9.30.21

I started my day with a starbucks coffee around 10am. It was a pretty cold day, not too rainy, but pretty overcast.

I first walked to the Foam Fotografie Museum. I really, really enjoyed this museum, probably my favorite one yet. The photography featured was incredible. They all told amazingly unique stories of each artist, from searching for a birth father to the losses of Moria refugees. It was amazing and so inspiring to me.

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I continued walking to the Albert Cuyp Museum- a huge outdoor vendor marketplace. I got some pepper nuts which was apparently a Dutch classic. They are little gingerbread biscuits with a large variety of flavors and coverings. For lunch, I had a ham and cheese sandwich and an original, freshly made chocolate stroopwafel. Oh my goodness- this was so good. It was warm and cinnamon and amazing, I will definitely be having many, many more.

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I then visited the popular Moco Museum. My favorite artist featured was probably Banksy. It is so crazy to me how he would sneak into art museums and display his own works! His work and process carry so much meaning and depth. The bottom floor of the Moco Museum was like a light show, it was so cool and reminded me of Meow Wolf!

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I was getting cold so I made my way back to the hostel. I met another roommate- a girl from Minnesota who is super nice. I don’t have an exact plan for tonight, but I’m sure ill find something!

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I went to the lounge to read and met a girl named Joanna! She’s from Paris and I really enjoyed talking to her. She told me all about herself. She had studied anthropology and psychology in school but dropped out to travel. She loves art and cats. We talked about what she had learned at University and it was a great conversation and maybe I want to look into studying anthropology. As we kept talking, more people began to join us- one guy , Wesley, from Arizona, who has been backpacking since April and is going to be for the rest of the year. A guy- Eric, who was born in Mexico but moved to Israel when he was 14. I also met a girl- Swane- who is from France and super nice, and a guy from the UK. We all got some pizza and ate at the hostel bar. We played a couple games of pool and by then my roommate from Minnesota joined us. 2 sisters from Austria also joined- one was 18! (Everyone else I had met was at least 20. We also talked with 3 girls from Canada. 2 were from Calgary (one said she had cousins in Colorado Springs) and one was from Vancouver! I told her I was going to UBC and it was so cool to see the little connections you can make with people from all around the world.

Around 11 we all left to find a club/bar but after a lot of walking round we turned up unsuccessful. We settled on a karaoke bar which was so much fun. We all danced and sang and had so much fun. It closed at 12, so we couldn’t stay long. So we all headed to McDonalds. I got a blizzard and we all ate back at the hostel.

I went to bed around 1- another sucessful night in amsterdam!