We came home, got ready and I had a pure j of pineapple haze.
Taxi arrives 10AM, uneventful 25min journey to Liverpool airport. Check in, quick pint and breakfast. Board plane and set off a little earlier than expected. 55 minutes later and we're in Schiphol. Grab case, board train and arrive in city.
We check into the hotel (Delta- basic but brilliant location, stayed here a few times in the past) and go directly to de kuil/420. 1g of Caramello and 1g of 420 kush.. Smoked a few pipes of caramello with the mrs, who is a total noob (apart from a space cake she consumed 14 years ago which sent her beyond the stratosphere in the Van Gogh museum). So I was a little worried she'd whitey on me.. She was well up for it so..
She loved it, nice mellow hash high with giggles etc. I was personally wanting to step it up a gear so rolled a j with most of the kush. Nice stone evolved in our 40 minutes or so in 420. Was amazed to find a free table and 2 stools at 4.40pm on a Friday.
We left 420 and headed up Nieuwendijk towards Coffeeshop Amsterdam/Dampkring 2 to grab some rifman. The kush hit me as we made our way through the masses. By the time we got to D2 I felt like I was tripping, overwhelmed with euphoria.
Went straight in, no queue, bought 2g rifman laila and 1g kush block. Wandered around in the sleet for a bit then went back to the room for half an hour, stopping at Mannekin Pis for frites before we went in.
Felt quite magical, eating gorgeous chips in the now snow on the Damrak, festive lights complimenting our nicely baked vibes. We chilled in the room, I had a few pipes of the kush block, nice flavour, not harsh at all, seemed to keep me topped up.. We went back out to get some beers.
We walked up towards Dam sq and started a pub crawl at the bottom pf Warmoestraat. Had a real laugh in some divey "Irish" bars, playing varying degrees of cheesy music. I used to be a snob about places like that but there weren't any big groups of lads or bad vibes anywhere we went. I'd already discovered that Batavia was closed for a private function Friday and Saturday night that weekend.
We walked a circle from Lange Niezel/red light district/back to Warmo for a giggle at the windows but it was getting icy cold and we were yearning for more smoke & drink.
We went into HSB, great Friday night atmosphere, busy but we were able to find a seat. More beer and about a dozen hash pipes later we were well and truly smashed. Our initial idea of going for steaks somewhere had been laughed off, we felt great but so wrecked.
We decided to get back to the room for more birthday fun but as soon as the fresh air hit us we realised some food was in order. We followed our noses to a waffle/crepe place and both had hot waffles with ice cream, bananas, chocolate sauce etc and a Chocomel. It tasted like heaven, we both noted later that we were in a mutual trance like state whilst eating them. We went back to the room and the rest is private
, needless to say it was the best end to a great day/birthday. Day2
I always sleep weirdly when I go to the Dam; the smoke provides the perfect conditions for a good kip but I seem to wake up super early, eager to not waste any time in my favourite city.
I woke at about 6am after roughly 3.5hrs sleep. I tried to resettle but it wasn't happening. Mrs H was KO'd and after an attempt at waking her I was given a kindly warning to leave her til 9 and not let her miss breakfast. To be fair to her, she does wake up every day with the kids so I couldn't begrudge her this lie in.
What to do? Hmmm. Smoked a few pipes in the bathroom, had a shower, got dressed and then wandered up to Prix D'ami. Yes I know it's an overpriced tourist trap but it was open at 7am and that was enough for me. The place was empty, the BT was obviously still "up" from the night before, sniff sniffing his way through his menu recs. I got 1g of Grapefruit and 1g Champagne hash. The Grapefruit looked well cured and covered in trikes, the Champagne was loose unpressed polm, lovely smell and high but not worth the price in retrospect. I went up to the first floor, bought a coffee and smoked most of the grapefruit in a j, had a few bongs of the champagne, coughed like fuck lol.
Went back to the room, mrs was stirring, I joined her for another hour's rest lol.
We got up eventually, had breakfast and she went up to get ready. Knowing I had at least 45 mins to spare I headed over to Bluebird which had just opened at 10am, got some Nepal Pollen/Polm and some OG Cheese hash. Smoked a few pipes of each over a fresh oj and went back to the room to pick up the other half.
We'd agreed to do a few touristy things on the trip so I'd booked tickets for Madame Tussauds. It turned out to be a laugh, I was quite baked and had difficulty deciphering between real people and the waxworks, especially the mannequins of Dutch celebrities, who we were clueless about.
A quick stop at Goa to pick up some space cakes and then went to go to Greenhouse Centrum for a chill. It was packed so went across the road to Rick's. The BT was rude as fuck and wouldn't let us in to his nearly empty establishment on the grounds that we had our own smoke. We went next door to the bar associated with Rick's cs. Better vibe, we went upstairs to the smoking box and had a good chill, she had a few pipes of the Nepal from bluebird, which she really rated. We had the cakes before we left, well she ate half of hers, I ate both of mine.
We'd booked a table at Cote Ouest on gravenstraat as we both love French food. We went there pretty stoned but still functional. I had the mussels, she had the duck. We shared a bottle of white wine. Really nice place, amazing food.
We then went to Barraka, as it was the nearest cs to the restaurant. I bought 3g of white widow as it looked and smelled pretty decent. Had a pure j of it there and wasn't disappointed.
After that we were really content, buzzing in fact. We then went to one of the Wonder Bar places, the one with beds in the window. We spent about 2 hours there. Mrs H had a permanent grin on her face and I was super high. We consumed many bongs worth of what was left of the stash. Time seemed to stand still, we were so wasted lol. I really wasn't sure whether we'd both make it off those beds before closing time but we managed to get ourselves together and trudged back towards Damrak.
A quick pit stop in De Kuil later and our appetites kicked in again. We stopped for noodles at a Wok2Walk type place. Hit the spot.
We walked back up towards Centraal station and went to Voyagers which was busy. Bought 2g of Lemon Bubble and went to Hill Street Blues. We'd popped our heads in Batavia but were ushered away but a middle aged English guy who asked to see our tickets for the Northern Soul weekend.
At HSB we were both seriously lagging. I made a fatty with about 1.2g of the lemon bubble as a nightcap. It was good, but I can get the same stuff at home a lot cheaper. There were so many different strains in my system that it could've been anything really. It's like trying to judge the nuances of fine wines after drinking 3 litres of vodka.
We got back to the room and crashed spectacularly. Apparently I fell asleep with a half packed pipe in one hand and the lighter in the other. It was only 11pm but it'd been a very long day.
Day 3
I woke at 4am feeling strangely refreshed. I made a doob with the rest of the Lemon and stood out on the Damrak taking in the sights and sounds. Every few minutes, groups of clubbers etc would wander down the road, happy and singing. Had a mad 4.30am chat with some cool Irish guys who were well fucked on mdma.
Went back up to the room, had a brilliant 1 hour kip, woke up still buzzing.
It was about 6.30, i got dressed and went to Picasso/Amsterdamned for its 7am opening. Walked down the pitch black silent streets, arrived and they were still tidying up from last night. They seemed like an efficient crew of two; a young Moroccan lad and an older Dutch lady. I got in about 7.15, absolutely frozen to the bone, ordered a milky coffee and bought 1g Girl Scout Cookies Hash (soft sticky resin but still a little firm, smelled like heaven, perfect mix of bud and top blond hash aromas) & 1g super silver haze, which looked and smelled fresh.
Sat down at window seat and had a few pipes of the gsc hash. It instantly melted and bubbled on the flame, leaving a pure white disc of clay like ash, and a nicely melted brain, heh. Rolled a j of about 0.7g ssh and put some snakes of Laila in for good measure. Went online for 10mins, with half an eye on the slowly awakening Haarlemestr. Felt great, really mellow but not tired, raring to go and start the day proper.
Walked back to the hotel with my headphones on - nice bit of early Autechre (Rotar). Languid city streets complimenting the minimal abstract techno noises perfectly.
Went to the room to find Mrs H awake, washed and dressed. I had a quick shower then breakfast.
Then off to Centraal station to get the tram to the Heineken museum. We'd booked to have a canal cruise at 11am then heineken museum for 1pm. Got there a bit early for the cruise and it was starting to snow.
What to do? What to do??? Hmm
We entered coffeeshop Superskunk approximately 3 minutes later. Had a spliff of god knows what mix of bits from my stash and we both had a few pipes of the 1g of Superskunk Caramello I'd bought.
We were in a blissed out giggly mood by the time we got on the boat. 15 years together and she's always gently nagged about the herb, and now we're getting caned together on a Sunday morning. Haha.
We laughed and canoodled our way through the canals before arriving back outside the Heineken museum. It was snowing pretty heavily by this point and we waited about 20min in the queue to get in there.
The Heineken museum was ok in itself, we had a great time anyway. When we got out it was a genuinely beautiful winter's scene which greeted us. We had a snowball fight on the way to the tram stop.
Plan was to go to the Bluebird for a bit and then the toyshop on the corner to get stuff for the kids. Ended up getting off the tram one stop early and trudged up to the Bluebird. Was inevitability packed in there but there were 2 stools free. A few hot chocs and pipes later and we went to get the kids some stuff. I've always liked it in there, traditional style toys, something a bit different from the soulless warehouse style megastores back home.
It was about 4pm by now and we were starving. Went to Batavia for the roast dinner, excellent stuff. Had a spliff in the dungeon, sitting across from a guy who looked like he was having a hard time. Maybe acid or shrooms but more than just herb for sure. We made eye contact and he almost jumped out of his seat. His mates signalled "sorry mate, don't worry he's just fucked haha"
Had a few more pipes of the gsc stuff and went back upstairs to join the lady. We had a few beers and went back to the room to drop off the toys and other accumulated bits. We went for a wander down towards the RLD to one of the Bulldog places. Dark, dark bar with ok music and a chilled bunch of people in situ. We stayed in there for ages and it was a good vibe. I know they've got a bad rep and I wouldn't have stepped foot in there 10 years ago but this joint seemed to be perfect for our needs that evening. No rude staff or customers, didn't feel rushed to buy drinks and the lady behind the bar insisted on cleaning the bong before I even touched it.
We walked out towards Dam sq and there was some kind of event going on. A big stage in the square, people singing carols or something. Was being filmed live for Dutch TV by the looks of things. Mrs H seemed transfixed, thinking someone famous was going to come on.. lol
I was well caned and hunger kicked in, went to Maccies, my guilty stoned pleasure, well wouldn't call it pleasure haha.
A load of greasy shit later, we headed back to 420 for a nightcap. Smoked a few in there. Nice atmosphere and music. We left around midnight and turned in.
I had the usual glum "going home tomorrow etc" vibe I always get at the end of a 3 nighter. Still, I didn't let this ruin what was left of the last night. I felt great, nice and stoned, we'd had an awesome time, felt like we'd laughed solidly since Friday morning.
Day 4
We woke about 8am, showers, pack, breakfast. Didnt have to get the train to Schiphol til 11ish so I went to De Kroon whilst she finished her packing because it was literally the nearest open cs. Bought 1g of Bubblegum, it was fairly cheap and I had fond memories of this strain from when I first started going over. Smoked this in a j and then bought 2g tabisla to accidentally stick in my jeans pocket at the bottom of my case. (No real risk here, can easily be explained away to customs as forgotten about and no real loss.)
The tabisla was a medium-good example of a clean and dependable Moroccan hash.
We went back to the room to get the bags and stash the souvenir.
Checked out and went to see if 420 was open, one for the sky??
It was shut so went across to de kroon. Smoked the scraps of the hashes I had left in the pipe and left the pipe, skins and grinder on the table for whoever found it.
11am. We get to Centraal, buy tickets and go towards the platform. Just as we get there, I had an urgent need to drop the kids off at the pool. I dashed to the WC and sat down... then my phone pinged. A message from easyjet saying the flight was cancelled and to follow this portal to arrange another flight and any potential accommodation we'd need. Couldn't process that, my brain wouldn't allow it as I had another job to take care of.........
5 minutes later and about 7Kg lighter, I approached my wife and anticipated telling her that we weren't going to be picking the kids up from school in 4 hours time....
Needless to say, it didn't go down too well.
We got the train to Schiphol, got in a long long queue for the easyjet desk. She was like the mother from Home Alone, pretty much refusing to leave until we got on a plane. Meanwhile I wad trying to log onto the overloaded easyjet site, managed it after about 40mins of standing in this non moving line. Next flight THURSDAY. Fuck.
Got us a room in the Crowne Plaza in Hoofddorp. After speaking to an easyjet rep who was wandering around the queue, we were both reassured that there was no way of getting home before Thursday and no further point being at the airport. We'd looked into ferries, eurostar etc and there was nothing available. Apparently there were hundreds of thousands of people all over northern Europe in our position. Good old snow eh?
We waited for an age in the queue for the hotel shuttle bus. Whilst there it occurred to me that I had enough hash to get me through the day but no means of smoking it. Obviously there are no head shops in the airport and I didn't fancy trying to do sneaky pipes in the new hotel. So I bought a pouch of drum gold and some skins. Was proud that I hadn't touched any nicotine all weekend but this was an emergency.
Got to the hotel, wife frantically arranging new babysitters etc. Managed to sort stuff out quite quickly, we're really lucky to have people around us willing to help. Kids sorted with my brother and his family. Phew. Massive worry sorted.
I unpacked and went straight to my jeans at the bottom of the bag. I had the 2g tabisla and about 1.5g of tiny bits of every hash I'd bought over the weekend rolled into a little ball.
I skinned up and went to the front of the hotel. Whilst trudging through the now heavy snow and smoking the spliff I settled down considerably and assessed the situation... We're stuck in Amsterdam for another 3 nights, it's not our fault and the kids are safe. It then dawned on me how fortuitous this whole situation was.. We were being put up in a decent room with free breakfast and evening meals and able to claim for any reasonable expenses for the duration of our extended stay.
The flight tickets had been £23 each, each way back in September.
Haha Fuck. What luck!
We spent the rest of the night in the hotel, had a few beers remembering to keep all the receipts. I popped in and out for one skinners in the smoking shelter and we eventually hit the sack about 10.30.
Day 5
Had a great sleep, woke about 8.30. Had breakfast, much better choice and quality than the Delta and free too, kinda..
We needed clean underwear, t shirts, more toiletries etc so walked into Hoofddorp town, easyjet would end up paying for everything anyway haha.
We headed straight to coffeeshop Super Fly, remembering to bring our passports after reading about the strict ID policy.
Friendly guy on the door. We were the first ones there. First impressions.. incredible place. Spacious, clean, modern, comfortable. Ok priced drinks. Fresh juices and smoothies, actual sized coffee cups!!!!
Great gear menu, 1 bought 2g of the SSH, pungent, sticky, resinous heaven. Best weed I'd laid eyes on all week, no exaggeration. Soaring sativa high, 50:50 weed bacci joint and a few bongs kept me higher than Jupiter for a couple of hours.
We went to Primark to get the clothes etc.
After getting out of there I was informed by my wife that I'd stank the place out and was getting funny looks from the older people in the store. I was blissfully oblivious. Forget those straight codgers haha
We followed our noses to a bakery van and got some fresh hot Nutellabollen. Never had them before, a real treat. She needed to get some new boots due to her other ones being soaked through. We spent ages in different shops before she found some. Was hungry again so we went to a vlaamtes frites shop and had a cone each. I had other cones on my mind so we went back to Super Fly and chilled for 2 hours or so. The Curtis Mayfield tune Superfly going through my head for a while..
We'd decided to go back to the hotel and have a sleep before dinner, stopping at a store for beers, crisps and chocolate on the way. It's about 2km from Super Fly to the hotel, must have taken us an hour in the snow carrying the shopping. We lounged around for the rest of the day, taking advantage of our newfound hardship lol. We had the free meal, and planned to get back to the city for our last full day tomorrow.
We proceeded to get merrily drunk and stoned that night, ending up quite smashed.
Day 6
We got up fairly early and walked the 5 minute walk to Hoofddorp station. We were in Centraal by about 10.30. First stop was 420. I was gutted that it was shut on Monday morning before we "left" and was feeling pretty chipper that I was back here, 48 hours later. Lovely, lovely snow, eh? Needed to replenish the stash so bought 1g 420 kush 1g nycd 1g Caramello and 1g 420 haze. Had a couple of spliffs of the haze and nycd, both really nice. Next stop was Goa for cakes. Edibles can be hit and miss all over town, the ones we had a few days earlier seemed to do something so we got a few more.
We wandered around for a bit and ended up near Bluebird, had a few pipes in there. We went for lunch in a nearby restaurant, keeping the receipts natch. We were determined to do something with the day so devised a plan to walk to the Iamsterdam sign/rijksmuseum via de Dampkring.
Dampkring was rammed so we went to Tweede Kamer instead. 2eKam was virtually empty. I got 1g ak47 and 5g king hassan on the way out later. We had the window seat. It was really nice and mellow in there. The ak was alright, what I expected; cheap and cheerful still packing a nice little punch. The Hassan was for the jeans pocket/suitcase.
We got to the iamsterdam sign by about 3pm, done the usual photos. We were walking away from that area and my wife's eyes lit up. She saw the ice rink. She skated, I watched. Far too stoned to want to risk breaking an ankle. No thanks.
We stayed there for a while and had a drink.
Walking back towards the centre we stopped off at the big Bulldog on Leidseplein. Man, I miss the Rokerij.
Bulldog served it's purpose of having somewhere to sit down and smoke.
It was dark when we left and started slowly making our way back towards Dam sq. We got some more souvenirs and realised how hungry we were, now being about 7pm. We went to Batavia, with memories of seeing someone else's huge burger on Sunday when we had the roast.
We spent an hour or so in there, had a few pints. She had the ribs, I had the BBQ burger. Both totally satisfying. We went to the dungeon and I smoked a few pure js of all my bud based stash. I don't clearly remember getting the train back to Hoofddorp and walking back to the hotel. We crashed in fine style that night. Woke up on day7 still stoned but didn't smoke any more due to stashing the Hassan and scraps the night before.
Day 7..
We eventually get home. No glum longing to be back in the Dam like I usually get. We were so lucky to have had extra days and appreciated this greatly.
Flight was unremarkable, as was walking out of the baggage claim, phew.
We were well happy to be home with the kids, I'd been lucky in the airport. A great end to a brilliant, if eventful week.
glad you got delayed on the return and not the trip out 
