. With my long-time mates wedding coming up later in the year it was always a given (money/spare time permitting) he'd have his stag in Holland. Opposite to the typicially large stag groups drunkenly marauding through downtown Amsterdam, ours would be a small group of 3, including me, the Stag and the Stags soon-to-be brother-in -law (I'll call him Bil). I had also booked us all on an Amsterdam Genetics smoking session for the second day.Day One
I'm faced with a crisis! Its 03.20 (yes in the morning!), 10 minutes before the taxi turning up and I've lost my bloody euros! Ballache, especially after having checked them literally minutes before my mates knocked as we were all getting picked up from mine. After some frantic searching the taxi arrives and the missing money is still missing! My sister came to the rescue however by transferring some money into my bank and she'd keep and change the euros back after they were found. Disaster averted and goodbyes said, I joined the others in the taxi, triple checking I had my bank card with me.
Probably took half an hour or so to get to the airport. Once through security we waited out with a round of Amstels and pre-flight cigs. Once on the plane we sat on the tarmac for a bit due to traffic restrictions or something. When we did get in the air it was a smooth flight over and we were disembarking at out gate in Schipol by about half 8.
After a cig in an airport smoking booth I took out 300€ from an atm, emptying it in the process. The passport que was fairly light and by 09.00 we had our train tickets and waiting for an Amsterdam CS-bound train. Really love early arrivals in NL, the thought of having the whole day ahead of you fills one with joy.
We got to Amsterdam CS for 09.20, not a bad time to start the day! We'd planned to go to Voyagers first but considering it was a bit early before they opened we opted for Coffeeshop Amsterdam instead. The Stag started off with 1g Choco Kush (16€) and Bil went with the Casey Jones. I got the Mexican Gorilla Haze (11€) and the Blue Chemdog, top of the menu at 18€. Don't normally spend so much on a gram but had just arrived and in full holiday mode! I pretty much threw the whole gram of GMH into my first joint, while Bil mixed some of his Casey Jones with that tobacco-substitute stuff they do in coffeeshops (is it called Gringo or something?) in his joint. Had a toke when he passed it round, not a fan of the stuff, pretty much overpowered the Casey although I'm not how much weed Bil would of put in as his tolerance ain't as high as me or Stag. Thought I'd leave the Chemdog til later on as the budtender commented "blue chemdog- heavy shit!" when I ordered it, and we had a fair bit of walking to do before checking in. Once we were all smoked up we headed back down Haarlemerstraat enjoying the morning atmosphere.
We eventually got to Voyagers after acquring clippers and Marlboros. The Stag and I each got a gram of Frommage Blue (12€/1g) and he also got some Lemon Bubble (13€/1g). I also went for a gram of Tropicana Cookies (16€/1g) and their Testing Tuesday Week 16 (10€/1g). Didn't sit in there for long, it was quite busy and there were people hovering round waiting to mooch our seats.
Exiting Voyagers, there was one coffeeshop left to visit before heading back to the train station: Solo! Had heard good things about this place and wanted to check it out, wanted to try their Girl Scout Gelato (13€/1g) and Strawberry Banana hash (14€/1g). Stag beat me to the Gelato so I went for the Moustache OG (14€/1g) to go with the SB hash. We just did a b&f here before going to catch a train to Haarlem with our pockets already lined with green, oh what a beautiful morning!
After grabbing a McDonalds in Haarlem it was still too early for check-in at the hotel so we headed to the Empire for one. Had enough green on me so went for another hash, their Super Morrocan (12€/1.3g). Bil bought a pipe here so took the opportunity to try the hashes I'd bought. The Super Moroc was ok, not too over-powering in a pipe, great in baccy joints and a good choice for a wake-and-bake. Piping the Strawberry Banana however gave an entirely different flavour indeed! Could instantly feel the difference in strength and went quiet for a bit.
We eventually started making our way to the Haarlem-Zuid to check-in. Along the way the wind got up a bit and I could feel it pulling on my chin fluff. Ah Holland!
Once in the room it was good to just drop the baggage and relax for a bit, TV on, stash/paraphenalia emptied out of pockets, we weren't moving for a while! After a brief visit to a nearby garage for a few munchies/drinks we had a drama when we couldn't get back into our room. It was first assumed our keycards had deactivated somehow but after going twice to reception to get them reactivated we realised the sensor on our door was at fault! Stag ended up yomping back to reception for a third time to tell them this and returned with a member of staff who promptly sorted it.
As early evening was coming on the plan was to head back into Haarlem for some more smoking. We agreed to try a smokers bar as none of us needed to stock up right away and a beer sounded good at that time of day, especially to Bil who is more of a drinker really. We made our way to Crackers but only stayed for one drink as the smoking room seemed to be busy and couldn't see any specs in there to grab. I'd heard Out of the Blue was also smoker-friendly and suggested we try there next. So we found our way there and ordered a round of Jupilers. Smiled when the barman picked up on my accent by exclaiming "Liverpool!", (apparently the dude was from Leeds, dunno about that, hes definitely picked up a local accent if he was), when asked if we could smoke weed in there he replied "you can smoke joints, cigarettes through there" indicating to the back of the bar. Cool! Even better that there was somewhere to sit. Smoked a few joints including a baccy/Super Maroc and a weed mix/SB. Tried the Fromage Blue from Voyagers here, it was nice enough, definitely smelt strong and had a slightly fruity taste, just wasn't as heavy as I was expecting.
After sitting in the Blue for a while we left to go looking for a takeaway, getting some air in the process. As Maximillian was nearby we popped in to grab one last bud of the day. Ended up getting a gram of Cheese. Stag wanted to try and find a place where he had got a decent burger on a previous trip but as we were walking down Haarlems main shopping street he declared it wasn't in that direction. Luckily I realised he was talking about a place that was on the other side on the Grote Markt (remembered I'd been there with him before) the complete opposite direction to where we'd been walking!
So we eventually reached said kebab/burger place, by then the munchies were well kicking in. 
We sat off on some benches near the Empire to eat our food and generally take in our surroundings for a while before starting the journey back to the hotel as the day was catching up to us. Managed one more session once back at the room, so handy having a room with a balcony, some of the best Holland memories for me are just from smoking a few fatties on the hotel balcony at the end of the day, just watching how peaceful the world looks. Tried the Cheese from Max, was very nice. Also tried the Blue Chemdog, it had a really fuelly smell and the buds had dark green as well as purple and blue tones. After a fat pipe of Strawberry Banana it was head down time, we'd lasted until about 10.30-11.00. Felt so relaxed listening to tunes as I drifted off. So Day 1 came to an end, and there was a great feeling that we had the rest of the trip ahead of us. I'll try and get Day 2 up in a couple of weeks, maybe longer.
Thanks for the write up!