Coffeeshops and Cannabis

While Amsterdam has for quite some time been well known for its nicotine-recolored "dark colored bistros," nowadays "coffeeshop" alludes to a place where the Dutch accumulate to purchase and smoke maryjane. While hard medications are entirely unlawful and there is by all accounts no enthusiasm for making them lawful, maryjane is sold transparently in coffeeshops all through the Netherlands.  coffeeshop Amsterdam

Meandering around Amsterdam, each couple of pieces you pass a window brimming with plants and showing a red, yellow, and green Rastafarian banner — the two signs that that bistro doesn't offer much espresso.

A round table at the front window was loaded with a United Nations of visitors sharing voyagers' stories mixed by swizzlesticks of smoke. The table was a messiness of tea containers, maps, and manuals. From the looks of the ashtray, they'd been there a while.

Sitting down at the bar by a rough forty-something biker and a Gen-X kid with two gaps in his body for every one in mine; I felt more like a traveler than I had throughout the day. The barkeep, brandishing a shaved head and a one-inch goatee, welcomed me in English and passed me the menu.

I indicated a cut on piece of paper. "What's 'Aanbieding: Swarte Marok?'"

"The flavor of the day is Black Moroccan," he said.  Weed Amsterdam 

Swarte Marok, Blond Marok, White Widow, Northern Light, Stonehedge, Grasstasy...so numerous decisions, and that is quite recently the wiet (pot). Hashish determinations filled the base of the menu.

Above me dangled a little Starship Enterprise from a wreath of spiky takes off. Also, behind the barkeep stood a column of much-utilized and obviously never-cleaned bongs helping me to remember the hubbly-bubblies that litter Egyptian teahouses. With a flick of my finger, I set the Enterprise shaking.