) & my father, who'd last been to Holland when the Beatles were still together! I thought this should be a very interesting experience for all of us, & I wasn't wrong...We arrived at Hull ferry port at around 4.30pm, a good time to get there really as they let you on at 5.00, & there's nothing to do at P&O besides mooch about & wait till you can hop on the ship (The Pride Of Hull... or was it Rotterdam?...) & dump your bag in the cabin. I won't ramble on too much about the cruise as it's Ver Dam you're all interested in, but none of us slept well going there despite us all having a good drink, but we all slept pretty good coming back on June 2nd. I wonder why...
Coach from Europoort to Amsterdam Central Station took about an hour & a half, much as I love the capital of the Netherlands, the country itself is bloody dull travelling through it. Once you've seen one windmill you've seen `em all really, & all there was besides was big office blocks & factories churning out smoke, with the odd advertisement for McDonalds or Vodaphone along the way. Not like England's green & pleasant land, but then again, travelling for hours down the M1 isn't much fun either if you're often popping down to London; at least Holland had a bit more to see than that.
Arrival time in Ver Dam was something like 9.45am, & we found our hotel about half an hour later (we would have found it in about 5-10 minutes if we'd realised the Globe Central was just around the corner from our favourite coffeeshop hangouts Greenhouse Effect & Route 66) After dumping our luggage in our room, it was time to get down to the serious stuff: the smoking! First port of call: Tommy's favourite, Warmostraat's own Greenhouse Effect. Mel, Tom & I sparked up some nice ready rolled joints, & my dad, despite not being a smoker, loved it in there as the girl working there played some Zion Train for him as soon as he mentioned the band! This would be the place we spent the majority of our time in Amsterdam. I know a lot of people love going on "coffeeshop crawls", trying to fit as many different smoking establishments into their agenda as possible, but that just isn't my style. Once I've found one or two shops close by each other that I can relax in, I'm content to give them my patronage for nearly the whole day. As long as I visit at least one new coffee shop every time I go to Amsterdam (which I'll come to shortly), that's good enough for me.
Melissa & my dad went off for something to eat & a goosey at the shops later on that day, so Tommy & I went to my favourite a few yards up Warmostraat, the almighty Route 66. It wasn't very busy, it had the big table at the front which I like, & the ready-rolled White Widow was top-notch. After Tom, Mel & dad went back to the hotel for a couple of hours, I had some time to kill on my own, so I thought I'd stick to my promise & go somewhere new. It may be boring not venturing outside of one street, but the new place I visited was Sheeba on, yes, you guessed it, Warmostraat! I must say I was impressed. A friendly Dutchman served me 11g of Silver Haze at a seperate counter to the bar, & was kind enough to advise me to "be careful carrying that around in the Red Light District". I stayed for a while longer to enjoy a ready-rolled Morrocan & a soft drink, then after another visit to Route 66 to pick up some Jack Herer for home, I went to the Globe to meet the others.
Really there's not a lot more I can say about the actual details of The Trip: we mainly stayed in the Greenhouse Effect, which I think now has overtook Route 66 in my favourite coffeeshop category. My father loved just sitting on the bench outside with a pint of Heineken, watching all the goings-on (of which there were plenty!), while Tom, Mel & myself occupied the table next to the window for hours on end. We must have spent a fortune on sodas, fruit juices, coffees & weed, but the staff there are very nice, they play (mostly) decent music, & I'm one who simply can't be arsed to hop from one shop to another in quick succesion! The weather being beautiful for those couple of days in the city also added to our overall feeling of relaxation & enjoyment.
Just some random notes & thoughts regarding our holiday: there was a lot of, er... "dodgy characters" about. My dad noticed a couple of fights between blokes almost blow over, & of course there was the usual suspects asking for change (many of them being British, worryingly). Funny moments included seeing two people come out of Hill Street Blues across from the Effect with a dog on a lead that looked more stoned than they did! The thought of seeing him slowly amble up the street while his owners try & hurry him along still makes me smile now, although please let it be known that I don't condone canine passive cannabis smoking!
Award for Amsterdam's Poser Of The Year goes to a Prince lookalike, who just spent all day effeminately walking up & down Warmostraat with big hair, tight trousers & strange-looking boots. Other notable Amsterdam "faces" were the Geordie who must have collared me & my dad asking for money about three times altogether (I did give him 50 cents the first time, which didn't go down well with my family), someone who my dad reckoned looked like "Gollum on a bike", & a scruffy-looking bugger who shunted over to the bench outside & looked poised to steal my dad's drink until one of the Greenhouse Effect's staff appeared & told him to sling his hook.I was disappointed not to see Valo & Timbo, I looked out for them after Tom told me they'd be in the city around the same time as us. To help them (& any other potential ACD users) spot us I always made sure to follow Lemming's lead & "flash my ACD map" wherever we went. When I have the photos developed I'll post some up here, which should be sometime this week.
Coming home was no bother customs-wise, there was nobody insisting on checking our bags either in Europoort or Hull, so now Tommy & I have plenty of weed to go at in the comfort of our own abodes. I think in the end we came home with a bit of Jack Herer, the Silver Haze I mentioned earlier, a large supply of Greenhouse Special, plus two or three little bags of cannabis that some kindly English youths gave to Tom & I for free on their way out of Route 66 as they were running late to catch their plane.
So, all-in-all, an enjoyable trip was had by all. Plenty of smoking, plenty of laughs, plenty of nice weather, & you can't whack the duty-free fags & tobacco on the ferry either! Next time I go, I would love to stay at the Greenhouse Effect's hotel, as we spend most of our time downstairs there anyway, & when Tommy stayed a few years ago he said how nice it was. But the Globe Central, basic as it was, was good enough for our needs for one night. Check back here soon after I've scanned in some photos, people, peace brahs...
J.
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