Saturday 7/25/09 Amsterdam Day 3

We slept pretty late. It doesn’t really matter though because there isn’t a whole lot to do in Amsterdam. I looked up this pancakes place because I wanted some Dutch pancakes…they are supposed to be really good. I found this place called Pancakes! Amsterdam. Lol so we decided to go. I ordered a plain dutch pancake and Pari got muesli pancakes that came with fruit and yogurt on the side. It was really good. The pancake took up the whole plate. It was really thin and it had such good flavor. They had cinnamon and sugar and powdered sugar on the table along with syrup. It was really tasty. Someone ordered American pancakes and it was 3 pancakes stacked on the plate with a shitload of syrup all around the pancakes and on the plate. It made me feel disgusted to be an American haha

Then we went back to the flower market so Pari could buy her hello kitty. She also bought these two tiny glass kitties and a phone charm. I told the lady that was ringing us up that she liked cats. I don’t think she got the joke. Really though, Pari loves kitties.




After the flower market we went to Albert Cuypmarket. It is supposed to be a really good market but I didn’t think that it was all that great. It was so big though. It seemed like it went on forever and ever and it was crowded and hot. We did get some fries from the Viammese Frithaus stall that was there. They are really good. It is supposed to be the best…I can believe it.

Then we went to the Van Gogh museum. It was really cool. I learned a lot about Van Gogh. One of the tipping points that made him crazy was that Gauguin moved out of the studio that they had been sharing only after a month because he couldn’t take it anymore. I guess it made him sad.

We decided to regroup before going to dinner. We had a decent amount of time before our 9:15 reservations so we walked around the red light district. It was kinda gross. Actually it was really gross. There was this one guy who had thrown up on himself and some guy was hosing him off. The women in the windows weren’t really attractive and most of them were old. Basically it was just a bunch of drunk guys walking around.

We took the tram to the restaurant and sat by the canal until 9:15. It was nice outside and it wasn’t too windy. We had to wait at the bar for our table to be ready but it didn’t take that long. When we were seated the waitress started to talk to us in Dutch. Most of the people did. I take it as definitely being a compliment. Everyone speaks perfect English though, it’s amazing. Dutch is such a crazy language.

We ordered the vegetarian Rijsttafel which is 15 different little dishes that are served in little ramekins. Most of the dishes were just vegetables, especially cabbage. There were only two things that I didn’t like. All of the dishes were really good. It is a little over priced I think at 22 euros a person. It is only 3 or 4 euros cheaper than regular rijsttafel. I don’t regret it at all though, Amsterdam is supposed to have really good Indonesian food and this place is one of the best. For dessert we got layer cake and two latte’s. It was soo good. The cake was so moist and they brought you little things of white and milk chocolate for the coffee. For the first time since coming to Europe I think I finally was able to enjoy the long dinning experience. Pari and I agreed that it was the second best dinning experience we have had. Michael Anthony’s in Hilton Head was truly amazing.

After dinner we decided to walk around the red light district. It was a little better at night, I guess because you couldn’t see what exactly was on the street and the lack of sunlight made the ladies seem less unattractive. We were going to go the this gay bar but when we found it is just seemed really boring and lifeless so we just decided to go back to the hotel.



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