As I left the Centraal Station building, there were some Jesus freaks outside; I took a photo for public hilarity. :D
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| Jesus freaks! And no one seems to care for their bullshit. LOL |
I had to discover that my chip card for the public transport system had expired, and the MacBike rental closes at 6 PM, so I had to walk for now. First to the hostel at Vondelpark, then back downtown, and later back to the park again. Sadly "Baba", one of the best coffeeshops,had to close at its familiar location and to move elsewhere instead. The Baba souvenir store is still in Warmoestraat, they handed me a card with the new address but I was unable to find it despite having two different maps with me, but one is of the inner city and the street is outside it, while the other cycling map is too large scale, including Haarlem, Zandvoort and the seashore to the west, the Markermeer to the east, etc. - places that can still be reached from Amsterdam by very athletic cyclists - like myself, I daresay - and any smaller streets are not named on it.
I ended up buying an inferior spacecake from the Bulldog coffeeshop. The lady at the bar asked me if I was a regular weed smoker to which I truthfully answered no, and she advised me if I was it would probably do nothing for me. It still did pretty much nothing, probably for the reason that I'm a muscular heavyweight. I once used to smoke pretty much every weekend, but that was over 5 years ago; nowadays I do it hardly ever; recently I only smoked a mix of wild lettuce, Calea, and mugwort once in a while.
Still I spent a nice evening walking the streets and the park, fortunately it stayed relatively warm late into the night. I did put on my black plush hoodie plus my battle jacket and fingerless gloves, but that way I was comfortable enough until after midnight which means much in these northern climes.
The hostel no longer includes breakfast now, you can book it extra for an insane € 6.50. I preferred to buy mine from Albert Heijn (the supermarket) instead, and the next morning I sat in the park to eat it. Bread roll with honey, some cereal bars, diet coke.
After breakfast I went to the bike rental and later decided to ride to Museum Vrolik once more, which is about 10 miles out of town. The red MacBikes rented by tourists are all over town, but out here mine was the only one. I'd been to Museum Vrolik before but it's always fascinating again. It's rather dark inside and there are only ever some few visitors; although it's basically just one single, large room it never gets crowded. I've been in there all by myself at times, but at no time were there ever more than up to 5 other people inside. It's always quiet. I softly snickered to myself at overhearing another young woman commenting to her companion how "this is a creepy place."
As I got back to Amsterdam I found an awesome store that sold shrooms. I don't know if the laws were changed back to make them legal again, I didn't ask. I bought some and took them back to the park. After leaving my bike in the shed at the hostel I walked into Vondelpark, which unfortunately is very crowded, in search of a halfway secluded place. There was a path through the bushes and a pile of logs. I sat down on one of them, spoke "In nomine Satanas...", and then started eating my shrooms.
After a while I got up to walk around the park. A large rat ran across the path in front of me, carrying something in its mouth. It made me think of the song "Night Prowler" by AC/DC,because of the lyrics,
"...a rat runs down the alley and a chill runs down your spine,
And someone walks across your grave, and you wish the sun would shine..."
That was Richard's song - Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, the serial killer - Richard who has been my friend, and who has already left for the other world.
I talked to my Master and told him about it, how the rat had made me think of the song and thereby of Richard.
I felt a bit queasy in the start but that went over quickly. I listened to some music on my mp3 player, just softly for a while, later I switched it off. Found a pond with some fountains that lay somewhat hidden in the trees. I walked around for a while as I talked to my Master, to Satan's son. In the end I mysteriously ended up by the same bunch of logs again where I had started out although I hadn't tried to find the place back, but so I accepted that I was meant to come back here. I sat for another while, both talking and observing, until eventually I closed the ritual.
In between some people came walking by once in a while, even on this somewhat hidden path, and at one time it was a group of boys, barely past teenage if at all. The first one walked out behind a tree, saw me sitting there on the logs, stepped back and hilariously peeked out from behind the tree as if he'd seen, well, a freaky monster I guess - me sitting there in my battle jacket, riveted gloves, long painted nails, and my hair down since I was cold. I got no clue if it was obvious in my face that I was tripping or something, but I had the impression they were somehow aware even in their feeble minds that something involving witchcraft was going on. Then they all walked past, gawking and giggling as if they had discovered the freakiest zoo animal, they were a group of seven guys or so. It was a bit annoying but at least they didn't dare to stop or even approach me, and now in hindsight it was the most hilarious thing!
After closing the ritual I soon left and walked out in the open again. I sat down on the lawn by a pond where lots of people were sitting, most in small groups, many with bikes, all having a good time. I was ravenous, hadn't eaten in a while, and so I took out some food and water I had in my backpack.
The ritual hadn't been all happy only, I had talked about some very serious things to my Master, much of which will stay between him and me and even more of which is simply incommunicable.
By now, sitting by the pond and enjoying another bread roll and cereal bars as well as the beautiful summer evening, I felt serene and very grateful. I had everything I needed.
The sky turned pink with the nightfall - "the border between the worlds," I had to think, having read Carlos Castaneda.
Among the many other cyclists in the park, a woman rode past on a bike full of colorful lights. "Is that a bike or a christmas tree?" I remarked to my Master. But of course I had to look at it, Diane loves bullshit with funky lights on it, right... :D
A group of other girls who had sat next to me eventually got up to leave. A beautiful heron walked stealthily along the edge of the pond, apparently on the prowl and coming really close. One of the girls turned around to it and sounded quite spooked as she said to the others, "the bird!"
Myself I really loved that heron, but in some way I could understand why the girl was spooked. That heron seemed to belong much more to my world... a darkly hidden nature, and a predatory one. I felt connected to it for the same reason the other girl felt spooked by it.
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| Beautiful heron, this one photographed earlier in the day though. There are many birds in the park, also lots of green parakeets. |
I've been shown truth as I asked; everything is what it is, and so
much to be grateful for. I got what I chose, to only ever love my lovely
witch, and to be able to see to a tiny extent the way he does. Whatever
else may happen cannot change this, and all else is in Father Satan's
hand. I am what I am, and I can proclaim to have made the right choices,
in following my nature, my black heart, and thereby my Satanic path. I
felt I'd been given the gift of sight, or of insight, at least to much
greater extent than most will ever know - or care to ask for. I did ask,
and I was given. My infinite gratitude goes to my dearest Master and to
our Infernal Father.
I went to the hostel dorm rather early that
evening though since it was colder than the day and night before, and
by 10 PM the lawn started getting moist with dew already.
The next day, after another breakfast on a park bench in the sunshine, I just rode around town to some markets. First to Albert Cuip Market, then to the ferry terminal behind the central station where I took a ferry to the other side of the Ij (pronounced like "I", not like itch, LOL). I was puzzled to find the Mosveld Market gone - not only the market itself but even the market place, it had been replaced by a new mall!
The owner of a bike store was outside and I asked him about it. The man confirmed that the mall had been built quickly and only very recently, but that the market had only moved down a street, after a roundabout, where I easily found it back. I didn't buy anything though, but sat on a bench to eat some lunch I'd bought at another supermarket earlier.
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| My lunch, chicken on sticks. LOL |
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| Awesome pirate boat!!! |
By 4 PM I was back at the hostel to pick up my remaining baggage I had left in a locker there, and then I returned the rented bike and took the streetcar to the central station where my train was to leave at 4:55 PM.
Later there was some Fuk-uppy, I mean some mixup, with the connections, and instead of the scheduled 4 trains it took 7 different trains to get me home, an hour later than scheduled too. So all in all I used 12 different trains to get to Amsterdam and back, for a trip of only ~250 miles or so - is that a record? LOL
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| Because sometimes you fuk uppy. :D |
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| Cannibals?! Just look how they spell "MEAT again"! And on the door to the right is written "Klootzak", I'm afraid that means something very impolite! LOL |
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| Another tourist girl was so kind to take my pic at the Museumplein. |
