We couldn’t be living only a couple hours flight from Amsterdam and not visit while we’re here!!!! We went for a weekend break in late September and we took two Frenchies with us, Marc and Elodie. They were close friends of ours while we were living in Jersey and we couldn’t imagine better people to explore Amsterdam with for the first time!!
At the airport we found our way to the public transit and we rode the bus and the train to the center of town passing through the city. It’s so beautiful with all of the canals and old European architecture and bikes EVERYWHERE, it’s so cool!!! There’s an average of 2 bikes per person in Amsterdam, how awesome is that!?.. just tons of different bikes everywhere not locked so you just grab one and leave it somewhere cool and green lol (get the joke we’re in ‘Greenland’, weeeeed).
So next we arrived at our awesome hostel called the Flying Pigl, DAMN what a sweet choice!! We stayed in a 14 person dorm which was pretty average, but hey, you’re not there to sleep right!? The main attraction was the coolest smoking lounge downstairs! There were low tables and cushions arranged all over a platform made for chilling out, very Moroccan style with only a few chairs. There was always cool music playing to optimize either the party vibes at night or the chill vibes in the daytime.. we spent a good chunk of our time in this room smoking weed, laughing, joking and sharing stories with backpackers from literally all over the world. Outside there was a pretty little terrace and a smoking area on the ground. Just on the other side of the wall from the lounge there’s a really sweet bar with drink specials, pool tables and darts.
We put our backpacks down and went straight for a wander… to find the first café on our list of many we wanted to check out before the weekend was through! The coolest one and also the closest to our hostel was the 420, we made that our first stop. After nearly a year and a half away from our beloved MaryJane, we stepped into the smokehouse (around a guy who had ‘greened out’ in the doorway) and embraced the fragrant aromas dark and inviting little cafe.
We went straight to the counter and said hi to the lady who must has been in her thirties, with a huge smile and long black hair who was smoking a joint. She had her selection of bud strains on one side and on the other she had a cat who was passed out sleeping of course, so chill that half of it’s body was dangling off the counter and he didn’t even notice.. Ohhh Amsterdam... Now when we say she had a selection what we really mean is she had a buffet little baggies with different blends and strains with different strengths, smells and flavors. After a few minutes of chatting it out with her we decided to go with her favorite and took some “Diesel”..
Marc and Elodie had never tried ganja before so we had decided to buy a small gift for them; a bit of an inside joke, but it was an ornament of a baby dragon coming out of its shell, but we wrapped the shit out of it with layers of tape and paper so it looked 4 times bigger and it was near impossible to get into.. I think we used 10 sheets of newspaper!!!
Ange rolled us a doobie and passed it straight to our mates to let them enjoy a bit and then we sat back to have our smoke and to laugh and enjoy them trying to unwrap that silly gift! For us it was pretty hilarious and they were enjoying their moment as much as we were. They took so long because they were SO fried, it was like watching a dog chasing its’ own tail HAHAHA!!! (Sorry Marc and Elo if you’re reading this, we just had to, you guys were so entertaining!!)
For the rest of the weekend we wandered the beautiful city, exploring the pretty old streets and little bridges over the picturesque canals.
We did a little exploring in the red light district with it’s crazy sex shops and tons fucked up fantasy toys.. Ange laughed so hard seeing a Kalashnikov gun with a dildo at the end, that we got escorted out of the sex shop and couldn’t bring ourselves to go back. It’s slightly awkward walking in the red light district because on both sides of the streets there are ladies from all over Europe sitting, standing, dancing or shaking their bodies provocatively to attract customers.
Wandering like that works up quite a thirst and an appetite, but luckily Amsterdam is not lacking for watering holes. After a few beers and a nice meal to satisfy even the most persistent munchies, we could pass out nicely only to do it all again the next day!
On the agenda for the next couple days we explored more cafés like the famous Grasshopper and basically did a pub and smokehouse crawl through the old town of Amsterdam.. FUN!!
Between bars and smokehouses, we all decided to leave Amsterdam with a permanent souvernir.. We chose a nice tattoo shop and we all got inked. We all put a little thought into ours and got something that was personal and also a little bit silly to celebrate Amsterdam. Nicole got ‘Young, Wild and Free’; Elodie got a little bird for freedom; Marc got ‘There’s a first time for everything’; and Ange got ‘Release the Kraken’ across his ass!!! Hahaha! It was super painful, but after 2 full hours face down, ass up, his Brazilian dread locked tattoo artist was done. We went straight to the nearest bar and had a toke to ease the pain and beers to celebrate.
Ange did sort of forget the next day and was wondering why his butt was hurting. But the memory quickly came back when someone (Nicole) had to massage cream into it a few times a day. So it was pants down in the dorm room for Ange and a facefull of Ange’s crack-en for Nicole LOL. A few people thought they might like to come into the dorm during that time, but when they saw what was happening they had a good laugh and turned around.
After few days it was time to dry out, go back to Jersey and back to reality. BUT before we headed to the airport we needed to finish our green. So we went back to the 420 to smoke our last joint in the same place as our first and say a proper farewell to the beautiful city. We were feeling pretty mellow and a little sad to be leaving but we hopped into the taxi to see where our next adventure would take us.
When we arrived at the airport we were heading through on our way to security still feeling a pretty good glow from our little rendez-vous at the 420. We didn’t even realize the police officer next to us with a search dog. As we were all chatting and making our way down the corridor, the dog started barking and going absolutely wild next to us and all of our hearts stopped for a moment!
As it turned out, the dog was being trained and he was actually barking at a man NEXT to us who was a plain-clothes-policeman, obviously carrying something that the dog was meant to find. We realized that the dog was being rewarded with treats and good doggie pats, so we all started to breathe again and practically ran to our gate relieved that none of us had fucked up royally and accidentally brought something in our bags or pockets!
So with heavy hearts (and eyes), we said ‘See ya soon Amsterdam.’
Next trip Nicole heads for a balmy couple weeks in Croatia with one of her best girlfriends!!!