Sound: "Take On Me" by A-ha
Days 2: October 15, 2010: Den Haag
Dutch phrase of the day: "Uitsmijter." (I know that this is technically a word, and not a phrase, but apparently in Dutch culture, serving a guest an uitsmijter is the equivalent of saying "Please get the heck out of my house. I am done with you.")
I awoke Friday morning excited for one thing: Madurodam, the tiny city of wonder and goodness and magic. Then I looked out my window and saw the rain. As wonderful and good and magical as Madurodam may be, I was not going to walk around in the open when it was raining. So Mia and I decided to be cultured and go into the center of Den Haag and see Parliament and museums and history and stuff. We got off the tram at Kneuterdijk ("Kuh-new-ter-dek"), which was, according to the nice tram driver, the stop for Parliament. We did not see Parliament, but we did see a nice big building with lots of flags. It looked old, so we decided to go explore it. After exploring for a while, Mia asked a lady selling postcards where Parliament was. Her reply: "You're standing in it." Dutch language: 1, Morgan and Mia: 0.
This is part of the fountain in Parliament. It appears to be a dog throwing up violently. Holland, what is wrong with you?
Excited to learn that we had actually found Parliament, we decided to go on a tour. However, we had just missed the 12:00 tour and the next one wasn't until 3:00. "Well," we thought, "we'll just come back and get our tickets later." We asked the people selling tickets if this was a good idea, and they said yes. So we went to Mauritshuis (a lovely museum right next to Parliament) and looked at paintings for a while. Mauritshuis has quite a few paintings by Rembrandt, and we found a rather odd theme: Rembrandt's subjects, at least in those in the paintings in Mauritshuis, do not look very happy to be painted. In fact, they look quite awkward, and occasionally outright scared.
Especially "Susanna." But, hey, I too would be uncomfortable if some man was painting me naked.
After looking at uncomfortable naked people for a while, we still had time to kill. So we went outside towards Spui, the shopping street, and saw Emma Thompson, an actress that Mia is obsessed with. Ms. Thompson was promoting a exhibit called "Journey" that was put on by the Helen Bamber Foundation, an organization that works with victims of extreme trauma (genocide, slavery, etc.). Mia and I went through the "Journey" and then spoke to some of the workers afterwards (not Emma Thompson). Mia then made connections for a potential kick butt internship, because her major (Television-Radio) is super cool. We then had a yummy lunch of uitsmijters (score 1 point for Grandma's recommendation).
At this point, it was time to go back to Parliament for our tour. Except we had been tricked! Tour tickets were all sold out and a new sign had appeared reading "We recommend that you buy tickets in advance." Tricky, tricky Parliament. Slightly sad and very tired, we returned to the hostel for nap time.
After our nap, we walked to Scheveningen beach to get some dinner. It was still raining and Scheveningen is possibly the most windy place in the world. These weather conditions reminded me of a hurricane. In fact, I thought that this night might possibly be the night when the ocean finally reclaims Holland. Fortunately, it wasn't. We had some Mexican food (because I have a need to eat Mexican food in every country I visit), and were very disappointed by the teeny little beers we were served. After a month and a half of England, we were expecting proper pints, but apparently the Dutch do not share in England's alcoholism.
After dinner we returned to Jorplace, because it was three stories and we thought that being on higher ground might help if Holland sank. However, we were not done for the night, so we made friends with Corky, an American expatriate who used to live in Belgium, except he had just gotten divorced and couldn't come home for a few weeks. Corky, by the way, grew up in Danville, CA, which is where my family's synagogue used to be. We also made friends with a Canadian girl (more on her later), and two very stereotypical Irishmen. Then we went to sleep, because it had been a long day of trickery and food and people.
Next time: Madurodam!!!!!
Peace out, cubscouts.
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