Amsterdam Day 2

The sunlight slowly faded in to our room and we could hear the traffic sounds below. My alarm went off at 8:30, but we all stayed in bed until one of the hotel staff knocked on our door with breakfast. Breakfast was quite the ordeal as we sat down at our little table with fresh coffee, orange juice, a fresh hard-boiled egg, gouda cheese, sliced ham, 3 different types of toast, butter and jam. We enjoyed waking up to one of the best breakfasts I've ever had on vacation!

My school's Model UN team was in the Hague (the other half of the Netherlands' capital) and I tried to meet up with a friend who's in it on this morning. However, we didn't realize how complicated meeting up in a foreign country that you've never been to before can be, especially without phone contact! Ends up, we both waited outside the Van Gogh Museum for the other one to arrive, probably for 90 minutes total, but we must have just missed each other! Oh well, maybe next time!

After waiting, my friend Chelsi and I just decided to go off an continue exploring the myriad of streets in the northwestern part of the city. Again, tons of great and unique stores to choose from, including one that has massive rolls of printed tablecloth vinyl where they can make anything you dream out of it. Very random. I ended up buying myself a great souvenir at a toy store. I've seen many different toy stores with varieties of hand-carved wooden animals. At this toy store I found a buck, which is one of my favorite animals, thanks to fraternity traditions. It was a little costly for a souvenir, but I know it's one that I will always enjoy having on my desk or bookshelf to look at!

Chelsi had to leave for Barcelona early in the afternoon so I walked her back to the hotel and ate another sandwich from the fresh groceries I bought the day before. We didn't have a fridge, but I left the meat and cheese on the windowsill and it was still freezing cold when I picked it up for a sandwich! After eating and saying goodbye to Chelsi, I decided my aching feet needed a nap. What better place for a nap than with the fading afternoon sun peeking through the curtains and the crisp breeze blowing in? Ahh, I miss Amsterdam!

In the evening we bought tickets for a comedy show called Boom Chicago that is, I guess, known as a place where SNL scouts look for new actors. The show was really hilarious, even the parts making fun of Americans. In fact, it made fun of ever country that sends tourists to Europe so it was really funny. It's the first real comedy show I've been to and it was a lot of fun. The audience was also asked to participate and our group got in a few funny topics, best one being when the comedian asked for a random line of conversation from the day and my friend blurts out, "The bikes are coming!"... it took forever for the comedian and her to figure out what she said, very hilarious.

After that, my friends and I wandered around the city a bit, I grabbed a Kebap sandwich (America needs these Kebap/b places that exist all over Madrid and the rest of Europe!!!) and went to bed, knowing we had another early train ride back to Paris the next day.