The morning light peered in between the black out curtains of our 12 person dorm room, yet both Zane and I slept in, the walk home and the flights we took were reason enough for anyone to do so, not to mention we are on vacation. This however wasn't to last, our stomachs were growling, and that urge promotes all kinds of adventurous behavior, regardless of the situation. So we left for the super market, resupplied ourselves with organic apples and rice milk, then headed out to the city center. Not surprisingly the city was much different in the day. All the shops were open, people were everywhere and the ladies behind red lighted windows had vanished to whatever occupation or situation they possessed in the day light hours. Before we continue with the story there is something you should know. Im on this journey for two reasons. The first being that Zane and I have never gone traveling together and its the best way to reinforce your bonds with someone, or destroy them completely, depending on how strong they were to begin. This is important to me because for a few years Zane and I didn't talk at all. First because I chose to spend more time with my girlfriend than my friends in school, and ironically enough, because Zane dated this same girl afterwards and she wanted nothing to do with me, neither did Zane. A solid karmic consequence. But years later after they broke up, Zane and I became friends again, and here we are.The second reason I'm going is because I love traveling and the bonus reason is that I already had a return flight to Europe before I ever agreed to join Zane on his trip. So its really a perfect string of coincidences, if you believe in such things..Zane's reasons are the same but with other emphasis', such as wanting to party. Which although I do partake in, I've long since passed my partying heydays. This is most definitely due to my change in diet and lifestyle, and for which I am eternally grateful. So, what makes Amsterdam so special in terms of the party scene? Well, to start, many drugs, such as marijuana and mushrooms are legally sold and used here. There are a great number of "coffee shops" as they call them that sell marijuana in large variety of strains and ways in which to use them, such as pipes, bongs, pre-rolled mixes of tobacco and marijuana etc. but smoking straight tobacco in the shops is strictly forbidden, or in some cases, allowed in sectioned off areas of the establishment, our first Coffee shop was such a place. After walking around a while looking for one we found the Dolphins Coffee shop. Inside it was designed to imitate an underwater marijuana wonderland. With the walls made out of ejection foam molding and painted blue and green, with artwork all over it of mermaids and sand castles. Everywhere you looked there was Marijuana in one form or another, the seaweed for example, was Marijuana. The mermaids hair as well. We ordered a strain of the shops own creation, Dolphin Diesel, their strongest Indica, sativa hybrid and got one of their bongs to smoke with, which was actually very dirty, it looked like it had been smoked out of 150 times since it was last cleaned. There are a number of reasons why this isn't an ideal situation. Cleanliness being the first, ease and effectiveness of use being second. The other thing about this bong that struck us both was that it had a carb, a whole at the bottom to place your finger over and release when you were ready for the smoke. No bong we've ever seen has had one.This was the first time Id smoked in over three weeks, so after 2 hits I was very much inside the ocean surrounding us. Zane on the other hand had smoked within 24 hours so his tolerance was much higher, he went on to hit it 5 times, which would have made me as useful as a doormat underwater. As much as I enjoy where being in these states takes me, I've always believed in being more in possession of my wits when abroad then not. In fact these I days I feel that way regardless of where I am. The assistant behind the bar was reserved but friendly enough. The only thing that put us aside from every other person that came in was that she didn't ask to see our ids, probably the beards. The thing we came to understand very quickly about Amsterdam is that the people here, especially the coffee shop and bar owners have to deal with a multitude of people from all different cultures getting legally high on all kinds of drugs and most of them are not prepared to handle the social graces of such an experience. Thus the locals have very strict and immovable policies towards visitors and have no problem asserting their position. Which is, follow the rules, or get the fuck out. Mind games don't work on them either, so don't think you can Jedi mind trick your way through town. Respect the rules and stay cool, if you cannot do this, you'll quickly be schooled. We left the Dolphins after feeling sufficiently coordinated to do so and had a few local beers at a pub before heading back to the hostel for some rest. During this time I remained in the lobby while Zane slept. There I met two people whom I got increasingly philosophical with about reality, god, purpose and choices. It was an impressive rant on my part, more and more these days I can stop myself from talking and have patience enough to listen while engaged in deep metaphysical or political discussions, unless Im drunk and high, which is exactly what happened next.We entered the city, found a bar and ordered a pint of beer each, we immediately struck up a conversation with the bartender and his friends who were all transplants to Amsterdam of a decade or more each. Three pints later and a few hits of Zane's pipe and I was the old Danny again, raving mad like Hitler in the beer hall, oblivious to the shock and awe I was unleashing upon unsuspecting and undeserving customers. Certain as any prophet sent by god shouting his gospel to any and all if only they would listen. It was 3 Am before I realized the bar was nearly empty and about to close. In truth Zane was the one that got us out of there, his senses of the situation were much keener than my own. We exited into the street and hailed a taxi, he wanted 17 euro for our ride home, which I flatly refused, my go to response to any negotiation regardless of time and place since beginning my traveling experiences alone. But Zane had already gotten in, and agreed on the price, my nose wrinkling as I exhaled sharply, I quickly got in. We were dropped off a half a mile away from our hostel, my fault for giving the only directions I could remember, so we walked the remainder of the way. During all of which Zane was convinced Id led us a stray. But I knew where we were, thanks to my two hour stroll through this part of the city to find the Alchemist Garden, and within a few minutes we were asleep in our bunks...