48 hrs Amsterdamaged

[PurpleHaze]

Man this last Friday I was sitting in my office and letting my thoughts drifting away to Amsterdam. To tell you the truth – that happens quite often! The difference this time was that I did something about it. In a matter of hours I booked a bonus flight, reserved a single room at Hotel Brian, and worked out the logistics with my wife and our kids for the weekend while big daddy was smiling all inside knowing that I had Friday night, Saturday and Sunday all by myself in my favourite town.

So off I went to Amsterdam again – YEAH. Everything went smooth. 1hrs45min later I took the train from Schipool to Central Station. This is always the most unpleasant part – except from leaving of course. Those 15 min waiting, excited, happy etc feels like hours.

Out of Central Station I made a quick stop at coffeeshop Pink Floyd for some of their rifmann hash. Not to crowded to be a Friday night. The budtender was in a good mood: - What can I do to make you happy, he asked? Well I grabbed some Jala - Rifman hashish 8.5 euro gram and a gram of Samira (?) - Rifman hashish at 13 euro.

Then I headed hastily to Hotel Brian just down the street to check in. Not a super duper hotel, but where do you get a 35 euro'single room in A’dam on a ten minutes notice? I got the only single room they have (room no. 11) for 70 euro two nights. There was an extra 30 euro for deposit for the keys – but I've got back 20 when I left. Prices include breakfast, no curfew or lock out. Blankets and Sheets included.

Very friendly service by Shalina. When I came into the reception, a German guy was sitting and chatting away with her. When I asked if I could smoke in my room, he showed me a burning joint and Shalina said they where smoker friendly just as long as I opened the window not to set off the sensitive fire alarm. – Maybe the cheapest hotel beer in town at 1 euro a can, the German guy noted. No TV on the room, just a simple sink and a worn out out bed and toilet and showers in the hallway. Even though the shower on the top floor was out of order, the one downstairs worked perfectly.

Great! I emptied a can of beer and rolled a splif of each Rimanns. To my taste the Jala hash was the most enjoyable. Quite spicy flavour to be a blond Maroc but not cruel on your throat. I liked this a lot, also with the fact that it was cheaper than some of the other Rifmanns out there. The Samira was good as well - but nothing outstanding.

Location! You could search a long time to find a better location dead centre for this price than Hotel Brian. Coffeeshop Anyday is just around the corner. The same goes with Amnesia, Grey Area, Sibirie etc.

I've always been a sucker for the Ice-X from CS Extreme, and stumbled down the Singel to this more or less underground coffeeshop. Bought some Ice-X and some Extreme Special hash. The Ice where back at its excellent quality again, but not a wise smoke to have your first night when it's like half a year since your last joint and your tolerance is low. Man I got stoned! But that's just all right. On my way back to the hotel in the chill air I kept reflecting on how lucky I was. Stoned, alone and having a weekend all by myself.

Next morning started much the same way. A good splif of Extreme Special and a quick breakfast and on route to Haarlem for another stoney day in Paradise. From my last trip in June and April I remembered the Kahsmir Maroc from the Willie Wortels shop in Haarlem to be my choice of quality hash (and Viking’s as well I assume), so I headed right to the Indica CS. But they where out of the delights since a month ago. I ended up buying 2 gr. of black Temple Ball hash and 3 gr. of Primero. Temple Ball from WW has never disappointed me... if you like the darker hashes that is. Nice stoned feeling but not completely couch locked, and a nice smooth spicy taste and pungent scented perfume... just walk slooooooooooowly. I stopped by The WW Sativa Shop on my way back to the train station just to check if they by chance had some leftovers of the Kahsmir Maroc – but nope. I think I had some Zero Zero hash here, but can’t honestly remember what I purchased – I wonder why?

I for sure did have a eating frenzy at an Indonesian restaurant in Haarlem later that day. Can’t remember the name here either except that the food was just about right there and then. Rijsttafel – way too much food, medium spicy, friendly staff and a nice glass of red. The menu was hard to follow, but well worth just trying to work it out! The waiting staff explained if necessary, but it was actually more fun doing it myself. It gets your tastebuds go munchies after a good day of smoking.

Sunday morning I did some serious morning toking out my hotel window, It resulted in an extra hour resting in bed before heading into town again. Because of my morning blast I missed breakfast and decided to go for a kangaroo burger and a pint at Coco’s Outback down at Thorbecke Plein. I ordered the "not so big"-burger. 300 grams that is. The big one is 0,6 kilo. Way too much for me. They closed down the smoking section for renovation, so to enjoy my brownies I just crossed the street and chilled out with a couple of J’s at the Smokey Bar next to their coffeeshop.

My 48 hrs adventure to Mokum ended late that night after wandering around A’dam smoking away all my leftover stash at different coffeeshop. Spent some time at De Kuil and some good hours at Central CS. Even bought some pretty good King Hassan there. Got the windows seat and watched people running trying to hide in the winter rain. Even better to be on the inside with a hot chocolate and King Hassan.

After check-in at Schipool, I had the obligatory farewell joint outside the airport and then back to reality again.

Btw – I hope the Willie Wortels will have stockpiles of Kashmir Maroc when I’m back in April.

[Generous_J]

good man. like the way you said fuck it and booked a flight from work!

[TrekknHil]

Great report....sounds like you had a blast!

[27guldens]

Those 15 min waiting, excited, happy etc feels like hours.

Yes, that's true.

Lucky daddy. Thanks for the report.

[LeviInAtl]

Awesome report, could almost see myself there with ya.

[PurpleHaze]

Great report....sounds like you had a blast!

Yeah it was all good TrekknHil, except for the return to Oslo which where supposed to be a direct flight. Can you believe it – SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) put us on a plane that had to make a stop in Copenhagen and shift all its passengers to another flight because the original one was not suitable for use in wintery conditions in Norway (fog, snow etc.) Come on! This is Scandinavia and its wintertime. IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SNOW AND WINTER! We always had this kind of weather, even though it’s a little bit more rain than snow these days due to changes in global warming. That made my return to a five hour trip instead of 1hrs45min.

But my adventure in Mokum was all good. A loners trip this time, but I enjoyed it. Nobody to take care of other than myself. Hope to see some of you Channelites there in April though!

[smoker_moby]

Hey dude great report looks like you had a great time!!

Matt

[islandgurl]

Thank you for that, PH and how are you by the way? I remember you from last April. Believe me I understand the utter bliss in going back since I went back in November... actually doing it spontaneously WAY cool :-)

[PurpleHaze]

Thank you for that, PH and how are you by the way? I remember you from last April. Believe me I understand the utter bliss in going back since I went back in November... actually doing it spontaneously WAY cool :-)

I am fine thank you. A weekend in Amsterdam was just what I needed… Yeah we bumped into each other a couple of times last April. Many good J’s toked and stories told.

Are you back this April?

[boneymaroni]

SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) put us on a plane that had to make a stop in Copenhagen and shift all its passengers to another flight because the original one was not suitable for use in wintery conditions in Norway (fog, snow etc.)

SAS caused a near riot in the Copenhagen airport this past April when they cancelled all flights due to a labor dispute. The overhead page kept telling passengers to "leave the terminal" and call a number they provided. Cheech and I were returning to Amsterdam from Christiania and were lucky to be booked on transavia.com. I kinda lost confidence in SAS after the experience.

Nice trip report!

[PurpleHaze]

SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) put us on a plane that had to make a stop in Copenhagen and shift all its passengers to another flight because the original one was not suitable for use in wintery conditions in Norway (fog, snow etc.)

SAS caused a near riot in the Copenhagen airport this past April when they cancelled all flights due to a labor dispute. The overhead page kept telling passengers to "leave the terminal" and call a number they provided. Cheech and I were returning to Amsterdam from Christiania and were lucky to be booked on transavia.com. I kinda lost confidence in SAS after the experience.

Nice trip report!

Yeah your right. I mostly fly KLM to Mokum but had to use SAS because of bonuspoints. Fuck it – it was a free trip anyway. There are worse things in the world than a couple of hours extra at an airport – but it is ANOYING.

Many of its customers have lost confidence with SAS. Labour conflicts, strikes, high prices etc. Here in Norway people are turning to Norwegian (a new airliner started in 2002). Now six years later they also fly most of the big bestinations in Europe – cheap, unfortunately not Amsterdam...

[viking]

Nice to read you had another great time in Amsterdam, PH!
You're right about the Kashmir Maroc being my favorite hash
in recent trips. Too bad they were out!

Sounds like you really lucked out with Hotel Brian.
Good deal.

Hope we meetup in the city again soon, my friend.
I'll be back in April and September.

Thanks for the report!

[DrTak]

Great Trip report.

Wish I lived 1hr 45min away from 'Dam.

Of course, the ice and snow part is a bit of a turnoff.

The first daffodil of the season bloomed today in my garden. Spring is in the air!

Two months till my annual pilgrimage to the Keukenhof.

[PurpleHaze]

Nice to read you had another great time in Amsterdam, PH!
You're right about the Kashmir Maroc being my favorite hash
in recent trips. Too bad they were out!

Sounds like you really lucked out with Hotel Brian.
Good deal.

Hope we meetup in the city again soon, my friend.
I'll be back in April and September.

Thanks for the report!

Allways great to be back in the Dam. Our favourite Hotel is closed until the end og February so I had to find another in a matter of hours, and it wasn't that bad...

I'll be back in April. I need to toke...

[LastHamlet]

Dam, Purplehaze, I savored the flavor reading this one, as you and the Viking really know your hash. Can't wait to try that Kashmir Moroc for myself... Excellent Report!!!
I think I remember last April you fellows headed back out to get some more of that hash when we were leaving the Pink Floyd, and I wished I had come along...

One of these days I am going to do a spur of the moment trip, I think this is a good thing indeed.

Be good to see ya again in April, the days are going quickly.

[PurpleHaze]

Dam, Purplehaze, I savored the flavor reading this one, as you and the Viking really know your hash. Can't wait to try that Kashmir Moroc for myself... Excellent Report!!!
I think I remember last April you fellows headed back out to get some more of that hash when we were leaving the Pink Floyd, and I wished I had come along...

One of these days I am going to do a spur of the moment trip, I think this is a good thing indeed.

Be good to see ya again in April, the days are going quickly.

Yeah LH next time you'll join us. I hope to be back for the April gathering. Working my ass of at the moment to get some extra days off then. Willie Wortels was out of the Kashmir Maroc a couple of weeks ago, but it seems to be back on the menu again. A Scottish guy posted today at the Smokers Guide that "the kashmaroc in Haarlem was like putty! You could fit your windows up with it". I don't know if that means it's back to its excellent quality of last year or if it's just soft and squidgy? I will check it out in ten days time on a stop over to Vienna for work. BTW does anyone here know where to score the goodies in Vienna?

Hope to se ya soon, and remember to bring along your floppy disc camera ha ha…

[LastHamlet]

That camera was a hoot, and what fun we had with it :-)
I got a new one now, and put that old floppy one on EBay, and never got paid for it.
In retro I should have kept it, especially seeing what the outcome of it was, cause it did work sensational.

Hope April works out for you, it wouldn't be the same without you.
Cheers to you, PurpleHaze.

[Dink]

Vienna sounds like a cup of tea. Just go to a headshop and ask the first person you see. Man you could have a good time busting up that town.

[PurpleHaze]

You're right about the Kashmir Maroc being my favorite hash
in recent trips. Too bad they were out!

I had another quick stopover in Adam last week. Meet and toked with Wolfdangler and DamOften. Truly nice guys ;-) Btw DO and I had an afternoon in Haarlem, and the Kashmir Maroc is BACK on the menu. Just great blond sticky tasty hash.

[PurpleHaze]

Regarding Vienna, I for once gave a bollocks in my principle of never taking any goodies cross border. Since I would only stay there for three days attending a UN conference, I took my chance and luckily had no trouble. In my pocket I had 2 gr. of Crystal Clear, 2 gr. of Flower power Special from CS Katsu, and a gram of rifman sherazadeh Hash from pink Floyd.

Paradoxically I attended a conference to fight Human Trafficking filled with participants from The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and I even sat next a Norwegian lady who is the under director of the Interpol. And I was stoned to the bone most of the time! Thanks God for the invention Clear Eye drops. If I haven't been paranoid under the influence of thc before – I felt it sneaking in and out of my twisted mind from time to time then…

Luckily I took to my principles after another stop over in Adam on returning back to Norway. At the airport in Oslo I was meet by sniffer dogs. I was a little worried that they would mark on me because of smelly clothes, but fortunately they did not. Puhhhh... The custom officers would probably punk me just for the hell of if - even though I did not bring any presents home.

[darkmarkwolf]

wonderful report. i'm staying at hotel Brian next month and was hoping to read some recent reports.