This is a trip report of my first LSD experience five years ago (March 11, 2013). I already shared this story on reddit but felt like redoing it and including cool GIFs. Previous report: https://redd.it/1a5e31
Yesterday morning my best friend and I went to the Van Gogh museum (then temporarily in the Hermitage). It was only a few months ago that I had first discovered psychedelics. Until this day I had only done 2C-B and 2C-I. The week before, I finally managed to get LSD blotters. I decided to do something special / unique for my first acid experience.
Sunday evening (10 March) I tell John about my plans and in my enthusiasm I invite him to join. He has little experience with drugs, but I have known John for years and I am confident that he will like, and be able to handle it. I tell him that you will experience noticeable effects with one 100 μg blotter, but that it will not be overwhelming. John is not a fan of 'losing control'. We talk about it for a few hours that evening, but John seems interested. At the end of our conversation, he accepts my invitation to go trip together.
T 00:00
The next day we take a Car2Go (rental car) to the museum. We are both a bit nervous, but we feel good. We buy a ticket and go inside. I try to find a quiet place to sit down and take the blotters. In a small dark room a short film about the life of Van Gogh is shown. This is the perfect place. I take the blotters I had in a baggie out of my pocket. It is exactly twelve o'clock. I give John one and take two of them myself. I tell John to keep the blotter under his tongue for about five to ten minutes. We sit in the room for a while without really knowing what is going to happen. We feel good but are slightly tense.
Ten minutes later, the short film about Van Gogh was over and we walked through the museum again. This is absolutely no punishment, because Van Gogh's work is also sober very nice to look at. Our first round through the museum was already fun to do.
T +00:30
Half an hour after we had dosed we both notice small changes. We can not yet fully describe what exactly is different. Visually nothing seems different until we came across this self-portrait and noticed that the eyes of Van Gogh had a very intense color. We decided to once again walk around the museum. On our second round we both see that the lines in the paintings begin to warp and wave slowly. Colors become more intense.
In a room on the first floor I came across the painting 'Cabbage and clogs'. The cabbage seemed to have a pearly effect. I had never seen a painting in this way and it was definitely my favorite of the day.
When I saw this painting later while sober it was a lot less impressive.
A few rooms later John pointed at this painting and he describes how intense the red colors are for him here. I did not see it then, but I tried to replicate it in this GIF.
Landscape at dusk, Van Gogh 1890.
We must have stared at least ten minutes at the next painting. As you can see it has a 'golden' sky, but to us it looked undulating gold heaven.
Illustration of what it looked like for us.
At a certain point an elderly man walked up right next to us. While we looked at this painting. He too was interested in this setting sun. At that time there was only one thing I wanted to say.
'You should see what I see'
But I could refrain myself.
T +02:00
After a while we had seen all the works and decided to go. We are looking forward to get a drink and a snack. The Kalverstraat is close by and it seems like a good idea to go to Bar Blue.
This cafe / restaurant has a fantastic 360 degree panoramic view over Amsterdam on the 4th floor. We spend over one and a half hour looking at Amsterdam. I see the roofs slightly waving, clouds turn into interesting shapes and colors are still very intense. Meanwhile, we talk about everything and nothing while we drink a nice cold beer and later even get a sandwich.
'Look, an elk factory.'
My favorite moment there was when John pointed to a chimney where a plume of smoke came out every so often: 'Look, an elk factory'. Because the clouds that came out did indeed resemble elk.
T +03:30
Then we had a drink at Dan Murphy's at the Leidseplein and then in the Hard Rock Café. In both of them we didn't feel relaxed, especially the latter place. Due to the acid we both realized what a terrible place it really is. All plastic, fake, and show. So incredibly unreal.
T +06:00
Our last stop was at the Conservatorium Hotel. Here we first went to the cigar club to buy some cigars. The room was filled with a fine mist to keep the room at the optimum temperature and humidity for the cigars. I ask the shopkeeper for a specific brand of cigars and she takes us to the right showcase.
I hesitate to take the cigars out of a box. I thought there might be a glass door between me and the cigars. It would be quite easy to overlook something like this while tripping. I continue moving my arm and grab two cigars without making a fool out of myself by bumping into something. A wave of relief comes over me while I try to keep it cool and act normal.
TUNES BAR
We chat a bit more with the shop keeper and then go to the bar where we order a cocktail (an Old Fashioned). It was very nice.
We sit down and enjoy the view, relaxing music with two excellent cigars.
I take a look at my phone to see what time it is. Stars in the background picture continue to sparkle and move. I realize that LSD works much longer than anything I've ever had before on drugs.
Not everyone will like the TUNES BAR, but its definitely special.
T +08:00
Our cigars were smoked and cocktail glasses empty. We decide to go back to my place and have diner.
Because we didn't want to make it to hard for ourselves we therefore made a lasagne. We put on some tunes and have a glass of red wine.
Credits:
Van Gogh animations edited images of Marwan Medhat. Other animation were made by myself.