There are cheap flights from Portugal to Eindhoven. No need to go to a smartshop for syrian rue seeds, they're way too expensive for small 4 gram baggies. In Eindhoven, get your "viable seeds" in 200 gram bags from Mr. Omid. Don't tell him that you might ingest some of his fine "esfand", he'll be puzzled and distraught if you do. His regular customers burn the seeds as an incense to ward off the evil eye.sauroman1 said:
If you visit Eindhoven, be sure to see the Evoluon:
The Evoluon was built by the Philips family of industrialists, who sort of built most of Eindhoven. Curiously, Karl Marx was one of their cousins and wrote large parts of "Das Kapital" while lodging in their garden house (before they moved to Eindhoven and founded the electronics company). Anyway, the Philipses apparently had somewhat of an antagonistic relationship with the roman catholic church and the Evoluon is a clear testament of that: it is a true techno cathedral. The architecture is clearly that of a modern cathedral, but the name is an obvious reference to evolution. Inside, stained glass motifs illuminate the laws of nature. In fact, it used to be a museum of science and technology. The bell tower even used to sport an antenna instead of a cross, but it was taken off several years ago.
At night, and when you're in the mood, it may look like a giant mushroom:
Some time ago, Eindhoven was mentioned on the nexus: Solar-Powered, Glow in the Dark Bicycle Path Opens in the Netherlands. I actually find it quite boring. In case you want to check it out, you might want to take some rue tea with you and add some blacklight paint yourself :lol:
Anyway, whatever you do, don't spend months in a crappy hostel in Amsterdam. In fact, don't spend any time in a hostel in Amsterdam. The Netherlands is a small country with a well-organized public transport infrastructure. From most parts of the country, Amsterdam is an hour or less away by train. If you have to be close to Amsterdam, choose a place like Haarlem to stay. From there, you can ride a bike to the sea. It's a lovely ride, especially in combination with shrooms (or truffels, which are still sold in smartshops). BTW, there are smartshops and coffeeshops in every dutch city, no need to go to Amsterdam for that.
Instead of AirBnB, try couchsurfing. If you are planning to stay for an extended time, I would advise you to try to couchsurf from city to city. That way, you get to see way more than you would by hanging around in Amsterdam all the time, where you'd mostly run into tourists anyway.
Also do try to get hold of a bicycle. The Netherlands has an exquisite cycling infrastructure. If you do not get a dedicated cycling lane (often you will), motorists will generally be quite considerate towards cyclists sharing the road (you're not supposed to use the sidewalk - that's pedestrian-only). You can rent a bicycle for a day or more at most larger railway stations. Taking your own bicycle on the train costs a few euros extra fare.
Many nature areas have asphalt-paved cycling lanes running through them. It is one of my personal favorite ways to trip.
If you speak some english, you'll get around fine in the Netherlands.
