Day Thirty-Seven: Pure Ecstasy

7/22/15, 8:20 PM CET

I think there are more people crawling around this I Amsterdam sign than there are people that actually live in Amsterdam.

I have no idea how that guy got on top of the letter I.

Joby seems to be enjoying himself though.

Seriously, I wish I could get a better shot of the entire sign, but these damn tourists are literally CRAWLING ALL OVER IT.

I did take a series of pictures that gets most of the sign in it though. And from those pictures, I tried to stitch together a panorama on Photoshop, check it out.

(PANORAMA I AMSTERDAM SIGN)

They also have these ADORABLE statues on display near the big I AmATourist sign. 

It's Cinnamoroll!

They're called Miffy statues, and apparently they're super popular in Amsterdam. Think kind of like Hello Kitty, except cuter and not prone to being collected by large, neckbearded men. But apparently, Amsterdam has a pretty respectable collection of them, check them out.

How many times can you find my mom? I'll give you a hint, she's in every frame.

We also planned to Gogh to a museum today. The Van Gogh museum, that is. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

ANYWAY, yeah, so we visited National Semi-Earless Persons Club in Amsterdam, and it was BEAUTIFUL (I couldn't take pictures though). I mean I'm not even that much of an art person myself, but I'm really glad we went to that museum. It's one thing to look at prints or online pictures of the work Van Gogh did, but it's another to see them in person. Online, you don't see the thickness of the paint on the canvas, nor do you see it next to the other paintings that Van Gogh intended you to see them with. And this places beats out other art museums with boring old paintings from umpteenth century classical artists obsessed with realism. Van Gogh's art has a bit of abstractness in it, not too abstract that it looks like a toddler could make it with fingerprint, but abstract enough with its colors and forms that it makes even the most boring scenes look beautiful.

Yeah, I like his art. And so did Joby.

Yeah, I got a few weird glances from people from taking
these pictures.

No, I did not give a single unit of fornication.

Afterwards, we went into the Anne Frank museum (again, no pictures allowed) which was the actual place she lived and hid in during the Holocaust. 

For most of the tour, I felt very neutral about the museum. Sure, it was cool to see in person the places Anne Frank described in her diary, and it made me realize that their life was RIDICULOUSLY hard because of the tiny spaces they had, made even tinier because they had to share it with eight people. But I think the most impactful thing for me was seeing the log book of the people that died in the Holocaust. Anne Frank's name was there, on the page that was on display, but there was another Anne Frank right below her too. And then under her, more people with the Frank last name. And then in the dictionary-sized book, countless more names of people who died in the Holocaust.

It's strange, that we have an Anne Frank museum, but where are the museums for the other millions of people that died during the Holocaust? Where are the published diaries and memorials for them? The movie they showed at the end of the tour captured it incredibly. Anne Frank's story is tragic, of course. But it's only one story of millions.

On a MUCH lighter note, we ended the day with dinner at a delicious place called "Crystal Steakhouse and Pizzeria" and it was GREAT. I tried something new and ordered shawarma with kebab and curried rice and it was AMAZING.

I can see why Tony Stark wanted to try this so badly.

And then the highlight of the day? This shop that let you build your own CUSTOM MAGNUM ICE CREAM.

Finally, something with pleasure hours in Amsterdam that don't involve
marijuana or nudity.

Inside the shop. I wouldn't be surprised if heaven looked sort of like this.

The artisans making a masterpiece that would make even
Michelangelo jealous.

I ordered white chocolate with popping candy, white chocolate curls, and dried dijn berries or something like that, topped with a chocolate drizzle and it was BEAUTIFUL.

If you look carefully, you'll see a few wet spots on the ice cream tray. Those
are from the tears of joy I cried when I saw this.

Imagine it: sweet white chocolate with a slight tang from the dijn berries. With every bite, a mix of vanilla ice cream, white and milk chocolate, and berries, all accompanied with an explosion of popping candy.

It was like ecstacy in your mouth. Except without the horrible drug-like side effects.





RFotD: I have a theory that if I just stand in the middle of Amsterdam's Red Light District for long enough, I'll inhale enough marijuana fumes from the pavement to get a secondhand high.