AmsterDAMN - Part I

First of all - I would just like to say that I am awesome. I'm not going to lie - I was a little concerned that maybe I didn't know what I was doing when I decided to come to Amsterdam alone for a week - however, I'm happy to say that this was probably the best decision I've ever made. In brief - the weather is a little not Spring-Breaky (but I was expecting this) - it's pretty cold here (45 degrees) and yesterday it was raining, and while usually I'm a total lame-o in cold weather - I find myself not minding it at all...

THE PLANE RIDE: As I prepared myself in the airport for a 8.5 hour flight (see post below - and add an extra margarita to that), I made myself get out of the funk that I was in on the way to the airport. The woman ushering people on the plane got a little snippy with a few people in line for rushing in front of a woman with a baby (when the woman was obvs getting her shit together and not hurrying to get on the plane) and the airport lady said "We're adults. Let's act like adults" and I kind of smirked to myself and another guy waiting to get on the plane saw and kind of smirked as well and I almost started laughing at the bitchy woman. I'm sitting next to an older Dutch man on the plane who chatted with me a little bit about Holland and warned that the weather would probably suck and that I should be careful - I thanked him, took a sleeping pill and passed out shortly after take off.

This was one of the best flights ever by the way. While the sleeping pill didn't totally knock me out hardcore style, it knocked me out enough so that I could still wake up whenever the flight attendant brought snacks, and then an hour later when she brought dinner. I slept for about 5 hours out of the trip, so I used the remaining hours to read more and get excited about the trip! As soon as I we got off the plane, I ripped my "OBAMA" and "I Voted!" stickers off my bag - not in a "fuck you america" way - but in a "I don't want to be the tourist with American stickers on my bag!" kinda way

Finally got into Amsterdam (and was really proud of myself for buying a train ticket, getting on the right train and getting to my hotel super easily (while towing my 4 bags in the rain and smoking a cigarette - multi-fuckin-tasking!). My room wasn't ready yet, but I dropped my stuff off and set off to smoke some mary jane.

I picked a random shop down the street from my hotel (The Coin) and boy did I pick smartly! Behind the guy at the counter there are just boxes and boxes of different strains. I decided the easiest way to go about this was to say "I want to smoke something, help me out!" and he said (in a very Dutchy way) "well you've come to the right place!" and I could immediately tell that he was as stoned as I wanted to be. I bought a gram of a strain called Lavender - and it smelled fucking wonderful. Like - the dankest, sweetest, most flowery smell you could imagine (11.50 euros btw - approx $18 - so like - slightly cheaper than a gram in Austin). I still fucking suck at rolling joints (everyone rips open a cigarette and mixes the tobacco with some weed - basically a spliff - they call them dutchies) so I bought a little metal pipe and smoked a fat bowl while drinking a cup of coffee. Sufficiently stoned, I trekked around using my iPhone to guide me. I was hoping to find a Bank of America headquarters, and my iPhone told me there was one - but Amsterdam is confusing and I was unsuccessful. I DID manage, however to find a delicious fucking falafel place and om-nom-nomed the shit out of that.

I got back to the hotel around 3 or 4pm - stoned, tired from the trip, and with a tummy full of falafel. I set up my hotel room, smoked another bowl and crashed around 5. As most of my naps do, it lasted a little longer than anticipated. I'm not really sure when I woke up - but it was night. I was a little disappointed for a few minutes that I slept too long, but decided to say fuck it and get dressed and trek around in the dark, alone. I like to live dangerously you know. I think it was about 10p actually. So I set off, with no destination in mind, light a cigarette, and just a block away from my hotel, some guy walks past me and says "You shouldn't smoke a lot you know" in a flirty tone and in a modified dutch accent. I just smiled at him, a tall, stylish black guy, and he kept walking. He stops a few steps up though and waited for me to catch up to him. I let my judging-radar run for about 10 minutes to determine if I needed to avoid this situation or not. I decided, not.

He asks where I'm going, and I say that I don't know, just wandering. He asks to join me on my walk, I say, sure, and he introduces himself as Michael. He asks the basics - how long have I been in Amsterdam (just got here today), am I by myself (LIE - no, I'm meeting back with my friend in an hour - I decided I didn't need to avoid the situation, but I wanted an easy escape), he tells me that I don't need to be scared about being approached by a black man, he says most people judge harshly - some people would be scared at this point - but there were enough people around and plenty of lighting, and I continued the conversation. He offered to buy me a beer and smoke a joint - I said, yeah lets go, as long as its near buy, I have to meet my friend in an hour

So basically, first night in Amsterdam, and I'm smoking a hash-dutchie and drinking a beer with a random black guy I met on the street. Holla! He's very flirty, asks me all kind of questions (boyfriend? girlfriend? can I come back to your hotel?) ha. I said 'maybe not tonight' to the hotel question btw. I'd love nothing more than to hook up with a hot, black, amsterdam-local from South America - buuuuutttt that was not the time nor place. He walks me back to the hotel and didn't linger or try to follow me in or anything! He gave me his number and told me to call him tonight after he got off work - I probably will not. But that was fun!

I had another drink at the bar in my hotel. The hot bartender started chatting with me - I started realizing how much that joint and two beers fucked me up - and I decided to call it a night (around midnight). Even though I didn't party way fucking hard the first night, I was laughing in my room at how awesome everything was. PTFO'ed and woke up at 6:30am

Day two is awesome so far - so far the highlight has been french fries. God I love food.

I'll edit this with pictures later - but for now I'm gonna go get more stoned and check out a museum. I was going to go on a tour but then it got rainy and I was too far away and shopping. But I will do it!