This juxtaposition may be my favorite thing about Amsterdam!

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Wednesday, Dec 28
This is the end, beautiful friend...
I get going early so I can make the most of my last day. I head to Dolphin to use the Verdamper, but they're not open yet. I try Happy Feelings- not only are they open, but they have Verdampers!! (however, it is a 20e deposit, the worst I encounter!) I check out several things from the menu, and want to try most of them, but the budtender refuses to do half grams. He points to the place on the menu where it says 1g Min., 5g Max as his reason.
** Now the way I would interpret that, you would be required to buy 1g min, but multiple halfs would be fine... after all, it isn't a 5g max of one kind, it is a 5g max total! It makes sense to me that it wouldn't be 1g min of 1 kind, it would be 1g min total.
So instead of buying 4 half g's, including the 3 most expensive flavors on the menu, I instead by 1g of the cheapest one I like, Laughing Buddha. I spend 11e instead of 24-25e. Excellent business plan, my friend! They don't make drinks, they just have crappy vending machines in the back that I can't figure out how to work, so I don't spend money on a drink either! **This would be a great shop if the budtender was both friendlier and more logical... as it is it serves its purpose- I have a nice Verdamper session with the Kali Mist and float on over to the Van Gogh museum.
The Museumkaart allows me to skip the horrific line, an EPIC value!! (The Museumkaart's skip the line is actually better than the Hollandpass skip the line here! HP has a short line, MK has NO LINE!) Walking in it is instantly obvious what a pompous, pretentious museum this is! Metal detectors, security guards everywhere... it's like freaking airport security. While I do enjoy the paintings, that is all there is, with a few bronzes scattered around. No pictures allowed, and I don't bother trying to sneak any. Despite having 4 floors and way more space to cover, the uber-sanitized, pretentious atmosphere is uncomfortable and I am only here for about 90mins, compared to Rijksmuseum where I spend twice the time in half the space!
After Van Gogh I head towards the Jordaan... I need to go to Paradox to get my spacecakes for the flight, and I want to check out the Anne Frank House. I go to AFH first, and the line is down the block and around the Westerkerk... no thanks, not standing in line for hours for anything today! I pick up my spacecakes, and start making my way back to center of town. The line is still out of control at AFH, so it will have to wait til next time. I start to make my way back to the hotel to freshen up for the evening, stopping at Blue Lagoon on Overtoom. I try their Crush for 8e.
After freshening up, I head back to Leidseplein and trade another blue ticket for a Boom Chicago ticket. Last night was the Big Holiday Show, and tonight is the Social Media Circus. Since the fans the night before said it was an off night, I decide I'll give them another chance- mostly just to get some more value out of my Hollandpass. I head down to Dolphins to pregame on the Verdamper. I buy one of their pure hash/weed mix joints, since it's the cheapest thing they have and I know I'll just be giving it away... and then the budtender (not the one from my previous two visits), gives me a hard time when I want to use the Verdamper since I didn't buy grams of anything. I wear her down and she lets me use it.
A group of young people are watching me, and we start talking. It is 2 guys and 1 woman from Spain, probably all early 20's, maybe even late teens. Only one of the guys is comfortable speaking English, and we hit it off right away. Tomorrow will be their last day. The other guy is complaining about being tired and wanting to sleep in tomorrow. I can see in his eyes that my new friend is not at all happy about this, so I try to help him out...
I pick on tired-boy MERCILESSLY!! "I'm more than a decade older than you and a hundred pounds heavier... I've been up since 7am and I don't expect to go to bed until 2-3am! Are you gonna let this fat old man out-party you for the last down in Amsterdam?! Are you kidding me?! You can sleep for a fucking week when you get home! Why would you want to SLEEP on your last day in Amsterdam?!?!"
I keep throwing barbs at this guy for an hour and you can see his shame growing and growing. Meanwhile, my friend is just grinning ear to ear... he keeps saying thank you, telling me how much I'm helping him out. I tell him I know!
This group was mostly getting ready to leave when I started my session... an hour later I am heading out to BoomChicago and they are buying White Dolphin and getting their own Verdamper going! I just love being a bad influence!
Boom Chicago is meh again, and I leave at intermission. I am almost back in the main square at Leidseplein when one of the Hostesses chases me down. All accusatory-like, she asks "Did you pay your check?!" Now, let me back up a second... before ordering a bottle of water, I ask how much it is. When the waiter comes back, I have exact change and he won't take it! "You pay at the end of the show." When I decide to leave, I put the exact change on my table and tell my neighbors the situation. I see the waiter on the way out and tell him as well. I explain all this to the woman. "Next time you need to make sure you get a receipt, blah blah blah...!" Well, first of all, there won't BE a next time! And second of all, if you're all hung up on me needing a receipt, maybe you should tell your waiters not to REFUSE TO ACCEPT PAYMENT when somebody wants to pay!
I head to Basjoe where I'm meeting Bleak at 11. He is going to hang on to my pipe for me. I get there early and buy my final smoke of the trip- Heaven Haze of course! Then I settle in to roll the rest of my stash, saving a few highlights for a morning Verdamper session. I have 2 kinds of hash, and the remains of like 7-8 kinds of weed. I break it all up and start rolling cannons until Bleak arrives... he says he wants to get really high before going home to bed... well, that can be arranged!! We smoke bowl after bowl covered in Crystals and Terminator, I try his MagicFlight, and we just get ripped! We hang out for an hour or more. I give him whats left of my "travel bag"s of Crystals and Terminator... He says he can't take it, it's too much, until I show him what I still have for myself and explain I'm leaving in 9 hours!
Bleak and I part ways, and I go for a final walk through the RLD (finding 20e on the street! not the 500e bill I frequently daydream about finding, but I'll take it!! ...and I still have it! I leave with exactly the 20e I found left!!) and head to Central... it is after 1 when I get there, and I have never learned how the nightbus works... uh oh!

I look at my $ and decide how much I'm willing to spend on a cab- as long as it gets me to Overtoom I'll be okay... I explain the situation to the driver, lying and saying I have exactly 13e. The 13e gets me most of the way, and the driver is very nice and takes me the rest of the way for free!!
Again I walk around outside for an hour smoking joints before going to bed at 3am, the alarm set for 7.
Thursday, Dec 29
I get up, pack the last few things, shower, check out, eat a spacecake, and head for Anyday for my final session. I get there about 20mins early, even after getting off the tram 1 stop too early, so I walk around the block and smoke a couple of joints until they open. This is when Anyday overtakes Basjoe as my #1 favorite shop- it is open for my final session and has Verdampers! I vape Kali Mist, Heaven Haze, NYCDiesel and Champagne Haze!! In between flavors, I start to give the budtender my leftovers. I don't give it away all at once in case Gapie shows up, but I later learn he misinterprets my 3am pm. It is just me and the budtender (who may or may not be the owner), and we have a great conversation. **Between that and the gifts, I think there is a fighting chance he remembers me when I get back!**
As the witching hour approaches, I open the last of the Terminator and just start STUFFING the end of one of the cannons I rolled the night before! I must put half a gram in, on top of what I put on the paper when I was rolling it! I save a last little taste for the budtender, trade him most of the gram of Laughing Buddha for a bottle of water and go outside. I smoke the half of the joint that is stuffed with Terminator and leave the other half in the ashtray... hopefully some brave soul picked it up, smoked it, and had their mind BLOWN!!
I take a final picture:

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Again, my favorite image of Amsterdam- Church, Coffeeshop, Hookers!!
I make my way back to Central, get my ticket, and head to the airport. As we approach, I use some eye drops and eat my last spacecake.

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So ends my debut trip report! Thank you all for reading, I hope I am writing another one soon!
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul.