my first trip to Amsterdam

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Schroom
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my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Schroom »

Day1:

So I got up at 5:00h after 3 hours of sleep because of my insomnia, the terrible heat, no wind and the overall excitement to go to Amsterdam.
So leaving at 6am and driving for four and a half hours, which was pretty much a torture, but with enough energy drinks and 3 breaks me and my buddy made it to P&R Arena A at about 10:40h.
I like the P&R system in Amsterdam. Paying 3 Euros to leave your car for 3 days, that’s what I call a bargain.
So we took the metro until Weesperplein, the stop closes to our Hotel “Iris”. Check in was only possible at 14:30 so we marched to the first coffee shop en route, Ibiza.
Yeah I heard a lot of bad things about them, but also some good reviews. Nonetheless, me being a Sativa lover I heard, saw and read a lot of great stuff from “Green Crack” so I really wanted to try it even though it’s pretty expensive, then again, it’s very rare that I have the possibility of choosing and trying strains, so we wanted to make the best of our trip.
The Budtender was some blonde dutch guy who seemed stoned as hell, he didn’t even talk a single word, just handed us the menu. So we got the Green crack and went in the back to build the first Joint of the day (we call them Pez, like the sweets btw). We made it a good one and damn GC was all I could hope for from a strong Sativa. If that’s what you are looking for, I can only recommend it. For me I got very talkative and active, very strong head high and also some giggles.

Our next stop on the list was Katsu, where we arrived after wandering around for what felt like hours. We first checked out the street and also had a look at the restaurants as we hadn’t eaten anything yet the whole day. Also we walked a bit through the park, one of the prettiest places to enjoy your trip.
So Katsu: I must say it’s one of my favorite CS in Amsterdam. The outside in the summertime is just heaven, also very friendly people and not that much tourists (as in all of “the Pijp”). My friend wanted a soft black hash, as those are his favorites. After some talk to the Budtender he decided on “Tri Sulu”. It’s great hash, if you like the Bass buzzy feeling in your head, but damn, that’s literally some sticky shit. You really have to mix it with your base (weed/tobacco/herbal mix or whatever you use) beforehand, just forget about forming it into a sausage or crumbling it on top.

So it’s now about 14:15h and we decide on heading to our Hotel for check-In. the hotel is pretty small, but the space is used in a very efficient kind of way. The receptionist was very friendly and gave us our keycards to our Room.
It was very small to say the least, but we weren’t here to be pampered in a hotel, we just needed a bed to sleep, which we got. But then shock. The window didn’t open and it was already very hot and fuggy, outside there seemed to be a terrace. I thought that maybe the terrace wasn’t meant to be used so they shut the door (as there was one handle missing in order to open the door, and some tape on the outside). But the receptionist seemed surprised and promised us to look into it.

Very well, in the meantime we left our bags and only grabbed the tools we needed for further consummation in my side bag.
Next stop Boerejongens Center
There was an enormous amount of people in there and from a buyer’s standpoint, as it was still pretty early I decided to stay with sativa. I had also never tried a pre-rolled pure joint, so my decision was made to get one of those here.
From here we passed Smokeys which wasn’t our destination, just yet. We also meant to do something else then just consume weed and hash, we went to Henry Willig and made a reservation for the cheese tasting on Saturday at 16:00h. (More on that in “day 2”)
That done, we looked to a headshop as I wanted to get a pipe and a storm lighter, but the one we entered was so packed up with tourists, that we decided to try our luck later or somewhere else, our destination was Dampkring after all and we hadn’t smoked since Katsu.
Dampkring was also packed, but we managed to get 2 seats on the bar where we enjoyed a nice espresso and the pure sativa I bought before on Boerejongens.
It was ok, but even though it was pure, still very light but pretty scratchy in the throat, well I don’t know what I expected from a pre-rolled, but well now I can say, “at least I tried it”
Having nothing on our immediate list, we headed back to the hotel, but first visited the Lidl store before it closed, for water and some snacks for nightly munchies. Getting into our room, we were pleased to see that the door was fixed and we finally had access to the biggest balcony of the Hotel! That’s what I call lucky!

Having no further concrete plans for the evening, we decide on getting just a coffee at a café (no idea why, as you can coffee too in katsu without smoking, but I guess you can’t blame us for not thinking that far in that moment) we opened google-maps to explore a bit what’s worth checking out. First, as we still hadn’t eaten anything, we went to the Burger Bar, they have amazing tasting burgers. I got to say it’s somewhere in my top 10 of best burger places I ever visited. (Then again my choice is usually limited in Luxembourg where you often pay double the price for half the quality), we enjoyed some white wine with the deliciously tasty Burger and coleslaw before heading over to Katsu’s terrace for some more smoking. It was about 18:00h now so we decided to get some hybrid. They had some Girls scout cookies on their special, but unfortunately, we were too late and they were sold out. So after another nice talk with the budtendress they sold us some Orange Diesel. Which fit perfectly for the hour of the day, very focused high and more relaxing then a sativa without being couch locked or lazy, but also, still tasty.
This High was perfect as we planned next to get in the park and do some reading and watch the dogs having the fun of their lives. We stayed there until the shade got too big and reading started to get arduous. We noticed that it was past 21:00h and so we headed to the Green House in the Pijp which, with its inner décor seemed like a really cosy place. Which it was! Wow the old furniture and relax playlist made it a nice treat. It’s truly a hidden gem, if you don’t know where to look for it, I guess you will never find it. We were expecting a crowd in a place like this, but it was completely empty, and only a few locals visited shorty. The staff was fantastic cool and friendly though, so we wanted an indicia for this time of day, not too strong but nice and relaxing. We got the Rolex OG Kush and some Tea and headed on to the comfy couch smoked a few joints and continued our reading. Before leaving for our hotel we had a small chat with the Budtender and got some Spacecakes for Saturday.

Thank god we got the snacks for the munchies and the balcony we could chill out a bit while enjoying them, but thanks even more for that amazing comfortable bed which was about to give me 7 straight hours of sleep.
Last edited by Schroom on Tue 24th Jul 2018 08:20 am, edited 1 time in total.


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Schroom
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Schroom »

Day2

I woke up well rested.
The day before was a torture, after being deprived of sleep, the car ride and the 18.5 km we walked that day (as stated by my Fitbit), my body really felt grateful for the rest.
Now full of energy we left shortly before 9:00h to get to Het Ballonnetje for the Wake & Bake. We arrived shortly after it opened, and the Lady of the house was having breakfast herself, together with a few locals. We asked if it was ok if we only got coffee, and got denied at first, “this is a coffeeshop we sell weed and it’s for smoking weed” she said, we then explained that we still got some and wanted to smoke, but didn’t really need more atm. As it wasn’t really that busy in the shop yet she approved and we went upstairs to get some more of that green crack. The coffee was amazing though, and the cappuccino had a nice touch with its decoration.
It was very cosy and really perfect for a wake and bake inside. We then started to check how much weed we got left and plan our day. I was still a bit sad that I didn’t get my Girlscout cookies in Katsu and saw that they had some here, but we also wanted to maybe get some hash too, so when we saw that they also hat some GSC-Hash on the menu we were sold, I went downstairs again and I saw that meanwhile the other budtenders had arrived. So I talked to him a bit he showed me a few other hashes and I was even allowed to touch them! Which is rare, overall very friendly and forthcoming service, so I happily bought a gram of the GSC Block Hash after all.

The way led us back the same way we used yesterday. But we tried to use parallels streets, in the hope of discovering more things, small shops and so on. I really wanted to get sth to eat too so we looked for a place to get some good Breakfast.
Finally we found some at the Rembrandtplein Square in form a Full Irish breakfast in the Irish Pub “St James’s Gate” enjoyed with a nice Pint of Beer. Ha! The life one needs to live.
Initially we wanted to go to Smokeys next, but we also wanted to visit the Amsterdam Dungeon for some weed free activity. So we decided to go there first.
On the way we stopped at the same headshop we visited yesterday and I got myself my pipe and the lighter, as the shop was still empty at that hour. My friend got himself a new solid grinder too.
We arrived at the Dungeon at about 11:30h and shorty talked to a nice woman giving flyers for the attraction. After finding out that the attraction takes about an hour we knew that we first had to go smoke sth. So I checked for the closest Coffeshop on the map which was Kadinsky 3. Nice small shop and they didn’t care at all if we bought or only consumed. We smoked some more of the Green Crack and checked our schedule again. We also wanted to visit the Cannabis Museum and the Cannabis College, but we had our appointment for the Cheesetasting at 16:00h. So we figured we’d go with the museum and College first and see then if there was enough time for the Dungeon. Spoiler alert, there was not!

After we initially ran past the Museum twice we finally found it after looking up the house number before seeing the huge sign that said “Cannabis Museum”. Yeah I guess we were a bit stoned.
The museum was very informative though and fun to do, but my buddy took an incredible amount of time… He read EVERY text there was. I think we spend about 90 minutes in that small ass museum (or maybe 30? I started to lose a feeling for time too).
We decided that, if we wanted to do the Dungeon, we should use our time more efficiently and decided on eating our Space cakes instead of going for a smoke.
A few minutes later we arrived at the Cannabis College. Very friendly people inside that can give you a lot of information. Too bad that I am a google monster and knew almost everything already. HRHR! So I talked to the man a bit about the youtube documentary I saw the college in. Unfortunately their garden was closed, they need to renovate and change their way of growing after the legislation apparently changed again and they had to. But I still bought my 3 euro membership and asked to enjoy the vaporizer. In which I put a bit more of the Orange Diesel.
The amount of THC in my body was now growing steadily and I felt high as a kite. We checked the clock and saw that it was almost 15:00 so no time for the dungeon. Maybe next time then.
Instead we decided to move our bodies to “the saint” Coffeeshop to have a smoke out in the open on their terrace until it was time for the cheese tasting (which was just on the other side of the street from “the Saint”).
All of a sudden noticed, and told my buddy in the style of Duke telling Gonzo that we still hadn’t tried my GSC Block Hash. So that’s what we had before trying the cheese. Damn very good hash short and strong buddy buzz that then moves over for a nice relaxed high and slight head high.
After the smoke, we arrived about 5 minutes before the start but used up about 10 on the toilet, because you know peeing is hard when you are potted like a plant, also the Space cakes started to kick in heavily about now.
Still they waited for us and we were seated next to a very nice couple, he was from Austria I believe and she was Czech, on the other table where some Girls form Canada I think.
The women who held the presentation was one of the funniest things I have ever seen and being stoned as hell didn’t really help in making it less funny. She was somehow an expert on talking without saying anything, that fact alone was pure gold. But it got even better, they showed us a movie of how the cheese was made the video was about 30 minutes long, but the movie only 10, followed by 20 minutes of cows eating, I shit you not, you could block on a projection of cows being fed. The movie itself was amazing too. The one quote I will always remember is “now, the newly formed cheese will be put on the shelf, we call that one “the new cheese”. The cheese besides it, that’s been sitting there for about one year is now called “the old cheese””. And stuff like that all the time… Lot’s of talk but scarcely any information. In the movie and from the women. I don’t think I have witnessed anything that great ever while I was high. We noticed that the Canadian girls seemed to have smoked too as they were really trying to hold back their laughter and giggling, while I was sitting there, crying of laughter and really had to concentrate to no just literally roll myself on the floor.
Damn that was good. Nonetheless everybody stayed respectful and polite ‘til the end. Also the cheese was just amazing, some very good whine too, and the mustard…. Wow, just perfect.

Anyhow, we left the cheese tasting shortly after 17:00h and walked to the lidl next to our hotel, to get more water and more snacks for the night. After storing everything in our room we went to the direction of Katsu but we took another Parallel Street, in order to change the scenery. Also we noticed that we got really hungry and we where longing for some good Ramen or Pho. I rapidly checked google maps and we were only 50 meters away from a Ramen joint.
I got to say those where the most perfect and tasty Ramen I have ever had. Surely this is a lot due to the munchies, but it was genuinely just some amazing food. Moving on, our plan was to get to katsu now and have ourselves a treat, we call it “royale” no idea if it’s called differently in the rest of the world. It’s weed mixed with hash, we also used a pipe filter for a better smoke. We used part of the GSC hash and the rest of the Orange Diesel for that. We enjoyed that in Katsu outside on the Terrace, life was good and this new high slowly overtook the old high as we went again back to the park for some reading and dog watching. I remember two dogs that just didn’t care at all and hunted each other through the pond, not caring about either or not they’d disturb the peaceful ducks that all of a sudden couldn’t apprehend the situation of anyone but them using the water.
Shortly after 21:00h we then again went back to the Greenhouse, our trip would be over the next day and we still had about 2 g left to smoke.
Greenhouse is still about a 15min walk from the park and at our arrival the bud tender didn’t want to let us pass without buying. Thankfully the other very chilled out budtender from the night before recognized us, so we were allowed in.
Here I tried out my new pipe it’s a 3 to 4 hitter at best, but that’s all I wanted from it, perfect for the quick and fast hit. The Rolex OG Kush was also pretty popular that evening and we lastly finished the Tri Sulu, which now formed a bug heavy hash cloud over our couch, needless to say, it was some damn nice hash.
After our goodbyes we left for the hotel, and again great terrace, great snacks and even better sleep after having walked 18km that day.
Last edited by Schroom on Tue 24th Jul 2018 08:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Schroom
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Schroom »

Day 3
As I was the designated driver I chose not to smoke on that day, still my friend needed his wake and bake, so after checking out of the hotel, we finally went to smokeys where we had a coffee and a nice freshly prepared juice. We moved on by buying some cheese from the same place as yesterday, so we could enjoy it at home with some fine sweet mustard and red wine. We also got some souvenirs for friends and visited “upstairs pannenkoeken” For the most satisfying pancake I ever had. Thanks again for the nice couple that was willing to share their table with us, as the restaurant was full when we showed up. My friend wanted a last joint and we looked for a suitable coffeeshop.
We headed to Bagheera but they wouldn’t let him smoke foreign weed and insisted we would need to buy to smoke, so we left and went to Basjoe, where the People weren’t as petty. Now it was time to get back to the car but we still had about a gram of weed and hash left. Initially I didn’t want to bring anything left, but well we didn’t want to throw it away either so yeah we took it with us.
Distance walked on that day was 10.2km btw
Next was Metro -> Car 3.45h back, no police, and we enjoyed another royal on my couch at home.

What a week end.
LLMReb
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by LLMReb »

Great first trip. That cheese tasting description was funny indeed. Great read there. You covered some interesting ground for a first timer in AMS. I remember my first real trip. I had no idea where I was even going, where I had been, how to return to a great area, or generally where I was other than some mysterious city in Europe known as Amsterdam. It took me a few visits to figure out Sarphatipark, much less the CSs in that area. Yo-Yo, Ibiza, Papillon, Katsu, and a few others are all interesting shops.

You did well. Now you need to schedule another trip!
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OneHighMofo
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by OneHighMofo »

Highly enjoyable reading. It certainly sounds like you had a great first trip.
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Schroom
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Schroom »

glad it can help.

btw is it normal that you don't get asked for ID anymore in the coffeeshops? or do I just look old af? :lol:

I didn't need my ID even once.
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OneHighMofo
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by OneHighMofo »

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
But you’re getting old :lol:

I also noticed that you had few problems in consuming product bought elsewhere in your chosen destinations? Another sure fire sign that you are indeed an adult.

Apologies. :D
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Schroom
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Schroom »

damn well at least the ladys still believe me younger :lol:
OneHighMofo wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 08:59 am I also noticed that you had few problems in consuming product bought elsewhere in your chosen destinations? Another sure fire sign that you are indeed an adult.
mh what has that to do with age? :shock:
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OneHighMofo
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by OneHighMofo »

Schroom wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 09:21 am damn well at least the ladys still believe me younger :lol:
Hahahha :)
Schroom wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 09:21 am
OneHighMofo wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 08:59 am I also noticed that you had few problems in consuming product bought elsewhere in your chosen destinations? Another sure fire sign that you are indeed an adult.
mh what has that to do with age? :shock:
Just an observation - I often note younger people being turned away from Coffeeshops when asking for this favour.
Perhaps it's that they don't ask? Perhaps I'm mistaken? It's just something I've noted. I rarely have any problems personally - but then I always ask the staff if it's ok. I've defintley got the impression that CS staff are a little more tolerant of their more mature patrons.
LLMReb
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by LLMReb »

Ha. I went to The Plug. The doorway gatekeeper carded and scrutinized the 2 couples that went in before me. I get to the guy and start fishing for my id. The dude looks at me, shakes his head, and just points at the door.

It is rare when I am carded these days now that I'm in my 40s. It has its pluses and minuses. Back when I got carded for everything, I didn't have enough money to purchase anything that would require me to get carded.
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Junglist Movement
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Junglist Movement »

Nice write up man!!
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OneHighMofo
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by OneHighMofo »

LLMReb wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 04:04 pm Ha. I went to The Plug. The doorway gatekeeper carded and scrutinized the 2 couples that went in before me. I get to the guy and start fishing for my id. The dude looks at me, shakes his head, and just points at the door.
Hahahhaha! And there you were hoping for validation of your youthful vigour. Sorry. I'm right there with you buddy. Last time I got carded - my face must have inspired him to look again because he said 'oh - no on second thoughts".
Asshole! hahahaha.
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Willjay
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Willjay »

OneHighMofo wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 09:32 am
Schroom wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 09:21 am damn well at least the ladys still believe me younger :lol:
Hahahha :)
Schroom wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 09:21 am
OneHighMofo wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 08:59 am I also noticed that you had few problems in consuming product bought elsewhere in your chosen destinations? Another sure fire sign that you are indeed an adult.
mh what has that to do with age? :shock:
Just an observation - I often note younger people being turned away from Coffeeshops when asking for this favour.
Perhaps it's that they don't ask? Perhaps I'm mistaken? It's just something I've noted. I rarely have any problems personally - but then I always ask the staff if it's ok. I've defintley got the impression that CS staff are a little more tolerant of their more mature patrons.
Just going to jump in here with my two cents yes older patrons are treated differently then younger ones maybe as stated earlier we are more apt to ask but we are, especially patrons from the usa, more likely to TIP :wink: . Another reason is they don’t want to argue with a old SOB like me :lol:
Last time I flew out of Newark the TSA guy gave me a old man pass I did not have to take off shoes, coat, or belt just threw my carry on on the machine and was scanned 8) my wife got one as my caregiver :lol: :mrgreen:
www.stopthedrugwar.org
www.mpp.org
www.drugpolicy.org
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OneHighMofo
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by OneHighMofo »

Willjay wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 04:53 pm Last time I flew out of Newark the TSA guy gave me a old man pass I did not have to take off shoes, coat, or belt just threw my carry on on the machine and was scanned 8) my wife got one as my caregiver :lol: :mrgreen:
You got that half-pound through ok then? 8)
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Schroom
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Re: my first trip to Amsterdam

Post by Schroom »

Willjay wrote: Thu 26th Jul 2018 04:53 pm but we are, especially patrons from the usa, more likely to TIP :wink: . Another reason is they don’t want to argue
HA that explains it, even tho I'm not from the USA, I was wearing my Green bay packers hat all the time and my English is pretty good. I bet they where smelling tips! :lol:
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