Because humor is funnier when you know it's true.
Biz trip: Amsterdam
Okay, it wasn’t exactly a business trip. More like a sideline trip off a business trip. Anyway, on a business excursion to Belgium, the lure of Amsterdam was too powerful to ignore. What lure, you may ask? Well, back in the day before there was legalized medical/recreational marijuana in the US, Amsterdam was one of the few places in the world where one could lawfully get buzzed on Mary Jane. This city was like an eternal spring break, except one without the warm weather, beaches, or bikinis. And another bonus for Amsterdam – it had/has legalized prostitution.
On that Belgium trip, my coworker and I decided to catch the first train to Amsterdam Saturday morning. By the time we got up, it turned out to be an afternoon train, but that was okay. The 2.5 hour trip would still get us there in plenty of time to explore.
After a pleasant ride through the Dutch countryside, we finally arrived in Dope Disneyland. First stop was at one of their coffee cafes – The Greenhouse Effect. Its clever name accurately put the focus on the cannabis, not the coffee. But we were engineers, and this weekend was an extension of our weekday business trip. And so we were there to see, not to participate. Besides, we only had company credit cards with us, and it would have been hard to explain those purchases on an expense report. We just sat with our cups of mediocre coffee sort of like UN peace observers, watching our smoking neighbors. Those customers smoked up such a storm that with just a few deep breaths, we could be halfway to Nirvana.
I got up to walk to their front counter, and saw the posted menu of products with catchy names from Morocco, Jamaica, and other well-known growing regions. As I stood near the doorway, a group of four American college girls came in. They were giggling and asking the proprietor questions about his offerings. With his guidance, they picked a joint that was supposedly potent enough to be shared amongst the four of them.