Stroopwaffles and Sunshine

Honestly the title says it all.

Lol but no really, this past weekend Kiara and I took a wonderful trip to Amsterdam! Finally! If you've been following along, we were supposed to go to Amsterdam back in March, but due to train lateness and then missing flight-ness, we had to reschedule to now. Which was honestly probably better because we had more time in the city, and the weather was amazing. Like, high 70s and sunny amazing. Like, JUST LOOK AT THIS PLACE!! 😍

May or may not have added this pic just so the cover picture for this post is something other than food for a change

So we both FlixBus-ed in on Saturday morning (after my bus being delayed and me standing at the bus stop for an hour at 6 in the morning 😑) and headed right into the city for some pancakes.

So Dutch pancakes are apparently a thing, and honestly I don't know if this is a Dutch pancake or not, but it said it was. But basically it's a crepe. Mine has camembert cheese, raspberry sauce, ham and onions. 

We then made our way through the city to get to the Van Gogh Museum for our 2 PM scheduled time slot. The museum was amazing and included lots of Van Gogh's most famous works. It took us just about an hour to get through the whole thing, which is pretty ideal in my mind. One gigantic question I have though-- Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' is probably one of his most famous works, and I have now seen it in two very reputable museums-- the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the National Gallery in London. So....??????? The same thing happened to me with a different, very distinct painting when I was in Frankfurt. I totally forget the name, but I saw what was unmistakably the same painting in two different Frankfurt museums....no mention of it being a copy or duplicate in either case.....CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS??????

Anyways, after the Van Gogh Museum, I had my first *real* stroopwaffel which was perfection. If you've never had one, picture two flattened out waffle cones with caramel in the middle. Unreal. 

Here's me inspecting my new love (peep the I AMsterdam sign in the back)

We then decided to jump on a hop-on, hop-off boat tour of the canals annnnnnd the rocking of the boat immediately made us start nodding off. So that ticket went a bit underutilized, and we got off at the Anne Frank house stop. We quickly checked out where we'd need to go for our scheduled tour time the next day, and then went to one of the best places I've ever been. The Cheese Museum. Yes. I'd seen one of my Facebook friends had gone there when she visited Amsterdam a few months earlier and I knew I'd have to check it out. (Side note: there are BILLIONS of Americans in Amsterdam. I mean, I knew Americans were weirdly obsessed with it [side note to my side note: pretty sure I personally know about 20 people who have been there in the last six months], but you heard more American accents than Dutch). So the cheese museum is essentially a cheese store that has dozens of different cheeses, all with samples. I tried goat cheeses and smoked cheeses, pesto cheese and truffle cheese, and even cheese made from unpasteurized milk. Phenomenal.

The fun colored cheeses-- green is pesto, blue is lavender and can't remember what the red is. Some truffle cheeses are below.

Truly considered shipping home a wheel of cheese

The actual museum part where we truthfully did not spend much time. Just gimme more samples 😍

We walked around a bit more after that, experienced the Red Light district (a true experience), grabbed a coffee because we were quickly fading, and then took the tram out to our hotel to drop our things before dinner. I must say, the public transportation in Amsterdam is wonderful. It cost about 13 Euro for a two day pass, and we really put that thing to good use. Anyways, here are some of my beauty shots of Amsterdam.

The Rijks Museum in the background, then the I AMsterdam sign

The Red Light district! There are truly half clothed women in all those windows. I will never forget the feeling of complete shock when one of them abruptly pulled back the curtains to reveal herself in her skimpy zebra print outfit with pink trim. Ah, Amsterdam.

For dinner we went to probably one of the coolest restaurants I've been to yet in Europe. I love love love TripAdvisor (as you should know by now), and I really love searching on there to find restaurants with local specialties. Thanks to TripAdvisor Kiara and I found ourselves in a cozy little place called Moeders, which means Mothers. The inside of the restaurant is completely covered in framed photos of moms that were brought in by various patrons throughout the years. They literally cover the walls and every spare surface. Also, all the silverware, plates and cups are mismatched because they are gifts from each of the people that came to the opening night of the restaurant. And it had truly wonderful and insanely filling Dutch food.

Traditional pea soup (tastes way better than it looks)

This had some quaint Dutch name that I can't remember, but it's basically a meatball, ham, and a sausage with mashed cabbage. And of course a Heineken

The next day we headed straight off to the Anne Frank house, which was an unforgettable experience. The museum is extremely well done and organized, with individual audio guides for each person, excerpts of her diary in every room, and a thoughtful and impactful explanation of Anne Frank's life and the life of other Jews living in Amsterdam during the war. Seeing her family's secret annex was unreal, and, as I said, this was an unforgettable experience. 

After we had finished our tour, we attempted to go to The Avocado Show (you have most definitely seen a Facebook video about it, if not, Google it), but the wait was too long, as Kiara had to leave in a couple hours. We instead ended up at a cute, hipster-y dim sum place right around the corner that had really yummy food (including seaweed salad which I am OBSESSED with). So back to the more Americans than Dutch thing. This restaurant had their menu ONLY in English. Like the big wall sign type menu behind the counter. I get English is a universal language and all, and there's a billion tourists, but it was still a little weird. 

Literally considering ordering Asian food for dinner after remembering this meal.

Kiara then left and I still had a few more hours to soak up all Amsterdam had to offer. I knew I wanted to see the Rijks Museum (aka the #1 thing on Amsterdam TripAdvisor), but first, I wanted to enjoy the sunshine in the beautiful park that is right outside the museum and read a book. So that's exactly what I did (remember the whole 'getting to do exactly what you want to do and enjoying it' thing?). And I got an ice cream too 😋 [that emoji is called "Savoring Delicious Food" okay @ Blogger.com].

My reading in the park view!

A better shot of the (perpetually crowded) I AMsterdam sign

The Rijks Museum was incredible and I was easily able to spend the rest of my few hours there, exploring the history and art that filled it's four floors. But eventually, it was time to get some pre-FlixBus fast food (a Doner box in case you were wondering), and hit the road.

Honestly, I can understand why people are obsessed with Amsterdam. The canals make it a unique, yet beautiful city, it has an incredibly rich history, and the food is wonderful. This is definitely a city I'm adding to my 'need to come back to' list. 

And for my next adventure: FRIENDS! Lol. I'm welcoming my lovely high school friends that both recently graduated college, Erin and Ali, to Dusseldorf on Monday afternoon and I'll be showing them around here for a couple days, and then a week from right now we'll be on a train to Berlin! As I said in an earlier post, I've kind of gotten used to the whole alone [read: no outside-of-work friends] but not lonely thing, but I am SO EXCITED for some friends from home to be visiting 😊