Day 1
Our flight EZY7001 departed Liverpool John Lennon airport at 6:15 am (GMT). I would be travelling with my friend Rob (1812lsd) and meeting 2 friends from London in Amsterdam Centrum. (Dan and Hag)
Check-in opened at 4:15 so I managed a couple of hours sleep before driving up to Liverpool. We landed at Schipol for around 9:00am (CET), hopped straight onto the first train available and headed straight for Centraal Station.
Walking out of the station always gives me a great feeling…feels like coming home. By 9:45 we were sat down in Prix D’Ami. This happens to be the first Coffeeshop I ever visited and I always go there first. I know others have similar sentimental rituals. I settled down with a coffee and Rob had a strawberry tea. It took a little while before being noticed at the dealer counter but I actually relished the time to ponder over the menu. When he did see me waiting he was friendly and apologetic and came straight over. The guy on the counter was as friendly as any other visit to Prix D’Ami. I ordered 1 gram of “Hindu Kush Sticky” (top of the weed menu) and 1 gram of “Twisla”. He commented on my good choice on the “Twisla” and after cutting me a slice offered me his block to have a sniff…Mmmmmmm. We sat and blazed up a spliff of each type of smoke whilst we drank our drinks, watched the Olympics on telly and listened to some damn good tunes.
The “Kush” was fantastic, very nice to break up apart from leaving my fingers covered in crystals. I rolled it up in a pure joint and tucked in. Lovely smoke, quite a citrus smell and flavour…really hit home…but the first one always does! The “Twisla” was nice enough but I’m not a big hash smoker and didn’t really feel it over the “Kush”. After another round of drinks and spliffs we headed out to hit a few more shops before the reinforcements arrived at about 14:00.
We walked back up to central station and across to Central CS. This is a shop I have not visited to my recollection but it seemed like a nice place. Having purchased weed and hash at the last Coffeeshop it was Robs turn and after a few minutes with his head in the box he came back with 2.4g of “Bio Skunk”. I didn’t approach the counter so I’m not sure what else was in there. We had a couple of joints here, can’t remember what tunes were on but the place was quite busy with new arrivals, like us bags in tow. I will definitely revisit this one next trip and spend some time here to check out the menu.
After reading about Central and Future being a lot of peoples first/must visit, our next stop was Future. The place itself is fine, nice and airy, bright and good atmosphere. Both Central and Future, to me, seem like great daytime Coffeeshops. It was a lot quieter than Central so we had our choice of tables. It was my turn at the weed counter so I was rather disappointed to find my pickings were slim. I had wanted the Jack Herrer off the menu but the lady behind the counter explained that they only had 2 types of weed in 10 euro bags so I could choose between the “White Widow” and the “Special”. Having had plenty of WW on previous trips I was more interested in sampling the “Special” and got 1.66g. Only thing I recall about the weed was that it wasn’t really that “Special”. Whilst sitting in Future we got the phone call to meet up with the rest of our party at Centraal Station.
We met at the station and headed for the hotel. We had both made our separate bookings at the Greenhouse Effect on Warmoesstraat. Rob and I were checked into the Retro room whilst Dan and Hag ended up in Turkish Delight. Turkish Delight was set up as a double (not a twin) and is decorated like a tarts boudoir so this caused much amusement throughout the trip. Our room was pretty cool and had some funky décor, a couple of chairs and a window out onto the street, albeit very high up. Rob was soon testing out his bed and before long was un-rousable…zzzZZZ!
I met up with Dan & Hag downstairs in the GHE coffeeshop. They had already purchased and were smoking some very tasty “Jack Herrer”. Hag got 1.3g of “JH” and Dan had got 2g of “White Widow”. We were sat in the window at the front so I got stranded while the dealer guy went down into the cellar. The trapdoor is right by the main entrance so they rope off the door and coffeeshop. As soon as he was done I was off to the counter. I got 1g of “Sage” at our discounted rate for staying in the hotel, I had to talk him round as I had left the room key upstairs with Rob but he trusted me in the end. I found the “Sage” to be quite a refreshing herb like taste…very different from the other weed I had smoked so far. The “JH” and the “White Widow” looked good too. I was, at this point, again rather too stoned to give a detailed analysis of each one.
We all went upstairs and tried to wake Rob but to no avail…dead to the world.
Not wishing to spend anymore time at the hotel we went straight back out to try another coffeeshop I have never visited…The Coin. The bubble machine was switched off so I didn’t see it at first but the place seemed very nice to sit and smoke. Of all the Coffeeshops this is the one I remember the least but I know I enjoyed it. The added buzz of 1.2g of NYCD probably played a small part in that! NYCD has a great smell and flavour.
In order to get off Warmoestraat without straying to far from the hotel we hit The Old Church. I have been here plenty of times and recently the menu has really improved. I didn’t see it this time but Dan bought a rather fruity 1.6g of Bubblegum. We sat on a big table downstairs in the window, rolled a few fatties and then wandered back to the Hotel. We tried to wake Rob but had no luck, Dan was actually quite concerned but he was still breathing so it was ok.
After the delights of the Colonels Chicken I decided to take the guys on a bit of a tourdown to Amstel as it looks pretty cool at night. We were lured in, like moths, to the blue light outside Rokerij. On previous trips I have found this to be a nice place to chill out however we were not impressed by the rude dealer. He was rather abrupt and asked for ID when we were clearly older than he was…the oldest in our group being 34. It was clear he was just being awkward which surprised me seeing as the place was empty with the exception of a rather terrified looking couple sat down. Another girl turned up on the counter and the dealer skulked off downstairs never to be seen again. Although the girl was polite, Hag was pretty pissed off. Rather than leave we took biggest table had a drink and smoked our own.
A couple of doors down and Bushdoctor was a totally different story. Very friendly dealer, very helpful and he gave us free stuff which is always good. Having read so much about it I didn’t hesitate to blow 30 euro’s on just a gram of “Jelly” hash, Dan got 2g AK47 and Hag got 1.6g of Domina. I tried to get him to buy the G13 but there would be plenty of time for that later. I would expand on this a little more but we were all pretty stoned by now and the joint of Jelly put a whole new sense of “fuzz” on the whole evening. Its good stuff that Jelly hash!
Walking the streets of Amsterdam has a wonderfully levelling effect on the head and seeing as Rob had been asleep at the hotel for several hours now we wandered back up through the RLD taking in the fresh air and breathtaking views of Oudezijds voorburgwal. I am afraid that shortly after returning to the hotel I crashed out, Rob did wake up and the 3 of them went back out and visited 420 Café and Hill Street Blues (Warmoesstraat) before coming back to bed. Obviously I cannot comment but I got the impression that they were not particularly taken by either place and didn’t buy anymore weed that night.
Daily Total - 17.85g
Phew....theres day 1, I hope it scans ok. I have 3 days more to work out and I'll have some photo's hosted soon too!
