I've already done this post. After 40 minutes of blogging, the app crashed and I lost everything. Growl. I'm going to give you a shorter version. Enjoy.
P.S. Uploading photos takes anywhere from two minutes to two days. I really hope people are actually reading these. Lol. Expect a quiz. 😜
Today, we decided, was the day for Anne Frank and Van Gogh. We got out later than we wanted and didn't really get to the Anne Frank Museum early.
This is when we first got into line. It took two hours. If you look at Brad's photo of the line, it's from when we turned left up ahead. Long line.
While waiting in line, there was the Homomonument, a monument dedicated to the gay rights movement, to take pictures of. It has three large triangle, one at each point to make a larger triangle. If you look at the above photo, the marble to the left is the start of a point.
Anothee point. Hi ducky.
The third. This was the first monument to honor those killed by the Nazis.
When you're waiting in line for Anne Frank, make sure you bring lots of €0,5 coins. There is a bathroom. And there is a bathroom nazi. Explanation: you can get around paying for the bathroom if you go in after someone else. People caught on to this. After some time, a man came up pretending to need to use the restroom and asked the woman in the front of the line how to pay. She explained the trick. He then showed his true colors and stood there, hands on hips, making sure everyone took out money. Evil man.
Waiting.
Finally!
Okay...so many museums have a strict no photo policy. As you will see from the Van Gogh museum, I sometimes don't understand what that means. Here, however, the solemnity was enough to stop me. I don't think I saw anyone taking photos, actually. The museum was definitely worth the wait.
Afterward: food. Need food.
During our search for food, we found a parade.
Fooood! I had a yummy falafel. Brad has meat.
We headed back to Sofiane, who helped us print our tickets for Van Gogh.
Buying those tickets online = best decision ever. No real line. Yay!
Less solemn at Van Gogh.
In all of his self portraits, he paints his eyes a different color. Cool.
The best one, even from an angle. I love how alive and bright this seems, but if you look closely, you realize most of the flowers are dead or dying.
By the way, do the audio guide. It's worth it.
After Van Gogh, we went to the Jordaan district, as per the recommendation of Sofiane. It was here we ate dinner. FYI: when ordering tomato soup, expect runny spaghetti with meatballs.
Found a nice bar after dinner.
No matter where you go in Europe, the bathrooms will always be different. In one establishment they were even different from each other. There is no one type of toilet. Weird.
On our walk back.
Brad has family here. Tehe.
We then hoped on a fast train to Paris, which we clocked at going about 180 mph.
We sat with another couple. They were not the nicest. The man was especially rude. As soon as he sat down he slouched to where his knee was basically between my legs and promptly fell asleep. At one point, he even tried to push me out of the way. Growl. What was more annoying, however, was when I caught her complaining about Brad who was sitting up. Stupid people.
We pulled in to Paris close to midnight. Met our hosts, Sandra and Bruno. They are sweet and made Brad and I feel welcome.
We're looking forward to the next couple of days with them.