We got up and scoped out our humongous hostel’s included breakfast (not very good but lots of food) and then headed out. The plan was to go to Albery Cuyper market (a big outdoor market i wanted to check out), then head to the Heineken Experience and then to Anne Frank’s house in the evening. We had been unable to pre-purchase tickets for earlier in the day as they were all sold out. Albery Cuyper market was great, tons of really random stuff for sale as well as huge candy stalls, cheese stalls, pickle stalls and all manner or weird Dutch food products.
Albert Cuyper Market
Amsterdam is definitely the most ethnically diverse place ive visited in europe and this market was full of beautiful people from all over (especially from places the Dutch colonized). After a delicious lunch of falafels at one of Amsterdam’s best falafel joints we headed to the Heineken experience, cheerfully commenting that “hahaha we dont need these anymore!” as we passed umbrella stalls. This was to be our undoing.
The Heineken Experience had been really hyped up by our pals so when we arrived–and it was under construction and not open it was a bit of a bummer. So we decided to amble back to our hostel stopping at one of Amsterdam’s “Coffee Shops” along the way. As we were passing the Van Gogh Museum i felt the first drop of rain. So ran into a stall selling knock off Van Gogh Museum merchandise and shelled out 15 euros (!!!) for a Starry Night Umbrella. And shortly after that the downpour began.
now what we should have done was shell out five more euros for the large umbrella and not scrimped on the one person. Jamie gallantly insisted that I use the umbrella and gave me most of his valuables so they wouldn’t get soaked. It was raining really hard, so hard in fact that the drops pounded off the pavement to further soak out feet and legs. We should have just ducked into a cafe or even a doorway but for some reason we were really cheerful and decided to plod onwards towards our hostel. But then we entered Vondelpark and got seriously lost. It was a very picturesque lost, meandering over little bridges and next to ponds and weeping willows but we had no idea how to get out of the park and jamie was completely soaked and still romantically insisting that I keep the umbrella (which had also broken a bit for absolutely no reason at all). At one point we decided to sing to distract ourselves from the increasingly cold weather–it was pretty fun 
We eventually emerged to discover we were at the very back of the park and our hostel is at the very front. Armed with a sodden and disintegrating map we trekked onwards, eventually reaching our hostel.
Between no Heineken Experience and the rain we certainly didnt feel like heading across town to Anne Frank’s house so we scrapped those plans, rested while waiting for the rain to subside and then headed to the Von Gogh Museum. It was great–beautifully organized (like all European museums seem to be) and full of treasures. In addition to their Van Gogh collection the museum displayed works that had influenced him as well as works by artists who were influenced by his style. Only two things were missing: there was no mention at all of the ear cutting episode and no Starry Night. Im sure some swanky museum like the Met or Louvre has snagged it, but i would have liked to learn more about the insane period of Van Gogh’s life.
For dinner we went to a little one room sushi place which just had a counter, some stools and a really nice dutch woman making sushi. Then we wandered around taking in the city and actually had even more sushi (yah for Fourth Meal!) in Leidseplein before going to sleep.
–Sarah
