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Amsterdam
December 2003 - January 2004
| Day 1 Arrival |
Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 New Year's Eve |
Day 5 New Year's Day |
Day 6 | Day 7 & Departure |
These pages may take a while to load with slower connections, so be patient, get a coffee or something and settle in for a long winter's tale. Thanks to degenerates JH and RI for a few of these pictures.
Day 1
| We stumbled off the overnight flight weary yet exhilarated to be abroad. |
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| We grabbed our luggage and caught the train to Centraal Station, smack in the middle of Amsterdam. |
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| We walked the few blocks to the hotel in a very chilly rain and dropped off our bags (the rooms weren’t ready yet) and the Portland degenerates headed straight to the coffeeshop. They’d been upgraded to first class and had gotten some sleep and a decent meal. The rest of us needed breakfast, coffee, etc. Degenerate DC got a pancake as big as a plate. |  |
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There are places that use the word “bar” and aren’t any different than a café
that serves alcohol. But not every coffeehouse has a liquor license, and few bars are licensed for marijuana sale or use. So if you want a beer with your bong you might have to walk a block or three before you find a place that serves both. And you can’t find any bar, café or coffeehouse that also sells mushrooms. For some reason, those are only sold at “smartshops.” Why you’d separate one mind-altering plant from another, or from the fermented liquid made from others, I have no idea, but that’s the way it is. |
Regardless of what establishment you enter, you’re very, very likely to suffer
endless amounts of what Europeans consider music – techno. For some reason, the
stuff is as prevalent as air itself. Every shop, every bar, every café, every
speaker in town blares out redundant bass-heavy beats. In a full week of
constant bar-hopping, we found two places – TWO – that played music that was not
entirely computer-generated. I’m sure we hit well over 50 bars, coffeehouses and
cafés in the week, so be prepared to tolerate it or follow our recommendations
for places with at least subdued Eurodisco racket, if not actual music.
The other challenge when visiting Amsterdam is the incredible market penetration
achieved by Heineken. Probably 9 out of 10 establishments serve the stuff on
tap, and most of them serve nothing else. You can get bottled beer of several
flavors, but if you prefer draft beer, you’d better like Heineken. There are a
few places around town that serve a wider variety of beers (mostly from
neighboring Belgium) but you’ve got to search those places out.
“The water has been recycled so often, it's beginning to taste like Dutch
lager.”
From the BBC series Red Dwarf.
There are other drug options. A ring of men surround the Red Light District,
mumbling “coke ecstasy” over and over as people pass by. Aside from the weather,
they are the only irritant in an otherwise wholly charming town.
SW and LH standing on a bridge just off Damrak, with Centraal Station in the
background.
Other degenerates with Damrak in the background.
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Anyhow, we got breakfast and coffee, checked and unpacked, then went on a neighborhood bar and coffeeshop safari. We hit countless places, each for no more than an hour or so before someone would say, “I’ve had a beer and a bowl. Let’s roll.” Out into the cold air again for another block or two, historic beauty leaning in from every side, then duck into another coffeeshop, some with a funky backroom feel with Moroccan lanterns, others with garish neon lights like a T-shirt shop in PCB, others with uber-trendy sleek furnishings, and on into the night until it’s all a pot smoke haze. We did this night after night, most nights ending up at Smoking Bull because of it’s location, right around the corner from our hotel, extensive menu of marijuana, ample room, and the fact that the Euro techno wasn’t cranked up to skull-pounding intensity as often as other places. They also have a foosball table and pool table in the back. |
At some point we stopped for dinner. You’ll see a lot of Indonesian
restaurants in Amsterdam, since Indonesia was once a Dutch colony. You’ll also
see a lot of other Asian food, and tons of pizza and steakhouses. We ended up at
some random pizza place, to satisfy degenerate DC’s dietary requirements.
We were trying to stay up until 9 PM to beat the jetlag, an easy task on the
edge of the Red Light District with abundant quantities of weed, lots to look
at, good friends to chat with, and wimpy Heineken on tap. Staying active all day
helped too. It seemed like days since we’d been back in the states by the time
we hit the sack.
| Hotel Vijaya is run by several Indian men, a friendly little place that’s a bit battered from too many folks like us staying there. The neighborhood is touristy, as you’d expect wedged between the Red Light District, Centraal Station, and Damrak, the main street. But the location is great - close to the train station and on the edge of the Red Light District. The hotel walls are thin, but aside from the church bells it’s relatively quiet. The stairwell leading up to our rooms is more like a ladder - steep, narrow, shallow, and winding. The rooms are tiny and our “double bed” is really two twins pushed together, but there’s hot water in the shower so I don’t complain much. |
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| Day 1 Arrival |
Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 New Year's Eve |
Day 5 New Year's Day |
Day 6 | Day 7 & Departure |
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