Erika and Erika's Excellent Adventure: Day 6- Den Haag & Amsterdam

Hey guys, it's been wonderful knowing you, but I won't be coming home. I'm just going to stay in Amsterdam. I hear there are plentiful jobs for nice-looking young women like me (I get to lay down most of the day, too!), and it's de rigeur to drive your bike kamikaze-style with a dog in a crate attached to the handlebars. So I'm staying.

Ever since I found out there was a torture museum in Amsterdam, this day has been the part of my trip I've been looking forward to the most. And it did not disappoint! First, though, I had to accompany Anjani to work (or at least to Centraal) so I could visit the bus ticket office in Den Haag and sort out my ticket for tonight's bus ride to Copenhagen. I had fifteen minutes to kill before the bus ticket office opened, so I strolled around downtown Den Haag in the wee, sunny hours of the morning.

The Dutch know how to appreciate beautiful weather (and extended sunlight) in the onset of Spring and Summer. Just look at the hundreds of tables set out by cafes! I can't even imagine where they store these in the winter.

OK, this is one of the weird birds that got me so excited at the bus station. I know they're just winged rats over here, but to me they're exciting and new!

The Mauritshuis (sp?), where The Girl With a Pearl Earring is kept:

Some general pictures of central Den Haag:

Again, this country rules! Check out the Central Station parking lot!

NV! NV!!!

Look at these awesome oilcloth bike bags. I'm totally going to teach myself how to make them.

One of the Dutch culinary traditions is an 'automaat,' where you can buy overcooked food from a plastic cubicle in a wall. Yum!

Wish people would stop spelling my name incorrectly... ah well, all that will change tomorrow when I arrive in Scandinavia, where they know how to spell Erika!

Amsterdam Centraal:

First stop: the Torture Museum! See the post below this one for pics.

Nasty!

You don't say... how interestinzzzzzzzzzz.....

Now this is a bike:

Vegetarian restaurant! Closed on Mondays!

Ethiopian restaurant! Closed on Mondays!

Finally I found one of the vegan restaurants on my list and chowed down! Deshima, a macrobiotic lunch counter and whole foods store, is just across the street from the Rijksmuseum (which I skipped). My stomach blinded my eyes temporarily, and I found too late that for the prices, I'd bought quite a lot of food. Therefore, I had to be sure to eat every last morsel and really get my money's worth.

Miso soup:

tofu, brown rice, cabbage, some weird half-fried seaweed thingie, and pasta salad:

Strawberry pear tart thingie:

I'm seriously embarrassed to tell you how much I paid. But it was good!

Another one of the handicapped cars, this one tricked out!

I've quickly learned that graffiti and spray-painting has been elevated to high art in The Netherlands. Anne, who used to dabble as a teenager, tells me that graffiti artists have a strict code to respect other artists, including the artists who built monuments and beautiful buildings centuries ago. As a result, graffiti is kept in areas where it is not harmful and instead, appreciated. The caliber of artwork here is really great! Who needs Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Van Gogh when you've got this kind of art for free on the street?

OK, not confusing at all: In The Netherlands, a circled icon means you cannot do the activity depicted. So here, the sign is actually instructing you not to walk or bike on this side of the street. Some Dutch guy looked at me, perplexed, when I took this photo. I guess it is pretty touristy to take a picture of a construction sign!

A flea market, where I found my Swedish to be quite useful! Often I can feel frustrated with myself for learning a language spoken only in one country and by seven million people, but when some shady guy tries to be your new best friend, feigning ignorance and answering only in a language spoken in one random country is actually quite helpful! I was rid of him in under a minute.

A famous tattoo shop in the flea market (no, Mom, I didn't get any more!):

And here you have the stalls where today's Flemish Masters stock up on their materials. Spray paint! Anne says he used to shop here as a teenager.

I got so badly lost trying to find the red light district, which is part of why I'm returning for a few hours today. My feet were almost ready to explode at the end of the day, and this morning I woke up with horror to see Old Lady Feet, with angry purple veins along the sole. So here are some pictures I took while horribly lost- hopefully I'll be more successful today!

Anne translated this poster as "Send a watchdog to Brussels- Vote for the Social Party!" Most countries in the EU had elections in the past week for their EU representatives.