After I wrote my blog post for yesterday, I ended up going out with Spencer, Aiden, Naseem, and Ahona to Bulldog Coffee Shop and Bulldog Cafe.  The difference between a coffee shop and a cafe is that marijuana is sold at coffee shops, while alcohol is sold at cafes.  Marijuana can be smoked in both, but not tobacco per Amsterdam laws.  Afterwards we went to get churros and Greek food, then headed back to the hostel.  We met up with a large group of Canadian guys traveling together and they convinced us to go out to a Karaoke bar for a little bit.  We did, and it was alright.  They played a lot of older songs (Queen, Neil Diamond, etc) which were fun to sing to but the original pod of us left after a few songs and went back to the hostel to sleep around 2AM.

At 5AM, I was awoken by a strange, drunk man attempting to sit on my face with wet (perhaps urine soaked) jeans.  He had thought that my bunk was his when it was indeed not.  He stumbled around the room, sat on Spencer’s bed, and was promptly kicked off.  He then stumbled into the hallway and I didn’t hear anything until around 8AM when he came back into the room and I realized that he was one of the new Canadians we’d gone to the karaoke bar with earlier in the morning.

At around 10AM Aiden and I decided to get breakfast and go to the Rijksmuseum.  We got coffees and pastries at a bakery on the way to the museum, and arrived at the museum around 11AM.  Pro tip: don’t buy the audio tour if you have an iPhone and headphones on you.  You can save €5 by downloading the app and listening to the tour on your own device!

The museum was very impressive and well organized.  I really enjoyed the library, paintings, and ornate wood furniture.

After the Rijksmuseum, we got sandwiches and coffee at Stef’s Bakery for about €8 each.  The coffees were small, but the sandwiches were excellent.  I had a gorgonzola and fig jam sandwich on wheat bread with greens and it was one of the cheapest, tastiest lunches I’ve had in Europe thus far.

We then decided to go to the Anne Frank Museum, but since we didn’t get online tickets, we stood in line for about 2 hours before getting into the museum.  The museum was very well done and really gave the visitor a glimpse into how the Frank family must’ve felt living in such a small space during an incredibly horrible time.  I left with a very heavy heart.

Tonight I plan on going to sleep early so I can catch an early train to Berlin in the morning.  The ride will take about six and a half hours, so I’d like to leave as early as possible so I can a) get to the hostel while it’s still light out and b) have some time to familiarize myself with the surrounding area.