The day after SHM I felt like absolute shit. My crew explored more of London, found Abbey Road and Paul McCartneys house, hit up Oxford Circus and did some serious shopping. London has the greatest clothes and styles I’ve seen in my life.
We took an overnight ferry to Amsterdam, which was probably the best recovery place for us after raging hard in London. As we were driving on the bus, we passed rich green countryside with canals intertwined everywhere! There were beautiful flowers and enormous windmills everywhere! And the amount of bikes this city has is incredible.
Our tour guide was explaining how Holland has a great economy with zero debt, and is run by politicians with a businness mindset - which explains why marijuana and prostitution are legalized and regulated. A very interesting way of viewing the world!
I really enjoyed touring Anne Frank’s hideaway house. Her diary quotes are so inspirational coming from such a young girl. Then we walked to the center of the city, and once again the buildings and layout of it were absolutely gorgeous. I was so impressed by how laid back all of the locals were, and even in the touristy area. Seeing so many professional people riding their bikes to work and around town makes me wish it was that easy at home. Holland is also the flattest country in Europe, so that’s a factor.
We found a great tiny “coffeeshop” where we smoked our first joints in Amsterdam (2 pre rolled joints for 10 euros). It was freaking AWESOME. The guy literally rolled the joints in 3 seconds. It was so baffling. The 6 of us sat down and passed them both around - and then the adventure began…
We frolicked in the rain trying to find lunch and came across this amazing foccacia sandwich shop with the FLUFFIEST GARLIC AND HERB CIABATTA IVE EVER TASTED!!! Yummmm - lettuce, cucumbers (add to list of new foods I eat), cheese, ham and salami! Heaven in a meal. Then we got .65 cent vanilla ice cream cones from McDonald’s!
As we were trying to find our group meeting spot, we were saying the most ridiculous thoughts. Between Nick battling the two different voices in his head while thinking he’s speaking his thoughts out loud when he really wasn’t, to me being blown away that I couldn’t read a single fucking thing on the Dutch menu, it was a crazy day. Cara then said “its so cool to be foreigners in a foreign country.” I literally felt like SUCH a foreigner and it felt SO awesome!! I loved every second of it. This was the first city where not everything was in English, and the people and customs are completely different from anything in the US.
The fact that my home friends and I were casually walking around Amsterdam in and out of coffeeshops getting the best weed ever, seeing pipes and paraphanalia in window displays for SO cheap, and everyone just being SOOO COOL, chill and laid back was so amazing - I got SUCH great vibes from this city immediately.
I absolutely love being in new cultures and discovering how people live in their own worlds. I truly felt like I was in ANOTHER WORLD today, and not just a high world cause the joints we had were great. But it really dawned on me today that our planet is SUCH a BIG PLACE, with so many different people, customs, styles, and ideas. It is so amazing that the Internet and technology have allowed our individual worlds to become globally connected with billions of humans on Earth.