Amsterdam!

Jorge joined forces for this hitch. the day started with a chubby german adolecent giving us a lift. ill take you to holland no problem he said with a smile. we ended up cruising through a neat little town, split by the national german/nederland border. imagine the neighbor across the street was in another country. oh snap! i didnt even realize we left the highway please take us back. he was dumbfounded, like taking dropping us off in town was a bad idea, which it definitely was. no hard feelings, asshole. taking us off the route. 12 km away was an ideal petro station. translation= a few miles, which doesnt seem so bad until youre walking it. fuck that its like 8 hours of walking. cars werent picking us up and comrad began yelling at the drivers out of frustration. Am*dam! so close, yet so far. we gave up and started down the highway, when the magic, as always, happened.  a vw bus pulled over and the dutch family took us in. cute foreign toddlers strapped and speaking their first phrases. it was a short ride but put us back on track. wet set up at an onramp with an intersection.  pretty blonde nederland girls smiled and waived as they passed by. this raised our spirits, and we got our next ride. a young afghan couple headed to utrecht. we talked about the food, Farsi and other non-controversial aspects of life in afghanistan. kind people. the day was already gone when we were let off in a petrol something like 45km away. we took a break and stank ourselves up with a tuna and whole grain for dinner. a dutch guy was chilin  in his parked european car with his girlfriend half bored sipping coffee.  jorge was inside so i waived the guy down with the amsterdam sign. hey guy, can you take me and my friend? he glared at me and after a moment decided, eh sure why not. we were loading up the trunk by time jorge came back to a surprise, we would be getting there tonight. our driver took us all the way downtown across from the grand train station. the night was drowned out by all the city lights.  we went sought internet and an interesting aroma lured us into an internet cafe.  it was dense with smoke but i was able to check couchsurfing.com enough to communicate with my host. Patrick accepted me as host but he lived in haarlem about 20 min away by train. i guess thats where were heading. we boarded a train and ended up in haarlem right at 11pm or 23:00 hrs and made our way to his flat. some construction re-routed the buses but we eventually found his building. BUZZ... no answer. BUZZZ... no answer. BUZZ BUZZ BUZ BUZZ... still no answer. it was getting late, almost midnight, and jorges frustration began to show again. he was ansy to get settled inside and get some sleep where it was warm. i had a phone number to call so we searched for a pay phone in the area. once again no luck, do pay phones even exist anymore? i spotted a light in the park across the street and headed to take a look for myself. i found a group of teens who were scrambling around as i walked up to them, probably smoking drugs. "hey guys could i borrow a phone? im getting hosted by patrick who lives across the street but i dont think he's home" i told them. "oh" relieved "you need a phone? no problem" one of the guys replied. i called pat to let him know we came early and he would be rushing home on his bicycle. one of the teens gave me a quick lift on his mopad back to the building and pat showed after about 15 minutes. we went up to his place where he lived alone in his late 30's. kind of a creepy guy, but all the hosts in amsterdam were already taken. he was very neat and clean and offered us a late dinner before going to bed. miguel had arleady arrived and found a place in the city so the next day jorge went to meet up with him. out of respect for my host (and a bit of remorse i still had towards miguel for leaving me)

i stayed behind. when pat got off work he took me on a tour of the city a few other places. haarlem was a beatiful place, the windmill we went to was pretty awesome too. look up what windmills are really for, them shits are legit! i asked pat "whats holland known for -foodwise?". "well we usually eat chinese, or burgers, or italian, sometimes even mexican, but if we had a food it would probably be potatoes mashed or in a soup". fucking ey, i love potatoes! and soups! we cooked dinner and ate in silence. not much to talk about, which is weird because i usually have something to say. the rest of the evening was a bit awkward so we just sat in front of the tv. half the channels were in english, but i prefered the complex language of the dutch. sleep came and i was back home in my dreams. the next morning i made breakfast and let pat know i'd be going to amsterdam for the day. he was nice enough to give me a copy of the house keys. miguel, jorge and i made plans to meet up at the central station at 4 but i was late, caught a late train, and missed them. fuck it im in amsterdam! i figured my way back to the coffee shops and drooled over all hydroponic weed. well i should but ill splurge, gimme the cheapest shit. a gram of white widow set me back 8 euros, and the king-size papers were free, not bad at all. i sat down and a friendly white guy covered in tattoos offered to roll it for me. (in contrast to the US, not many people have tattoos).

sure thing man, he broke up what he needed and mixed it with tobacco. out came a big ass spliff, bob marley style! spark it up, i handed it back to him. we shared about 1/4 of it and that was more than enough. i thanked him and he left. i was so fucking high, all i could focus on was the sugar packets on the table for over an hour. i finally snapped out of it enough to get out and go meet with miguel. along the way, on every corner was souvenir shops selling shirts, wooden shoes, post cards etc. after about a week or so, i finally met up with miguel, and he updated me with his little fling in Copenhagen. we explored amsterdam, checking out the canals, and some amazing street art. night time came and i still had most of the spliff left so we decided to kill it secretly on a sidewalk. SMOKING WEED ON THE STREET IN AMSTERDAM IS ILLEGAL! but we did it anyway cause we're awesome. we snuck on a tram (above-ground electric trolly) and sat in the back, me all stoned and nervous. the three of us were now safe entering a midsize to large apartment big enough for a huge family. there was three of us and i saw at least seven other flatmates zigzagging about.

comfortable night on the couch amongst the peers. the next day i returned to haarlam, i guess thats enough Am*dam to get it out of my system. miguel set the departure date for noon,  i went along with it. pats not home, i should make some breakfast and lunch for the road. at the supermarket i was faced with decision that ended up delaying me a whole day. you see there was two different cartons, a 12pk for 1.15 euro and a 36 pk right next to it for 1.85 euro. how could i resist? i hurried back to cook and be back on my way to belgium. when i was heating up the pan i remembered i still had some pot, and loaded my pipe. after a few hits, time was unimportant. i ended up cracking 8 eggs and chopping two lbs of potatoes into the frier. this was supposed to be breakfast AND lunch, but my killer case of munchies wouldnt allow me to stop eating. i finished everything, too full to do anything but sit back and watch tv. looks like belgium would have to wait another day.