In order to celebrate both the New Year, and Ra’s Garvey’s birthday in a true blunted fashion, the Erbalist and Mr Garvey had a word with Stelios and his big orange flying machine and headed off to Amsterdam. What follows is a report from the Erbalist on the events (and blunts!) that followed.

Straight off the plane & whisked along by rail to Amsterdam’s Central station, then by foot to Barney’s for breakfast, stopping off at the Pink Floyd coffeeshop to get some special ingredients to go along with breakfast. A great way to start new years eve…

Unfortunately things didn’t run this smooth. Myself & Ra’s Garvey nipped into the Pink Floyd for special ingredients for our trip, & shock gasp we get to Barney’s & its rammed with global stoner’s from all over the place & not spare seat in sight!! We opt for a quieter coffeeshop for brekkie & pop back to the Pink Floyd cafe to sample their hospitality & their wares. They have a very fine menu & the bong service is excellent, on their other menu they serve a fine Chocomel (hot or cold).

We decide over a Chocomel & a bong that we still need more food (Amsterdam Munchies a gwan & ting), so we pop back to Barney’s for pancakes. This time we find a seat. Barney’s serves probably the best breakfast in the ‘Dam & its a smoking cafe (whoohoo), the service is at a very shanty pace which is nice if you’re not starving but the food is quality & the atmosphere is very chilled out & friendly. Definitely worth a visit.

After stuffing ourselves and settling into our pace for the trip we jump on a tram & head for Leidsplein which is the area near our hotel. We get there at around midday & we find we can’t check in till 3pm. So we checked our bags in & went for a chill & coffee.

We find ourselves meandering around the coffeeshops of Amsterdam, which is basically all we did for the duration of our trip. There are some fine coffeeshops in Amsterdam some with great menus & some just good to chill in, here are some of our favorites:

The Grey Area (good menu but small)
The Pink Floyd Coffeeshop (good menu & great service)
Rokerij (ok menu, nice place to chill)
The Dampkring (this also has a great menu)

Another nice place we found was Rookies Bar, across the road from the Rookies coffeeshop. Nice bar & friendly bar staff.
Now for a meat eater like myself, another great thing about Amsterdam is the amount of Argentinian steak houses it has to offer. There are millions of them & its all gravy! The city is full of em but the meal of the weekend has to go to our hotel; we ordered a wagyu beef burger on room service This was expensive but probably the best burger I have had, and definitely gets the Erbalist seal of approval. It was massive when it came, & was cooked medium rare with all the trimmings.

Shopping is also good in Amsterdam, often when I come to the Dam I end up traipsing round the record shops it has to offer. This time was no exception, I started my shopping spree at Boudisque which is a fairly commercial shop but I found a piece of vinyl that i had to get. The next day I came across a record shop called Rush Hour Records, which is a great shop. I spent a small fourtune in there on 7” & a few 12”s. If you go to the ‘Dam record shopping you must check this place out. It sells Funk & Hip Hop 7”, loads of Electronica, Hip Hop, Nu Jazz. It even has a Dubstep section, & much more.

On the eve of new years eve we just wandered round coffeeshops & checked the sights dodging mad Dutch people throwing firecrackers everywhere. Everywhere you went the Dutch were letting off fireworks. I think there was more fireworks in Amsterdam New Years’ than London & Sydney, although not as many pretty colours & wizz bangs; they just go for the ones that go Bang!!!.

At about 23.30pm we decided we were going to nip to Dam Square to see the new year in, so we blunted up & headed over there. When arrived it was unbelievable! The place was packed, the roads were blocked with people everywhere. I reckon there was well over 50,000 people in the square. We luckily walked down a shopping street & managed to be near the front of ‘Dam Square where there was a stage set up for the big countdown.

With 10 mins to the New Year, we go to stand by one of the bars. We fight our way through & guess what? No queue! I got ordered straight away, this is quality!!!! With 5 mins to go I pass Ras Garvey his beer & we prepare our blunts. At the stroke of midnight we downed our beers & fired up out celebratory smokes. COME ON 2007.