group of loud mouthed kiddies tried to protest their age to the budtender and were asked to leave (they looked around 16-17, had no IDs and were acting like 12yr olds)...

I'm sure that Rasta Baby will get a visit as well next week - the weed is ok - nothing special, but does the trick. I always buy something in every coffeeshop I go to, partly out of politeness (and I don't like getting stared at for bringing out a baggie of weed I've bought elsewhere!) and partly because I like to support these little havens of sanity! If everyone went into the coffeeshops with gear they buy elsewhere, then you might as well say, ok - let's go into this bar, sit down and pull out a bottle of scotch you've bought at the supermarket and ask the bar staff for an empty glass and some ice, please? Reaction? Answers on a postcard please...

Sorry - rant over. But anyhoo... ah yes, Rasta Baby. Nice chilled vibe, friendly staff, good music most of the time and a pair of the biggest pothead cats you'll see! I like talking to cats when I'm off my trolley - the cat that runs De Kuil and De Kroon opposite it just has the coolest existence. If there were such a thing as reincarnation, I'd want to come back as a coffeeshop cat. Hell yeah.

Food places are always of interest to me, and although these days I've grown from crawling from one Kebab vendor's greasy offerings to the nearest Febo to finish off what what was left of my guts... I still like to get a good bit of nosh for my €. I already mentioned the Lemongrass Wok - great stuff, and if that didn't fill you up, there a frites place next door to get that cholesterol fix!

Barneys has become a little overpriced now for what is quite basic grub, and unless I'm in that part of town, with a lot more money than normal, I'm not likely to be shelling out €15 for breakfast ( I seem to recall the breakfast being about €13, with a drink of some description, you're looking at an easy €15 spend). The food's not bad there, but not really great value for money IMHO. Weed there was always good quality, but unless I'm landing so early in the morning that nowhere else was open, I'll give it a miss now, thanks...

Ahh well..... I've got two more days at work, then I can relax and get my stuff ready for that Monday flight - I've just taken a quick look at the BMIBaby website to find that my £65 return flight is now listed at £222!!! How glad am I that I didn't leave it til the last minute to book!

Anyone fancies meeting up anywhere, let me know. I'll be checking in here right up til a couple of hours before I get the plane, and if I get close to an internet connection over there, well.....

Ahhh nice mate flying the same days as me I saw your post on the (travel plans Before) on the post which i posted. Its my first time and the other 4 lads im with aswell but although we are all noobs to Amsterdam i have it planned rite down to the very last detail we are staying in Utopia Hostle so we are very close to Homegrown Fantasy,Grey Area,Amnesia and the green place. So if you see or hear 5 welsh lads (Very strong welsh accents) then just gimmie a shout mate we always up for a Mull or a good old smoke having a laugh! Might catch you soon!

Bet you cant wait!! i kno i cant!


Have an awsome time if i dont see you out there mate

The best plan skilth, is.... make no plan!

Trust me - I've been doing this a long, long time!!!

nice warm up post there mate.

im at the stage of going to dam where i still make plans, but readily accept that these plans will never get past coffeeshop number 2. ha ha.

I see that on the 21st there are eight folks in town. Might be a good day for a Meet and Greet. Give me a coffeeshop and a time and I'll post it on Whos In Town.

Enjoy
FlyByNite
Coffeeshop Frog Hollow home of the Whos In Town and Coffeeshop Menus pages.

Have a good trip m8
I am in the week after you get back so any recomendations would be nice
enjoy

I arrive Weds 22nd 12pmish so if you want a toke weds or thurs let me know Dave - i enjoy the freedom of solo visits to the Dam but its always nice to catch up with a fellow toker or two along the way too.

Cheers for the replies guys...

I'm a creature of habit sadly, and tend to spend an awful lot of time in De Kuil and Amnesia, so this is probably the best place to catch me - I can take the initiative FlyByNite,and suggest perhaps for the 21st, De Kuil at 2pm?

Or would people prefer something later in the evening, maybe?

Matty - howzabout 2pm in DeKuil on the 22nd? Does that give you enough time to do whatever you may need to do on arrival?

I can do the De Kuil at 2pm on 21st. Names Chris, and I'll be with my mate Dougie. I'll probably be wearing a cap with a huge leaf on it You'll recognise us by our Mackem accents.

sounds like a plan to me Theres me and 4 other guys but they're sound anyways!! So De Kuil at 2pm on the 21st?

Sounds like a plan, fellas!

There's a nice big table at the back, so we can probably take over the back half of the shop if there's enough of us!!!

I'll post another thread, advertising the meet&greet in De Kuil in the main Travel Plans forum, in case people haven't read through this one...

Well I've got to say I like the easy way you can now check in online!

Click, click, click, and it's all done.

Only problem I had was my printer suddenly deciding not to work properly in colour, so the boarding pass looks a little different to how it should - I think a quick stop at work on the way to print off a proper one might be in order - I don't want to get stopped this close to departure just because my boarding card's the wrong colour!

The other great thing is that I can get off the plane pretty damn quick too as I've managed to book a window seat on the second row from the front! No messing around tomorrow - as soon as those doors are open, I'll be off the plane and through the miles of airport before you know it, nostrils flared for that first faint whiff of weed...

Everything is sorted. Clothes are washed and dried, packed in my little rucksack, all my little toiletry travel bottles are full and secured. Passport and money ready. Travel insurance and hotel reservations printed off and stashed in my bag. Mobile charged and topped up with credit, GPS bluetooth thing for the phone charged up as well, and travel adaptor in top of bag. Most important - Loo Roll! Lesson learned from previous visits - always, but always carry a spare roll - some hotels seem to take a perverse pleasure in supplying you with little more than the tracing paper kinda stuff you used to get in school... If I'm brave enough to dare the evening meals at the Hotel Vijaya, then a good curry might just leave me in need of some thing nice and kitten-soft to ease the "Ring of Fire" the following morning!

I took a quick look as I booked in at the price of my flights now, with just 20 or so hours before departure, the cost has flown up to £302! Ouch!

If this online check-in works out to be as smooth as it seems to be so far, then I can't see any reason not to use it again in future (working printer allowing) - very easy. No more queueing for hours at the long check-in lines, just straight through security and into the departure lounge... Nice.

This time tomorrow I'll be there!

Looking forward to seeing those of you who are around and coming to the meet & greet on Tuesday in De Kuil - should be good!

If I don't update in the morning before I head off for the airport, then I'll see you there! Right. Time to skin up!

DaveS wrote:Mobile charged and topped up with credit, GPS bluetooth thing for the phone charged up as well, and travel adaptor in top of bag.

Lol@GPS... I took mine the last few trips and barely used it after a few smokes due to the paranoia of having it snatched with my fone, I think it was the standing around waiting for the gps sat signal to be found:)

Have a great trip

Cheers, hulldj!

To be honest, after so many years of visiting Amsterdam, I still get lost from time to time - especially if I've been exploring new areas or (more often) am heroically mullered!

It's at these times in the past, I'd wished that I'd had some sort of magical "direct-me-home" machine... or at the very least, a map.

Now, with all this new-fangled GPS wizardry built into your phones these days, it makes traversing strange and new parts of town easier on the feet, by making sure that you don't stumble off the wrong way down one of the canals, (mistakenly) convinced that the hotel/coffeeshop/munchie vendor you seek is only just around the next corner!

An hour or so later, and with a growing sense of fatigue and desperation making itself felt, you realise you're even further away than you could imagine possible, and there is now the miserable prospect of trudging back the way you came - more or less (given the rather hazy state of mind)...

I don't flash my gadgets around (ooh-er missus!) for all to see in public, nor do I fancy walking along, zombie-like, with all my attention fixed on my mobile... A dangerous move at home - in Amsterdam, with all those bikes and trams trying to kill you at the same time? No chance. I'll stop at one of the bridges (thank god for bridges), switch on the little bluetooth GPS and wait for it to get it's lock whilst admiring the local scenary. Then I can take a quick look on the phone to see where I am, and once I've re-aligned my own internal compass, stick it away nice and secure in my pocket and head for more familiar parts of town. Great for emergencies, but I don't let my life revolve around them.

Well, it's one in the morning and my last batch of clothes is nearly dry, so it's off to bed for some much needed Z's.

I'm meeting a mate before I go to have a Chinese All-you-can-eat buffet at lunchtime, so I shouldn't need to worry too much about a big breakfast in the morning - and with any luck, I won't feel the need to feed till much later on in the evening...

Night all...

Kroikey wrote:I can do the De Kuil at 2pm on 21st. Names Chris, and I'll be with my mate Dougie. I'll probably be wearing a cap with a huge leaf on it You'll recognise us by our Mackem accents.

yoo i hope i will be there i am there at 14:00
21 october 2 pm at kuil