The People You Meet in Amsterdam Coffeeshops is a series of candid conversations with coffeeshop patrons about life, cannabis, and everything in between. In our eighth installment, Bianca talks delicious farmer’s market finds and hematology while digging into a space cake for the very first time.
Name: Bianca
Hometown: Brisbane, Australia
Age: 25
Cannabis preference: None
Met at: Tweede Kamer
(Karina Hof for Leafly)
Leafly: So, this is your first space cake?
Bianca: Yup.
What compelled you to try one?
I’ve been around marijuana for ages, but I have never really taken part in it because my brother had bad experiences with other types of drugs. So from a young age, part of my consciousness has been like, “Don’t do illegal things.”
Well, here in the Netherlands it’s—
Exactly.
How does the cake taste?
I was expecting mud cake. It’s delicious, but it’s more of a sponge cake.
What else are you doing while in Europe?
We’ve been to Rome. Now we’re in Amsterdam. We’re going to Munich, Prague, and then the UK. We had planned for a few more, but then it’d be just 48 hours in a place and then move, so we cut out a few places.
What do you think of Amsterdam?
Our first experience was going to the Red Light District and it was extremely crowded. But today we went on a walk a bit further out of the city. We kinda got lost and ended up at some farmer’s market. We bought Greek olive oil, dried mixed wild mushrooms, raspberry tart, these delicious burgers—apparently the lady makes the bread as well as everything else in the burger—and some strange fruit.
Oh, and we bought a book of art from one of the museums. We’re like, “We need a souvenir of some sorts.” We just wanted one of those random coffee table books that has art in it. We are not artists. We don’t appreciate art at all. We spent 45 minutes in the museum shop [laughs]. The shop was amazing, so after 45 minutes we were like, “This has been our museum experience.”
What do you in Australia?
I work and I’m studying medical science.
Do you have a specialization?
I really like hematology, but it will depend on who offers me a job.
With that background, do you fully understand what’s happening in your bloodstream right now?
Kind of, but not really. I just learn about diseases and what diseases do to your body.
Did you get any tips about the space cake’s effects?
We played it safe and halved it. [Looks at bag] I should probably read that instead of just trusting him [refers to companion]. It says: “Expect to wait approximately one hour before noticing any effect” and “Wait for a minimum of two hours before using any other cannabis products.”
What are your plans for the next couple hours?
People are like, “Go see this museum. Go see that museum.” We see there’s a sex museum and a torture museum, but it’s a little late to do that now. We got told by our Airbnb host to get some type of deep-fried chicken from somewhere. He also said that the Red Light District has really good Chinese.
More interesting food.
Yeah. In photos of me, I’m always eating. My dad has one from 10 years ago, I think it’s of a lamb shank—this big—with me eating it.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Lead image: Karina Hof for Leafly.
