Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

After (or during) your trip, post your report here.
Post Reply
Frankie_cheeseboy ;)
Posts: 78
Joined: Thu 10th Mar 2016 02:12 pm

Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

Post by Frankie_cheeseboy ;) »

Yay! been at this, on and off, for about 5 months now. With just over a day left until my next trip, finally motivated my stoned arse to get it finished. Some details towards the end are sketchy at best as the passage of time has clouded my memory but remember enough to be waffling on with anyway :lol: .

Planning for this trip began back in March, literally the day after coming back from my last trip. When I went to see a mate for his birthday he told he his missus had booked the 22nd-24th April. 'Right', I thought, 'I'll see what I can do' as we'd always talked about meeting up over there for a smoke (as they're both stoners). A couple of weeks later I had the week off work booked and sorted my flights out. For budget reasons I decided to go for just one night this time so booked the 6:05 flight on the 23rd to have a full day and for the return I selected the 19:50 flight on the following day (the same flight my friends would be coming back on).

Things got even better when I mentioned it in conversation to another friend who hadn't been before. A few days pass when he tells me his wife has allowed him to go! Happy days! Once he'd booked his flights (same as me) I went looking for somewhere to stay. Unfortunately I couldn't get the Ambassador where the couples were staying (another long-time stoner buddy and his wife had gegged in in the meantime, more the merrier) so I went with the Amadeus, a small place on Haarlems Grote Markt and therefore pretty much in the middle of everything.

As the weeks and days counted down my first-timer friends excitement grew to match my own. When the 22nd came our excitement was further fuelled by social media updates from the peeps already there. One day to go!

Monday 23rd

3:30-Taxi arrives to take us to the airport. After a detour to my mates house to collect him we were off to John Lennon airport. The half hour journey was made all the more interesting with the driver regaling us with his exploits around Amsterdams Red Light District while running about half a dozen red lights!

4:00-5:35- Once through security we went looking for a meal. We went to Frankie and Bennys for breakfast as that seemed to be one of the few places open at that time of morning. Once fed we intended to get a pre-flight pint but by that time there was only 20 minutes left until our gate information was up on the screen. That, and the queue at the bar persuaded us to ditch that idea so we just had a wander round before heading to the gate.

The flight over to Schipol was as smooth as any I've been on and the weather had me in good spirits. Once we'd landed, disembarked and gone through passport control it was about 8:30 local time. Grabbed a pack of Marlboros, went outside for a quick cig and decided I was overdressed so squared a layer into my bag. We then set off under the glorious morning sun to catch a 300 bus that would take us to Haarlem.

During the half hour journey I phoned my mate to let him know we were on our way. He informed me that everyone else was still in bed and he was off to High Times for a wake and bake. Winner!

By about 9:30 we were missioning through Haarlem en route to what would be my mates first coffeeshop experience. When we rocked up we were greeted by the 'welcoming commitee'. For my first smoke I chose a strain called Appleberry, an indica that was 11 or 12€ and I'm guessing is a variant of Blueberry. It was a decent starter anyway and my buzz was further enhanced by the '90s rave/dance tunes playing in High Times.

Once all of our party had assembled we moved to occupy the outside tables of the coffeeshop. Mates wife dosen't really touch weed so she preferred to sit at an outside table in the relatively fresh air to the smokey interior of a coffeeshop. We soon left in search of breakfast/brunch. The Grote Markt Square was livlier than usual for a Monday morning with a funfair set up, no doubt there for the run-up to Kings Day.

After getting something to eat from the Subway on Krocht we ventured a few doors down to the Empire for the next sesh. From here I got the Super Silver Haze and (1.3g) White Widow, both 12€ which I think is the most you'd spend on one bag in here, though I think they were charging 20€ for an isolator a while ago, if so its the only exception I can think of. My first-timer mate seemed to be enjoying himself, he had bought a pipe from High Times as this is his usual method of consumption back home and was not used to smoking joint after joint, though he did let me build him the odd doob now and then.

The morning was soon behind us and the couples left to have a look inside the Grote Kerk. We sat in the Empire until after 1 when we left to check into our hotel. Once we found it we went through a side door next to the bar/restrauant thats part of it, and straight up a steep set of stairs. We were soon greeted by the owner/manager (big, friendly guy) and took us back down to the bar by a small, old-style lift (had to pull the door shut yourself before moving floors) to sort details out etc. We then went to our room to drop our bags, nice enough, comfy beds, fully-equipped bathroom, no real complaints about the base. Still high when heading back out we couldn't find the stairs we'd used earlier that would take us out, (they were through a door on the immediate right of another set of stairs we came down, but we didn't realise that right away) we would of used the lift if we hadn't have been shown the way out by the clearly amused manager.

We needed supplies so we ventured down Grote Houtstraat (Haarlems main shopping street) to an albert heijn to get drinks (including six-pack of heinekein) and snacks. Mission accimplished we returned to the hotel to drop off our shopping, briefly forgetting where the door was when leaving again. After failing to make contact with any of the others we headed back to the Empire to wait out. It was about mid-afternoon by then and I was running low on weed. Decided to go for a hash on the next buy as I was burning through green and this would last a bit longer. I asked the bt which of their block hashes (skywalker and somango) was best. Without hesitation he answered with skywalker. It just crumbled so easily and released a pleasant flowery smell that had a hint of mint. Used the pipe that my mate had bought for the first hit, which kept me quiet for a bit. By the time the others returned from their sightseeing walk I was deeply involved in building a hash joint.

It wasn't before too long until the munchies began to kick in. When one of the couples headed back to the Ambassador for a bit we agreed to meet up for tea about 5ish, by about 4:55pm we were meandering down the street on the short walk from coffeeshop to hotel nicely toasted and in the mood for food. We ended up going to La Picoletta, an Italian place directly opposite High Times (handy) which had good food at good prices. One pizza (or pasta in some cases) later and the bill was settled everyone crossed the street into High Times to sit-off before the evening excursion into Amsterdam, I briefly popped back to Amadeus to get an extra layer of clothing as the air had chilled slightly by then. Upon returning I bought a bag of White Kush, probably had between 0.3-0.5g in a joint plus at least one hash pipe in the coffeeshop and then made another joint for the walk to the station which had either weed, hash or both I forget now lol. Heading to the station via a quiet route the buzz was kept up, as soon as I passed my joint on someone else would pass me their own. When on the train I remember giggling almost hysterically at the fact I was about to bimble around busy Amsterdam, trying to navigate through the evening foot traffic while bombed out my skull haha. :mrgreen: :lol: :mrgreen:

We rolled into Amsterdam CS about 8-ish and proceeded down the Damrak, partly in search of a currency exchange with a decent rate as some of us were running low on funds but had british money to cash-in. Upon reaching Dam square we headed to the De Wallen via Damstraat as no trip to the Big A would be complete without a tour of the main Red Light District. After a short window-browsing walk we ended up at Nieuwmarkt. One the gang had a doob to light up and was itching to sit at a coffeeshop, any coffeeshop. I have to say this was the low point of the trip as we settled on Rock-it :evil: over several other coffeeshops in the vicinity (if I remember right its because Rock-it had more outside tables available than the one next door.. wonder why?). Just went with the flow at the time as I didn't know much about this place. Overpriced weed ( eg. AK-47 €12...pfft) and the English guy serving had a shitty attitude, insisted that we buy some gear before he'd serve us drinks (this should have been a warning about the quality being shit). Basically we didn't feel welcome and were just an inconvenience to to him. Whats more my mate heard him say something to another guy working there about us! On the whole an underwhelming experience and ak was probably the shittest buy 9f the trip!. Moving on we ventured back through the RLD. It was about 9.30-10pm by this time and there was talk about heading back to Haarlem on the train. Suggested we sit off with a beer and smoke before heading back so we went to the Palace for an hour or so.

We got back to Haarlem for about 11.45pm, at which point, one of the couples called it a night, leaving the rest of us to drop into one last coffeeshop of the day. We talked about going to the Willie Wortels Indica but instead went to the Sativa as it was right by the station and more importantly, open til 1am. Went in and picked Headband for 16€. I also saw Chocolope Kush on the menu for about 14€ and suggested to my friend he buy a gram of that, as he'd been mirroring my buys up to now, at least that way we'd have two different strains between us instead of the same. We stayed and smoked until about 20 minutes before they closed. With the day done and dusted we walked back toward the Grote Markt to retire to our respective digs, lighting one last doob of the night of course ;).

Once back in the Amadeus we sat up for about an hour/hour and a half, drinking beers and eating cheetos before eventually succumbing to sleep after being up for nearly 24 hours!

Tuesday 24th

8:30 (ish)- Was woken by the alarm I'd set on my phone before going to bed, didn't move for probably an hour or so after that, in all must have had about 6 hours kip. Eventually got up and started moving about the tiny room, luckily we had until 11 to check out so no rush. After ablutions and squaring away what little possessions that had been unpacked we were ready to go.

Think we left the Amadeus roughly before 10. We headed down Grote Houtstraat to get something to eat from Mcdonalds. One Maccies breakfast later we took a walk down to Regine to get another block hash. Went in and recieved a friendly greeting from the staff. Got the G13/Super Lemon Haze block. As other ACD members will attest this shop has a great menu, never sat off in here though, will have to give it a try one time.

11(ish)-With Regine ticked off the to-do list, it was time for the first spliff of the day. We only had the rest of the morning and afternoon to spend in Haarlem before getting the bus so there was little time to spare! We floated back to and through Grote Markt to get to High Times which was also the meet-up place with the Ambassador group. Think we got there before anyone else if I remember. Grabbed a gram of Jack Herer (8/9€) and started things off with a pipe of the lemon block from Regine. Had a sort of sweet/spicy taste. Jack Herer was quality too. Rest of the group soon turned up only to disappear sporadically to get brunch and do some last day sight-seeing. I also had bits left from the day before so a good sesh was needed to smoke everything. Before long it was early afternoon and all we had left to smoke were bits of the block hashes I'd bought. Just got the Super Silver Haze (11/12€) and my mate got Champagne Haze (11-13€) which was great, could have kicked myself for not getting that if the silver hadn't been decent. However I did regret not having much spent much time in this coffeeshop before now (only visited briefly on one previous trip). Had a friendly, social vibe to it and the staff were pretty cool, engaging in convo talking about Marvel movies etc. The dude running the shop even put a Doctor Strange dvd on though I suspect that was so his mates had something to watch. I will definitely be coming here on future trips. Before eventually leaving High Times we all sat at the outside tables for a bit as we decided how to spend the last few hours in Haarlem.

We ended up walking down the Spaarne heading north. The plan was to head to Birdy to make our last buys and then go to Out of the Blue for a beer if we had time. Birdy is another place I need to sit in more. Got the Vanilla Haze (10€) and some jelly hash(0.4g/10€) to blast in pipes and to mix in some fat leaving joints. Wasn't going to catch that flight home straight-headed thats for sure!

By the time we left Birdy there was only an hour and half or so until we had to get the bus to Schipol so we sacked off going to Blue which was a shame, like the idea of a smokers bar in Haarlem and am still curious to try it out, ah well maybe next time. After going back to the Grote Markt to collect luggage and get one last ice cream it was onto the bus stop to begin our journey to the airport. Once outside Schipol we smoked the last joints we had which pretty much marked the end of the trip. Until next time...


User avatar
AzLaker
Posts: 2696
Joined: Sat 21st May 2005 01:13 am
Location: Arizona

Re: Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

Post by AzLaker »

Great read. You guys got around for a short trip, nicely done. :mrgreen:

AzLaker
8)
If you never do, you'll never know.
Frankie_cheeseboy ;)
Posts: 78
Joined: Thu 10th Mar 2016 02:12 pm

Re: Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

Post by Frankie_cheeseboy ;) »

AzLaker wrote: Tue 25th Sep 2018 02:52 pm Great read. You guys got around for a short trip, nicely done. :mrgreen:

AzLaker
8)
Haha thanks man, yeh I usually consume at a slower rate, was just really detemined to make the most of it.
User avatar
Willjay
Posts: 2573
Joined: Fri 2nd Oct 2009 08:28 pm
Location: The keystone state, in the land of prohibition

Re: Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

Post by Willjay »

Thanks for sharing 8)
www.stopthedrugwar.org
www.mpp.org
www.drugpolicy.org
User avatar
woodz60
Posts: 247
Joined: Wed 1st Sep 2010 03:40 am
Location: Zuid Austone, Texas

Re: Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

Post by woodz60 »

Excellent trip report, Frankie! My hope is to one day return to Nederlands and check out the shops and sights of Haarlem and some other non-Mokum cities. The fact that any travel there for me involves a 9+ hour flight precludes the possibility of a single overnight adventure. It seems like you and your mates had a wonderful time! Cheers!!
I may be stoned, but don't take me for granite...
Frankie_cheeseboy ;)
Posts: 78
Joined: Thu 10th Mar 2016 02:12 pm

Re: Trip report 23rd-24th April: A day and a half in Haarlem (and a train ride into Amsterdam)

Post by Frankie_cheeseboy ;) »

woodz60 wrote: Sat 29th Sep 2018 07:20 pm My hope is to one day return to Nederlands and check out the shops and sights of Haarlem and some other non-Mokum cities.
Sounds good man, Haarlems a great place to stay and also good for a day visit if you decide to stay in Dam. As for other places, I managed to get my arse to Zandvoort when I was in Haarlem again last week (stayed a bit longer this time and also solo). Nice little seaside town, bit light on coffeeshops though (a grand total of 2). Still a nice change of scenery though, especially on a sunny day 8)
Post Reply