matty223 wrote:too bad you didnt get to the Frans Hal museum,, i really enjoyed it
It was o.k. when I went about 15 years ago. Just don't expect any paintings done by Hals. I think they name the museum after him because the house was once his residence not because they have any actual works by him.
We start the day slowly, couple joints around Vondelpark, skip breakfast at the hotel, because we have dining plans. They include a late-morning stop at the first coffeeshop we ever visited, the Kadinsky on Langebrugsteeg.
Kadinsky, 1G Maui Haze/€12.50: Decent smoke, a little harsh, not bad, not great. We at the same table, upstairs nearest the cigarette machine, where we sat for our first coffeeshop visit during our first trip to Amsterdam in 2006. I have a particularly fond memory of that day because I was dreadfully sick, throwing up for two days, throwing up in the toilet on the airplane, it couldn't have been worse ... and then, one gram of Hawaiian Haze from Kadinsky and a stroll in the fresh air, just after a rain, and I was a new man, never sick again the rest of the trip. Nothing quite so dramatically medical about the weed this time, just harkening back to a good memory and had a nice conversation with a local while here.
The Haze was gone and we still had a little time to kill before our 1 p.m. pancakes reservation, so....
Rusland, 2G Super Polm hash €14, 1G White Russian/€11: Rusland is undergoing a major renovation. The restroom, for now, is a cubicle. There is no downstairs area available. It should be done in about six months, according to the budtender. The biggest loss in renovation is that Rusland no longer has the loose tea, just an assortment of tea bags. They've put in some nice flat-screens and had the Everton-Arsenal and PEC Zwolle-Vitesse Arnhem games on, which was a nice warm-up for our day ahead. We stuck the hash and weed in the pocket for later and smoked a couple from the stash.
Then it was time for our first visit to the Upstairs Pannenkokken. Some tourist traps are just traps. This is a tourist destination. Wife had the apple/cinnamon/sugar pancake while I ordered the bananas and chocolate sauce pancake. It might have been just one maturity level above the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity, but it was absolutely delicious. Reservations a virtual must. Only four tables. We sat at the same one as Anthony Bourdain in his "The Layover" episode from Amsterdam, if you saw it.
We had a lovely day at the Arena. Great place to see a game. People smoking joints in the grassy area outside the stadium. I ate the two grams of hash from Rusland about 90 minutes before kickoff and had a nice glow the whole game (wife doesn't like eating cannabis). Ajax sucked in the second half, got beat time and again by PSV Eindhoven's counters. Memphis Depay scored one of the goals for PSV. He's a future star. PSV won 3-1 after Ajax led 1-0 at half. It was not unlike when we went to the 2012-13 season-opener at the Arena, Ajax led 1-0 at half, and Jozy Altidore came right out of halftime with a quick brace for AZ Alkmaar in a 2-2 tie. Anyway, I got a couple hats for the family and a couple for myself, ate the worst hot dog I've ever had in my life (well, two bites of it...and the only question is why I took the second bite...snappy exterior, total mush on the inside of the weenie). And with that, I lose €50.
At Matty's suggestion, we went to Tomatillo on Overtoom. A nice slice of Mexico in Amsterdam. I'd go back. Thanks Matty!
Blue Lagoon, 3G Crush/€21: Oh, about losing that €50...I would've set a torch to it, and maybe a couple more 50s to boot, if I didn't have to listen to a most annoying woman from Pennsylvania, whom we met in this shop. She had absolutely nothing to say, which didn't prohibit her from saying it often. I had two big advantages: One, my wife was sitting between me and the woman, so she was catching the brunt of it; two, I don't hear so well out of my right ear and they were sitting to my right. I was getting the signal from the wife even before the first joint was done. When we finished it, I gave her the "I have to go back to the room, not feeling well" B.S., and we beat feet out of there. Nice shop, good weed by the way. Just STFU, lady. You're boring us to tears.
DAY EIGHT
The Power, 1G Chocolope/€10: We'd had a lot of busy days in a row and decided to chill some on another drizzly Monday. Took the No. 10 tram out to Azartplein just to see what the island looks like. On the way, stopped here for one of my favorite strains. Very, very strong. Nice shop, doing some renovations. It was my first time here but I'd definitely return.
Happy People, 1G Cheese Haze/€10: Good smoke. Decent shop right at the top of Dappermarkt. We always seem to gravitate here, then walk the market, which we did again.
Los Angeles, 1G White Widow/€8: Some places, I just have a soft spot for, and this is one of them. There is absolutely nothing about the place that screams tourist. It's a place for Moroccan locals, primarily. The only previous time I was here, the WW was 2.3G/€12.50, so the prices have escalated. There are only about three or four weed choices but the WW was quite good, actually. Last time here, I ordered the Moroccan tea, which was exceptional and memorable, and the wife knocked over my glass. The gentleman who I think owns/manages the place was there with a towel, cleaning up, practically before the table got wet. This time, the shop was full, and as we started to skin up at the bar, the same gentleman said, "Americans...tourists..." to us, and when we turned around, he had a seat in hand for my wife, then turned to retrieve another for me. Kindness and awareness go a long way in my book. Also, the Spa Blue and the Moroccan tea we ordered were €3.50 together; I don't know how the cost broke down but that's cheap. The Moroccan tea is one of the best drinks I've ever had at am Amsterdam coffeeshop. Kind of like a mint julep without the booze. It's quite the process to make, takes 3-5 minutes, I'd guess, but worth the wait. I doffed my cap to the owner/manager on the way out and thanked him again. I'll be back.
The rain returned about 4 p.m. so we picked up some snacks at Albert Heijn and chilled around the hotel, smoked up some of the stash. The rain is supposed to break around noon on Tuesday. Hopefully, we'll have some decent weather the last two days of the trip.
DAY NINE
Prix D'Ami, 1G AMG Haze/€12.50: First asked to see the S5 Haze, then passed on it. The AMG is what the dealer was smoking and it was very good. A few points about the shop. One, it's enormous. The upstairs smoking areas are huge. The sign declaring no phone calls and no hats also makes claim that Prix D'Ami is the world's largest coffeeshop, and I'm not going to differ. The day we were there, I counted 30 people on the second level at the height of the activity, 28 of them men. The TV screens with the crawl are very effective marketing tools and the second level doesn't have a single seat from which you can't see one of them. That said, the 50-cent charge for using the restroom is just a turnoff. The metal detector at entry is a little off-putting, too. It's not a bad shop and I'm not knocking it but I'd go elsewhere personally.
Voyagers, 1G Fromage Bleu, €10: The wife wanted an indica so I asked about the top-of-the-line offering, Kosher Kush. They were out of stock. So I asked the budtender, the young fellow with blonde hair, what he would recommend, and he said this is what he was smoking right now. He added that he wouldn't always suggest it but that this was a particularly good batch. He was spot-on. Excellent smoke. To hell with Testing Tuesday.
t'Oooievartje, 1G Shiva/€8: We didn't smoke it until quite a bit later but it was very good. The thing that continues to surprise me about this place is the incredible amount of wasted space. There's a large non-smoking section up front and I've never seen anyone sit there. There's a smaller smoking area in the back and it's sometimes a challenge to find a seat there, and invariably some regulars crowd around the entry into the smoking area because they can chat up the budtender, who is stationed in the non-smoking area. A little redesign would do this shop some good.
We went to Nam Kee near the Heineken brewery for lunch. I had an egg-and-prawn dish that was otherworldly. We both had enough leftovers for dinner. Excellent Chinese if you're looking for it.
Media, 1G Champagne Haze/€12.50: It was a fine bud. We stayed for a second mint tea. A very comfortable shop with ample space and quality smoke. I don't know if we've ever taken a trip to Amsterdam without going to Media at least once.
Central, 2G Amnesia Haze/€16: Smoked this over the next couple of days. I was initially skeptical, it being Central and all, but it was actually a very good example of Amnesia Haze. Central was solid this trip.
We considered a stop at Blues Brothers coffeeshop but one look at the staircase and we both decided we didn't need to smoke that badly. We've both had enough of staircases. By coincidence, we ended up back at the hotel, watching Blues Brothers the movie later the same night....
We also found a smoking haven at our hotel that had been heretofore undiscovered by us. There's a small garden behind the bicycle parking at the Amsterdam Marriott on Leidseplein. The management turns a blind eye to smokers there.
Last edited by courtjester on Fri 29th Aug 2014 09:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Great travelogue. I'll be in town on Sunday and I always stay in the Hotel Abba on Overtoom (must be 20 times now) but I've never been to the Blue Lagoon, sounds like they have some good hash too.
Started the day with an Amnesia Haze from Central in the morning at the hotel garden, had breakfast, then smoked a White Balloon joint from Het Ballonetje.
Like always, we save our roaches and roll them all up late in the trip. I rolled seven joints from the roaches, the throwaway weed purchased early in the trip at YoYo, and most of the hashes purchased earlier at De Overkant Hortus and Happy Feelings. Ended up with seven joints, all with end-to-end hash sausages in the middle.
We took the first two of those joints to Vondelpark and enjoyed a brilliantly sunny morning. The weather finally broke midday yesterday, after a rainy morning, and the rain hasn't returned. The only other days it didn't rain since we've been here were the zoo day and the soccer day. This was the only day we saw 70 degrees Fahrenheit, however. It was a typical beautiful summer day in Amsterdam. We were beginning to wonder if we even would see one of them.
We really had the Upstairs Pannenkokken jones, so we went down there to see if we could get a table. It was 12:15 p.m. and they had an opening at 2 p.m., so we reserved it and went for our only coffeeshop stop of the day.
City Hall, 1G Mango Haze/€11: Harsh. The wife was getting a cold and she could smoke the roach-and-hash joints all day. The Amnesia Haze, fine. But this Mango Haze made her cough like a fiend. It was, in fact, a little harsh. Tasted good but underflushed. Didn't have many such examples on this trip. Somehow, this was our first trip to City Hall. It's a nice enough shop.
We spent the rest of the day smoking up the remaining joints of roach-and-hash, the Amnesia from Central and the White Balloon from Het Ballonetje. By the time we went to bed, all we had left were two of the roach-and-hash joints.
We went to a lovely wood-fired pizza place in the Jordaan for dinner, La Perla, near the Marnixplein stop on the No. 10 tram. I had the pie with salami on it. Extraordinary. They use only fresh mozzarella from Naples, imported twice weekly. I'd recommend it.
DAY ELEVEN
We started the day with a 6:30 a.m. wakeup call, got a coffee, smoked a roach-and-hash joint in the hotel garden, showered, ate, smoked the other roach-and-hash joint, then checked out of the hotel.
Hunters, 1G Mexican Haze €14, 3G Hunters Special hash €24, Space cake, €4.50: Last stop of the trip. The Haze was a really nice smoke. The hash was for eating before the flight. The space cake was for the missus, who ate that at Hunters. I ate about two grams of the hash before leaving the coffeeshop. The missus saved hers because she didn't want to eat it too early, and chose to break it out and choke it down while waiting at Central Station for the train to Schiphol. She promptly proceeded to drop the gram of hash on the cement floor of the train spoor. It was a most interesting final development, watching my germophobe wife confronted with the decision whether to throw away her last gram in Amsterdam for fear of contamination, or gulp it down, germs be damned. She scooped it up and immediately said, "I'm going to eat it," and so she did. I believe she made the right decision.
Great write up. It is unfortunate you got a bad gram of MH at City Hall. The one I got back in April was perfect in form and smoke. In my experience few shops provide a consistent product. A sad fact of the front/back door Dutch policy.
La Perla is a wonderful Jordaan landmark. It is too bad their pizzas are not procurable before 5 pm.
La Perla is a wonderful Jordaan landmark. It is too bad their pizzas are not procurable before 5 pm.
Opens at 10am now!
Nice report. Was there for most of August - that rain was just the worst
Lol left on the 27th - just as the sun came out!
Last few times I checked only pasta was available before 5pm. Probably due to the wood oven taking time to build up temperature.
Could be wrong but rode by and I swear pizza was being made around noon. ( I did not stop - maybe it was a special occasion). But Their website does say they open at 10am now...
Firstly I have to thank you for your nice report, Courtjester!
Secondly here's a story: when I was sitting at the internet pc at De Graal last week to check some stuff since I wasn't online a couple of days I continued to read your travelogue. Then I read the passage in the text headlined 'The Power'. Without reading the paragraph I stopped my read and realised I've been there for the very first time just two hours ago on my way to Los Angeles coffeeshop. Just stepped in, looked around and glanced at the menu for just one minute. Was very average and I didn't have so much time anyway so just left.
Well, I read on and noticed your comment about Los Angeles coffeeshop(which I kinda anticipated due to mentioned 'The Power') where I've been to just prior to De Graal.
To finally come straight to the point: you have to know I plan my trips relatively well and like to check out new places every now and then. I found the review of Los Angeles on the main site two or three months ago and also noticed your comment there(I think you inspired me in the past several times as well with your reviews). I was staying in The Hague again for a couple of days last week and had to take a daytrip to the Dam for some reasons as well and since Los Angeles isn't too far away by Tram from De Graal(which was planned as my last stop. Los Angeles coffeeshop: go from Albert Cuypstraat on the Tram and change at Museumsplein to Line 3 or 7(?) and go to Beukenweg, around ten minutes all in all)I decided to give it a go!
So reading your review in De Graal then was such a funny coincidence !
I pretty much agree with you when it comes to Los Angeles. I frequent those moroccan local places a lot if I got the chance since I'm pretty much into their hashish so I really feel your point of view. If they serve their traditional mint tea too it's a very nice bonus as well(have it at home every now and then or at a cafe of one of the moroccan communities around here)!
I was served by a guy in his early fourties I'd say and was recommended Tbisla(most expensive one of their 4 hashes at 9€/g)which was very reasonable priced and fine hash .
Of course I had tea as well. Even though I think you got a more special treatment due to being with your wife and more than twenty years older than me(no offence intended)locals there were friendly and welcoming, they also had billard. Very basic as usual though.
All in all a nice stop there and don't regret it! Maybe I return someday.
If you're ever around The Hague go and check moroccan Sympathy. Their Hia(10€/g)is spot on mostly and they do serve their mint tea as well. Bit smaller and no billard but I like to stay there for a bit. By the way as recommended elsewhere http://www.restaurantbiladi.nl/ - ate there myself and liked it. It's around the corner of Kashmir Lounge and coffeeshop.
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