I Love AMSTERDAM

I amsterdam

Of all the charm Amsterdam can offer the only thing people usually remembers are the vices. I mean look at the inner city itself with all the beautifully laid cannels, top class museums, historic places such as Anne frank house and all the nicely old buildings leaning on each other … I for one was also guilty of not paying attention to them.

Vices …. Where you have 5 deadly sins … Gluttony , sloth , greed , lust , envy …. I saw it all in Amsterdam and it was legal …. Heck if its legal how can it be a sin !!

This was a city like no other …. Still since internet is so open and I don’t want to get shut down or reveal too much of my deep dark secrets … I will have to carefully select what to tell I guess

First Joint in Amsterdam

Weed & Munchies

Buying legal weed …. Where back home in Malaysia or Singapore it would be a death sentence …. Hence I was smoking away everyday. Problem is thou I was not experience with these drugs nor was I with any fellow travelers. I was really alone in Amsterdam for the whole week I was there. I could barely remember talking to another person there.

The first stop was the weird awkwardness where I had no idea how to buy weed. There was like a list … or a menu for you to choose and I had no idea what to do.

Beautiful Canals in Amsterdam

“Hi, how do I buy weed?’ ….. I got a glare from the shopkeeper …. Probably thinking bloody tourists …

“Erm … I don’t know how to roll a joint, can you help ?”…… another glare … he took back my weed and handed me a pre rolled joint instead …. 5 euros ….

Sat down …. Smell the joint …. It smelt to me like a weird spicy sting, pungent yet it gave the impression it would be delicious … smoking delicious … it was a weird moment

It soon became my routine everyday to buy a joint in the morning smoke … head for a kebab brunch … get more weed …. Stroll around Amsterdam randomly …. And somehow always pass by the red light district … more weed … more weed …. More kebabs … more weeds … more kebabs ….

Space Muffin & Van Gogh

With me experimenting the limits of my own body I was curious enough to buy a space muffin …. A smaller version of space cake plus … I was alone hence could not consume a whole cake.

The problem was the amount that I had to consume …. I was afraid of how it might hit me and was a little worried at that point …. Instructions says … eat half if its your first time and consume the rest after two hours ….

Space Muffin cooked with 0.5 (something … I think its grams) of cannabis

It was in a sealed wrapper but as soon as I opened it the smell was so strong I was afraid I would smoke out the hostel. Strong it was the smell and so inviting yet the first bite of the muffin made me wanted to puke. It was surprisingly difficult to eat for it tasted so bad like rotten food yet it smelled so delicious … and tasted so yucky …

I managed to force down 1/3 of the muffin and decided to wrapped up the rest … waited two hours and I could feel the effects starting to seep in. Consuming was apparently much more intense than smoking it. It hits me slowly but boy did it last for hours. Everything was much sharper … colors more vibrant, smell mingle with others, simple things were funny …. I was much more lazy as well …. And the munchies never ends ….

I was at the hostel the whole time staying in experimenting my first consumption of cannabis. Partly I was afraid as well as I was alone. So 1/3 was the magic piece and slept early that night only to wake up next morning nearly noon.

This time it was time to bring it outside …. I took another 1/3 of the space muffin and planned my route to the Van Gogh museum. Slow walk … grab some kebabs … and just in time 2 hours later I was standing dopey in front of the ticket counter of Van Gogh museum buying a ticket smiling.

Van Gogh painting were beautiful …. ….

Pit Stop Eindhoven for Japanese Buffet

Finally I would make my way to the Netherlands where I heard the people are well educated that vices does not need to be banned as they are able to distinguish the use and proper means of self control.

Train ride crossing borders always scares me for some reason. I find it thrilling every time I cross a border to another country. Like a little kid opening his present wondering what he would find I was always delighted by new things. The more cultural shock the happier I became …. I usually blend in immediately unless I was oblivious to it then some form of apology was always good once someone enlighten me.

Vivid imagination of smuggling or events of mischief does not help too when crossing the border. Don’t look at the security guard too much …. don’t fidget … now if I were to smuggle something how do I get pass this border … hmmm …. Unfortunately I was in Europe where borders dun have any checkpoints so only a window was my company for crossing countries.

Eindhoven Train Station

Little Town Eindhoven and my First Asian Meal in a Long Long Time

Eindhoven was a small town, so small that I could not find a hostel there to bunk a night. I decided however to stop by for a quick look while I was en route to Amsterdam. After all the slow train ticket allows you to hop off and on back as long as its within the date stamped and along the same direction of the final destination.

The first thing I saw when I walked out the station with my backpack was the Japanese Restaurant across the road. Thinking it would cost me a fortune I walked on, followed the little foot traffic there was to see where the main square is. Not as crazy as Koln but it was a nice petite town and shopping was in season. I guess Christmas affect all of Europe.

So a stroll around Eindhoven looking for lunch led me back to the Japanese Restaurant. I haven’t had rice since …. a long long time … let alone sushi. They had a buffet style lunch where you pay one price and order as much as you want.

Best part was instead of getting your own food like a buffet you actually pick out your food in the menu and the cook would prepare it fresh and serve it to you. Buffet apparently mean eat as much as you want but with a normal dine in feel.

Sushi , Sashimi, Yakitori, Grilled Saba, Miso Soup, Unagi, I had no idea how much I missed it till I started eating. For a small size person like me I think the waiter was suppressed how much I stuffed down thou I managed to do it with a little dignity. Secretly I was trying to stuff down dinner as well since it was nearly 3pm

And the cost of the Asian lunch craving was 22 euro.

Little did I know I would be back to eating Asian meals in the very near future.

Cologne & My Christmas Present

Cathedral at Koln

The border town to LALA Land … (Lala stands for Happy / Dream world / Crazy / High)

So close to Holland …. Where I would be called a drug tourist in the near future but that’s a story in the future.

So Cologne or Koln as they spell it with a small dash above the ‘n’ has a nice medieval feel to it with a humongous cathedral smack in the middle of the city. Although not as grand as some others but due to the small town size in comparison this cathedral, it stood out majestically.

LOVE LOCKS

Like any other town and after so many of em … my memory is stating to filter which bits are memorable enough to be retained.

( Also writing about it after a year plus doesn’t help )

The locks which I so often see around Europe was filled on grills on one of the main bridge crossing the major river cutting the town in half. From what I guess, Couples or loved ones would buy a lock …. As fancy as you can find …. Write each others name down and lock it o

So once a year or once in a lifetime or whatever, whenever you and your loved one comes back to the place the idea is to see that the locks stays through, unbroken throughout the year.

Love Locks - If you notice the Cut out Portion

Of course that’s if the municipal decided to let these irritating happy couples locks remain on the fence and does not become a sore eyes in terms of beauty. Then there is also the break ups … If you break up … come back with a huge cutter and rip that lock out of the fence like a big heartbreak …

SHOP SHOP SHOP

Koln was one nice little shopping district town. Boy how the girls would love it especially near Christmas where not only the shopping district is so crowded by people doing Christmas present shopping, the Christmas market also feed into the shopping atmosphere making the town feel like one huge giant shopping center. All roads were closed to vehicles too so with the foot traffic its was like a stampede.

I joined in the shopping mood for once after a long time and was searching for a pair of glasses. I was still depending on my one and only glasses that I wore since the spare was stolen in the first fli
nto the grill (which is a fence to keep people from the main vehicle traffic) and throw aw
ay the key into the river.

My Self Christmas Present 2011

ght from Kuala Lumpur to Athens. So if by some bad luck it broke … ( It was already flimsy ) I would have been screwed.





The casino earning just before at Leipzig helped boost my morale for a good pair of glasses. In the end I got just the frame brand from Jaguar. My self Christmas Present J

Off to Cologne …. By Recommendation of Scruffy

One of the best part of traveling without a plan is that if some random new friend that you meet along the way give you tips of places you should visit especially if its along your planned route …. Or even slightly out of route … the ability to detour is highly possible instead of being tied to the structured planned of flights tickets or tour groups or even personnel itinerary

So Cologne was on my list ever since Florence Italy back one month ago. I never did knew how I was going to hop my way to Amsterdam from Berlin but Scruffy said it was one small little tiny town that is not to be missed. Heck I was already in Leipzig so no harm in another venture

Trying to Earn my Christmas Present

Before I left Leipzig I was bored. Recuperating was good getting back my goals set, planned out a rough route … wash all my clothes … stuff up on food and just purely slacking for I know I would be going on another marathon when ever I hit the road.

However I was bored ….

Its one thing to stumble upon a Casino and walk in ….. but searching if Leipzig even had one online just to kill my boredom made me realized slightly I might have a problem.

This would like what … my 5th consecutive casino stop since Vienna. I am starting to think the backpacking trip is a casino exploration trip. Friends use to tell me that after 5pm in western countries everything closes except the Pubs. There is nothing else for you to do other than drink and watch a game of football …. Correction …. There is still the casino which became my favorite pastime

So I step into one small little gaming places which are full of automated machines or “Pokeys”, or “Slots” and one of those electronic roulette. Long story short … I made it out with 245 euro … the casinos were funding my vacation at this point … but I wouldn’t advice anyone if following my footsteps while backpacking … 

Overnight Train to Cologne

This was my first overnight train in Europe. Most places I traveled was within 4 hours ride so an overnight sleeper did not make sense since you’ll be stranded in the cold without a place to stay and it sucks navigating at night.

The train took me from Leipzig to Frankfurt where it was a weird interchange. Lucky for me I had a local random stranger guide who speaks English. I stopped at one station .. Hopped off the tracks … walk to the nearby bus stop … took a bus to the next train station …. And caught the next train to Cologne.

Apparently I could have waited at the same platform for the next train which would have took like 2 hours or more but by skipping some bus stops and hopping to the next station I could catch the bullet train that was coming in sooner but wont stop at that small station in Frankfurt.

Or something like that ….

Local knowledge ….

Well with that a single ticket bought hot off the train station counter costs me 64 euro … not too bad …