AMSTERDAM TIPS FOR EVERYONE'S FAVORITE

[joanofarc]

i'm feeling lazy - but love you all and want your valuable tips!

please post them here so i can print the thread and take it with me - restaurant tips, cool coffee shops, bars, sights - whatever! give directions of you can and bid me farewell too! thanks for helping an old board veteran!

[Sijuki]

I give you all the best of luck Joanie... my favorite stoner!

Sorry I can't suggest any good stoner places for ya

[skidrage]

Sorry if this goes on too long, but hopefully this will help. For coffeeshops, do not go to The Grasshopper. It will be the first coffeeshop you see off the Damrak (the major Amsterdam street) when leaving the train station. It is very expensive as are The Bulldog coffeshops that require you to purchase by the euro instead of by the gram. Also they are too overcrowded with tourists. Here were some of my favorite coffeeshops:

Dampkring (lots of tourists, but one of the few that serves alcohol and the selection of smokes is second to none)
Rusland (never busy, somewhat hidden in the red light district, try a milk shake as they are great there)
Blue Bird (kind of cramped, but excellent selection)
Grey Area (never went there, but I have heard nothing but positive comments about this place)
Cafe 420 (close to the train station and one of the few places I know that has a vaporizer, you must try the vaporizer)

I don't have directions for these places that would actually make sense to a first time visitor, but checking a guide book or online will help you (I can't think of any helpful sites right now though, sorry). Don't starts off with the most expensive hash or weed, as it can mess you up more than you want. The cheap stuff in Amsterdam is as good as the best stuff that you are probably used to. There is something like 75 coffeeshops in Amsterdam, so you won't have a tough time finding one. Be careful with space cakes/space bon bons. These usually take about 1-2 hours to kick in, so don't be eating a ton of them because you don't feel anything at first. I did not use any mushrooms or other smart drug products, but these places are also all over Amsterdam.

As for other stuff, with regards to restaurants and food, Amsterdam is expensive. The best thing if you are on a budget is to eat from fast food middle eastern stands such as the Maoz stand right outside of the trian station (it is excellent and cheap). Be sure to try fries with mayo as it is better than it sounds and try some FEBO (dutch fast food). It is quite disgusting, but interesting and sometimes tasty. Also, a trip to Holland would not be complete without some herring. Don't get pizza from fast food pizza places. The pizza looks like it has been left out for a week. BUT, pizza from restaurants is usually cheap and good (around five euro).

As for sights, you know probably of all the famous ones. Anne Frank House is decent, but the line is usually very long so it might not be worth the wait if you have limited time. Heineken Museum is a fun waste of time and is not too time consuming. The Sex Museum on the Damrak is definately worth the two euro admission (I think thats how much it was). Torture museum is cool is you are into that type of thing. I am not too big of an art fan so the Van Gogh museum did not do too much for me.

There seems to be a bar every five steps in the city, so you won't have a tough time finding one, but it might be a little tougher to find a good one. I really can't recall any of the names of the bars that I went to there, but some of the clubs you might want to check out are Ministry, Paradiso, and Melkweg.

If you have some time, take a day trip to Utrecht (25 minutes) or Haarlem (15 minutes). This will let you see a more typical dutch town.

Have a great time and if you can think of any more questions before you go let me know and I will try to answer them.

[voyd]

Originally posted by skidrage@Nov 18 2004, 06:25 AM
As for sights, you know probably of all the famous ones. Anne Frank House is decent, but the line is usually very long so it might not be worth the wait if you have limited time. Heineken Museum is a fun waste of time and is not too time consuming. The Sex Museum on the Damrak is definately worth the two euro admission (I think thats how much it was). Torture museum is cool is you are into that type of thing. I am not too big of an art fan so the Van Gogh museum did not do too much for me.

IMO:

Anne Frank - agreed.
Heineken Museum - didn't go so don't know.
S*x Museum - I went to one of them - I think the one on Damrak? I wasn't too impressed cuz it was mostly just a lot of old pics and some di1dos. But, I guess it was cheap...
Torture Museum - I've been to 1 or 2 in the EU. Can't remember if I went to one in A-dam, but they're mostly all the same anyways. Interesting - but all the devices are typically modern mock-ups - not the actual antiques.
Van Gogh Museum - huge exhibition on him - great if you're a fan.
Cannibis College - You should check this out, Joan. They give a free demo on vaporization (vs smoking). It's supposed to be vastly superior (high-wise and healthwise).

I thought you've been to A-Dam before, though? As far as safety, just stay away from the ends of the RLD by the alleys where there are regular dealers who prey on tourists. I had one harass me and my friend got threatened by a group of them who claimed they were gonna cut him. They were probably just bluffing, but he gave them his cash anyways.

Ok, have funnnnnn!!!!!!!!!! And be sure to DL and bring this inspirational song with you too!

[skidrage]

Here are a couple tips to keep you safer. You will have a lot of bums come up to you to try to get money or dealers to sell you drugs. Don't say anything to them, even no. Just ignore them like they are not there and they will go away. Even answering no will keep them bugging you for a while. While walking through the red light district, don't look any shady type person in the eye, as they will take it as a hint that you want to buy drugs or something off of them and they will follow you. Also, you probably know this one, but taking pictures in the red light district can be quite risky. There are people all over the place watching for photos being taken and if you try it, your camera might end up in a canal.

[joanofarc]

totally, skidrage - cafe 420, formerly known as de kuil, is my fave hang out in a'dam. they actually put that ugly green 420 cafe sign up about 3 days before i left amsterdam last - it worried me then, and especially now. being called de kuil - i don't think it was very enticing to the masses - BUT CAFE 420 - jeeeesus! i can only imagine the traffic the place gets now! hopefully it's still as quaint as i left it. but that's life - shit changes.

and yeah, i've been before - a week long exploration even, but there's always something new to see. that's all i was after. a cool alley you went down to stuble upon some rad shop. some obscure restaurant. whatevski.

but i'm off tomorrow anyway, and all is settled - thanks for the replies dears!

[cspotp]

Do you guys know of any smart shops? I wanna shroom in amsterdam and go see the tulip fields....it'll be wicked




cheers

[MeTurk]

Oh yes I want to shroom there to, I 've tried it twice here (lsd) but it was shit! Then got a load of shrooms but they got thrown out by someone by acciedent.

The first thing I'm going to do is try the strongest hash I can get when I get to Amsterdam. I don't care what happens I want to get completely off mo bosca.

There's a musem of Mutant babys somewhere in the city too. It's one of those kind where their all in little jars. Get wacked and head down there.


...I may not make it out of Amsterdam with my sanity... But oh well these things happen..

[VP.]

I made a weekend trip to Amsterdam, and I found this thread very helpful before I left, so I figure it's a good idea to add my experience to it. This post got pretty long, but its divided into parts so you can skip over things that do not interest you... These are all places skidrage suggested a few posts earlier:

Coffee Shops:
Grey Area: Was at the top of my list to check out, but it doesn't open until noon, which caused a problem on both days I was there. On Sat. I went there around 11:30 and it was closed, and I never got a chance to go back. On Sun. I got "sidetracked" by a local around 12:00 when I was going to head to Grey Area, and ended up spending the rest of my time with him before I had to leave.

Damkring: My favorite place of all the ones I saw. Had a great ambience with some nice trippy decor. The guy at the weed counter was pretty friendly and helpful, and I tried the Reclining Buddah, which was fantastic. It may've been kind of touristy, I noticed some people speaking spanish, british english, and amercan english. Was not too crowded around noon.

Rusland: As skidrage said, it was pretty much empty on a Sat. afternoon. When I got there a guy was blocking the door and ended up carding me...so I didn't feel the most welcome, but after that it was fine. Another thing is the weed counter is right by the door, so I felt pressure to buy something even though I already had bud on me. I bought the "Desert Bud" or "Desert Flower"...something like that...it was decent but not as good as the Reclining Buddah. Tried the milkshake like Skidrage suggested, and it definitely made the trip worth it...I will be going back for sure. They also have an amazing selection of pipes, etc...I think I may buy one next time.

Cafe 420: This place didn't seem too special to me. It was very plain inside and reminded me of a regular pub. I didn't check out the weed there either since I had leftovers from the two other places. I had heard lots of good things about this place, but didn't find it too special personally.

Van Gogh Museum:
It was worth seeeing...€10 seems a little expensive for what you get, but overall I would say it was worth seeing once. I will probably check out the Rijks next time.

Hostel:
I stayed at Dirty Nelly's. Didn't have reservations before arriving, and there was a Gay Pride parade going on, so we were told finding a hostel was going to be difficult. First checked out Bob's, but it was full. We went to Nelly's second, and they had 4 beds left, so we took them. As I've read elsewhere, they were mostly concerned with running the bar, but were still pretty friendly with us. The room was OK...bad things were that the bed frames were extremely shaky so that when either person moved the whole thing rocked violently. The sheets and pillow were also very rough and itchy. The bathroom was pretty shady, but I didn't need a shower for only one night there so it didn't bother me. The room was also extremely hot. All in all though, for €20 I would stay there again if I had to. Not the nicest place, but adequate for a night's rest.

Shrooms:
I actually did try some shrooms here too. I went with "Equadorian" on the smart shop worker's request. I have used shrooms several times before, so I said I didn't want the beginners' stuff, but I also didn't want the hardest stuff they had since I was going on no sleep from the night before. I ate them in my room, and then went to the RLD with my friends. After about 30 mins I began to feel a little paranoid about walking around...I knew I would have to make a trip to the car to get my bag and then find the hostel, and I didn't want to have to make the trip alone so we walked to the car and then my friends left me at Dam Square near the hostel. I stayed there for a while and had begun to feel the body buzz, so I decided I should head to the hostel. I spent the rest of the trip in the hostel room, which I have mixed feelings about.

It would've been definitely more interesting outside walking around, but the trip was also pretty intense and I'm pretty sure I would've gotten myself in trouble outside alone. I don't recall any particularly intense visual hallucinations (but I was in a dark room so...), but one thing I do remember - which is possibly, to me, the most messed up part about shrooming - was feeling very confused/disoriented several times. For example, just looking at one of my friends who was alseep next to me and thinking it was somehow wrong that he was there...having those feelings at 2:00 am in a foreign city probably wouldn't have been the best thing for me. Another problem I was having was that by the end I was so tired I would kind of lose conciousness every once in a while and then snap back awake when I heard something outside. It's pretty much impossible to fall asleep while shrooming, but I was so tired I think my body was basically shutting down. I think in total the trip lasted about 6 hours or so.

I think I can recommend the Equadorian for an experienced user, but I think I would recommend going even stronger if you have a better situation than I had (i.e. a person to watch out for you, being more familiar with the city, and not having gone without sleep the night before).

[MeTurk]

The 420 is still realitivly quiet, they serve drink there as well! It was my regular simply because it's so close to the flying pig.

The cannabis muesium isn't great looks like a school prodect or something.

[joanofarc]

yeah, what i like about de kuil (i refuse to call it cafe 420) is how simple an establishment it is. it IS very much like a regular pub but it has an absolutely beautiful bar and i like that they play classic rock as opposed to techno or reggae or something. it's also nice that there's a decent mix of locals and tourists there on a regular basis/ it gets kind of boring hanging around a bunch of 18-20 year old british and american tourists blazed out of their minds anyway... IMO.

[SuDz]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(joanofarc @ Aug 9 2006, 12:03 PM) [snapback]134319[/snapback]</div>

t gets kind of boring hanging around a bunch of 18-20 year old british and american tourists blazed out of their minds anyway... IMO.
[/b]

I know what you mean, I was hanging with some kids down in Mexico that snuck some Blueberry in over the border and they were afraid to bring it back in, so they were trying to use it all up. After enough time with them being ripped retarded , I was too, but it was like "Umm yeah.... I'm bored now." and try to find a way out of there.

SuDZ