Halloween started with apple pie for breakfast at a fancy French bakery called Holtkamp. I had assumed it would have breakfast fare but it actually only had cake, pies and chocolates...oh darn. I ate my apple pie on a park bench and picked up some french fries for my movie. Yes, I went to a movie in the morning. It was half the price and the theater was almost empty. I did have to snarf down my fries in the lobby as the very nice ticket guy could smell them through my backpack, but he wasn't a jerk about it which was nice.
I saw Midnight in Paris which is the new Woody Allen film. I'm not a Woody Allen fan and can't stand Owen Wilson, but Paris, ah Paris so of course I wanted to see it. It was lovely and cheesy with literary and artistic jokes and funny puns. Basically a movie made for me.
After the movie I went to Singel 404 for lunch...well, I attempted to, but it was so busy I decided to puts around. I found an English bookstore (I must have a radar for these things) and browsed until about 2PM. By now I was super hungry. There was one other girl in front of me at Singel 404 but I ended up waiting 20 minutes to get a stool at the windowsill. An additional 20 minutes passed before my meal showed up. My homemade lemonade was gross...I don't know how they managed to make it taste like Tang without any sugar. BUT my open-faced sandwich...oh my goodness!!! It was the size of my plate (what is it with Amsterdam restaurants and plate-sized meals?) It was a slice, okay, more like the entire side of a loaf of brown bread. On top was a layer of thinly sliced ham, then grilled bell peppers and zucchini topped with loads of Brie cheese and baked in the oven. Heavenly!!! And super cheap at only 6 euros.
After late lunch I cycled to the Nemo, a science museum for kids. I scanned my Museumkaart and went in...to an empty museum. Weird. I wandered around hanging wires and buckets and finally asked someone and they went, "Oh, the museum is closed on Mondays. How did you get in?" Anyway, I decided to take a different route home since it was so beautiful out. I thought I'd go back to the forest/bog area and cycle around. Somehow I got completely turned around and ended up in a Western suburb. After about an hour of random cycling I found my way to my apartment, exhausted and definitely ready to rest. I skyped with Matti and Jose and then called it a night.
Tuesday I was determined not to get lost again! I wanted to stop at the Flower Market in the morning before it got hit by all the tourists. Unfortunately, due to the time of year the Flower Market is actually the Bulb Market as no flowers are really in bloom. So I hopped on my bike and headed to the Hermitage Museum.
Riding through a busy square I officially earned my first Amsterdam scar. I hit a pole, one of those annoying little ones that are used to control traffic so crazy cyclists like me don't cut through traffic My front wheel made it through, but the rest of me and Sylvia bounced off and crashed. Other than scaring a tourist half to death and getting an egg-shaped nob on my right knee, I was fine and kept going. With an ice pack tonight I should be good.
Despite all my best efforts I did get lost on the way to the Hermitage, even passed the place but didn't recognize it. After back-tracking I finally made it and enjoyed their exhibit of Ruben and Van Dyck paintings. I then cycled back to the Nemo and had a blast. They had so many fun interactive exhibits. AND I was very proud to find out that I was one of the few museum guests to correctly identify a witness in a crime (you had to watch a video, walk halfway across the museum, see a line up of people and choose the right person). Scientifically eye-witness accounts aren't all that accurate usually (cue Corner Gas episode where Wanda gives Karen's speech on the faultiness of eye witness accounts...and no one realizes it's Wanda).
Afterwards I toodled over to the library and finished the book I started "The Housekeeper and the Professor". Then I stopped at Vapiano and had a crazy pasta dish with creamy pesto, ham and chocolate chips (it was actually good!). Then I stopped in the Van Gosh museum again (I forgot to mention I was there on Saturday night as well but got tired and only saw half the museum). That's the joy of the Museumkaart. You can go back as many times as you want. They had great exhibits on how they're attempting to restore Van Gogh's famous Bedroom painting. He evidently used painted that had a chemical that fades very quickly over time so although the walls of the room now look light blue, they used to be pale violet. Lots of cool scientific stuff. They even had iPads that you could use to "X-ray" paintings to see the paintings underneath that he had scraped away to save money on canvas.
By now it was super dark even though it was only 5:45PM so I joined the pack that was cycling through Vondelpark. It was so fun. Most parks are closed once the sun goes down but Vondelpark was full of bicycles and joggers, each little red or white dots weaving through the trees. What a great way to end the day!
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