Amsterdam: City of Lights and Marijuana Part II

A little disclaimer: this blog was written with nothing held back, this was my experience in Amsterdam. Either read it with an open mind aka don't be judgmental or don't even bother reading it. 


I had written a better beginning blog while I was sitting in the lounge the other night but I accidentally deleted it while adding on. Whoops.

On Thursday when we arrived in Amsterdam we hit a little bump, Nolan lost his passport. So there was that but most importantly I had an amazing Starbucks when we got off the plane, it was so good, and I’ve missed big coffee over here. But after that ordeal we headed to Amsterdam by train and continued to our hostel by foot. Being in Amsterdam is just so different; the people are super nice and just doing them. When we finally checked into our hostel, which is a street over from the red light district.

The red light district is something else. I wasn't sure what I was expecting but it sure was real. I kinda thought that the prostitutes would be more outside in clothes like you see in movies or Vegas, but not here. In Holland the prostitutes are in buildings with glass doors, there is a curtain that goes across the door when it's occupied. But the women are ratchettttt, there is such a mix of different type of women too, pretty, skinny, large black, white, anything one could imagine. They also were wearing nothing but skimpy lingerie, lucky boys. It was definitely a trip to walk down and live so close to that area. Would not have picked a different location though to stay in. 

Thanks for making this possible mom... :)

We hit the coffeeshop a few doors down to make our first legal purchases of the trip. It was just so natural to walk up to a counter and order what I wanted, which was purple haze, which then later on turned into white widow. After we headed to our lounge to smoke. The first time smoking in the lounge words can't really explain it. Everyone is doing it and it's super casual and it's a great vibe. People are loving life. People are from all over here, you get so many people from Northern Europe, Britain and the US, and Amsterdam is just a place to visit. Thursday was a night filled with smoking and listening to chill music in the lounge and my favorite thing, people watching. The people watching there was so great, there were so many different characters, old, young, tatted, hippy, you name it, they got it in Amsterdam.  

Something I noticed in Holland was how the men acted. They were nothing like the Italian men and really not like American. They're super courteous, pleasant and friendly. I had no problem making friends when I was out and they didn’t creep like the Italians do. For example when I got a little bit lost I didn’t hate asking for help at all, and they all speak perfect English so there was no language barrier which I was super grateful for.

Friday morning we woke up on the later side and I had this Dutch pancake for breakfast in the lounge, it was with cheese and bacon and it was amazing, like nothing I had ever had before. After that we walked to the Heineken brewery to take a tour and it was actually really cool to see how it's made. I even stomached drinking a beer and it was pretty nice not gonna lie. But I passed on my other one. After the tour we went to an Irish pub for dinner and it was once again really good. But after that we headed around town to see some other places around us. I called it quits semi early last night to get a good nights sleep. Our other roommates didn't allow that to happy too well though.

On Saturday we woke up around the same time and I went out for bagels, which were bomb. I got an everything bagel with chive cream cheese, it was so good. I hadn't had a bagel since I left America. We then went back go the hotel and headed for the zoo. Before the zoo we stopped at one of the coffeeshops called “Pick up the pieces” or something along those lines for some spacecakes, bomb. One of them was pink and the other green and they were amazing. Now the zoo was so cool, I haven't been to a zoo in so long. I saw so many different animals loved it there. After the zoo we went to this burger places near the hotel and it was so good. I barely eat meat over here; I swear the Italians only eat pizza and pasta. But then we went to the hash, marijuana and hemp museum, which was after very interesting. We then came back and took some naps. I went out for a crepe and the others headed to the bar. Now I'm back in the lounge writing this and taking it all in.

Baba, yup that's the name of the coffee shop I'm at here in Amsterdam (it’s now Sunday night). Zack, you were right about this place, it has a super chill vibe and has been hands down my favorite coffeeshop of the trip. I'm here alone jammin to just hands down a damn good play list at the bar smoking some fine Kandy Kush, so stickyyyy. Everyone is just doing his or her own thing and it's so casual here. It's a thing to appreciate. I made friends with one of the "bartenders" at Baba, he was wicked nice and was cool to talk to for a bit while I was there. I also loved how they could just join in on smoking with their customers and not even think anything about it.

First blunt in monthss

This afternoon I woke up and headed to the lounge for a cappuccino accompanied by a jay before I set off for an adventure across Amsterdam to meet up with two old camp friends Aymeric and Marisa. The whole morning wake and bake thing is something I have embraced so well and will miss it when I go back to Florence. But I hadn't seen my camp friends since I was 14. The walk was suppose to be about half an hour and I made it in about an hour and a half, needless to say I got super lost but just loved wandering alone with a map and a camera. Just as I got to where the I Amsterdam letters are they spotted me and if they hadn't spotted me I don't know if I would have ever found them. But regardless the Van Gogh museum was so cool. I love that type of painting. After the museum we went to find pancakes and got them and then it was time to come back to the hostel. That was a lot easier to do and I had found a Starbucks, which is like gold over here. I got back to the hotel and met the others in the lounge before doing a little shopping... Got all the gifts I needed to here in Amsterdam and then got a little extra, whoops.

But after shopping I made my way to Baba and just had a solid night hanging out. That's exactly what I love doing. After staying there for a while I headed back to our lounge in the hotel to hang out a little closer to my surroundings. I hung out in the lounge for a while making friends with different people, everyone is so friendly. Then I headed up to my room to put all my stuff together which is always a struggle. After I was finished I headed back down to the lounge for one last one, I mean I had to finish what I bought earlier. Needless to say I had a great time just jammin to some music in the lounge on my last night. Gotta end where you start sometimes, and this was a good place to start and end it.

This morning I woke around 7:25 to leave the hostel by 8 to make it to the airport for plenty of time. I got up got ready and waiting downstairs till everyone else was finished. There I found out that you can't take a taxi to central station because we are so close or it would cost 30€ but it was pourrring out. So we had to walk in the rain for about 15 to the train. On the train I embraced my final piece of Amsterdam I wasn't bringing home, it was a chocolate spacecake from the bulldog coffeeshop next door. The cake was heavenly and did just the trip. Came to the airport, flew through security found Starbucks and yogurt and granola. This Vermont chick is happy to be heading back to Florence. I had a 2-hour lay over in Germany though and didn’t get back go Florence till 4:30ish.

Spacecake

Now here I am back in my bed on a Tuesday night with no internet and I have a paper to write, pictures to upload and blogs to post….