2006 Trip Report - Part 1 The Coffeeshop Introduction

I can remember thinking to myself......its finally the 26th i'll be in my favorite city this time tomorrow. Then I lie to myself and conclude that the time in amsterdam is my life and the time back home the dream. I eagerly await the dream I had on the 26th end, so that I can wake up in mokum.
I embark on my vacation without knowing that I will spend time at OVER FORTY COFFEESHOPS in just 9 days......

I am armed with a digital voice recorder, a cognitive map of XXX that most tourists would die for and a stronger desire for intake than most. I am a willing guinnea pig for the benefit of fellow hipsters and channelites from all over the world.

 

You're my hero

 

dig it koopa

it sounds like u like to smoke ALOT of good marijuana......
mabey ill b able to make it to next years q-day and we can burn a few....
then a few more......... then a few more..........lol

 

My flight to Amsterdam was serene. First off, it only took 6:45 total flight time due to some monster jet stream current that day. Secondly, I managed to procure an empty row of seats for myself. As soon as the lights went dim I was raising the armrests and laying sideways stretched out on THE closest thing to a bed on that entire aircraft. I actually managed to get 4 hours sleep on the flight which is a personal best J FYI lots of airlines are reducing the maximum per bag weight for luggage. My company is down to 50lbs (from over 70lbs last year) and they charge $25 per bag that is in the 51-79 range now. I was over by 4lbs but they let me slide.


So I arrive in Schipol (pronounced Skip-ol) Airport, grab my bags off of the claim treadmill and proceed to the yellow metal train ticket machine. 4 euro’s later and I have a train ticket to central station. I head out past security, make a left and walk to the train station inside the airport. Track 2 is just down an elevator and I arrive a few moments before my train. A nice dutch couple asks me if I am vacationing and I say yes this is the beginning of my annual homage to mokum. They offer me tips I already know and I thank them with sincerity.

The train to central station rolls up and I’m thinking “Ok I’ve heard the trains are spacious and accommodating, loading, storing, and unloading my three bags will be a breeze.” As I picture luggage friendly ramps coupled with spacious seating areas that provide space in front of your seat for your bags. Instead I find narrow stairs, tight chairs, and menacing stares……….so I do what any confident young man would do in Europe and sit my ass down right next to the idiot staring even though there is ample free seating around us. When in Europe Do As The Europeans Do! But keep in mind there was not enough storage area where I was so I had to literally lift a 55lb suitcase off of the ground and up onto a seat everytime a new passenger opened the door to my car because the bag was completely blocking the center isle.

But I feel strong, positive, and alive as I sore towards heaven. My arrival comes merely 20 minutes later and I find myself teetering on the discovery of a bigger challenge, the hell that is central station! Central station is great in most ways, but it is a miserable place to have luggage. I had to carry bags up atleast 3 separate flights of stairs which sucked compared to the train station in koln germany which had angled motorized treadmills on the side of the stairs. Don’t take this as me bitching….I’m just letting you know that not taking a taxi into XXX had a downside as well.

Amsterdam sunshine hits my face at 8am and I couldn’t be happier. I take my time strolling towards my apartment off of haarlemerstraat. The city pours into my senses, road noise couples with multi-layered movements of cars, buses, trams, and pedestrians. The good old bike garage outside of central station is swelled with beat up "dutch cars". Canals and foot bridges begin to emerge, soon wrapping around me like an intricate web as I progress west bound. In moments I am face to face with both Haarlermerstraats entrance and the prominent brick building a block up on Droogbak. My apartment will not be ready this early but the guys at a bed and breakfast around the corner who referred me to this apartment are kind enough to offer me storage space at there B&B.


I ring the buzzer and am informed that my hosts are still in bed. Wimmo tells me to wait patiently while he gets dressed and I tell him to take all the time in the world as I am enjoying the beautiful weather more then he can imagine. Ten minutes later I am greeted by him and offered beverages. Soon I am told that my apartment will be ready by 9:30am since it was not rented the previous night. The news gives me relief as I could really use a warm shower and a change of cloths. Since Mikeymike my roommate isn’t expected until 12pm I make a B-line to Pink Floyd. Upon arrival I see that they do not open until 9am so I continue down to Barneys. I reach toward the door and suddenly decide that Picasso is the place to begin. It is small and has a really cool dutch budtender who I want to visit. Let the games begin………

 

I stroll into Picassoand see the nice dutch budtender I was hoping to run into. The coffeeshop is very small….larger than the grey area but not by much. The front window prominantly says free breakfast from 8am until 12pm ask inside. I see stairs going up but can’t decide if it’s a hotel upstairs or just an upstairs chill area? Rather then finding out I make a purchase and grab a front window seat next to a nice indoor decorative water fountain. I roll up half of the bag into a pure joint with a filter quickly. I notice my budtender giving a nod of "dutch approval" to my rolling style. Another dutch guy lets me use his lighter and asks me to hide it in a specific spot when I’m done. I agree and he travels up the mystery stairs. Even though the weed was cured, the j struggled to stay lit after the 1/2 way point. This being due to a decent amount of resin glaze on the paper



The budtender recommends Pablo or Dream for a well cured smooth smoke. Pablo is out of stock so I purchase 1.3g of Dream for 10 euro. The really cool dutch budtender bumps it up to 1.5g for me and receives an Americanized dankuwel (sp?) in return. Visually it looked relatively standard and the smell was both hashy and organic. The smoke was a cloud in my mouth, soft and unoffensive. The potency left much to be desired so I decide to stroll down haarlemmerstraat towards Pink Floyd coffeeshop for my 9am meetup with lctricity, mopperm and nblaze.

My take on the budtenders recommendation is that he made a wise decision considering what I requested. Dream was a well cured smooth smoke that I enjoyed. Ispica also purchased some (or I gave some to him...help me out here pal) upon my recommendation and reported that he was very pleased with the j I rolled for him. Again the potency wasn't high enough for my tolerance and I instantly wanted to roll another but it was the type of hooch that was nice to smoke frequently throughout the day.

 

I arrive at Pink Floyd and am greeted by the tall british guy with a bald head and pot belly who is always there. I assume he is the owner but he could easily be a manager. Pink Floyd has a really cool layout in my opinion. You walk through the door and see a bar on the right where drinks and food can be purchased. There is also a TV above this bar hanging on a wall mount. Head straight back and there is a second counter on the left where the budtender resides. Continue further back and there is a room with a few tables including one by a window. There is also a vending machine in here that has snacks, papers, tips, lighters, screens, etc. Upstairs one floor you find a narrow balcony with 3 computer terminals on a long table with three chairs and a view overlooking the downstairs food bar and giving a nice vantage point for the TV. There is also a nice view out of the front windows and a side window from this vantage point. A table for 2 is directly behind the 3 computer terminals as well. This floor also has a back room with a large round wooden table and a cushy booth seat that wraps around a few sides of the room. There is also a television here and the management tends to play live concerts on these all the time. I saw Floyd concerts, Waters concerts, Gilmour concerts, Santana concerts and others…. There is another flight of stairs going up to a third floor that has a nice sized room in it. This room has a few tables with chairs plus a couch / coffeetable setup by the front windows. The two girls who worked the juice bar throughout the week were very nice and very attractive. Trust me, they weren't nice because they were attractive or vice versa. They were sweet............and sexy



The budtender recommends the Jelly Hash and I say not at 9am sir! But I do show interest in Double Trouble Hash. He smiles and pulls a bag out of his pocket with a small amount in it and says “that’s what I’m smoking” . Next he produces 1g of Double Trouble Hash in exchange for 10 euro. Unlike the sticky black look of the jelly, the Double Trouble is an [font=&quot]exquisite [/font]blond hash that is pressed enough to give the outside a light brown tanned look. But as soon as you break it up it is almost like pure blond kif! Hence the “Double Trouble” J It turned out to be one of the nicer blond hashes I sampled this trip and is recommended.

My take on the budtenders recommendation was that he was very impressed with his jelly hash and by the end of the trip I will find out why…… But I must say that the Double Trouble was a fine blond with a smooth taste and nice punch. I definitely recommend it. I also purchased Dirty Jack or something like that. It was a Jack Herrer cross at 1.2g for 10 euro that was potent but lacked flavor.

Next thing I see is Mopperm and Nblaze outside the doorway preparing to bombard me with smiles, shouts, and hugs. After all that jazz I order tea and they order a ham n cheese baggette deli platter thing which they will only manage to eat half of! Mopperm purchases some smoke, including more double trouble and we blaze some in his pipe after yet another Dream joint fails to keep lit. Despite it being cured I make a mental note to leave the dream out for a day to dry next time I get it J Lctricity and Tammy got held up and weren't able to join us this morning but I knew I'd see em at the 1pm Haarlem sendoff today. My next destination was Wimmo and Godwins, as they had my keys and it was now past 10:30am........an hour after my apartment was prepared.

 

Back at the B&B I meet Godwin for the first time. He is a young man from the phillipines who had been living in Amsterdam for quite some time. We made obligatory chit chat and also discussed the arrival of mikeymike which should be within the hour. I informed them that mikey knows both addresses but will probably show up at the B&B first for a key. After another spot of tea a key was handed over to me and Godwin escorted me around the corner to the apartment. I was given a great tour of the place and overview of how to operate things and then left alone to relax.



The apartment definitely suited me well. The location was literally just around the corner from Pink Floyd. I was on a side street off of Haarlemmerstraat named Buiten Visserstraat which means “Street of the Foreign Fishermen” in Dutch. After climbing one floor of typical dutch stairs I find two doors. One to a half bath and the other into a nice living area. The living area has a coffeetable, TV and a comfortable couch that is too short for me to lay down on in a full stretched position. Behind the TV is three large front windows and a desk with a bookshelf full of interesting reads. Towards the back of this floor is a studio kitchen and a separate dining room with table for 5 or 6. The studio kitchen has all necessary plates, glasses, cutlery, etc and there is a washer / dryer but it was out of order at that time. It was also tastefully decorated with interesting art pieces and amenities scattered sparingly throughout the place.



The second floor had a large master bedroom with a table that could be folded up or down. There was abundant storage space and closet room plus many good sized front windows. The top of the stairs you climbed to this floor also had this interesting “roof” that was a plexiglass dome on a wheel track that slid over and covered the entrance to the master bedroom. It also acted as an additional soundbarrier so that somebody could watch tv in the living room while somebody slept upstairs. There was also a master bathroom with shower and full size tub in the master bedroom. Furthermore, the back end had a nice bay window that opened and an outdoor rooftop terrace that a few people could sit on. There was a view of the backside of other dutch houses and other terraces including ample plants that the dutch neighbors were growing on rooftops. The master bedroom floor also had another step ladder that went up to a loft with another queensize bed (or was it full size mikeymike?)


Either way I really liked the apartment. The Haarlemerstraat area is very clean and full of shopping but not touristy at all. It reminded me os Soho NYC. There were plenty of restaurants and atleast 6 coffeeshops within 2 blocks. also you were on the north end of the western canal belt so it was like pick a canal and walk along it to your destination. Always a scenic direct route to places like amnesia, grey area, chocolata, anyday, de rokerij, etc. And the total price worked out to 120 euro's per night.......divided by the two of us!

 

Cool repot there Koopa, how long did you take the apartment for?...
i might consider an apartment next time...

but what blows my head off is that you can remember all this stuff in so much detail!!, when i arrive in the dam, i remember the first few hours, then the rest of it just turns into a blur......

 

had the apartment for 9 nights.....
and don't forget I'm only a few hours into the trip
i won't remember the whole trip in this much detail, believe me!

 

Someone's been busy,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Great feedback here Koopa, very magnanimous of you to take the
time to give us all a detailed trip-report of your holiday and everyone
you met up with and all the fun you had. While reading I felt
like I was there myself at times, must have been a good trip for you.
I'm sure you have more to add and I look forward to reading it.
Top stuff, give this man a cigar for his work.

 

After a shower, change of clothes, and fifteen minutes off of my feet I double back towards Central Station to pick up a multi day tram pass at the VVV tourist office on the stationsplein opposite the main entrance. If I remember correctly the cost was 11.80 euro for a 3 day pass. The pass gets you unlimited use of the buses, trams, and metro subways for three days! A singe tram ride could easily cost you 3 euro if you buy your ticket on the tram so this multi day pass is the way to go……



With pass in hand I head over to Homegrown Fantasy in search of lctricity’s holy grail CHEESE but am told that there is only one supplier for CHEESE and he is experiencing difficulties at the moment. No eta whatsoever according to this adorable budtender in her late 20’s. I notice NL5xHAZE (bio) on the menu and purchase 1.2g for 10 euro. The high was very potent, a class act all the way. I have this strange sensitivity to NL5 that causes my usual reefer induced mild visuals to look a different hue. To explain I provide a simple comparison. You know how a room in fluorescent light looks different from a room in natural light……..well NL5 visuals always look “fluorescent” by comparison to other strains. I know it sounds hilarious to some of you but it is a consistent effect that I am fully aware of. I enjoy a delicious glass of fresh squeezed orange juice while mingling with other patrons. I depart in search of street food in the direction of my apartment knowing that the 1pm Haarlem Sendoff at Pink Floyd is approaching quickly. A kroket and kipcorn later and I’m feeling great!



The Haarlem Sendoff at Pink Floyd was lots of fun despite the fact that nobody went! Myself, Sinpusher, Lctricity, Mrs. Lctricity, Mopperm, Nblaze, Johnny Joe ( aka jjk4h), Mrs. C. Johnny Joe, MHD, Jerkeypete, Birdman, Mikeymike, Skyhigh420, Mrs. Skyhigh, and about 5 others I probably am blanking on made good use of the top floor room at Floyd. Sinpusher informed us that he was offered a boat trip with his buddy Bear and provided directions to Haarlem. But if that wasn’t the nail in the Haarlem coffin, the fact that my roommate mikeymike was still nowhere to be found was. He was expected 4 hours ago and still no sign of him. After depositing 0.50 euro for 10 minutes of internet time I learn that his flight actually arrived early……Final thoughts of the meetup were that the group was quite communal. People were ultra friendly, open to new things, and were passing and sharing herbs constantly! I rolled my now infamous Dutch Dutch Masters J which sent everybody to the moon J My hats off to all who attended for being so easy going and friendly! I felt like we were a group of stoners with class.

 

Well put mi amigo. Thanks for takin' the time to hash it all out. Slight pun intended.

It's awlays a blast to relive things through someone elses' eyes.

Cheers to 2007!