Hey,
This is an account of my first coffeeshop experience while I lived in Holland for four months.

Myself and two other friends found our first coffeeshop on the border of Amsterdam (we lived about 20 minutes on a bus away from the dam). The place was ironically called "The Border". So went in and after showing some ID we bought some weed and hash. I bought White Widow, One of my friends got some Northern Lights and the other got some Hashish I think it was super pollen. We all then rolled up a joint each. One of the joints was a pure one too. So I sparked my joint up and I swear to god that I was totally wrecked after about four tokes so I passed it on. Anyway the three joints were passed around and smoked in quite a few minutes (probably an hour but who could tell). The small little pure one is defiantly the one that did it for me. I tried to walk to the counter to get a drink and on my way nearly fell over twice while trying to avoid chairs and I was basically trying to conceal the laughter that was dying to erupt from within. Anyway after asking for a drink (an energy one!) I gave the person serving the money and the person made a joke (I can't remember it for the life of me) something about the three Irish lads in the corner doing their country proud or at least along those lines. I burst into laughter (tears were starting to appear now almost) and thanked the person and went back to rejoin my friends. I was still laughing but too stoned to explain what had happened and was defiantly too stoned to repeat the joke. My friends were wondering what the hell was going on but still they were laughing too. Anyway I sat there for a few minutes totally spaced out and there was really chilled music playing in the background that had me spaced out to the last while looking around at my surroundings (there was a few trippy things in the room and the couches had some many soft cushions on them in was so nice to just sit there)
Anyway then I had to watch my two friends try to go to the bar and get their own drinks. Now they were in a worse condition than I had been on my trip to the counter, as another joint or two had just gone round in the time since I attempted this mission. And I was just sitting there trying not too laugh to loud as one friend tried to explain what drink he wanted (the person serving couldn't understand my friend as the poor guy was too stoned and had too much of an Irish accent for the guy serving). He had been asking for a energy drink but each time he tried to pronounce it the words wouldn’t come out at all for him. Eventually he gave up and just asked for some coffee.
So we stayed there for a little while and the place was starting to fill up so we said we’d head on outside and get something to eat and see about heading to Amsterdam. The entrance to the back part of the room was this gate type thing which wouldn’t open manually (the person behind the counter presses a button to open it). I walked straight into the thing expecting it to open when my legs hit it. Ha ha, I nearly fell over the thing and then I spent a few seconds trying to force it open. The guy behind the bar had been busy and didn’t notice but once he did he just said hold on one second. So he pressed the buzzer and I must have been leaning on the gate cause I went flying when it opened and nearly fell straight into a wall. All three of us burst into laughter and I apologized. You’re man said it was grand (We spoke to him a few times on visits back and he always recalled the story and said he had always wanted to see someone do it).
So anyway we get out onto the street and first thing I notice is how damn bright it was, I had expected it to be dark. My eyes were bloodshot as hell and I could barely stand. Anyway we were walking towards the tram stop and we bumped into a Dutch cop who was on a bike. He said something in Dutch and we just stood there dumbfounded for a second (slightly paranoid alright) and then he spoke in English. He was just asking for a lighter. I tried to hand him one and I dropped it twice. He just smiled at me and said “First time in Holland yeah” and all I could do is mutter yeah while trying to refrain from crying from the laughter. He said cheers and cycled off.
So we were sitting at the tram stop waiting for the tram and we were just messing about cause we were so stoned and then we realized there was an old woman looking at us (she had been standing half hidden behind the tram stop) she just started rambling something in Dutch and we couldn’t stop laughing as we were explaining we don’t speak Dutch and she just kept going on and on. Eventually she copped on and stopped trying to communicate with us. We got onto the tram when it got there and my first mate who got on when asked “where to” he replied “Holland please” and I nearly fell off the tram with laughter. He quickly said “oh sorry I mean Amsterdam central”. We sat at the back off the tram and just had a great laugh on the trip up to Amsterdam central.
What happened in Amsterdam that day/night is a whole different story. I could probably write a book about it. But defiantly the best part of the day was getting to Amsterdam