Quick follow-up to the last post. Can’t believe I forgot to mention this, but my 1st time in Amsterdam was on my 21st birthday. My crew and I banged out 21 joints on February 5th, 1998. Shots are for pussies. Here is a pic of the 21 already smoked joints (in case you were doubting my credibility as a weed head back then)–

Anyway, some things from my trip to Amsterdam.

After arriving Saturday morning, I took a little nap and then decided to dive head first into getting high. I went into every tabac shop in town looking for phillies or dutch masters or white owls. I’ve never rolled a great joint, but my blunt skills are legendary, so I wanted to do it right. No blunts anywhere. Ended up getting bubble gum flavored blunt papers. I prefer splitting it myself, but it would have to do. I then scoured the city for a coffee shop that had hip-hop playing. I can’t recall the last time I scoured for anything. Thinking back, if I had to predict when in the future I may need to scour, looking for hip-hop in a coffee shop in Amsterdam would’ve been at or near the top of my list. ANYWAY, I scoured for a long time. Slim pickings. I finally find a place with dope hip-hop on, and an open table. I buy a gram of ‘Super Silver Haze’ on the salesman’s recommendation, get a strawberry/banana smoothie, and sit down. I roll a small blunt and puff away.

About 10/15mins later, I’m really fucked up. Really. While this is happening, the solo French dude sitting next to me decides to open conversation. If I recall correctly, he said something like ‘duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh’, and he spoke english. I either replied with ‘no hablo ingles’, ’57’, ‘I like baseball’ or ‘the pythagorean theorum’, I can’t remember exactly. In any event, the convo ended there. I sip on my smoothie and concentrate on the music, which I realize is fucking awesome. Pretty sure it was ‘dead prez’, who I’m only a little familiar with, but now intend to get more involved with. Another 10mins or so pass, and my fucked up level decreases a little bit, so I’m now solidly stoned instead of ‘I may have to call an ambulance’ stoned, which is good. My 2 other smoking events had a similar pattern. Super high about 10mins in, then a little better after that. I ended up going with ‘Vanilla Kush’ on Saturday night, and a pre-rolled joint of ‘Pure Haze’ on Sunday afternoon.

All of the episodes pretty much ended the same way, with me laying in bed cuddling with some type of fast food.

Some thoughts that went through my head while wandering around the city stoned:

‘Am I walking really fast?’

‘Am I walking really slow’?

‘Everyone here has a fuckin bike.’

‘Wow. That guy is really short.’

‘Are those dudes pissing right there?’

Now this one I need to elaborate on a little bit. They have outdoor urinals in Amsterdam. Not ‘port o potties’. Fuckin urinals. On the sidewalk. That guys piss in. I do a double take to see what goes on, and sure enough, a guy walks up and goes to work. I think to myself, ‘who the fuck actually pisses in these things’?

I guess this guy does

And this guy

And of course………..THIS GUY

Email convo with my mom around 6pm Amsterdam time on Saturday:

Ronnie Heller
to me
show details Jul 24 (3 days ago)

where are you now?????.how was the flight???
are you stoned????

cheller@gmail.com
to Mom
show details Jul 24 (3 days ago)

Amsterdam. Good. Yes.

I had my first couch surfing experience in Amsterdam…well, sort of. A few hours before my flight I went onto the website and did a search. I already had a hotel so I wasn’t looking to see if there was a couch available or anything. One of the options people can put on their profile is ‘meet up for coffee or a drink’ (or something like that). Long story short, I sent 3 people messages through the site. Nina responded. So, sunday at 11ish, I met Nina for breakfast/lunch/coffee…whatever. She’s from Australia and has been living in Amsterdam for 5 weeks. In February, she’s starting school to get her masters in ‘International Relations’ (or something). We chilled for a while. Ate. Walked around the city. Great girl. Very cute. At 2pm she had to go to work and I didn’t see her again, but we’ve been emailing back and forth since. I guess this is what Jdate is like, but for interesting people.

Sunday at 815pmish, I walk over to the Paradiso, the venue for the Wu concert. There’s a long line and I’m not sure if they even started letting people in yet, so I go to a nearby bar and whack back a Jameson. I go back and get inside, and it’s exactly my kind of venue. Small, intimate, I would guess capacity is 1500. A mini Hammerstein. A DJ is on stage playing banging old-school beats, and I couldn’t be happier.

For people who care, the shit I can remember the DJ playing:
Takeover/time 4 sum action/put it on/get the fuck up/ante up/lucchini/deep cover/survival of the fittest/shook ones/on to the next/juicy/flava in your ear remix/represent/you know my steez/dwyck/sound of da police/step into a world/gin and juice/supastar/come clean/still dre

I stroll through the crowd (which later would be almost impossible cause it was so packed) and am already pegged by everyone as ‘the guy in the wu hat who knows all the words to every song’. I realize that once the show starts it will be very difficult to get to the bar, so I decide to power drink until it starts. I befriend the bartender after ordering consecutive Jack on the rocks, and tell him my plan to keep drinking now, and for him to have a large beer ready for me to take into the crowd when the show starts. He tells me not to worry, Wu-Tang is still at the hotel sleeping. This is at 915pm. The show is called for 9pm. Classic. After a while, consistently drinking and getting updates from the bartender, I decide to make my way into the crowd, which at this point is wall-to-wall. I squeeze through and saddle up next to a guy I later learn is John, about 10 ‘rows’ from the stage. John is from Holland, but not Amsterdam. He always comes to town when Wu is playing. John doesn’t look like your typical Wutang soldier. He’s clean cut, wearing a shirt that I would never wear to a Wu concert, actually it was a shirt that I would never wear, period. The best thing John had to say is that when he traveled to New York City, he went to Staten Island for a day. No Wu concert. He just wanted to see where they came from. At that point I decided John was allowed to stand next to me for the show. Finally, around 1030ish, the boys come on stage. They killed it for almost 2 hours. All the members were there, which I thought was a longshot. Video footage to follow in another post, so I won’t go into much detail here.

For people who care, the shit I can remember Wutang performing:
Protect ya neck/triumph/shame on a/bring da ruckus/can it be/tearz/impossible/reunited/fuck wit/cream/methodman/4th chamber/liquid swords/duel iron mic/shadowboxin/bring pain/ice cream/surgical gloves/its yourz/clan in da front/da rockwilder/one blood/gravel pit

After the show, I went back to my hotel to shower again. Was crazy hot inside the concert. Then, my intention was to drink and smoke a little bit, but almost everything was closed. Very disappointing. I ended up finding a ‘strip club’ (a bar with 2 girls dancing on it) that was open and served alcohol. Went in, had a drink, and left (no, seriously). I smoked a little of my leftover haze joint from earlier that day on the street, and went to McDonalds…again.

Woke up Monday morning and went to the airport. All in all, a very successful trip. A great memory. Well worth it.