I hopped a train from Schiphol to Amsterdam, found my hotel, stored my bags and hit the streets looking for Coffeeshops. The Cup's opening ceremonies weren't scheduled to start until the 18th at 4:20 PM so I had a whole day and a half to kill. I immediately began scouring the streets and historical alleyways for the fabled smoking joints of the Netherlands. I danced down Damrak, looked leisurely along Langestraat, and hurried happily through Haarlemmerstraat all in search of da kind buds. The first place I walked into was a shop called Amnesia, which incidentally was one of the locations for judges to get registered at. As fate would have it I was the first customer of the day. I walked through the doors with liberty flowing through my veins and the sweet irony is that I come from a country that prides itself on its "freedoms."
Amnesia
Herengracht 131
My palate was watering with the possibilities. The guy that ran the joint informed me that High Times was going to be a little late getting there--an all too familiar problem during the Cup--so I decided to order some smoke. I ended up choosing Amnesia Haze, which is a Soma offering that won first place at the 2004 Cannabis Cup. Basically the shops will allow you to inspect any buds before you purchase them, so look at them carefully. Also, try to have a clear sense of what you like about good weed and then apply that criteria to your selection process.
When he went for the weed I noticed right away that their shit wasn't straight. They had their buds stored in old dirty looking Tupperware containers. The buds looked like they hadn't been dried, cured or stored very well at all, but I wasn't going to let their humble appearance prevent me from getting my bake on so I bought a gram for something like thirteen Euros. [Note: I didn't arrive in Amsterdam with any smoking tools and I hadn't bought any, but what I thought was kinda cool is that each shop had implements to loan for a sess or two. Pipes, bongs, vaporizors and such.]
I picked a comfy place to sit to smoke the buds but while I was doing that I happened to run into two fellow Americans. I talked about them in an earlier post. They were friendly and we immediately struck up a conversation about weed and growing. But it turned out these guys, who may very well have been growers, didn't know as much as they claimed and even less it seemed about what constituted good weed but hell we all about to get baked so what the fuck. I toked up on my Amnesia Haze and they on their Bubble Gum. After I took the first hit it was immediately clear to me that whoever grew that weed put about as much love into it as a rectal exam. What can I say, I thought it was shitty however my two growing buddies were really enjoying their stuff which I also tried, and yeah heh, it was equally as shitty.
I started getting a bad feeling and this was the first Coffeeshop I'd ever been in. I broke the reality of the situation down to my two friends and the conversation really went cold after that. They just sort of looked at each other and at me. Like I said it got cold. High Times decided to show up so I roasted a few more bowls, bidded my two friends a good journey, collected my judges pass along with my free Cannabis Cup tee shirt and hit the streets again.
As I made my way down Herengracht I began to question my own depth as I've approached this whole Cannabis Cup thing. It was a goal of mine, or rather more of a conceit. I'd prided myself on my organic grows and methodical research on the latest grow techniques. I know weed and I know it well, but had I approached this whole thing right, was I just a pot smoking tourist? I had serious doubts tumbling around inside of me but I headed to the next shop to sort more of it out and hopefully find some good dope.