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Waking surprisingly a while before my alarm, which was set for 9am, I was feeling stoned and lazy but not too tired - certainly beats having to drag your ass out of bed in order not to miss to much Amsterdam time. A warm shower later and I was lounging in the comfy chair, dressed in the white dressing-gown provided by the hotel - pipe in hand about to have a lungful of Oceans 12. Amsterdam mornings sure do beat the ones at home!!
The time was approaching around 9:30am and I was feeling a pretty good buzz already and happy I was ready for the day ahead; also safe in knowing Tim would not be lively for anything before midday - I had the morning to play all by myself. First stop, via a morning wave to the ladies down Oude Nieuwstraat, was a morning drink in the Coin, unfortunately the coffee machine was still broken, so a pear looza it had to be! I was still smoking the Pollen which I had bought here on the friday; the high effect of the hash brought back that all to familiar feeling of a morning smoke in this shop…it does remind me of past trips but also feels like a routine for myself in Amsterdam.
The shop was empty this morning apart from 2 people who were on the pc’s at the back who seemed to be there whole time I was; it didn’t seem like long but I must have spent an hour just dazing and thinking to myself before I felt the urge of a hot drink so a walk was in order. I had planned on walking to another coffeeshop for a tea or coffee, but made it as far as Damstraat somewhere and ordered a large take-away tea - not the nicest (or cheapest) but was hot at least, and very much needed in freezing temperatures!! Hot drink in hand and I was on another wonder, passing Rusland coffeeshop on my travels - mentally noting that I would come back later with the others; sadly I never did (next time is a must).
My morning stroll was cut shorter than I may have walked due to the cold weather so I ended up circling back on myself via the Waag and through the main RLD to see if any ladies caught my eye. The first thing that made my head turn this morning in the RLD was not a lady behind her window but instead my dream car - a Lamborghini Gallardo!!, which was very slowly, as not to hit the undercarriage on the steep bridged roads, driving down the OZV canal (south from the Bulldog direction). I tried, with partial success to get my camera phone ready for a snap…but the contrasting scene of a £100,000+ Super Car cruising down the roads of an 18th Century architectured city, was a picture I will never forget in my head.
Lambo in the RLD
I had a instantaneous burst of ambition and enthusiasm of working hard when I get home in the dream that I may one day be driving a silver Lambo through the heart of Amsterdam’s Red Light District ~ this thought passed with the next gust of chilling wind and overtaken by an urge of either weed or women, whichever temptation took over first!
My first turn from the canal lead me along the Dolle (the wider of the 2 skinny alleys) and almost directly into the gaze of a blonde beauty to my left…around 20 years of age, with a face and body I would kill for - luckily all she wanted was €50 and I thought I got my moneys worth; I have met nicer girls in the RLD but I would be fussy to point out any negatives with her.
By the time I got back to the hotel it had just gone midday and there was a note on my bed from Tim saying to meet him and the others in Pink Floyd. Just as I got there Gee and Ines were getting ready to go for a random walk asking if I wanted to go; Tim seemed happy looking on the internet (the only 1 of 3 terminals which seemed to be working properly) so I opted for the walk as I wanted to pick up some different smoke along the way.
We walked directly south onto the Herengracht and took in some nice scenery along the way. The walk never ventured too far into the Jordaan area but I did make the most of this side of town and showed my friends some of Amsterdam’s outer centre beauty. It wasn’t long before I directed us intentionally towards Grey Area as, not only is it one of my top shops for their gear - but I especially wanted to show Gee the Grey Mist Crystals which I purchased 3g (or 3.3g to be exact - top service!!) of , at €45...well worth the money. Gee also purchased some of the Sharks Breath which was fairly new on the menu - I didn’t note down the price but do remember it being a hell of a buzz later on.
Road side view
We had been nearly an hour on the walk so thought of heading back to Pink Floyd without staying here - although not before I had a quick bowl of crystals for the walk onwards…a very strong buzz but what the hell - the only consequence was I had to stop for a brie and bacon baquette somewhere along Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal to fill the hole in my stomach. Gee had chose to wait until he had chance to sit down before trying any of the Grey Area’s products - wise choice.
On returning to Pink Floyd, Tim was talking to another tourist and a local at the pc terminals - so we decided on ordering a drink and settling here for a while. I ordered a coffee, purchased another bag of Jack Herer and took the free bong by the vending machine before making the sketchy walk upstairs to the middle floor and the big table in the back. The table was half occupied by 5 young French travellers happily smoking large joints and seemed happy to make further room when we walked through. This room had a nice atmosphere with the chilled out tv, happy smokers and view from the window I got of the street beside the shop.
I loaded a bong of Jack Herer sprinkled with crystals from Grey Area before proceeding to fill my lungs…and then some, not taking it down all that well much to the amusement of my friends and the French tourists. Not making the same mistake as before I concluded on taking a big smoke of both JH and GMC mixed - a top combination! I loaded up another big bowl to offer around, happy to see that Gee was more than willing to give it a go. He certainly had a good effort at cleaning it out but two big lungful seemed impressive knowing what he was smoking and it wasn’t long before he had a smile wider than his face
Middle floor at Pink Floyd
Not long after we had the room to ourselves and Gee and I shared another couple of bongs together before decided on what we could do next. The plan was to walk towards to Zoo direction, knowing that it would take us past Stix at some point - Gee and Tim also wanted to make it back to the hotel in order to watch the FA Cup match at around 6pm. This gave us just over 2 hours, so we made our way through town and along Zeedijk to show the others a little of the Asian culture in Amsterdam.
Having reached Stix I lead the others a quick lap of the block to show one of my most favourite picturesque areas of the city. The shop itself is a very pleasant shop, not one that I feel comfortable staying for long periods but nice to have a drink. I only bought two chocomel drinks here as I still had a few bags to get through, but Tim bought some middle of the menu weed which happened to be a strong smoke. The 4 of us took up the semi-rounded table under the main window with the stools - like I said, comfortable for short periods of time…and this had nothing to do with the weird looking guy sitting at one of the side tables gazing in our direction for the majority of our stay!
We made it to the Waag as the sun was setting which made for a very eerie atmosphere - one I never noticed upon walking here during daylight hours. Walking along Damstraat and up Damrak we headed towards the hotel, picking up some cakes, sweets and drinks along the way for the football match. Normally in Amsterdam I would have encouraged the others to watch a footy match out in a bar somewhere; but as this match had no particular interest to me, I was happy to make the most of the time at the hotel getting ready for the night.
I had a shower and smoke with the others before not surprisingly falling asleep around half time of the match. Also to note that Gee went back to his room at half time not to return either - those crystal bongs sure took their toll a few hours later! However I was prepared and set my alarm for 9pm as not to miss the night - not that I can say the same for Tim, Gee and Ines who were all fast asleep by this time and I don’t think would wake up for the end of the world right now!! Oh well - the night is mine!!!
No surprises for where I was headed tonight…I see colours!!! Although first I fancied a beer at De Kuil and after a friendly chat with the barman, topped up by buzz with a bowl of Dirty Jack. Soon I was crossing Damrak and headed down the road besides the big Grasshopper coffeeshop - no matter how many times I approach this road, I feel excited.
The first lap of the RLD was so very tempting with a lot of stunners out working, considering it was a sunday too I was quite surprised - maybe because there weren’t so many tourist about tonight I guess. Although tonight was the only time I have to say I had a bad experience with lady in the RLD - I did follow my own rule of walking by at least twice and seeing if they seem interested which she did, but I went in with a blonde stunner opposite the SexyLand area (known for tourist trap girls) who seemed very genuine and interested at first. Once inside the kamer, she was had a very cold attitude and asked for more money - I stuck to what we agreed outside to her disappointment/anger, and continued to get a very lame performance so to speak. Enough for me to bite the bullet and get out of there quick enough without letting her completely dampen my spirits of the night. A bummer as I don’t really want to throw money away, but I was determined to make the most of what the night had left to offer.
Heading to Excalibur to regain my thoughts over a beer I composed myself for another lap determined not to get my ass kicked like I just did. I wandered over to the Singel RLD and saw some contenders I guessed would almost guarantee turn a bad night into a good one, but wanted to take one more chance on the bigger stage so to speak and yet again walked back into familiar territory.
Don’t get me wrong, there were more than enough ladies to chose from tonight - but I was being a little more picky at the minute. A couple had definitely interested me, but as I was about to go for a more dead certain bet in the Singel RLD, I walked through Stoofsteeg (connecting the two main RLD canals) and laid eyes on possibly the most pretty girl in the whole RLD I have ever seen. Halfway down on the right hand side walking from the OZA canal; she looks mid 20’s with a very natural pretty beauty about her - immediately reminding me of WWE Diva Torrie Wilson. She had a very welcoming look on her face which was enough to make me forget about anything on my mind and I was in her room without thinking. €50 later and I felt £1m better!!! She was as friendly as pretty, if that is possible - a very chatty girl from Czech Republic.
Not really sure what the time was by now, but on the way back to the hotel I noticed De Kuil was still open so I made a stop in for a beer and night cap volcano. The day was definitely catching up on me by now as all I could think of by now was bed, so a short trip later and I was tucked up asleep dreaming of another fine day completed.
