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.

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

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.

Thanks for that tip. Never realized that little store sold rue. Might check it out today.
Opposite of that store is one of Eindhovens finest restaurants Zarzo. It's not very cheap but it is excellent.

The evoluon used to be a museum for future tech but nowadays it's an entrepreneural hub. I saw Kraftwerk performing there two years back. They did 3 surprise concerts. Awesome location, great show.

Potties to visit Amsterdam can do some homework here:
http://www.coffeeshop.freeuk.com/

(I've no idea how updated the info is.)

Has anyone here had experience finding work as an expat in Holland?
From what i gather they make it rather hard.
With all this Donald trump nonsense I see the U.S. turning in into a scene from idiocracy rather rapidly & moving to a more tolerant country with less harsh drug laws seems to be a smart move.

Thanks for advice! I'll look for seeds in Turkish shops but they might be cheaper as well in other smartshops.
I hope I apply into enterprice for traineeship somewhere in Haarlem since this is close place to beach, national park and Amsterdam. What you think about Hague&Rotterdam?

Actually, avoid the turkish shops. There are many here in the Netherlands, but I've never found one that had any syrian rue seeds. The shops to go to are iranian/pakistani/afghani and sometimes also indian ones.


Haarlem is IMHO generally a nice place and highly advisable.

Personally, I don't like The Hague and Rotterdam much, similarly as I dislike Amsterdam. Too many ghettos (well, by dutch standards anyway, that is ). You can find nice spots in these cities, I guess. But why would you, if you can live in a more relaxed (and probably also much cheaper) place? As I said in another post, The Netherlands is a small country and the transport infrastructure is quite good.

If you do visit The Hague, here is where I once found some 100 gram bags of syrian rue