Day 4
My alarm goes off at 10:00am as I need to be up and checked out by eleven. Somehow I must have packed everything last night as to my surprise my bag is ready to rock when I get out of the shower. Ok. I don’t remember that but I’m not complaining.
Given the small amount of sleep I’ve had - I’m surprisingly alert and I’m raring to go. I fly at 9:45pm and still have a good 7g’s of CS flowers, some rosin and upon inspection - I still have a good gram of SSH and S5 Haze in the stash too - so at this point it seems like the right think to do would be try and stretch the collection out all day.
I resolve not to buy anything else…
The Mighty is pre-loaded with SSH so no morning doob for the walk across town today. Hey ho - no one can accused me of being boring - or a creature of habit. So then; it’s straight to - yes you guessed it! La Grotte for breakfast.
Deleuks is meeting me there - he arrives in good sprits as usual and brightens things up considerably - it sometimes takes a bit of good conversation to kick-start my intellect. He's the man for the job.
I have a lovely little selection of flavours to get through so today will be a quiet day of observation and research. As I wait for breakfast to arrive - I internally scheme the five doob wake n bake challenge we’re about to undertake.
The initial part of the challenge will consist of:
a 1gram S5 doob, a 1g SSH doob, a 1g Lemon skunk doob (De Graal), a 1g Highrise doob (De Graal) and finally - a 1g G13 Doob (De Graal)
After breakfast, we’ll top-up with a (just less than) 1g doob of Pink from Club Media in case we’re not high enough.
It actually takes us MUCH longer than anticipated to get through those six doobs, in fact we’re still smoking the second an hour later as we trip past Voyagers on the way to the Cannabis College (I want to press more rosin from the remaining SSH and S5 - it’s the fastest and most efficient way of imbibing those cannabinoids for sure).
As we round the corner past Batavia - the lure of that tray of silver bubble in Voyagers is like an enticing harpy on the rocks, she’s singing to me. I’m being lulled - she’s drawing me in. The bitch. I love her. I’d drown for her (in her - ideally).
Doing a quick bit of mental arithmetic (never a strong point for me) - I come to the obvious and rational conclusion that I don’t have enough weed for the day. "2g of Silver Bubble please Elliot"
"Yes it is fucking lovely isn’t it?". This bud is going straight in the straighteners I resolve. It’s around 1pm at this point.
We head straight for the Cannabis College - ambling through the RLD blazing a fattie and lapping up another glorious day of sunshine.
Luckily the Cannabis College is pretty empty and we have the place to ourselves other than one other dude. As I get talking to him - it becomes apparent that he seems to be struggling with a few mental health issues. My girlfriend is a psychiatric nurse and I’m a keen student of psychology myself so it’s fairly obvious after talking with him a while that he’s suffering from a couple of paranoid delusions. I neither collude with nor challenge his beliefs (as I’ve been taught) - simply offering some kind words of empathy when he becomes upset.
I doubt that offering him a dab would help matters - but he’s very interested in the art of Rosin Tech - jumping up and down on hair straighteners must look ridiculous. Thankfully he doesn’t ask - and I don’t offer. Phew. I wouldn’t want to be the catalyst for a full on psychotic episode.
The guy is an old school hash smoker and watches with disbelief as we crush 4 grams of flowers in the space of 5 minutes - Deleuks is pressing out hash and has a piece of parchment just covered in sticky goo. It looks amazing. He sits and watches us wrapping up full g’s of herb and smashing in doobs with a puzzled smile on his face. I think he thinks we’re mental - and he’d probably be right.
He doesn’t say anything if he’s thinking it.
I have to say Deleuks - the CC is a cracking find - thank you for the introduction man.
I’d never been in, despite walking past a million times - and being invited after bumping into and getting to know Maria over a few hours in De Graal last year. I shall return there on every trip from here on in. What a lovely bunch of people - and I’m hoping to have a good debate with your man Tan (correct spelling?) about the Sativa / Indica naming debacle (I’d call it a debate - but that would also be incorrect
) when I return later this year. I’m thinking about procuring and donating a copy of Clark and Merlin’s - Cannabis Evolution and Ethnobotany https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cannabis-Evolu ... 8&qid=&sr= to fuel said debate and further encourage the information to be disseminated amongst the public at large.
I’m no pedant (err I think - my brother may disagree) but It’s actually starting to irk me now that we (the community) use such incorrect terminology to describe the pshycological characteristics of our beautiful beloved seedless lady-friend. And although I firmly believe that the Cannabis College are doing GREAT work in educating the masses about Cannabis. I do think they should get with the latest thinking and start being proponents of education based on science rather than on hearsay, rhetoric and outdated information.
Accuracy can ONLY be a good thing for the community.
Enough of being irked. Letsch Schmoke. We have De Pijp purchases to get though. We have a plan - it’s not a wild one. We’re playing it safe today. It’s back to Batav’s for chills ’n' dabs ’n' doobs. It’s getting on for 3pm now. I have 4 hours left. Let’s make em count bro.
The Lemon Skunk from De Graal is an interesting lady. Another mix greater than the sum of it’s parts. Predominantly piney on the palette, there are dark hues of pond scum in the bass notes lifted by a unique citrus top end that is neither sherbet fizz nor ‘lemon pledge’. It’s almost oranges rather than lemons. Very pleasant indeed. The texture of the trees are great - perhaps a little sticky for the finger crunch technique but that’s little to complain about. I’m happy with this purchase - I’ve wanted to try her for a while. She may not be the best bag I’ve bought this trip - but she has lots of potential. I’d definitely buy again.
1g Lemon Skunk €noidea - De Graal
7.8 Interesting and unique - despite the lineage
Oh Highrise - how constant you are. So dependable. So loud. So bloody hazey. I’ll be buggered if I can articulate the difference between this and SSH though. It’s so indescribably subtle, yet so obvious when you have the bags side by side. High-rise is sweeter certainly, sugary and light on the palette. Some of the herbaceous spice is replaced by even more citrus and perhaps some sour grape.
This strain isn’t the High-rise (master) Kush (Hindu Kush x Skunk) bred in Amsterdam in the early 90’s. No way Jose. She’s WAY to hazey for that with no hint of kush (at least to me).
1g Highrise €15 I think - De Graal
7.9 Consistently good
The flavours from De Graals G13 please Deleuks - and don’t get me wrong there’s nothing wrong with it. But this batch is too generically hazey for me. Gone are the signature grapefruit and hash notes of this lady at her best. It’s generically hazey and skunky. Not unpleasant - but not a patch on this strain when done well. I’d guess this is a more haze leaning phenotype.
They also had G14 on the menu (sadly all gone) which the bud tender informs me was simply down to a longer cure - and that they use said naming convention on their menu a lot. Which makes sense to me after last trips purchase of High-rise and Super High-rise (the latter of which was dryer).
1g G13 - €noidea - De Graal
7.7 Half decent - but could definitely be better
The pink from Club Media was another interesting lady. Deleuks thinks she’s Pink Kush, I beg to differ - I taste grapes and rose plus other floral hash-like notes alongside a citrus top-end reminiscent of the grapefruit line Sans the gassy middle. There’s very little bottom end on this example which makes me think she’s most likely a skunk derivative mixed with something purple. Who knows? The debate is half the reason I’m here!
She’s certainly very tasty in both the vaporiser and in a doob. The closest comparison I can draw is that of Shorelines terpene profile - without the Bergamot and Lavender. Something pinker certainly
1g Pink €14 I think - Club Media
7.9 Very interesting indeed
*edit*
OOOPs I forgot the Kandy Kush from De Graal. How could I?
She was another interesting purchase, personally I got neither candy nor kush from the nose or the palette. More a velvety fruit punch with a subtle hint of spice. Not massively loud flavours - gentle and soothing would be a better decryption. Sugary certainly - with a hint of sour.
She had a great flush and was uniquely flavoured in the vape.
1g Kandy Kush €noidea - De Graal
7.8 - not bad at all
*/edit*
For the next four hours, Deleuks and I smoke and dab at a fair old pace - the chat has slowed down, Delueks is texting his by now very neglected girlfriend and I’m shaping up my notes ready for this write up. My stomach feels a bit dodgy so I go easy on the food and soft drinks.
The silver bubble dabs are just so sedative that at times I feel like I could fall asleep - I counter this by dabbing copious amounts of SSH and S5 too. Which kind of works - I manage to stay awake at at least. We get through pretty much the entire remaining 7-10g's and all the rosin in that session - I seem to remember giving Deleuks a single dab of Silver Bubble that I just could not fit in.
We do run into some of the ACD crew on that last day - where I have no idea; although I do vaguely remember a brief stop at Utopia and another hug with Ingi (although that might have been yesterday). Thankfully I got a chance to say goodbye to the lovely Macky (what a gentleman) and his lovely wife. Plus say some brief goodbyes to some of the other crew members who are staying on till Monday. Thank you all - I hope you had an amazing time.
Soon it’s time to pack up and head off - my plane leaves in a few short hours.
Deleuks walks me to the hotel where I grab my bag and we say our goodbyes outside in the sunshine. What a trip - thanks man, I owe you big-time for your company, all the hook-ups and all the new opportunities that you brought my way this time.
I’ve been coveting two little bags as a final send off. They make a doozie of a doobie.
1 gram Tangerine Dream with a 10% sweetener of Silver Bubble. A taste sensation. The sweet candy rounds out the sour rotten oranges perfectly. The doob tastes like a can of fanta with too much orange syrup. Amazing. There’s nothing else to say. We share her during the short walk across town and I finish her off outside the station - saying my own goodbyes to the city I love.
Those of you that weren’t there this year and I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting - ChopperMike, spidergawd, FTcarer, short_fat_dwarf (*edit fat_old_dwarf no idea why I can't get this right)... You were thought about and missed - and hopefully I’ll get a chance to see you all again very soon. Those of you that weren’t there and I don’t know yet - AND are thinking about coming next year. Don’t think - just book. I REALLY hope you’ll be there next year. I certainly know that I will. What a laugh.
My next trip is early June (7th to the 10th) with ChopperMike and the long awaited return of my brother Rickydude to the fray, I’m really looking forward to taking him to some of the new spots I’ve found since his last trip back in January 2015 - only two months away and cannot come soon enough. Hopefully some of you guys will be around for T&T’S.
Adios amigos. Till next time.
OHMF signing off. Crispy as.
Amazingly well-written and detailed travelogue...Much enjoyed! Really entertaining and some nice small anekdotes like the sighting of silent bob 
