Episode XV - 420 mayhem volume III

[OneHighMofo]

Well holy fuckola it’s all coming up OHMF! Here we go again and I’m sat grinning like a loon in the departure lounge basking in the woozy glow of some canna caps consumed in the car park. The missus (and dog) were very kind to bring me to the airport which has made for a much more sensible start time. Plus it’s lovely to be kissed goodbye and waved off by my better half and pride and joy (that’s the dog). I’ll miss them both dearly - I’m a real home-body so leaving them always feels odd. He cried all the way home apparently god forbid he outlives me she’ll never hear the end of it. There’s no time for dwelling on that now though... Must focus.

Customs is a breeze as ever despite carrying three bongs, two e-nails and a plethora of vapes, tools, pipes and other future stoner paraphernalia. It never ceases to amaze me how little attention those items draw - so I thank my lucky stars, chat with the lad in front of me who laughing his arse off at me I re-pack my bag (scowl at the exchange rate - FUCK, REALLY????! The euro is stronger than the pound today jeez) and get sat down with some much needed snap - tucking into the croque monsieur that’s currently spewing thousand degree molten cheese goo all over my fingers.

I’ve not eaten since 4pm yesterday and actually managed to get a decent nights edible induced sleep so I bounced out of bed at 3am with all kinds of hunger pangs - fortuitously that extra room in my belly made for a euphoric come up as I carve a smiley path very chattily through security; seating that feeling down in the belly with a hot coffee at Starbucks I wish I had a few more caps for the plane, but no matter - in a minute we’ll be landing and then it’s on.

Happily the caps seem to find some extra strength as I settle into my seat. Waves of welcome euphoric sedation crash across my brow, eyelids feel heavy - being pressed back into my seat during takeoff feels intense and sublime. I have no words for how content I am in this moment, it’s all I can do to get my phone out and type this. Amsterdam dreaming. Not long now.

A quick snoozle, a hot coffee and a kit-kat bring me round a bit; soon the sun pours through the left of the cabin and all of a sudden I can see the patchwork pancake of the Netherlands beneath me and more giddy excitement wells within like a schoolboy on coke getting his first suck-job (thanks for that tasteful metaphor DLN - making me and the missus giggle while trying to get to pre-flight sleep last night).

Right - I’m on the ground and through customs
Strain huntin’ to do.
Parties to attend.
Old faces to enjoy.
New faces to welcome.
This one’s for you Spidergawd. Wherever you are I hope you’re watching big man. This is gonna get messy and I know you’d approve.
Welkom in Nederland OneHighMofo.

Let’s go ACD. Are you ready?
Roll on 420! See you on the other side.

[macky]

Always stellar
Save you some time Amniesia BIG WASTE of time AGold smelled like shit I leave on the trimming floor ....I shit you not sour to ......

[Smirks]

Lemon Bubble from Voyagers worth leaving alone this time, very harsh smoke. Golden Grapefruit from Baba on the other hand

[choppermike]

GO ONEHIGHMOFO. LIGHT THE FUSE.

[Devore]

Boom lets get the party started!!

[Junglist Movement]

Nice... been looking forward to this!!

[CopenhagenCouple]

Quoting Lemming just 10 secs ago: "this is the life", isn't it. Sound garden, Canna caps, dabs, triple karmeliet, duvel, syrup, hash from the Stud and btw no less than 25 c and sun beaming down... This is the life indeed!

[LLMReb]

Let the mayhem and contribution to ACD begin!

[OneHighMofo]

Finally found some time to write the first day up! Social media time is an absolute luxury for me at the moment so I'll try not to wait till next year to finish this off!

Day 1
I’m subject to the pain of the usual twenty minute runway taxi journey so once the seatbelt sign is off I’m up out of my seat with my bag in my hand and stood first at the door panting like a hot dog - the sun is absolutely cracking the flags and I’m raring to go so I practically sprint down the concourse avoiding eye contact with all the ‘leavers’ heading the opposite way so as not to soak in any of their bad vibes or make those vibes worse with my obvious excitement.

The queue at passport control is unfathomably long and frustrating - my buzz is waning. the machines aren’t working properly and there are only two stern looking Dutch customs officers taking their godamm time. Tick tock Tick tock. Finally I’m through (good sign) but my bag seems to take ages to arrive on the carousel (which is more than slightly butthole puckering) as I know it was one of the first on the plane - I’d arrived at the airport a good 2.5 hours before the flight and was at the front of the check in queue. Tap tap tap. Pace pace pace. Where is that fucking bag?

I’ve walked around the carousel a number of times now - the fucker is nowhere to be seen. I’m getting convinced that I’m about to be having a less than ideal start to the holiday when I spy a bag that looks like mine - it’s not ‘fresh from the hole’ as it’s part way round and I’m stood at the entrance to the belt so I’m not convinced that I’ve missed it come out.
Playing it cool I casually stroll the opposite direction to which it’s heading - and it disappears out of sight around a curve; lo and behold when she re-appears it’s definitely my case - no zips bothered. One quick check that a few items are indeed present and others intact. Sound. Let’s get the fuck out of dodge.

Luckily my phone has decided to connect to a network pretty quickly for a change so I’m able to get in touch with Kenshiro-san (also landed - about an hour previously so he’s made it to town already) and DLN so that keeps my spirits up as I wrestle with this airport bullshit and soon enough I’m stood on a train chatting with a young lady from the UK on her first solo dam trip. I get the impression she’s not a toker so my travel advice remains above board and she’s grateful for the tips (get better footwear/rent a bike/buy a tram card). I see her on the way back home too as she’s sat behind me on the plane and thanks me for the tips, posthumously on behalf of her blistered and ruined soles.

I hit town with a woop. Filming a little clip for Instagram of the moment I emerge from Centraal into the blistering heat of Amsterdam in April!!!! Not a cloud in the sky and the temperature in the mid to high 70’s. Bonkers. Are we really going to be this lucky with the weather again?

I head straight for voyagers and grab a bag of Lemon bubble (€10), Sour casey (€14) and Space invader (also €14) I wrap the lemon bubble into a J and head straight for the Bulldog to check in and dump my bag. (Actually thinking about it - this might have happened after I’d been to the bulldog as I remember having a shopping partner - who knows?). The room isn’t ready but I pay up and dump my bag in the luggage room.

Voyagers Lemon Bubble (€10) is always my first smoke and pretty dependable. This example is heavy on the citrus which when taking a massive pull does tend to taste on the acrid, pissy end of the taste scale which isn’t the best way to experience her profile but sipping at a pure joint offers delicate citrus flavours intermingling with cotton-candy top notes and subtle sager-herbal notes from the haze parentage. The potency is on point as ever and the flush everything I’d expect from these gardens. Smooth and clean burning.
7.3 - A happy start as ever.

Kenshiro and Ed the head are sat outside under the Bulldogs parasols and it’s good to meet them both. We shoot the shit for a short while before it becomes clear that Ed is setting up shop outside the Dawg for the day. I’m keen to hit the town, get going and grab a tireless steel shopping steed. So Ken and I set off for Starbikes while we make our acquaintances.

The Starbikes team are sound as ever and even give us a 10% discount for being a regular customer which is very much appreciated. I’m keen on having a bike with a crate on the front to save me from the bad back pain that generally follows a week of cycling around the Dam carrying a heavy pack.
Unfortunately - the only steeds that they have with crates also have pedal back brakes. In fact the only bikes they have are Pedal-back brake style. Oh dear - it’s been a while.

The cycle back to the dawg is a baptism of fire for both Kenshiro-san (first time cycling in the Dam) and I. Not having hand-brakes is very strange indeed. I did once own a pedal-back Raleigh Striker - but that was in the early eighties, so I have 35 years of muscle memory, edibles and a recently consumed gram of Lemon Bubble to contend with - it’s something of a struggle to say the least and the bike tries to kill me at least twice every hour for the next couple of days which makes for some very interesting moments. Not moments I’d like to re-live or recant - suffice to say I annoy myself, other cyclists and motorists alike and swear at the bike - a lot. My tiny mind refuses to compute how this contraption works and at one point I find myself ringing the fucking bell when I want to stop!!!! That’s not gonna work bruh. Like - really.

Comms are working a-ok and we’re coordinating movements via WhatsApp; heading back to the Bulldog to meet Nugs. We’re not waiting too long before he emerges from the bustling crowds and I’m happy to see the cheeky fucker as ever so we hug it out and begin to form the primary plan for the day. That plan most definitely centres around seeing as much outdoors as possible. The weather is just awesome and there’s no way I can justify sitting in Coffeeshops in this heat - the squad are in agreement so we form a plan to grab some bits, grab some lunch then hit a park for the sesh. Game on - I got a crew with a hunger for shopping and shopping to do.

The first stop is Baba so we head behind the station and further North. I want to try their sunset sherbert €17 (Which I’ll rate a 7 later on - meh-ish) and I also plump for a bag of blueberry OG at €14. Jumping off the bike outside our first coffeeshop visit as a crew feels great and I’m excited to see a menu and add to the stash. Even though the sun is blazing and it’s a shame to sit - I’m thirsty and I feel like we could at least steal a quick break so we grab a drink and sit down for a preliminary session. Everyone cracks their vapes out and I get a chance to look through DLN’s stash which is always interesting. He shows me a pot of live resin BHO from a US source. It has a super fruity and sour nose that has the tell-tale almost alcoholic property on the nasal passages from the sheer concentration of terpenes that a good live-resin sauce has. It’s expensive but available from a local plug. Very tempting indeed. The BT isn’t too keen on us dabbing in here (always best to ask) so while I ponder the question of whether I should track some down I chuck some of Baba’s wares through the verdamper and my Mighty while we drink our loozas and plan the next CS move.

Baba’s Bluberry OG is twice the experience of their Sunset Sherbert. Three Euro cheaper with a incredibly loud nose this is the best bag I’ve smelt yet. Soft sandy savoury middle complimented by top notes of sweet berry and sugary spices there’s a lovely firm consistency and it grinds beautifully.
7.9 This is my best buy so far

Even though it’s quite literally at the other end of town - the destination we decide upon is Het Ballonetje, I want to grab some nice bits for the stash, Ken has never been before and Nugs is scheming some snap en-route from one of his favourite pizza establishments Pizza Bakker. It’s a lovely ride out East trying to keeping up with Nugged one; the speedy little fellow that he is - but in 15 minutes or so of very stoned swearing at the pedal-back bastard (it’s getting increasingly difficult to remember how to break and I’m getting increasingly higher) - in short while we’re camping on a small patch of grass near the University enjoying some first-class pizza in the glorious sunshine and catching up. Generally getting into the groove of strain-hunting life and I’m feeling amazing. After a few vape bowls and the usual geekery - it’s time to get serious and do some shopping.

Back to the ballon it is - where I buy papaya haze and g13. Noting that I have a decent amount in the stash already (I still have most of what I bought at Voyagers) and that there are other bits to come back and other shops to see today I behave myself and resolve that there will be other opportunities to explore this menu before the week’s out. We don’t stay long - preferring the lure of the outdoors so it’s just a short hop south and we’re cruising through Sarphatipark looking for a spot my the water where we can dab. It’s nice to finally sit down for a sea so we tuck into the CS wares and start dabbing on DLN’s stash (lovely bit of Bruce Banner shatter from Deep Concentration) and the plethora of flavours of Rosin and BHO very similar indeed to what I’m enjoying at home that have magically appeared in my stash. Dunno how that got there.

It’s a lovely little session in the sun, DLN hooks up my first hit of the no-name flux-capacitor sauce and I’m instantly sold - yes please let’s get’s some more of that! Beautiful. Too good to walk past even at the exorbitant price-tag. Still - it’s only $30 or so more than what I’d pay for similar level stuff at home and I get great price deals on that. And I’m on holiday so fuck it. It turns out that the extract team is close to Cookie-fam so there’s a good chance this is a fairly exotic lineage. Shame we never found out the name but a small amount made it home and onto an extractor friend of mine’s nail - he commented that it was very similar to Zkittlez or Zmoothies which would make a lot of sense given the profile.

I think we were probably sat there in the sunshine for at least a good hour or so - we had a bunch of vape bowls and dabs before finding out on the live thread that the crew is at the stud. -That’s not too far at all from our location so we decide to pack up head off. Finding the CC (and a couple others?) sat chatting with Silvio the owner who’s seemingly plotting to bring the price of cannabis down in the city single handedly. And a great job he’s doing of it too - the product here is all reasonably priced and good quality.

I grab a bag of Somango at €10 - I’ve never tried it before (7.9) there are some other things I’d like to try (the Punchsicle etc springs to mind) but at this point have around 5g of flowers and 3G of concentrates at this point so it seems prudent to actually consume something before buying more.

It’s lovely to catch up with the CC and now that we have a squad forming there’s a new plan. It’s off to Soundgarden catch the ACD massive: Smirks, Lemming, Jaybee420, I want to say Kushola (but might be wrong) and couple of others were also there. We’re probably ten or more strong so it’s a great sesh in blazing sunshine. The garden is packed so we’re lucky to get seats. I guess we vape and dab a good couple hours here shooting the shit and enjoying the weather. Good times and a really great start to the trip.We have a few dabs and I try a few little bits from my stash through the vape.

By the time 6pm rolls around I’m feeling hungry, a bit grotty and fancy a nice shower and freshen up - I’ve been on the move since 3am and am craving a change of clothes so it’s back to Bulldog to check-in. Ken is down with the plan so we make our excuses and hit the road. There are a few CS’s on the way which it seems rude not to stop at and look at the menu while we’re passing, it’s one of the best things about having a bike. I’m enjoying the shopping even though I’m not actually consuming much flower as I’m mainly dabbing at this point (and I’m sure DLN has given me some syrup by this point too) and I’m pretty sure that Ken is happy scouting around too so…

We stop by Utopia Where i buy lavender kush at €14 (Ken’s buys cookies i think) Ingi isn’t there but the BT is patient and happy to show us everything. That will turn out to be my last trip to Utopia in its existing form.

Across the street and into Nieuwe nieuwe straat we do a quick BnF at El Guapo; which is a much better experience than the last time I was here. I have a look at the Cali-import stuff and it looks pretty good I have to say. Too minty for me though at €50p/g so I go for something on my todo list and get the Sleestack backcross. It was pretty decent. I can’t remember the cost - perhaps €14 but my notes tell me that it was a decent bag of weed for sure.

While stood at Utopia Ken says he wouldn’t mind hitting Green Place too so I plan to lead us there but totally forget. I was planning on hitting Bagheera, Basjoe and Rusland at the same time so I bank that thought for later and that’s a little mini-crawl that Ken and I will do at a later point of the holiday.

It feels amazing to unpack and shower. It’s been a long day and afterwards although still tired - I feel somewhat rejuvenated and excited for the evenings events so I get my bag packed, put some fresh socks on and get cracking. Ed is still camped outside the Dawg and say’s he’ll be along to Macky’s party later so I bid him farewell and board the steed. I do deliberate leaving her as I’ve got a huge bag laden with bongs and e-nails but in the end mount up and head-off, five short minutes later I’m at the bar ordering a coke and a veggie burger. It’s great to be back at the cave. Things never seem to change too much here (apart from her now missing her frontage - which is admittedly a massive change, ignore my romantic bullshit) and it really does feel like the local-pub you’ve been frequenting for years magically transported to an Amsterdam canal-side view.

The veggie burger isn’t the best thing I’ve had off the menu here so I’ll chalk that one up to experience; but the good news is that happily the windows are open and there’s lot’s of fresh air which is VERY welcome indeed. There are already a bunch of ACD here when I arrive so it looks like the session is going to heat up pretty quickly. The CC are here and in fine form and before long the Mackster himself turns up and I get a chance to see him, his lovely wife J and add this years patch to my collection. RIP Spidergawd indeed. Thanks very much Macky.

Before long Ken turns up and has been across to Nieuwe Markt and bought some Shoreline for the absolute bargain price of 10 euro per gram from Green Place. It smells amazing and tastes just as well through the vape. I resolve to swing past tomorrow for a bag as the few hits I have off his Pax are BELTING. And you know when the tail-end of someone elses bowl tastes that good you can be pretty sure that the opening tokes are going to be spectacular.

The Macky Birthday 2018 Batavia session was a monster. I have no idea who was there or what I consumed other than to say we did a LOT of dabs and edibles. Some live-resin and syrup, canna-caps, joints and vape bongs. Mighty bowls and good old fashioned flower bongs. All were enjoyed. Fucked if I can remember a damn thing about it.
The only notes I have of the session are of what I bought at Guapo:

El Guapo’s Sleestack
Is a DNA genetics strain combining G13 x Shrom x Martian-mean-green and has a distinct apple hash-plant nose, a decent burn and the flavour transferred well. The bag doesn’t go very far (same as the last bag I bought here) but at leat this time the product is dried properly and well presented. There’s decent texture to the nug and although I only vaped her so can’t comment on the flush; it seemed clean enough.
7.1 Decent flavour and effects but why do I only ever get three vape bowls from grams bought here in a device that is known to hold 0.25g?

It must of been around 1am or so when we left. Ken went straight to bed once we’d survived a very wobbly and giggly ride back to the hotel while I managed to convince the bar-tender to give me a cup of hot water so I could have a few vape bowls of papaya haze and enjoy a lovely joint of somango to finish the evening with a Beechams sat outside the Dawg - rock and roll.

Flower wise today I’ve mainly vaped bits and pieces from various bags, so I’m not quite ready to review most of what I’ve bought. I’ve got bits stashed for burning to see if I can eke some more enjoyment out of them and vice-versa, there are a couple of bags that I’m intending to vape on fresh taste-buds at the morning wake-and-bake.

I know that I made it to the full 24 hour mark: 2am to 2am, I now this because I marked it by flipping my toothbrush in stoner-slow-motion from the sink into the toilet bowl with the end of my phone (I know!) upon checking the time. Not the most efficient way to end the evening, but laugh I did.
For MUCH longer than is comfortable when one is on their own in a hotel room.

I also seem to have an unreasonable amount of weed given how fucking high I am. Testament to the dab-train and edibles no doubt. I should probably try to resolve that come the ‘moro.
What a day. Four more to go.

[Willjay]

I also seem to have an unreasonable amount of weed given how fucking high I am. Testament to the dab-train and edibles no doubt. I should probably try to resolve that come the ‘moro.
What a day. Four more to go.

not really a bad predicament for the end of day 1

[LLMReb]

I’ve walked around the carousel a number of times now - the fucker is nowhere to be seen. I’m getting convinced that I’m about to be having a less than ideal start to the holiday when I spy a bag that looks like mine - it’s not ‘fresh from the hole’ as it’s part way round and I’m stood at the entrance to the belt so I’m not convinced that I’ve missed it come out.
Let’s get the fuck out of dodge.

Ha, ha, ha. That quote had me laughing. It reminds me of the time that a flight from China apparently landed just before the flight I was on. The Chinese, evidently amazed by the knick-knacks in Schipol, stopped to shop in the airport before arriving at their luggage. So I get to luggage, and a whole gaggle of people are complaining b/c the Chinese (who landed 30 min. earlier) have so many bags on the conveyor that no other bags can get onto the conveyor. I do what any of us would do when a clogged conveyor is holding us up from getting into AMS - start pitching bags off of the conveyor so that my bag can get onto the conveyor. About the time I get my bag, teh first wave of Chinese come through loaded with shopping bags from the freaking airport. Those Chinese sure to spend money and help with the tourist economy!

The Starbikes team are sound as ever and even give us a 10% discount for being a regular customer which is very much appreciated.

High five in life, my friend!

Unfortunately - the only steeds that they have with crates also have pedal back brakes. In fact the only bikes they have are Pedal-back brake style. Oh dear - it’s been a while.

I hate those pedal brake bikes. Wife loves them and claims they remind her of her childhood. I, invariably, with the pedal brake, find myself coming to a stop on an uphill incline where the pedals are in an awkward position that prohibits me from getting leverage to push up the hill.

The cycle back to the dawg is a baptism of fire for both Kenshiro-san (first time cycling in the Dam) and I. Not having hand-brakes is very strange indeed. I did once own a pedal-back Raleigh Striker - but that was in the early eighties, so I have 35 years of muscle memory, edibles and a recently consumed gram of Lemon Bubble to contend with - it’s something of a struggle to say the least and the bike tries to kill me at least twice every hour for the next couple of days which makes for some very interesting moments. Not moments I’d like to re-live or recant - suffice to say I annoy myself, other cyclists and motorists alike and swear at the bike - a lot. My tiny mind refuses to compute how this contraption works and at one point I find myself ringing the fucking bell when I want to stop!!!!

Bwahahahaaaa - that made me laugh out loud.

Looking forward to round 2!

[Kenshiro]

We went to Voyagers together after talking to Ed whilst waiting for Nugs to show up/on route to getting bikes?

Great 1st installment and its already helping fill some minor memory gaps of between premises of that first day!

[OneHighMofo]

@Willjay yes it was a lovely problem to solve
@LLMREB thank you sir glad you’re enjoying the pre trip warm up reading you must be approaching nuclear levels of excitement by now
@Ken cheers bro Yes we did go to voyagers together that morning - so I must not have gone first thing because I remember rolling the lemon bubble while you vaped stood next to me. Now it becomes clearer - the hive mind FTW

[RoMoney]

Lovely write up man, really enjoyed it

[whisx]

Thanks for this, quality roaming and partying.