Lamont's Live Report - Jan 1-12

[quixote]

Top notch report- the photos, descriptions, variety of coffeeshops...It's a shame you had to work at all, your report would have never ended!

I'm planning on picking up the All in one pass as well (I posted a topic in Transport before I read this). Where is the tourist information desk? It says arrivals hall 2, but I have no idea if I should go there first and then baggage claim or vice versa. Perhaps you could help me with this Lamont?

Peace

[Cisco]

Dunno how i missed this one ? top job

[Lamont]

I'm planning on picking up the All in one pass as well (I posted a topic in Transport before I read this). Where is the tourist information desk? It says arrivals hall 2, but I have no idea if I should go there first and then baggage claim or vice versa. Perhaps you could help me with this Lamont?

Peace

You should claim your bags first as the Holland Tourist Information desk is in arrivals hall 2 AFTER you exit baggage claim. Look at the "Arrivals and Schipol Plaza" map on this page:

http://www.schiphol.nl/Travellers/AtSchiphol/Maps.htm

[Lamont]

First off thanks to everyone for the overwhelmingly postive response. It's nice encouragement and I'm glad you are enjoying my report....

Day 3 - Monday

After two days of exploring the city and hitting as many different coffee shops as possible, it was time to actually start doing the work I was sent here for. Back to reality...or at least the Amsterdam version of reality. Monday morning and the alarm goes off at 6:30 am...a brutal wake up call after a late night of smoking. Especially more brutal knowing the sun won't be getting up for another 3 hours! Shower, shave, and breakfast at the hotel before heading out the door for Centraal Station.

Despite the early hour, it's nice to be out and be a participant in this city as a worker and not just a tourist. It's a beautiful crisp cold morning and I smoke a j of Chocolope as I make my way to Centraal. When I get there I walk to the far end of the station where the Metro entrance is. Downstairs on onto Metro 53 to Gein....destination stop Station Bijlmer ArenA.



After about 20 minutes the train arrives at the Arena station. The area around the Arena is full of large office parks, and my company like so many others is setting up shop here. The modern office buildings is quite a change from the centuries old architecture of the centrum. I for one am very happy that the city planners have pushed all this development to Zuid-Oost instead of trying to fit it into the Centrum...it preserves the beauty of this historic city. I work a full day at the office and afterwords catch the Metro back to Centraal station. During the day it's gotten progressively colder and I freeze my ass off on the way back to the hotel. I warm up in the room and grab a quick bite from the club lounge at the hotel before I put on more layers and venture back out for the night. On a cold night like tonight, a hot chocolate in a chilled out spot somewhere close sounded great so I walked down Singel, cross the canal on Blawburgwal, and then left on Herengracht. Within a few minutes I'm at Amnesia and settled into one of those comfy seats.... a steaming hot chocolate (2.40 euro) and 1 gram of Acapulco Gold (14 euro/gram) on the table in front of me ready to enjoy. The Acapulco Gold smelled real nice but as to effect not my favorite smoke from Amnesia. The hot chocolate was awesome with a giant mound of whip cream.

The one major difference about working in Amsterdam is you have to be somewhat responsible for making it to work on time. So after chilling at Amnesia for a couple hours, it was back to the hotel and off to bed.

For the rest of my report I will probably consolidate multiple days onto one post...I won't bore you with the details of my work and simply list some of the shops I visited and the weeds purchased. More to come soon!

[Rasa]

That Amnesia Haze heads up you gave us about De-Graal's is making me drool!
Does not matter how many different types of weed I try! not one can compare to the
highs iv'e experienced of the different types of Amnesia I have sampled. Definately will be grabbin
a nice 5 g bag of this when I arrive in April! Cheers Lamont! Amnesia is my all time favorite strain!

[The_Green_Bastard]

awesome report lamont and I'd happily read your reports about a week of work as long as they were capped off with a nightcap at a coffeeshop.

working for only a week?

[darkglobe]

very interesting report man...i'll be in deGraal soon for their superb Kashmiri and have added the Amnesia Haze to the (ever growing) list,just love that stuff...and in over 40 years of smoking,i must admit i've never smoked Acapulco Gold..i can finally rectify that,,Thanks

Acapulco Gold by Roy Harper - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APIGMAs-gV4

I'm getting rolled by my Acapulco Gold...

[dconstrukt]

amen brotha... great reporting...


RasaLibree - i'll be there in april also..... moving for 3 months to see how i like

[Rasa]

amen brotha... great reporting...


RasaLibree - i'll be there in april also..... moving for 3 months to see how i like

We will be in touch, im doing the moving thing too but im pretty much just packing up and moving to Europe for a whole year, going from place to place wherever I please! Amsterdam gets the whole month of April, we'll be tokin my dude!

[Caligurl]

Amazinggggg report Lamont, I'm sitting here with no gear at all(dealers in London have no idea of customer service ) and your pics are literally making me drool.

I love your style of writing, and your pictures have been great.

I must say, you come across like a great guy. Enjoy the rest of your trip, eargerly awaiting the next installment.

[Lamont]

Day 4 - Tuesday

Another day at work, up at too early o' clock, shower, breakfast out the door to the Centraal Station. It's another cold grey blustery day in the Dam and I pull my hat down over my ears as I make my way over to the station. The Christmas lights on top of Centraal add a bit of cheer to an otherwise cheerless morning sky.



While I can take the train to work at home it's not nearly as convenient or efficent as the transit system in Amsterdam. It's so nice to be able to chill on the Metro, listen to some tunes, and enjoy the effects of my chosen morning smoke, NYCD from Amnesia. A great wake and bake.



I'm working to setup the IT infrastructure for the new office space for the company, and no one has moved in yet so at this hour of the morning it's just me and the furniture intallers. I keep the tunes rolling on the iphone, focus on my work for the day and I'm always so busy that the day flies by. Before I know it the day is over and it's back to Station Bijlmer Arena and catch the metro back to Centraal. The sun has been down for over an hour at this point so it's plenty chilly with a strong wind blowing helping to make it feel extra cold. By the time I get back to teh Centrum I'm starving so on the way home from Centraal I pick up Wok to Walk on Kolksteeg. Egg noodles mit Beef and Cashews, Saigon Sauce. YUM! and the perfect meal for a cold night like this.

Rejuvenated from the food I drop off my laptop etc at the hotel and head out for the night's smokes. First stop tonight? A new shop for me, Homegrown Fantasy. Exit the hotel, walk down Kattengat to reach Spuistraat. Down Spuistraat for a few blocks and then down the alley next to Anyday to reach Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal. A coule more blocks and I find HGF. I enter to find a cozy coffeeshop with a 4-5 tables in front, bud counter on the right, and another room beyond the bud counter. I was greeted by a very friendly bud lady who let me take my time to review the menu.

Based on comments from other readers on the site, I had Cheese on my list for this shop so I asked to see that first. When she opened the lid of the container I was greeted by a strong skunky smell and wonderful crystally buds. 1 gram please thank you very much! The Cheese was 12.50 euro/gram and I also got a Chocomel for 2.20. I sat down and began to grind up my purchase. The smell just got stronger and my fingers were sticky just from breaking the buds up for the grinder. Sorry no pictures I didn't take my camera that night. I filled my cone and lit up, taking my first toke of the cheese. I was greeted by a very nice strong blueberry flavor, yum! The body stone that followed was also quite nice, but not enough to put me down for the night. All in all I'd say I like this shop and the product seemed pretty reasonable. They had some outdoor on the menu as well but I didn't sample it. I enjoyed my smoke and chocomel in a very relaxing environment, took some notes, and then it was time to move on. I waved to the budtender on the way out and said thanks.

Next stop, De Kuil/420. When I had been there first night they were down to the dregs on the NYCD so i wanted to circle back to see if they had been restocked. To my fortune the budtender smiled when I asked about it....they had indeed just gotten a fresh batch and he proudly pulled out the container for my inspection. The lovely diesel smell that greeted me when the tender opened the tub was just wonderful. No hesitation, 1 gram of that please kind sir! (NYCD 12.50euro/gram). It was quiet on this weeknight in 420 so I was able to get one of the tables in the middle opposite the bar which are great for people watching and enjoying the environment of DeKuil. I skinned up my purchase, lit up, and sat back to enjoy a very nice example of NYCD. The music was nice, the vibe was mellow, and I just got a very gezellig feeling in my heart as I enjoyed the fruits of living in Amsterdam, if only for a short while.

After DeKuil, it was back to the hotel and off to bed, another day of work tomorrow! More to come soon....

[Lamont]

All I can say is.. that really was a fantastic review...those bud pics were amazing! what camera are you using??
I love the detail of your writing, it makes me look forward to my trip to the Dam in April, its going to be my 3rd time in the beautiful city I cant wait, is the tangerine dream as good as I hear it is???

@moogle, the camera in use for most of these pictures was a Fuji F11. Great little camera. Also, on the Tangerine Dream, I'd say the batch I sampled was pretty damn good. Good flavor for at least the first few tokes on a j, and then a powerful sativa up high.

[moogle]

I'm so eager to get over there and try out some bud shots with my new camera, cheers for the report Lamont!

[Lamont]

Day 5 - Wednesday

Another cloudy day this morning with hints of sun in between. The one nice thing about cloudy weather in Amsterdam is that the ambient temperature is much warmer. Plus you get occasional shots like this one that I took from the office building window when I got into work in the morning:



A pretty typical day at work this day so I won't bore you with the details. Working in Amsterdam is pretty much like working anywhere else, with one notable exception. At the end of the day you can have a "Shake and Bake"



After work I made my way straight over to Amnesia. I got a friendly welcome from the budtender as I've been a bit of a regular all week. I asked to see both the G13 haze as well as the Amnesia haze. in my opinion the Amnesia smelled a lot better and had my mouth watering. The BT agreed and gladly sold me a gram ...and gave me the "locals" discount! 11.70 euro/gram.

I ordered the above pictured vanilla shake and headed back to my table and rolled up the Amnesia haze. The bud was covered with crystals and incredibly sticky AND stanky! Very nice smoke indeed, although perhaps not as well cured as the example I got from DeGraal later in the week (in a future installment). After I was done with that I topped it off with a j of SoGouda from Katsu mixed with Papi Special hash from Papillon. KNOCKOUT!!!! I sat and stared into space while I enjoyed the tunes on offer for a while. Once I could move again I stumbled back to the hotel and crashed.

More later!

[sirphobose]

great read and some top photos, appreciate the effort

I'm planning on picking up the All in one pass as well (I posted a topic in Transport before I read this). Where is the tourist information desk? It says arrivals hall 2, but I have no idea if I should go there first and then baggage claim or vice versa.

I reckon bags first, we grabbed our passes at the shop just next to the elevator for the platform, just round the corner from the main ticket office...ask in there if in doubt.

hope this helps