4 Days of Canals, Waffles, and Drugs in Amsterdam

*Viewer Discretion is Advised*

In this blog post, I discuss my 4-day visit in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Although everything we did and talk about was/is legal in Amsterdam, some of the things we talk about may make some folks a little uncomfortable. This is certainly not a PG-rated post!

Day One

I took a flight from Prague, where I was living at the time, to Amsterdam. From there, I took a quick train ride to Amsterdam Centraal Station. Centraal (yes, not “Central”) is the main hub of the city and you can go anywhere you want to go from there. But, be careful: there can be plenty of thieves and scammers near there!

After riding the metro to the outskirts where the AirBNB was, I ran into a bit of a debacle when trying to check in to our AirBNB. Even though I had phone service in Prague, for whatever reason, my phone service just chose not to function in Amsterdam. Huge bummer! So, I was unable to call the AirBNB host when I arrived. I was ringing the doorbell and all that jazz, but no one answered. So, I ducked into the nearest place that had WiFi, which turned out to be a small Mediterranean restaurant at the ground level of the apartment building. How convenient— especially since I was starving.

Using Skype on my phone in the restaurant, I called the host, who said she'd message me on WhatsApp, which I didn't have, and she quickly hung up. Then, I called her again and was ignored. Wonderful! I was stranded with bags and things in a random Mediterranean restaurant. So, what did I do? Naturally, I ordered some food! And, surprisingly, it was outstanding! That made our situation a bit more tolerable.

After eating, I sat outside the entrance to the apartment building, feeling and appearing like a homeless person, waiting for maybe someone to come out and get me. Eventually, someone did! They took me upstairs and after just 5 minutes, my friends showed up, too. Great timing!

Our AirBNB turned out to be really cool! There were beautiful colors, decorations, and furniture all over the place. It was a funky, colorful, and quirky apartment and we all loved it. It seemed like the perfect place to stay in Amsterdam!

Then, we tried stroopwafel for the first time. Basically, there are two kinds: fresh and pre-packaged. The pre-packaged stroopwafel was the first kind we had. It's two crunchy, palm-sized waffles with filling smooshed between them. In our case, we had caramel-flavored stroopwafel, the original flavor. They were the best snack I have honestly ever had! They're sweet, soft, delectable, and crunchy all at the same time. A few days later, we tried the fresh kind, too, and they were even better! When in Amsterdam, folks, eat all the stroopwafel!

After that, we took on the mentality of “Do as the Romans do” and waltzed to a "coffee shop.” A "coffee shop" is not like a cafe, like you may think. It's a shop where you can purchase and smoke marijuana. It's legal to do so in Amsterdam, so there are many of these shops across the city.

In the coffee shop, one friend bought some weed and I bought a slice of banana bread which had weed baked into it. The guy at the shop recommended 1/3 of the slice of banana bread we had and said that amount would be good enough for one person. So, being a baby, I had just about 1/6 of the slice. I know my tolerance of things! Another friend had half of the entire slice because he has a high tolerance for things. Our friend smoked while we ate our edible.

Afterwards, we walked around Amsterdam a bit, just basically wandering the streets. For me, I felt the edible pretty quickly. It felt like the high just built up for a very long time. But, I continued to get higher and higher and higher.

And higher still.

We sat down at a restaurant because we were all hungry— big surprise there! While sitting at the restaurant, I hit my peak of the high and it was not very enjoyable. I quickly felt sick to my stomach and didn't want to eat my food. Basically, I was freaking out. I honestly thought I was either going to vomit or die. …And yes, I said this out loud multiple times. I even wandered to the bathroom at one point and saw that my eyes were the most bloodshot they’ve ever been in my life!

After finishing our meals, we all agreed it was in everyone's best interest to go back to the AirBNB for a bit. The bus ride helped me a little bit and that’s when my high started to slowing come down. Thankfully!

When we arrived back at our place, we all came to the consensus to stick to alcohol for the rest of the evening. Ha!

But, we soon discovered that in the neighborhood we were in, there wasn't any alcohol available for sale anywhere. Not in any convenience stores or even the restaurant downstairs! It was bizarre, especially for a place like Amsterdam! Yes, prostitution and some drugs are legal, but they just didn't have alcohol available, in this one area at least! Interesting. And disappointing.

Out of desperation, we drank some random beer that was in the apartment. Not to worry: we replaced them before we left Amsterdam!

And that was my first day. What a great welcome to Amsterdam, huh?

Day Two

This day was mainly for exploration. We took the subway to Amsterdam Centraal Station and wandered around the main area there. …It was nightmarishly busy! There were tourists, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, and trams everywhere! It was difficult to even move without being bumped into or run over.

We went to another coffee shop called The Bulldog, which is (apparently) one of the most famous coffee shops in Amsterdam. We didn't know until we got there and checked it out for ourselves. It was pretty cool! It appeared to be a cafe on the inside, but everyone was just smoking pot instead of drinking coffee. Wild!

Fun fact: you shouldn't smoke weed on the streets of Amsterdam. Try to stick to doing so just in coffee shops or other indoor places, like your apartment. We aren't 100% sure if it's illegal, but if it's not illegal, it's at least frowned upon to do in public.

As liberal as Amsterdam is, it didn't feel that liberal. Even though you could buy and smoke weed in coffee shops and get a prostitute legally, they're still sticklers on things. They're very strict with common things, like drinking in the street, even going into bars with your I.D., and so on.

For a little perspective, let's have a look at Prague. In Prague, weed is illegal to purchase, but it's acceptable to possess it and to smoke it in a public places, like the park. Everyone does it! But, in Amsterdam, you're not allowed to do things like that with weed, even though it is totally legal to buy.

Anyway, the rest of the day, we admired the canals and even walked through the Red Light District. That was…quite a sight to behold! There were women wearing underwear and posing in windows and doors along the busy main street and many side streets off of that. Pretty much just as you would expect out of the Red Light District! However, the women were actually quite attractive!

Then, we bought another legal but normally illegal drug: magic truffles.

You know magic mushrooms, right? Those were actually made illegal in 2008 in Amsterdam, but the citizens of Amsterdam found a way around this. Magic mushrooms, like regular mushrooms, grow above the ground. But, they found a way to grow the plant under the ground. It still has the same active ingredient called psylocybin, but just grows differently. Behold: the loophole that is magic truffles!

We bought the second weakest level of magic truffles, which were called Mexicana. A guy in one of the many shops explained what to expect and gave other insightful information about the truffles, which was very helpful.

After that, we continued to wander around Amsterdam. We even made our way into their Chinatown, which was maybe a block long. We had some yummy Chinese food because we just had to try it!

Then, we returned to our AirBNB to relax a bit more and to mentally prepare for the following day.

Day Three

This day was mainly centered around one thing and one thing only: truffles.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very nice and we weren't into being outside with a bunch of strangers around us anyway, so we ended up eating and enjoying them in our AirBNB.

I have taken them once before this and didn’t have a very pleasurable experience. When I was coming up on them, I felt very sick to my stomach and the sky was turning dark colors. It was pretty terrifying at first. But, after that initial horrifying moment, it was amazing! Everything on the mountain I was hiking was shimmering, captivating, enjoyable, and pleasurable.

Anyway, back to Amsterdam! We split the truffles and... they tasted terrible. They were dry like beans, then sweet, then sour like lemons. It was the oddest thing we've ever eaten!

For those who don't know about the effects of magic mushrooms/truffles, for many people, the high comes in waves. Suddenly, you're feeling very high, enjoying everything, but don't want to/can't really move much. You're almost "stuck" in that moment of being high. Then, at at some point, you come down a bit and you're calmer and more aware, but then you want to start moving and admiring something different.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend taking them in an apartment, but taking them outside. Being outside is better when you take mushrooms/truffles because nature is where you want to be on them. Being "trapped" indoors or with people you don't know is not the way to go. It's also good to take them with a few close friends and maybe have one of those friends not take them, especially for the first time.

However, overall, we did enjoy our high. Remember when we mentioned that our AirBNB was colorful, quirky, and unique? Well, it certainly came in handy for this! There were some random geodes on a table, and we all got lost in those for a while. We also enjoyed playing with the rainbow curtains, too, playing with the carpet, admiring the clouds outside, and chatting about nonsense a lot.

This experience was far better than my first experience with magic mushrooms. I felt far more in control of my body and mind than the first time, which was a great relief!

We were high for about 4-5 hours, give or take. Afterwards, we wanted to go out for a night on the town! We just hopped off the metro at a random stop and hung out at a bar there for a little while. Then, we walked around for a bit and discovered this other popular area. It was called Rembrandt Square, which is a square filled with bars, clubs, and coffee shops with a monument/memorial at its center.

It was a great find! We went to a 70's-themed coffee shop/bar, then to another bar. We also ate french fries, which are a popular street food in Amsterdam. Best french fries ever!

Day Four

We slept in (big surprise), then made our way to a popular market in the city. We took the metro to Amsterdam Centraal Station again. While walking to the market, something quite terrifying happened.

While walking, we noticed an eldery, raunchy fellow walking with his bike coming in our direction. On his way past us, he bumped into my ex. He tried desperately to get out of his way, but the man seemingly walked into him on purpose. Then, the guy started shouting after us, turned around, and followed us. None of us noticed this but my ex. He told us that this guy was yelling after us and following us and, finally, we noticed him.

My ex and our one friend were walking away quickly. Our other friend and I stayed a bit behind to talk with this guy to get him to back off. He opened his hand and showed us some sort of drug pipe and white powder in his palm. It was then we realized that he was insinuating that he knocked over his drugs and wanted money for them. Well, that was certainly not going to happen.

We all tried to walk away from him, but he just kept following us and shouting at us. We realized that the guy was scared of our one friend, who is a tall guy, so that made sense. He took advantage of that and screamed at him to fuck off, and luckily, he did!

A month later, I watched Scam City, which is about a guy who travels the world, trying to find and unveil the biggest scams. In one episode, he was in Amsterdam, and the exact same thing happened to him, but with a bottle of alcohol! So, we were apart of a popular scam in Amsterdam!

Anyway, at the market we were going to, we gorged ourselves. We ate some fresh Stroopwafel, which was unbelievable. Seriously. If you're ever in Amsterdam, you need to eat that! It was somehow way better than the pre-packaged stuff, which was already out of this world! We also ate the well-known pickled herring and even some fried herring. Both were outstanding as well! I mean, especially the pickled herring. I like pickles, I like fish, so what's not to like?

With protruding bellies, we partook in a canal cruise! We paid about $20 each for a canal cruise, which took us through multiple little canals with a tour guide through headsets. It was wonderful! We learned so much about the canals and canal houses. We got to admire them, too, which was amazing because they're all so cute! They're all so close together and only three to five stories tall. We also got to check out a lot of boathouses, which are literally what their name says: boats that are houses on the water! If you find yourself in Amsterdam, definitely take one of these canal cruises because they're worth it. It was one of my favorite parts of my trip!

Best adjective to describe Amsterdam: adorable.

After the canal cruise, we ate Thai food in China Town. It was called Thaise Snackbar Bird and the food there was authentic, outstanding, and portioned perfectly! I lived in Thailand for six months and loved the food there, so I am always on the prowl for authentic Thai food. And, somehow, we accidentally stumbled upon some in Amsterdam! When in Amsterdam, be sure to check them out for an exquisite Thai meal!

We then went to the Red Light District, which was only a few streets over from China Town, and— wow. That place is much different at night than it is the day! It was our first time there at night and it was certainly wild. The streets were flooded with people. I mean, there were so many people, we were in bumper-to-bumper pedestrian traffic. And, naturally, there were far more girls in the windows and doors than there were in the daytime! It was quite a scene.

Unfortunately, Amsterdam is overrun with tourists. However, Amsterdam is an adorable and cozy place otherwise! I loved the treats (especially stroopwaffel!), canal houses, houseboats, and canals. There's so much to discover there. Obviously, the legality of drugs is a sweet positive, too!