Couldnt fight it anymore, Just booked flights and accomadation, €88 return for flights 28-30th Jan. i'd never been up until august. this'll be my 3rd time since. cant wait to blaze one up and down some philo stones. only one negative point - we generally like to stay at flying pig palace up by vondel park. only this time we wanted to be right in the heart of all the mayhem that is the RLD. pig downtown was booked up so my mates only gone and booked the bulldog hotel - i know, i know, all bulldogs should be avoided like the plague or so i'm told but all we really want is a place to lay our heads for a couple of hours a day. is it really as bad as its rep? I hear they have a really late bar for guests which is always a good thing after pubs and clubs close. any info on the hotel(not coffee shops) greatly appreciated. ie crash out area where one can smoke til their hearts content any time of day or night? nothin worse that being told you cant smoke a spliff when in the land of the free. 16 daze and counting. only booked couple of hours ago and already time seems to have slowed down! Cheers
I've stayed there 3 times.......but it was 1999-2001. At that time the hotel was a terrific bargain and the location prime. Only draw back about location was many of the street junkies and con artists offering hard drugs at both corners of the block. They hung out at the corner by the damrak right by the "checkpoint" money exchange center at all times so I'd recommend avoiding that corner as much as possible. Also the hotel has a great lounge with dvds that can be put on at request. What I have heard as of recently was that they re-did most of the rooms and renovated them into overpriced apartments. I also heard that you are suppossed to not smoke in your room now and use the lounge. The coffeeshop downstairs has a nice ambience but terrible weed / prices. Just up the street (northbound) on the same side of the hotel is a small SMALL deli where you can buy beer really cheap. There is also a fallafel store that stays open late and makes fried munchies. Also if you walk down to the damstraat and go left (NOT towards damsquare) there is a ton of coffeeshops, delis, markets, a laundry mat, etc. If you go right onto damstraat there is a pastry / snack shop called Renee's that is not to be missed. It will be on the left side about half way between O. Voorburgwall (bulldog street) and damsquare.
Cheers Koopa appreciate the help, We're paying €22 each per night so it aint too bad. Dont really mind not bein able to smoke in the rooms once they dont stop us smokin in the lounge whenever we might wish to. I have a tendency to wake up at stange hours cravin a fat one so once they're cool with me makin my way down to the smokin areas in the middle of the night we'll get along just fine. Thanks for the tip bout the cheap booze, as far as i know you're allowed bring your own in with you so long as the bar is closed. i.e. 3 or 4am. Only over for 2nights so gotta make the most of every waking minute. another quick question, on my previous visits to mecca I've over indulged in the plant of the gods and as a result completly lost my bearings. all i remember bout the red light district is the banana bar (hell hole - but we were curious) and dodgy dealers. Is the bulldog on the same street as this? all the streets/canals kind of blurred into one for me. Thanks again you got any trips comin up yourself?
hey there.......the banana bar is located at oudezijds achterburgwal 37 this is the same street as the Casa Rosa, most famous sex show in Amsterdam (highly over rated) Casa Rosa has a giant penis fountain in front of it. Oudezijds Achterburgwal is 1 BLOCK EAST of Oudezijds Voorburgwall where the Bulldog is located. Your hotel is close to coffeeshop "old church" and coffeeshop "Dread Rock" on the same street. I recommend the ak47 isolator hash and super silver haze isolator hash from dread rock. If you meet a sweet Jamaican woman who owns the place, her name is Rita. Old church has a nice atmosphere, good herb, and good prices. Amsterdam takes quite awhile to adjust to but you'll get it after a while and have a really good sense of direction.
Not anymore. http://www.thebigtrip.us/images/image05.jpg See for yourself. Still not hard(hehe) to find.
that sucks........ Oh well atleast I got a picture of it in all of its erect glory! Whats even funnier is the street sign near damsquare that points the way to the "homo monument". I took a picture of that sign too and put both in the photo album on the same page. You can only imagine the look on the face of my nieve friends when I show them pictures of the "famous homo monument"
Has anyone ever stayed at the flying pig in Noordwijk? Cause my best friend and i are weird, so were going to stay there in the summer (its like 10 miles from home haha) just for the heck of it.
Never stayed at the Flying Pig, in Amsterdam or Noordwijk. I have checked out some fairly cool video of both at the link below though. http://flyingpig.nl/multimedia/movies.shtml If you do end up going to Noordwijk, be sure to stay away from the Kitesurfing. Lookin' pretty gnarly from what I could tell. BTW, It sucks hard that the penis fountain at Casa Rosso is no more. History marchs on...
havent stayed there myself although a couple of my friends did last year. apparently you can only smoke outside on the deck which is a bit shitty. other than that the atmosphere is supposed to be pretty good, decent bar, rooms and of course very cheap. I havce stayed in the pig palace twice and absolutely loved it. only 10 miles from home? you lucky b****!
Ive seen thoses videos before, pretty cool. My dad's been into kites since forever (and flew all around the world for free because of it, he's a judge at festivals and such). My cousin owns one of those buggy things that you attach a kite to and cross the beach with, its so fast. But anyway, all of those kites got me parasailling and jumping of the Alpes when i was 11, so who know's, i might even do the surfing thing
I dont smoke, so that doesnt really matter to me. Im a beach freak, and although i live near one, work at one, another, new beach would be fun. And the one i work at only attracks 40+ Germans (theyre nice though, better at tipping than any Dutch person ive ever met) and rude Dutchies, so some other people would be good.
its not weird to get a room 10 minutes from home..... a road trip is a road trip no matter what distance! Its still fun!
Were not just going 10 min from home anyway, cause weve this plan to ride our bikes all the way to Budapest haha. To practise were going to ride it all the way trough the country first, so thatll keep us busy. And were going to London together in April, for my 18th birthday :]
wow London sounds fantastic and biking to budapest sounds ambitious! You never cease to amaze me Myrtje
Hope you have good weather when you visit London Myrtje, it's one fantastic, breathtaking view seeing it from the air as you come in to land at Heathrow. The planes actually queue up in the air and spiral down one by one and if the weather is good you can see London in all it's glory.
I hope the weather will be good too, im pretty used to rain though :] Itll be my first time on a plane! Ive jumped off the Alpes with a parachute, but ive never even been on a plane before, quite sad haha.
Blimey myrtje, parachuting off the alps must have been one hell of an andrenaline rush, very impressed.
Haha i got there by car, and then they made me walk with a 25 kg. thing on my back. Wasnt as bad as it was in the second time though. In the Alps i was 11, so i didnt go all by myself and it wasnt all that hot. The view was gorgeous, Annecy lake right under me, you know green fields, castles, mountains. I even saw an eagle kind of bird flying like 500 m. under my feet! The last time i was 15, somewhere near Montpellier in the south of France. We (my brother, his best friend and i) did this 5 day course, and it was bloody hot, no shadow, warm clothes/shoes (its colder when you fly eh), and then start walking up the hill with your backpack. The grass had cut my ankle, and because of the heat the wound starting melting and all. Very painful. But it was worth it, flying all by yourself is the coolest ever. Id kill for wings.
Oh i found some pics of the lake. Trust me, if youre ever around there, go parasailling (parapente as they call it there). I was dead scared at first (fear of heights) but my brother went, i saw him flying and was like fuck heights, im going. Great pics on here, just couldnt copy somehow: http://www.randonneur.net/pages/photos/lac-annecy-01.php
