My first experience of eating a hash cake

Hi, I'm new to this forum, I would like to share my first (and horrible) experience trying out a hash cake in Amsterdam.


When we were going on a trip there from Germany, I bought a hash cake there and immediately ate half of it, then my friend took a 2 bites of out of, then I ate the remainder. Now, I didn't immediately feel anything (back then I didn't know that hash cakes take an hour to kick in), so we decided to take the bus back to Germany now. At the bus station, when we went into a shop, I started to feel a bit muddled and disoriented... My vision started to become slightly hazy (like the static in a TV monitor) I immediately thought, "it's the hash cake!". I told my friend that im feeling the effect now, then I thought "This isn't the right time to feel the high, we are about to board a bus here" and tried to fight it and focus myself instead. At first it worked, but a few minutes later, when we were standing just outside the bus terminal, I started to feel... lagging. I felt like all my movements were delayed and it became really hard to co-ordinate myself. It was a very unpleasant feeling.

To compare, it was like playing an online first-person shooter game with a really bad network lag, you are trying to move forward but seconds later you find yourself standing in the exact same position, never moved. Then another couple of seconds later you find yourself moving forward against your will. It was just like that, except in real life. I became really nervous and said to my friend "This is really bad... I can't control myself... I'll explain it later". I had to say it in short sentences because my speech was lagging also.

I looked at the time on my phone and it was only 10 minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart... but it was nowhere in sight. I became even MORE nervous because of that. What happened after that, I only remember in partial bits and pieces because my memory started to become hazy. I remember we then started to walk around the bus terminal frantically trying to find a bus OR at least the correct bus stand. I also remember my friend trying to tell me "You're freaking out, don't fight it, or it'll fuck you up even harder!" I was trying to tell her "I know, I can't control myself" and my heart started to race and I started to feel hot and sweaty due to me trying to get myself together, but I just couldn't do it and continued to run around the terminal.

I looked at all displays and timetables, but our correct bus was nowhere mentioned. I remember our bus was supposed to be green but all ones here were red and blue regional buses. The more I frantically walked around, the more disoriented I started to become. After a while my friend noticed that I'm running across bus lanes dangerously close to incoming buses, and tried to stop me and shouted "You're going to get yourself killed!". I became even more nervous and tried to stop myself, but it's as if my own consciousness wasn't in control of my body, but some hidden unconsciousness was in control of it instead. I thought "Oh shit, if I'm not in control of myself, I'm gonna get myself ran over by a bus! Whoever is controlling me right now, they better be careful with my body". I really feared for my life, but miraculously I (or, more precisely, my subconsciousness) narrowly avoided colliding with the buses.

At one point I started to forget where I am and where is the other end of the bus terminal, so I grabbed my head and tried to visualise the area in my head, but my memory kept disappearing. At one point everything started to look really colourful and vivid (which was cool for a second), but I didn't have time to enjoy that as I was fearing that we're gonna miss the bus and also fearing for my safety. My mouth also felt really dry. When I tried to swallow it felt like 2 rocks grinding in my mouth together. My feet were also hurting (they do that if I walk for too long) but I couldn't do anything to stop it. So I eventually just gave up trying to regain control of myself. And just sort of started to wait and see what my subconsciousness will do to me.

Eventually, the bus arrived (30 minutes later apparently) and my friend escorted me to it. I managed to find the tickets in my backpack myself, but we still had to wait outside the bus for another 20 or so minutes while baggage was being loaded. I started to freak out because of that and asked my friend "Why aren't we boarding the bus?" She said it's because baggage is loaded. I started to have a panic attack again, that we will never board the bus and will be left here forever.

Eventually we did start to board it, and when we boarded, my vision started alternating between present and around 10 seconds ago. It's a really interesting (and terrifying) experience. It's like you're seeing clips of present mixed with clips of the past. For 3 seconds I saw that I'm sitting in the bus, then next 3 seconds I see myself standing outside the bus again, then 3 more seconds I'm in the bus again. It was really confusing and disorienting. I couldn't figure out whether I was inside the bus already or still outside. When the clips of "outside" were being played, I started to have a panic attack again. Eventually the clips of outside were gradually becoming less and less and clips of inside the bus were more. It felt like I was phasing in-and-out of a dreamlike state, with brief moments of reality where I could control myself, and other times it was like I was watching a dream with no way to interact with it.

Then... I started to have a panic attack and anxiety again because the bus wasn't moving for 10 more minutes. I saw how the traffic light in front of it was becoming green, then red, then green again, then red again, but the bus never moved. Eventually it did start to move, then I had ANOTHER panic attack because I thought "Who is driving the bus? Am I supposed to drive it? Oh shit! It's driving by itself, and if I won't take the wheel, we will crash!" So I tried to sort-of mentally steer the bus.

Since my mouth was so painfully dry, I tried to take a bottle of water out of my backpack, but it felt like moving my hands was such an insurmountably hard task, that it took all my mental and physical strength just to open the backpack and take the water out. It felt like climbing a mountain. I managed to take a sip out of it, but the feeling of water flowing into my mouth didn't come until 2 seconds later. So my senses were so delayed, I felt the water in my mouth 2 seconds after taking each sip. Then there was a period of haziness, then for a brief period I saw some faint halluciounations of cartoon characters flashing in front me. It's like the images briefly flashed before me while some cartoon music was playing. I thought "Not now, I don't have time for this, go away!". It was only for a minute or so.

Then... something scary happened. Some people in uniforms entered the bus and started to ask everyone for passports. By this point I was totally in a dreamlike state, out of control with reality and my memory totally disappeared. Eventually they got to us. My friend gave her passport and they asked for mine. I tried to move my hands towards my pocket (it was an insurmountably hard task). I don't remember what happened later, but as my friend described it, "I reached into my pocket and grabbed only air".

So the men in uniforms told me to get off the bus and go with them (NOTE, if you haven't figured out by now, they were German border officers. You may ask "What? There is no border control between Netherlands and Germany!". I totally thought that myself too, but apparently they can still do random checks on the border. What I can remember from the rest is that I found myself standing in a shack with men in uniforms searching the bags of some other guy. Then they told me to place my bags on the table and open them (I don't remember if I did that or not). Then one old guy was shouting at me something like "Passport! Your passport!". It all felt like watching a dream-like movie. Then at one point they asked me to stand against a wall. When I was standing, one of them grabbed me by my 2 fingers and pulled my arm. It felt like hell, and I wanted to scream from the pain, but apparently no sound came out of me. Another guy then moved my feet apart from each other while I was standing against a wall.

Then I could vaguely remember them mentioning the word "Marijuana" to me, but at that point I felt total amnesia and I couldn't recall what that word means. I felt like I knew that word somewhere deep in my mind, but just couldn't put my finger on it. Then they told me to sit on a small metal chair. I felt cold and miserable. I could see our bus standing outside the shack, but the officers didn't let me leave for now. At one point I forgot where I am and what am I doing here, so I stood up and tried to go back to the bus, but the officer with the patrol dog stopped me and pushed me back into the metal chair while his dog was barking loudly.

Later on, they let my friend come into the shack too (they didn't let her at first). As she later explained to me, they asked her who is this etc... and "did he do any hard drugs, like heroin?". Of course she told them no and tried to convince the officers to let me go. At one point I started to fall asleep on the metal chair and while she was sitting next to me, she tried to wake me up (I was phasing in an out of dream state). They eventually found my ID card (I don't remember if I gave it to them or they took it out of my wallet themselves) and said my name to me, but... I forgot my name too. I heard this name and thought "I know this name, I heard it somewhere, but... uhhh whose name is it?" Then eventually I had a realisation that... it must be my own name!


After a while they finally let us go and my friend escorted me back onto the bus. At that point my memories gradually started to come back to me. It was a really freaky experience... First I remembered my name, then the names Amsterdam and Oldeburg, Germany came to my mind... I was trying to remember what I know about them. Then I realised that I must be still in the journey between them! Then all my other memories started to come back, but it was very gradual... at first, memory of me as a kid started to come back. I thoguht "Ok, good, but there's more to my memories than that! I haven't been a kid for more than a decade now! I need the rest of my memory back!".

Then I kept thinking what has put me into this fucked-up state... I was trying to remember... I remembered that I have done something in Amsterdam that made me like that... something bad... Then I thought "What things fuck up with your mind? There is... alcohol... alcohol... and....", then the words "smoke weed" finally came to my mind. I was thinking.... "is smoking weed what I did that made me fall into this fucked-up state? It must have. Wow, I couldn't have known that a few dried leaves could do that to me!"

These thoughts were all racing through my mind while I was alseep on the bus. At one point I started to see nothing but darkness, and feel nothing. Then I had what I would call a "total existential doubt". I thought that since now I'm a mind that's just floating in darkness, all those memories of reality must have been all a dream! I never existed, and all those memories are a made-up dream! I'm really nothing but a mind with no body!" Then I started to wake up and phase into real life, gradually. I thought "wait, I'm feeling my body again. So it wasn't all a dream! I do exist as a body in real life!" Then, interestingly, I started to feel sad that I must live in real life again. Somehow I wanted to exist only as a mind with no body... but no, now I needed to wake up in the pain of real life again.

Eventually I was awoken up by a phone call from someone. Miraculously, I woke up right before we were arriving to the destination! My friend was there next to me too, sleeping, so I woke her up and said "hey, whats up?" At that point I had doubts whether what happened was real or it was just a bad dream. It felt like a really bad dream. She frighteningly said "yes, all of that was real!". I felt really bad and weird inside... "how could all that happen while I couldn't control myself!? I never experienced anything like that before!". My friend was also really scared and she was relieved now that I'm back to my old self again. So the bus eventually pulled to our stop and we left, while I still felt in disbelief over what happened...

 

Yeahhh if only I knew back then that the effect starts after an hour. It caught me by surprise. Also the bus delay and the random check part - it was a string of unlucky coincidences.