Day Two in Amsterdam

After an exhausting, busy day, we wanted to take it easy on our second to last day in Amsterdam. Originally we had all sorts of plans made: Holland windmills, rent bikes, Rembrandt House Museum. Since I have about another month of travelling, I needed to keep my energy up. So a few of us joined the hostel for a tour of Amsterdam. 

This is a 3D recreation of Rembrandt's Night Watch. I got in a debate with another person about how this was made. Since it was obvious that it was bronze, I knew it had to be cast bronze (using a mold and melted bronze which cools and solidifies). The other person in the debate thought it wasn't cast bronze, that perhaps it was sculpted. Even though the sculptures sounded hollow, they did not change their minds. Google came to the rescue and confirmed that it was cast bronze. I am so glad that my Art History degree was good for something.

Toward the middle of the day, I hit my breaking point; I just wanted to go home. I missed everything about home like my cats, my mom, and my sister. That was when we came across this really cool theatre which was renamed during World War II because of the Jewish name (it has since been given back its original name) and it had a playing of the new Aladdin in about an hour or so. Sierra, Laura, and I bought tickets, sent the information over to Catie and Krosbi and got some lunch.

 I ordered a veggie burger but it was awful; it was just a stack of vegetables. Thank goodness I liked the fries.

The movie really helped cool me down and it was funny enough. Catie and Krosbi were able to meet up with us for the movie. Sierra found a very rare Doctor Pepper which tasted kind of awful but it was a nice reminder of what home had to offer.

As we made our way back to the hostel, I crossed this alleyway and it was too beautiful to not get a picture.

At the hostel that night, they had an open mike night. Some Canadians opened the show with the Canadian National Anthem. When the show was almost over, the hostel requested the Star Spangled Banner. I was a little bit on edge about doing it with the rest of the Americans because of how the US looks in international eyes right now, but the Christian Hostel was nice enough. I laughed through most of it but they all liked it.

We said good bye to Laura and Sierra as they headed to Spain early in the morning. Tomorrow would be our last day in Amsterdam and I was pretty ready to get out of there. It smelled like weed for most of it and was creepy with the Red Light District for the rest of it. Most of all, I was ready to be nearer to home.