day nine: amsterdam

today could be easily summed up as it was the best of times and it was the worst of times.

got up at nine today and went out for a run in the rain. i wasn't feeling great after all the drinking and eating yesterday. i needed to work it off. and the rain definitely didn't make it easier. although its nice to run in the rain. for the most part it didn't rain that hard so it was alright.

got back and woke up N and headed down to breakfast at 10. the bacon and coffee were good, the powdered eggs weren't. but still not a bad start to the day. we got cleaned up and headed out to the anne frank house at 11:30. it was a slow start but with the rain getting worse around 11, we figured slow was better.

we walked about 10 minutes in light rain to the anne frank museum. unfortunately i didn't listen to the advice of the web and forgot to buy the tickets in advance. so we waited outside in the rain and cold for a good half hour. the museum was extremely moving and sad. the space itself was less compelling than the story. i think i read her diary when i was much younger (maybe middle/high school) i don't think it left a super strong impression on me. N and i were really moved by what they went through and how young she was when she was writing (she died when she was only 13). as we walked back for lunch, we had a conversation about genocide and the recent and current campaigns going on that americans know little or don't care to know about.

it was getting quite cold now and with the rain we were getting pretty wet. it was in the low 40's by this point. i had two tshirts, a patagonia wool base later and a military style shell (for the rain). N only had a long sleeve shirt, a tshirt and a thin zip up jacket. we didn't have umbrella so we were both wearing hats. for the most part it wasn't raining hard, but a constant drizzle.

we made our way to mcdonalds again. this time we both got quarterpounders. N got a chicken sandwich on top of it all. afterwards we walked down the street to Zara. N had never been to one and wanted to check it out. it makes sense that he wouldn't have been in one since none of their clothes would fit him. next we stopped by H&M. N needed a new hat because his cap wasn't doing great in the rain. and it wasn't really keeping his head warm. he tried on hats for a while and looked in the mirror for a long time for each one. it was almost like shopping with a girl. finally he picked a tan paperboy hat which worked well for the rest of the day. he also picked up underwear because he didn't pack enough. it's primarily because he showers twice a day so underwear demand is 2x the normal amount. i thought about making a supply and demand chart to better illustrate this, but realized that would be too awesome and sad at the same time.

i picked up a white hat as well for fun. we left H&M and decided we didn't want to carry this stuff around so we headed back to the hotel which was only a ten minute walk away. we checked email and bought the van gogh tickets online. we dropped the stuff off in the hotel room and took a little break watching music videos. N was making fun of pop music and sat through all of pussycat dolls' "bottle pop" and counted the number of times they said bottle pop. 57 times. so he made his point. of course now we had that sound stuck in our heads for the next couple of hours.

we took the tram down to the museum and saw a giant line for the tickets. we had to pay a little extra for getting them online, but it was worth skipping the long line. the museum itself was amazing. i had a seen a huge van gogh exhibit in vienna last fall, but a few key pieces were missing. the museum had a special exhibit called the colors of the night (the centerpiece being starry night). the museum had piece besides van gogh's works, primarily of artists who were influential in the development of his style. N had a great time except for the floor of drawings (which he doesn't like much at all). we got to much of his famous works: the man with the red hat, his room, self portraits (although not the infamous one), the flowers works (although again not the famous iris one). we saw the hayfield one - i can't remember the name. it always reminds me of a bad dream which is why i love it. i'll have to look it up and post it. the night paintings were stunning of course and starry night was worth the trip on its own.

after we left the museum we walked through the premium shopping area to find a nice weekend duffel type bag for N. his current bag is little more than a gym bag and has two broken zippers. hardly the way to travel. we found an interesting style at diesel, but it was in black and we were looking for something in green. we hit up hermes, tumi and ralph lauren (mainly for me). didn't find anything amazing besides the diesel bag, so we jumped back on the tram and hit the market for more beer. that was the beginning of the end for me.

we had five and seven tallboys a piece. we ate the rest of our deli meat and cheese for a light dinner. unfortunately i may have eaten something that wasn't kosher. but being dehydrated plus a lot of beer plus some funky deli meat did not lead to good things. after dinner and predrinking we walked down to the theater. we got a five euro discount because when asked if i had a coupon, i said i wished i did. so we saved ten euros. we had a few more beers at the comedy show boom chicago and then it was the end of me. i was violently ill even before intermission. and spent most of the second half of the show in the bathroom trying not to die. at some point i dropped my iphone in a glass of water so who knows if it'll work when i try to turn it back on. i'm trying to let it dry out before i try to power it back up. when i was came back out, N was talking to a guy and girl from texas. the girl was living here now and the guy was visiting her. they were ex's. she was trying to pawn him off on us tomorrow so she could look for a job. this whole conversation to me seemed silly in general. i was also trying my best not to puke. after some not so subtle suggestions i convinced N that we should head back.

N wanted some burger king, so he went in and got two sandwiches, fries, onion rings and something else. i waited outside. we wanted back and met a south african women who walked back with us for much of the way. when we got back, N tried to have me drink water, but that wasn't working. he ate his food and thankfully N gave me some tylonel.