Bon Voyage to Amsterdam

We left on a bus heading for the port near Dover to take us across to Holland. The excursion was neat, despite the bumps and the crowds. The bus boarded a huge ferry that took us across the English channel and straight to the Netherlands. While all of this was going on, I was incredibly fatigued from the bus ride and the bumpy boat ride... so I didn't really catch much. Something that I've noticed about land tours is that it takes more out of you than cruises. Considering there were pit stops every 2 hours and the traffic was fair, it took us roughly seven to eight hours to actually hit the city of Amsterdam.

We landed in Calais and drove along the coast to the Netherlands. Once we hit Amsterdam, we knew what we were in for. The infamous Red Light District and the legal weed. There were sex and weed places EVERYWHERE!

I introduced my brother to "Space Brownies," the brownies with enough weed to send your mind above the stratosphere.

We walked into a nameless cafe that looked like everyone was smoking a joint. We saw the brownies at the counter, so we asked for two. I think we were just so enamored by the fact that it was so accessible that we weren't listening to any of the instructions that we were given about this. It was so cheap! I remember being in that cafe for 30 minutes, but it felt like almost 2 hours. We did what the locals did... inhaled, drank coffee, and munched on some brownies.

The waitress came by and asked us how much we ate. Between the two of us, I told her that my brother and I ate one each. She smiled and walked away.

I presume she knew that we would be gone soon. I honestly felt fine.

It wasn't until an hour later that we started feeling it. The first place it hit me was my hands. Everything I touched was emitting sound waves. Then I could hear it in my voice. Everything was a slow echo coming in and going out. I wish I could describe it to you like I did to my brother, but I was high as a kite. My sister got a kick out of it, because from the outside looking in, everything was funny to us.

We took a cruise on a small ferry to see the sites of Amsterdam, but like I said in the previous paragraph... blur. I managed to take some pictures though while we were passing by, so just in case I forgot about the entire cruise, I would at least have a mental image of where I was.

We ate at Sea Palace, a floating Chinese restaurant that resembles the same exact place in Hong Kong. Looking back, it was a peculiar choice considering Chinese food had nothing to do with Amsterdam, but I wasn't complaining. By that time, the weed was working its beautiful magic and I was cruising on autopilot.

I wish I could tell you what happened, but after dinner, everything was a complete blur. I actually don't even remember eating dinner at all. I woke up on the hotel toilet in the middle of the night. What I can tell you is that we stayed at the Mövenpick Amsterdam City Centre hotel, and that hotel is spectacular.