My trip report

[mazdog]

So i made it to the dam and back safely! I am still exhausted after a full nights sleep in my own bed so i will try to keep this short and add some stuff in the future. Had an amazing time! What a cool city (even without the coffeeshops).

We stayed at the Hotel Stadhouder, located in De Pijp on Stadhouderskade, across the street from the Heineken Brewery. Great area, nice hotel, nothing special and a little small but nothing "bad" about it.

Weather was great, didn't get rained on at all. They said is was raining the morning we got there and it just got nicer and nicer till the morning we left when it was raining a bit before the car came to take us to the airport. It was a bit cold and a little windy.

We both ended up getting sick (chest cold) which was a bummer, since i wanted to smoke like a madman, the illness kinda prevented me from really goin full bore. Having said that, i still managed to smoke over 17 grams of weed and hash!!! i wanted to try a lot of hash but i quickly learned that it was gonna be easier for me to try a lot of weed over hash.

The shops i visited are as follows;
Get down to it - in leidsplein - very bar like - didn't like it much, didn't go back
Rokerij -the one in Leidsplein - very cool decor, went here a couple times had some Jack Herrer, Kalimist, and NL5xHaze all were good
Barneys - awesome place, meet a really cool brit, bought Amnesia Haze, Sour Diesel, Cantaloupe Haze and Barney Ruble. Almost had a whitie here!! had to stop and have a few deep breathes and a soda. also, they had some Mekong Haze which was allegedly a cross made with some plants that came from seed a "friend" of thiers brought back from the Mekong Delta many years ago. i didn't try it but it looked great!
Amnesia - very nice shop also, comfy seating and nice decor, friendly staff. they were out of the MK ultra for a couple days and i never made it back : ( but the Bio-Sage and Canadian ?? (i forgot what is was canadian something or other) were both very good and stinky. Went here the morning when i was at peak sickness and i think it really helped me get thru the day.
Grey Area - very small, didn't really like it that much. the Grey Berry was good tho.
Kabouter - nice the nicest area, very bare shop, wouldn't reccomend goin there unless you are in the area already. didn't try anything. couple red lights next door.
Overkant - kinda small and NO chairs or stools WTF, other than that it was cool, the budtender was nice. nice area and the White Widow was great one of my favs.
BlueBird - AWESOME design and layout with the bar upstairs. Girlfriend said the bathroom was even cool!! Had some Blue Chesse that was very nice. Would have liked to spend more time here.
Tweede Kamer - small but nice and clean, very friend dealer, got some NYC Diesel and AK47 both of which was outstanding.
Choclata - tiny downstairs didn't go upstairs, just grabbed a 12 Euro bag of Snow White, rolled it up and got to walkin it was good.

I also got a bag of PowerPlant from my tour guide and a free gram of some unknow Ice-O-Lator, both ot which were quite nice and on par with everything else i tried.

I think thats it. De Dampkring was packed at noon so we didn't go in. Went by the Hash/Hemp museum which was cool but Eagle Bill wasn't there : (

So yeah had a great time, have nothing at all bad to say about anywhere we went. Would have like to be able to chill more but being sick and haveing a non-smoking girlefirend made that hard. Also would have been nice to smell and taste all the bud, since i couldn't really smell/taste after wednesday morning.

Hopefully i can make it back before it all goes to shit, which several people i talked to thougth was inevitable in the coming years.

I got pics of everything i smoked and tons of pics of the city, so once i sort thru them i will be sure to throw up a link to the gallery.

[Lemming]

Moved this topic. Hope you don't mind.

Was that the original Overkant out in the Old West?

[buddy]

Hey Mazdog
Glad to hear you had a good time in spite of getting sick. I'm leaving for the dam in a couple of days and your report will be helpful. I'm curious about your comment that a lot of the people you talked to didn't have much faith in the coffeeshop shop scene being around in the coming years. This is really sad. One would have hoped the situation in Amsterdam would begin to enlighten the rest of the world. Are things really going the other way? I know the number of shops has been reduced, but to disappear?? Are these doom sayers people on the street or actual shop owners? Hopefully this is all a setback and a product of our unfortunate times and things will once again turn
around. Or maybe I'm a hopeless optomist.

[mazdog]

lemming, cool man i wasn't sure where to put it myself.

and the overkant was over by the zoo, which is west right ? not sure if that is the "old west" or not.

buddy, a couple of the people in the shops (patrons) sad things that made it seem like they knew and relized that the battle is on. And one of the tour guides from the package i went on was an old coffeeshop owner from back in the back and really seemed to know what he was talking abou tin general and he actually said " I hope the shops will be around in another 10 years, but it wouldn't surprise if they don't last...there is too much pressure.

[mazdog]

here is a pic for you guys , the first of many. I am working on getting a full gallery up by the end of the week including all the nugs pics and the "tourist" pics so for now enjoy these beauties held by the deal at Barneys on Tuesday morning. I had asked if i could take a pic of the menu, and he polites yet sternly informed me that that was completely illegal ..... i apologized, commented that the stuff i bought was fantastic and to have a great day, then he says hang on, you CAN take of pic of this and grab this container, not sure what strain it is unfortunately, i was well blazed at this point, lucky i actually remembered to turn on the camera

[Lemming]

Er, moved it again!

Regarding Overkant, the zoo is in the east so that must be De Overkant Hortus.

[T MON€Y]

Ha Ha!

Thats a great photo Mazdog, despite the fact you were blitzed! I'm sure Barney's won't mind the advertising with their t-shirt logo in the background as well! Shame you don't know the strain (but i'm sure it was expensive)

Look forward to more of your photo's, always bring back (not too distant) memories.

[Valo]

Great quality pic (and bud) - looking forward to browsing through more when they are ready.

Nice to hear you enjoyed your trip.

[mazdog]

thanks for the comments guys.

i am working on the pics, hope to have my own site up in another day or two :fingers crossed: if that doesn't work out i will up what i have to photbucket or something just to get them out there.

in the meantime, check out this little video i made of a gibbon at Artis Zoo.
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=gibbonbreakin_sm
now image if you were stoned and there in person with me Wed. morning, man i was laughin my ass off.

[TOKEandSMOKE]

glad u enjoyed ur trip mazdog,i must say that video had me seriously laughin,the little monkey thing looked wasted.

but hey ive been there myself a few times when ive been to amsterdam lol

[Valo]

One seriously trippy monkey! Looks like me on a mushroom journey - just minus the fur!!!!

[timbo]

Shame u was ill for a bit of your trip, sounds like u had a wicked time though. I'm going in a week and a half, i might hunt down that funky gibbon and see if it's still nuts! funny stuff, thats why I study animal behaviour at university although I haven't got a clue what it's up in the video.

[lctricity]

Awesome job mi amigo!

I'll get off my ass soon and contribute some quality info from my recent trip. Look forward to checking out more of your bud pics soon!

[mazdog]

thanks guys.

about the gibbon, at first i felt bad and thought the thing must have something wrong with, but it would do that then stop and come to the window (like in the end of the vid) so it almost seems like it might be a learned behaviour and now it does it for attention. Either way i was shocked at first and just couldn't stop laughing.

I'm having some issues with my website, but i will try to get a least some of the bud pics up somewhere soon.

[mazdog]

woooohoooo i was just messin with my site and i think i figured it out.
so here is a temporary link to my bud pic gallery, i say temporary because there are currently a couple pics on it i want to take out but anyways for now have a look at
edit: permanent link below

there are two pages, goto the second page via the drop down in the corner.