The Netherlands by www.born2travel.it

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22. 07. 2001 Amsterdam (NETHERLANDS) On the journey from Brussels to Amsterdam I learn from an American girl coming back from Italy that in Genoa, during the G8, a protester had been killed! A certain Carlo Giuliani, but she didn't know much about it! Arriving in the Dutch capital we head straight for the magic mushroom shop for Pedro. He had planned the whole trip around this one stop! He was so excited! He'd been raving about these mushrooms for a year! He said that last year he'd had wonderful sensations, he saw and heard strange things, unlike anything he'd seen before...

He wanted to stock up and have fun for the whole year! Well! Yes indeed, there was a well! I immediately forbade him to buy many of them because it was dangerous when we crossed borders and I didn't want trouble over such silly things! Besides, I'd advised him to take them only when we were somewhere quiet, without a backpack and with a "safe roof" (I meant Latvia), so that if we'd had problems... But he wouldn't listen to me! And after buying two bags, I walk him to the edge of a canal to let him "eat" them in peace! Even though I was against it, I stay close to him. He'd offered me some too but luckily I'd refused! At first he felt in "paradise", shortly after the hell began! After many misadventures we manage to reach the railway station and from there, by train, we head to Schiphol airport, where we are now.

[Pedro Daniel Aguiar Lopes from Porto, Portugal]: I feel very bad and if I try to explain something to you, I'm sure you won't understand. What I experienced today is impossible to explain in words and no one could ever experience it without mushrooms. I'll try to tell you small portions of the millions of things I have in mind during the journey. I'm so sorry about what happened today; if I'd known what would happen I wouldn't have taken them. I suffered so much, you can't imagine even a small part of what I went through. I nearly died because for a few moments I lost control of my mind and my body. When I say: died, I'm not exaggerating, I was unconscious many times in the restaurant, I felt like never before. Anyway we'll have plenty of time to discuss it. This day, however strange it may have seemed, was very positive for me.

As I told you, the mushroom experience is unique and it changes your way of thinking and seeing the world. You understand so many things about what surrounds you, you find the meaning of every single thing, for every day of your life. I wish I could enjoy life the way you do, calmly, having fun, anywhere and with anyone... It's painful not to be able to. I'm trying to change but it's hard. Today, these mushrooms brought peace to my spirit, I hope it lasts forever, I'm eager to live my life in tranquillity the way everyone does, I hope we'll grow together... I'm learning so many things with you, I really need our friendship to last forever.

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