"Cannabis Cup 2005 Amsterdam by a TRUE... " a Amsterdam Travel Page by LolaSanFrancisco

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." -Hunter S. Thompson

My first trip to Amsterdam was in 1991 when I was 21 years old. It was the classic backpack around Europe with hostel/train pass and the laying-sack-of-shiit book: Europe on $10 a day. By the time my boyfriend at the time and I had hit Amsterdam it was 6:00am and I was thrashed from traveling from Athens to Amsterdam in one fell swoop.

We opened out hotel book and walked over to this Christian Youth Hostel in the Red Light District. On one side of the hostel and needle exchange and on the other a whore house. Boys in one dorm and girls in the other, this was great news to me, because I had tried to break up with said boyfriend in Athens but couldn’t shake him. So this meant that I could avoid him totally. However, I needed two things: food and drugs.

The hostel was a mix of Christians and degenerates. But the nice Christians said that if anyone wanted to sing to the lord with them they could eat with them. Lucky for me I knew a few bible songs from when I was 9yr old. Bingo: food.

I demanded $10 bucks from said boyfriend and bought a bag of Jamaican Skunk Bud that lasted me a week and I had to give the rest away when I left. Bingo: drugs.

FAST FORWARD 10 YEARS TO 2000

If you have read my home page you know that I had a vision to go see the Great Pyramids. I just thought while I'm in that hemisphere I might as well head over to Amsterdam for a week and chill out after my big tour. I had only been to Europe that one-time 10 years ago. And now that I got a big fat settlement check I was going to live it up!

This was my big 30th birthday Europe trip and I was traveling alone. I booked myself at the fancy-schmancy Radisson SAS Hotel. Thats all fine and dandy except I somehow managed to elude getting Pharos Revenge (explosive diarrhea that one ALWAYS gets when in Africa) while IN EGYPT but picked it up on the fuucking British Airways flight from Cairo to Amsterdam. My whole trip consisted of drinking water, eating bread and cheese and never ever venturing more than 6 blocks. I learned the hard way when in Ann Franks House. Medical Marijuana was administered by professional Rastafarians, who were in a Brown Cafe around the corner from my hotel.

After a few days I went to the concierge and had them book me a seat at the ballet. Amsterdam is supposed to have one of the best. I can tell you, however, that I was blown away, and having two 10-minute breaks every half hour to smoke a joint was key. On the first break (I swear to god this is true) a Swedish flight attendant tried to pick me up. But I'm not gay and turned her down, but wished I was just so I could brag about it.

Every November Amsterdam in conjunction with High Times holds it’s annual Cannabis Cup Convention for a week, (November 21 - 25, 2004) when 10,000 pot smoken enthusiasts converge on Amsterdam to partake in the festival environment of this convention. I and two friends judged The Cup in 2002 and barley made it out without an iron lung. There was no amount of weed that would ever be too good or too much and we strutted around months before hand telling everyone who cool we were. How very wrong were we.

Pass the Pass

In order to become a “official Cannabis Cup Judge” your actually able to purchase the limited passes at $225.00 per person, and with this you’re a hot *** judge you can turn your nose up to when your kids call you un-cool. With your laminated pass you visit 27 different “Coffee Shops” that each enters a personnel type of Pot and Hash (for those not in the know, that’s an establishment that sells pot, pot products and hash to its patrons). You then judge each one by filling in reviews in a little book that is then turned in at the end of the week for tallying in order to award the Best Coffee Shop and the Best Marijuana to name just a few of the categories. And with this you get… hold on to your hat folks, the coveted Cannabis Cup T Shirt, yeah that’s right! Now, this may sound lame, but not everyone can smoke that week in 4 days and mind you, I was one of only 3 women judges that I spied. It seemed that roughly 1/3 can’t cut it and drop out.

I’m going this year in 2005 and bringing with me a group. This time it’s VIP all the way. I am about to show you what a typical day judging is like without a guide, or someone sober to get lead out of your ass and do your job as judge. Then check out the tour and see how this could have saved the day in 2002 when I went.

6:00am: I would wake up at 6am and test the weed I couldn’t smoke from the last Coffee Shop the night before. Then fall back asleep.

9:00am: Wake up, eat breakfast and try very hard to shake my friends awake.

10:00am: Head out to my first place of the day. Order a cup of coffee, $5.00 worth of weed had been entered in the Cup, bust out my judges book and critique it. Such as: taste, smell, look, is it being high or is it like being stoned. Somewhere along this time a friend would show up and tag along to the next place. Not one of them knew how to roll a joint by the way! I rolled all the goddamn joints. Stupid stoners.

10:30am 11:00am: At this point I am high. I am the map person. My friends have now all shown up, and are too stoned to be map person. Get lost.

12:00pm 5:00pm: Judge 3 more cafes. Think highly about switching to hash as the coughing starts around 2:00pm. Make way for the munchies, as I eat my way from one place to the next.

5:00pm 7:00pm: Nap. Praise the lord. Ask your friends to nap too, just to shut them up from talking about: talking about talking about. Stoners.

8:00pm 12:00am: Go to one more cafe and have a beer before showing up at the Cup for some late night scheduled party. The conversation is always about how I cannot believe I have smoked this much weed. Reply: smoke hash.

Sometime in the wee hours of the morning I just know I’m in my hotel bed, how I got there is not a concern of mine.

Conclusion: I was the only one who finished all 27 cafes, voted, and fished the whole event. By the 2nd day my pals had quit. I was map person, rolled every single joint and planed out the course of action. Stoners.

It started out as just a few of us and now has exploded into a full on group. If you ever wated to go to Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam do it this year! We are all doing the NEW Guided 7nt VIP Cannabis Cup Judge Package. The details are at:

http://www.Cannabis-Cup-Tours.com

The hotel is awsome, it's the Rembrandt Residence Hotel in Dam Square and there are lots of added things along with the pass and travel insurance and it's only $1599 per person + air.

Here is what is included taken from Website:
YOUR TRIP INCLUDES
 Included is your official High Times Cannabis Cup Judge Pass, worth $200!
 7 night hotel stay at the swanky Dam Square Rembrandt Residence Hotel. For hotel description click here >>> (link to Rembrandt Hotel HTML page)
 7 hot buffet breakfasts
 1 Orientation What’s-up Dinner: at a traditional Dutch Restaurant, includes a glass of wine
 1 See-Ya Dinner Celebration: A very special canal candle light dinner cruise with mini awards ceremony.
 Once in a lifetime evening walking tour of The Red Light District with local historian
 Guided half day private sightseeing package of the fabulous Medieval City of Haarlem
 VIP Judge Shuttle Service provided for final judging day
 Mandatory travel insurance from Berkeley Care Insurance
 Services of your host and guides throughout your stay
 All Taxes and Fees
* Our tours are specially designed and are exclusive only to High Times Cannabis Cup Judges. Buy purchasing this package you automatically become a Judge.

http://www.Cannabis-Cup-Tours.com