Hippy's Daily Dutch Toke

hippy_man99 · Post by **hippy_man99** » Sun 31st May 2009 07:26 pm

EDIT: I've put all this on my own personal blog, check it out here
http://dailydutchtoke.blogspot.com

It was the warm rays of the sun that peeked through my window and woke me gently this quiet Sunday. I heard the normal sounds, a bird chirping, the wind blowing, the crank crank crank of some old bike riding across the brick laid streets.

I rolled out of bed to greet yet another long weekend. It seems one of the most secular countries in Europe has the most public religious holidays... Seriously! We had a 4 day weekend a few weeks ago....
I guess the Dutch just enjoy taking breaks...

I rolled up an Amnesia spliff from the Goa and puffed away in my Garden while my breakfast Omelet was cooking. I gazed up at the sky watching how much faster the clouds move here than back home. Off in the distance I hear a jet engine, no doubt landing or taking off from Schipol and I can't help but wonder.... who's on that plane? is it an old businessman, wearliy travelling yet again abroad for some board meeting... or a group of College kids, with cannabis leaves for eyes waiting to experience a unique drug policy and culture very foreign to them....

I hear jets very often, coming and going to and from all remote places in the world...
... and I'm rambling on a bit... see what Hazes do to me?

I finished my breakfast and got ready for the day... no specific plan in mind, I just set my Ipod to random and took off on my old rusty Dutch bike... weaving in and out of the tiny streets and alleys of Leiden, I come to the main market street to find a book market unbeknownst to me even after living here for 5 months! I wandered slowly through the booths, looking at all the books, new and old, fiction and non fiction, adult and children books alike.... Most were in Dutch, but i saw a few english, french and others mixed in the bunch.

I ambled around the streets weaving in and out until eventually hitting yet another market, a cultural exchange between Leiden and Japan, complete with akido demonstrations, japanese films, and parades down the narrow streets. As the pass I'm pushed closer and closer to the other walkers and I begin to remember about the population density of the Netherlands.... theres so many of us in such a small place...

After some gazing around I biked over to my favorite coffeeshop in town, The The Leidseplein I was going to sit and enjoy the scenery, but the shop was bustling full without a seat in the place. (this usually happens during the peak hours right after opening...) I grabbed 2 grams of Organic Northern Lights for 14 Euros... I really love the prices here outside of amsterdam, especially in the small local shops... I slowly meandered home and rolled up a nice northern lights fatty. The sun has gone below the rooftops of the houses near me and the day is cooling off.

what a lovely place to live...

This is the Amnesia from Goa... has a very distinct haze smell, but only when you open it up...

The next two are the Northern Lights from Leidseplein... really lovely taste and almost piney smell... Nice overall high too

peace,
hippy

Ghost · Post by **Ghost** » Sun 31st May 2009 07:39 pm

Sounds like a nice day you had. Wish i was able to enjoy it all the time to.

hippy_man99 · Post by **hippy_man99** » Sun 31st May 2009 07:42 pm

cheers man...
its been a long journey getting here.... but it was worth it

peace

Kermit · Post by **Kermit** » Sun 31st May 2009 07:57 pm

Nice1 for that little read and pics

cheese · Post by **cheese** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 02:07 am

reallly made me feel like i was sitting there in amsterdam on my balcony!!

nice pics as well

thanks for sharing that with us and hope you write more!!

cheers

hippy_man99 · Post by **hippy_man99** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 08:22 am

I had decided on Friday that instead of going to the lab and staring through a microscope all day, I would take long bike ride to Den Haag. The weather was simply gorgeous out and I figured since my advisor was in the Caribbean for a week... I might as well enjoy his absence as much as he was..

I chose Den Haag because its relatively close to me... Only about 17km away. I have previously rode up to Amsterdam a few times by bike... but at 45km, I'm hard pressed to make the same ride back.... especially since I'm quite a bit more stoned when leaving than when I arrive...

I usually end up buying a one way train ticket for me and the bike, which is unfortunately a bit expensive. Nearly 10 Euro for me and the bike...

Again I plug in the Ipod, pop on a dopecast podcast for entertainment, and take off...The ride itself took about an hour and a half and was literally one straight line. I followed alongside the A44 which turned into the N44... I probably could have taken a more scenic route, but I didn't know the way yet.

Slowly the suburbs crept up on me until i was next to the train station in Den Haag! What a different city from Amsterdam and even Leiden. Gone are the narrow bumpy streets that zig zag in all directions with crooked buildings of all shapes and angles sticking out of walls...
The city is much more orderly and defined. With immense skyscrapers and government buildings centered around the Den Haag Centraal train station. Moving away from the government buildings you see older houses and buildings. It all still has a dutch feel to it, brick houses and back streets, canals flowing down streets and trams ringing their bells. The Trams here seem like they're from another age, but still run with the dutch efficiency i've come to love... Always on time...

I roamed the streets and the shopping center on my bike, Inadvertently comming upon a 4 lane road full of cars... Den Haag has much more space and wider roads... therefore many more cars.... a bit difficult for the bike rider but I was used to it from Riding by bike back in the states... where theres ALWAYS cars...

stopped at a Couple of Coffeeshops to sample the local ware... Firstly at Meneer Janssen and bought some of their special jetlag 12 euro for 2 grams.... I did a review of the shop in the forum section as well... lovely smoke...
I then rolled over to Cafe Cremers and bought a gram of their Super 88 (8.80 per gram) and a white widow pre-rolled for the ride home.

I slowly meandered through the parks and started to make my way home. I had to meet my buddy jay cause we were going to get some dinner before heading out that evening...

I cycled through the immense park in Den Haag called Haagsche Bos.
It's a very large wooded park area and is great to wander through. It has walking trails and bike trails throughout it. It's only the second place in the Netherlands I've been that's felt like "real" wilderness. (i quote because the park was created, but has a very wild feel to it... I don't think they do gardening work in the back parts...)

After a lovely ride through the park with my spliff I headed back home. Met up with jay and we headed over to a great bar/squat called the Leftist Church. There we had a really fun jam session with all kinds of musical instruments. I even broke out the ol' harmonica for a few jams. a great
friday.

peace,
hippy

Kermit · Post by **Kermit** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 08:29 am

update and again loving it, keep it flowing.
nice1

StonedSince67 · Post by **StonedSince67** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 10:30 am

hippy_man99 wrote:I cycled through the immense park in Den Haag called Haagsche Bos.
It's a very large wooded park area and is great to wander through. It has walking trails and bike trails throughout it. It's only the second place in the Netherlands I've been that's felt like "real" wilderness. (i quote because the park was created, but has a very wild feel to it... I don't think they do gardening work in the back parts...)

imo the dutch are great at creating 'wild' places in a country in which every single square centimeter is being managed by somebody

for more scenic routes around your area you might ask spidergawd who has 20 years experience of cycling the netherlands and is in fact cycling around the country at this very moment

his last report was from ijmuiden near haarlem

enjoying the reports of your days out, what sort of bicycle are riding?

Dambuster · Post by **Dambuster** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 11:12 am

what a life

Toker70 · Post by **Toker70** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 11:38 am

Dambuster wrote:what a life

Agreed,makes me jealous as FUCK!!!!

cattales1960 · Post by **cattales1960** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 12:31 pm

awesome writing. It does give you the feel that we are there with you

hippy_man99 · Post by **hippy_man99** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 08:30 pm

cheers for the encouraging words all! I thank you thank you...

Stonedsince'67- I'll definitely send spidergawd a message for some good bike trails... My bike itself was actually the girlfriends bike when she was up here visitng... I had my own... which was stolen... another not so nice thing i've found out about dutch culture....

So the bike now is a 1 speed, foot break bike.... but it works just fine for Holland.... not a hill in sight

I'm glad everyone is enjoying this! I'll try and keep it updated with the day to day goings in my head....

peace,
hippy

Ghost · Post by **Ghost** » Mon 1st Jun 2009 09:22 pm

We all wish we were there, enjoying it to.

SoulRider · Post by **SoulRider** » Tue 2nd Jun 2009 10:39 am

hippy_man99 wrote:cheers for the encouraging words all! I thank you thank you...

Stonedsince'67- I'll definitely send spidergawd a message for some good bike trails... My bike itself was actually the girlfriends bike when she was up here visitng... I had my own... which was stolen... another not so nice thing i've found out about dutch culture....

So the bike now is a 1 speed, foot break bike.... but it works just fine for Holland.... not a hill in sight

I'm glad everyone is enjoying this! I'll try and keep it updated with the day to day goings in my head....

peace,
hippy

That's not as easy as you might think Mike

Good to read. Payday tomorrow, so will plan that ride down to you at some point when i manage to free my bike

Are you coming up here this week at all?

hippy_man99 · Post by **hippy_man99** » Tue 2nd Jun 2009 11:14 am

SoulRider wrote:
That's not as easy as you might think Mike

Good to read. Payday tomorrow, so will plan that ride down to you at some point when i manage to free my bike Are you coming up here this week at all?

sweet we´ll have a grand ol´ time in leiden...

haha the infamous bike liberation... I had to do that once when I locked my bike at the train station and lost the key. There it sat for a week until I literally picked it up and carried it back to my house. I got a few strange looks from people, but nobody stopped me

... I took it to the guys I bought it from and they popped off the old lock and gave me a new one for like 15 euro... not a bad deal

I´ll probably head on down later in the week. My advisor is getting back on thursday and hopefully I can corner him (he´s got a slew of people needing his help) and get some progress goin...

but yeah... probably head up on Friday or saturday for a run around... see ya then