Amsterdam Coffeeshop Directory Forums

Hey gang, thanks again for the kind words...

CodeJD...don't sweat it: time has a way of speeding up as our vacation comes to an end! Sunday, Monday even Tuesday - felt like FOREVER. Wednesday on? I couldn't stop that rolling train! La Vita RULED! We would visit them one more time later in the week.

With "Gil" resting, we hit the Haarlemmerstraat and take a left looking for our favorite broodje shop: single store front, left hand of the street, counter on the right, stack of canned groceries on a shelf to the left. Viola! Just when we think we missed it thar she is in all her glory. We patiently wait as the locals before us order broodjes, raw meat and prepared dinners. We're approached in Dutch and I ask for two ham and cheese on white, mayo no butter, lettuce, tomato, cukes, boiled egg and a little salt and pepper. A "healthy sandwich" she calls it and soon she's teaching me how to say "healthy sandwich" in Dutch (Gezonde) and we're stepping out into the endless day quaffing this glorious delicacy! Ok, how come we can't bake bread like this in the states? Now, I live in a serious foody neighborhood and our most expensive bread can't hold a candle to their crunchy exterior and chewy insides. Sigh....

Ok, a break for some misc. pics:

Dutch wildlife...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0117.jpg

Our stained glass windows...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0114.jpg

Authentic Dutch picnic...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0109.jpg

Jordaan landmark...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0081.jpg

FAILE graffiti...
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0083.jpg

...as usual, more to come!

-HD

Alright, let me do some catching up here!

MONDAY, MAY 25, 2009 - POST LUNCH

We try Popeye's for some internet but, yet again, they're full! Amsterdam is hopping and even on a Monday the town is full of locals and tourists making the most of the stunning weather. Now, I like sunlight almost as much as the next guy BUT this getting dark at 10:00pm is a bit extreme. My body thinks it's MUCH MUCH earlier and I almost feel cheated when it doesn't get fully dark until almost 11:00pm! I'm no night owl so we're in bed by 1:00 or so so we can get up rather early. I almost miss the perpetual nighttime of Amsterdam in the winter...

Off to a recommended coffeeshop next - right down the straat:

DOORS

Oddly enough, in 9 trips we had never stopped in! Mainly because we used this neighborhood as a pass thru to Barney's or Popeye's in the past. But we settle in the empty coffeeshop, grabbing the table by the door.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0102.jpg

Our budtender, a young blonde haired chap, was literately bouncing off the walls singing along with the classic rock (and YES there were Doors toons playing!) cranked out at a comfortable volume. We walk up to another of those strange push-a-button-and-light-me-up coffeeshop menus:

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We jump into the...

"Caramello" at 12 euro for the 1.3 gram. No pics, but notes dictate "a near perfect hasj". Meeting the new standard of killer Marocs - dark brown waxy shell hiding the creamy light brown goodness beneath. A new age of hashish is upon us in Amsterdam as the bar has been raised and virtually every Moroccan we've sampled has been superb! A nice afternoon bake followed and we find ourselves seeking a snack and libation.

Having enjoyed Barney's Lounge a couple of trips ago, we pop in the find it also empty and grab the window stools to people watch while we order Mojitos and the hummus appetizer plate. The bartender was nice enough but we could clearly hear her ask the dude she was working with how to make a mojito. Well, he patiently and accurately walked her through the procedure (no easy task) and it took a good 15 minutes to make two of them. When she dropped them off she tried to keep up a confident face and we just smiled and sipped. The result? Killer, kiiler 'to's...made strong with cubano rum and sweet with fresh mint. The hummus / "some unknown name" was REALLY impressive. A bed of olive oil with pine nuts accented the hummus side and the red veggie side had a deep spiced flavor (no heat) and was served with lots of warm pita bread. Splendid and cheap!

With a nice rum and hasj buzz we head to the new favorite

137

for a round of kingly cafe and a gram of old skool:

ORANGE BUD at 7 e/g

PERFECT cure and that great orange indica taste and mellow sit-on-my-ass stone...a perfect precursor to a scooter ride!

With eternal sunlight at our disposal, we hop on Gil and dart our on the streets winding up cruising the Singel canal and enjoying the breeze on our faces. After bouncing around for a half hour or so we pass

DUTCH FLOWERS, land of our previous favorite hasj! Feeling like a local on two powered wheels, we park and lock up and pop in for a quick session.

The Monday thing is creeping in so we find the Coffeeshop empty and grab the favorite window table and settle down for coffee and a great view. I head to the budtender and menu:

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http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0119.jpg

...and pick up a gram of "Maroc Brut" at 11 e/g and a 10 e/g of "Vanilla Queen".

We smoke the "brut" on the spot...MAGnificent! Like I said, with minor differences between the 8 e/g and 16 e/g (with the best, like the Brut, somewhere in between), the Marocs are HEAVENLY!!! The Rif Man standard seems to have really caught on...

We scooter back to the Brouersgracht, buzzing from...well, EVERYTHING and soon find ourselves parking Gil for the night. Back at the room with light up come of that Vanilla Queen and...whoa! What's all this then? Powerful white bud that left us comfortably rested after the scooter jaunt.

Hunger has reared its lovely head once again and we head out to a late night dinner. Since it's about 10:30 (and JUST starting to get officially 'dark') many of the restaurants are closed but we manage to find a GREAT little Indian restaurant on Haarlemerstraat towards the beginning for some Chicken vindaloo and appetizers. HOT HOT HOT! VERY spicy, my friends...VERY spicy!

Alright, that's it for now! I won't wait so long to finish the post...

Cheers,

-HD

Brilliant, utterly loving your reports. thank you.

MONDAY, MAY 25, 2009 continued...

Ok, I lied; it DID take me forever for the next post! Oh well, stoner time and all...

Before I get back into, a pic of VANILLA QUEEN:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0130.jpg

Freshly refueled from a fantastic Indian dinner, we stop off at Popeye's where we FINALLY are able to score some internet access. We settle down at our "lucky laptop" (the one where I received my job offer last trip), a couple of nice hot cocoa's with whipped cream and a gram of the perennial favorite:

ALLADIN'S CHOCOLATE at 15 e/g

Real good, I mean REAL good - a chocolately Maroc that is as fresh as they come. Worth 15 e/g? Well, it's BETTER than the overpriced Caramello from Barney's but we're beginning to find that much of the Maroc is overpriced in the Haarlemmerstraat area and we seem to be better off grabbing the 'shish from smaller shops (with, of course, some MAJOR exceptions to show).

We roll, check the internet and chill enjoying the end of what is our first full day in Amsterdam. We've done SO much and there is SO much left to do!

Not ready to call it a night and with the first signs of rain coming in we head off to the Dampkring to grab some end of night deelight! Grab and go style, we load up on stoney and morning high materials such as:

LAVENDER 10 e/g

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Real REAL stoney - nice indica that sat us comfortably on our asses back at the apartment. The indicas are so affordable and they're ALL fantastically cured packing a kick. Niiiice!

For morning bud we go for the traditional morning bake:

MEXI HAZE 13 e/g

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http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0124.jpg

A little shaky but that SMELL...my LORD! Sharp, fresh, CLEAN - EXACTLY how a perfect sativa should come off. We saved it for our morning bake where it helped boost us until our first cup of cafe at 137.

Finally, a little indulgence! It had been a couple of trips since we smoked any sort of icolator (except for imported Mexican ices). We asked for the 35 euro ice (what IS the name, used to be called Moonshine) but they were out so we bumped up to the next:

DAMPKRING ICOLATOR 45 e/g

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0131.jpg

REAL strong, but REAL "high"...I had a hard time going to sleep afterwards! It was NOT a great end-of-night hasj but tasted better than expected and carried itself in appearance and texture quite like a black-maroc. Was it worth 45 e/g? As an indulgence maybe but not really. We find that some of the hasj as cheap as 7 and 8 e/g can leave us nicely baked and exponentially increase our high the more we smoke. In other words we'd get a WHOLE lot higher smoking 8 or so grams of a nice Maroc than we would a gram of the ice. Of course, it's like that TOTAL commercial "you'd have to smoke over 5 bowls of King Hassan hasj to get as blasted as one bowl of Dampkring Ice". Choose yer poison!

The rain kicks in that night something FIERCE! Pelting down on the skylight over our bed it sounds like firecrackers exploding above us...THAT combined with the soaring high of the ice left me tossing and turning finding sleep hard to come. Ahh, like a little kid on Christmas eve - I don't want to miss a thing!!!

Some pics of rainy Amsterdam by night from our room:

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http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0137.jpg
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Cheers!

-HD

good work man, a great read.

moonshine? think it changed to water works, dunno what it is now.

WATERWORKS! THAT'S it!

Thanks Pirate...

TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2009

We wake to rain but our spirits are high and we saddle up to a spliff of Mexi haze before we head over to 137 for our first cup. We scan the news stations and see LOTS of footage of broken tree limbs and various destruction from the storm the night before. Code JD even told me that his rental landlord told him it was the worst he's seen in over a decade!

Showered and brightly high off of the haze, we bounce down the street to the ol' 137 for TWO cups each of their splendid java! We smoke left over Marocs leaving the waterworks for later in the day. Tonight's the concert - Jean Michele Jarre, the legendary French electronic musician is playing at the Heineken Music Hall and we're VERY psyched about our first in-town concert. We've travelled to Amsterdam for concerts before - Cologne for Stockhausen (even got to meet him - an honor and a privilege) and Osnabruck (Klaus Schulze, high on quality hasj muffins and Jaeger) Germany sandwiched between 3 days or so in Adam - but this was the first time we got to catch a show in town WITHOUT losing a night or 3!

It's drizzling now but we're in no mood to scooter about in the chilly dank so we head out wherever, holding close under the our umbrella like a couple of newlyweds (together for 25 years now!) ducking the weather and munching on broodjes until we re-find:

EL GUAPO

A nice discovery a couple of trips ago, we hadn't stopped in since and since we've toasted out our Maroc stash we pick up the obvious:

"El Guapo Special" at 11 e/g

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0147.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0148.jpg

Spicy, hard but became pliable and nice with some hand rubbing and toasted up fresher taste then I would have thought but the joint DID canoe half way through not allowing for as good of a smoke as I would have hoped for. A cool cat came over to our table for a visit and settled in for his afternoon nap:

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We decide to head back in the general vicinity of the apartment - hitting FREEWORLD on the way for soda and a hit at the internet. Nice shop, we were loaded up already so didn't stop for any bud. We were impressed enough to return soon enough for product.

The day is going by quickly - too quickly for my taste! - and we stop off at the Greenhouse for another grab and go. Now, I KNOW folks are split on the GH but we're big fans. Always a good budtender who remembers who you are, prices that are fair to good especially for the neighborhood and GREAT product!! Consistent in a good cure with an AMAZING selection to pick and choose from. Far superior to Dampkring in my opinion - more personal, the budtender will automatically show you bud options while you're contemplating and provide unrushed advice even with a line. The Dampkring, while pleasant and tasty-ass product, felt far more corporate than the GH. Later we would discover the joys of their fresh mint tea!

Getting ready for the show, we load up on GH uplifters:

"Temple Ball" 11 e/g

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http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0156.jpg

"Lemon Haze" 13 e/g

"Arjan's #1" 11 e/g

...gotta go, talk to y'all soon!

-HD

HasjDreamer wrote:We wake to rain

you might wake to rain but i woke to find the latest installment of your travelogue and had to go downstairs to make the coffee and have a smoke so i could sit back and have a nice early morning smoke-and-read

thanks, waiting for more ...

Stoned...your comment MADE MY DAY!

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2009

We head back to the room to ready ourselves for the concert tonight. Stocked up on bud and hasj we sample the LEMON HAZE...

wOw! The citrus taste hits you up front - clean, VERY lemony and a spacey high that complimented the JMJ playing on the iPod. Great looking buds, full and cured perfectly as we've come to expect from GH.

Next up: TEMPLE BALL...

Ok, maybe not QUITE the Stix standard but tasty, spicy and that TRUE Temple ball taste/texture and HiGh. Black and shiny exterior, dark brown almost black softer interior that begged to be rolled into spaghetti strips!

ARJAN'S HAZE...

Impressive, not the taste sensation of the Lemon but a strong pick-us-up high that had us ready for Centraal and our trip out to Biljmer and the Heineken Music Hall.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0151.jpg
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OFF TO THE SHOW!

We take the leisurely stroll around the corner to Centraal and since I've stashed enough euro change for the machines we take the easy way out and soon we have our r/t ticks and board the train.

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15 or so minutes later and we're at Biljmer station - a cool looking modern train station that leads to a wide open plaza with the Heineken Music Hall and a movie theatre to the left, Ajax stadium to the right, a office strip with parking garages straight ahead and a Feebo and pub exposed in the center. We stake out a spot next to the garage to smoke a big ol' phatty of the Waterworks while the grey skies look down on us, waiting for the show...

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We head into the show and YES, T-SHIRTS!!! I elbow my way through a rather forward crowd, trying REAL hard to defend myself against the Dutch middle-aged male prog rock crowd to score a most awesome JMJ t-shirt complete with Amsterdam tour date on the back! Ahhhh!

We head inside to a wide open concert space that looks FAR too small for 5k capacity! Off to get grab a beer, we quickly discover the need for tokens FIRST so it's back to the lobby to try and figure out how-in-the-Sam-Hill we work these machines. Thirst is victorious and soon we're loaded with enough tokens for two jumbo Heiney's as we take our seats:

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff26 ... CN0163.jpg

-HD

another fine report.

thanks for sharing your adventures with us!

i cant wait for my next trip

Good report. Nicely done...nicely done *nodding*.

JEAN MICHEL JARRE...IN CONCERT!

TUESDAY, MAY 26, 2009

Nothing quite like waiting for the show with a big-ass Heineken on tap and wrecked off a phat spliff of Waterworks. Great seats provided us the perfect vantage point for THE most amazing laser light show you could imagine. His set list was mostly a "greatest hits" show (that is, IF you've even heard of the guy) and, with cameras allowed, most of the audience (myself included) filmed a good chunk of the show (I got almost a half hour, will eventually post to you tube).

We cut out during the encore to beat the mad rush of prog rockers departing at the same time and immediately catch the train "home" . It's around 10:30 or so and starting to darken up. High off the concert but needing some herbalization we head STRAIGHT to 137 for a cup of coffee and some off the Maroc we pre-rolled at the apartment before the show. We're now instantly recognized at 137 and greeted ALMOST like locals. The other patrons don't come over to chat but, to be honest, we don't try to initiate any conversation. We're all happy...all chilled. The wife and I simply enjoy each others company as well as the ambience (and, don't forget the weed and greatest coffee) and stare blankly at the latest leg of the bicycle race on the telly.

Since we haven't eaten and it's late, we stroll around the corner to 42 SHOARMA next to the Dampkring for some late night near-east tasty delights. Dang, we absolutely ADORE the little falafel joints around town...4 or so tables, tops and a gracious and attentive proprietor that cooks the food fresh. Chicken shoarma was our choice - FRESH, raw marinated chicken tossed on the grill served up with a huge salad and fries and all the homemade chili sauce and garlic sauce we could squeeze out a plastic bottle. HEAVEN! White table clothed restaurants be damned, I'll take the wobbly tabled open-till-4am restaurants ANY time!

Belly full and ready for more, we check out the traffic at GREENHOUSE to see if we can score a table.

With seating aplenty and the newly discovered fish bowl floor...


...the wife grabs the corner booth and I saddle up to the bar, pardner:

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With the assistance of the ever helpful budtender I load up with night caps (as well as a nice free grinder he hooked up us with!):

BUBBA KUSH 11 e/g

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("this will make you sleep like an angel"...sho' did!)

MEXICAN ICE 12 e/g

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Whoa! This shit hit us like the 35 e/g waterworks - great taste and SOARING high. Like the Bushdoctor, I dig the imported ice even more than the domestic and this proved another prime example.

The OTHER great find...

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FRESH mint tea! If it was around before, WE never saw it. Suddenly we were surrounded by these glorious hot glasses filled with stalks of fresh mint with sugar cubes and packs of honey. After we ordered I think I counted 6 of the 9 customers sharing the libation. It would become the ONLY drink of choice for the wife (when available, most of the time) and my pick for nights end.

Speaking of nights end, we head back to the apartment in a cool light mist reveling in the results of our vacation so far. With 3 and a half days left we smoke bubba kush and fall into a deep, comfortable slumber awaiting our cell phone alarm to alert us that a new day in heaven has, in fact, dawned...

-HD

Wow HD you really are spoiling us with your info-packed reports! I hope we are not running out of holiday just yet.

Greenhouse's Mexican Ice sounds quite the bargain at €12/g and fresh mint tea (or fresh mint anything for that matter) is always a winner

Hey man enjoying the report and pics cheers so the greenhouse are still giving away free grinders ? did you have to buy a certain amount ? cheers

Great report mate, very enjoyable read whilst bored at work and waiting for a joint! Loving the king of the hill sticker, obviously an homage to the work of Shepard Fairey (also known as 'obey'), nice to see some Faile work aswell. Looking forward to sampling some of that mexican next time im im 'Dam. Keep up the good work!