
Amsterdam: Day Five (Bloemenmarkt & Pancakes)
On the fifth day of my week-long Amsterdam vacation, I went to FOAM, bloemenmarkt, and Pancake Bakery…
Today. Woke up. Made it down in time for the end of my hostel’s breakfast. Ate. Took off.
I found FOAM, which is an amazing little photography museum I wanted to check out. The photography in the first exhibit was contemporary Amsterdam work. But the second floor had a killer exhibit by Jessica Dimmock titled “The 9th Floor.” She basically followed these heroin addicts as they lived in a 9th floor apartment and after they were kicked out. One disappeared. One tried to get help form family. Two of them had a baby together. It was beautiful work.
After the museum I walked through bloemenmarkt, which is a big flower market that had fresh flowers, bulbs, etc. So many pretty flowers.
Next up I decided to go find pancakes and found the Pancake Bakery. I said “Just one.” The waitress said “Just one?” It’s a phrase I’ve had to utter and confirm too many times this week.
She seated me next to the kitchen on a table that they had formerly been using to stack trays. I didn’t mind because I liked just watching the pancakes being made. I ordered an orange juice because really nothing is better than fresh orange juice and a pancake with bacon, cheese, and mushrooms. It was damn tasty but way too huge to finish.
After that I walked through Magna Plaza, which is basically a shopping mall, and headed back to my hostel. Now I’m sitting here, doing, what else but drinking a Heineken.
I swear everyone here thinks I’m a huge stoner because they just see me sitting here staring and doing not much else a lot. But it’s OK because they are all stoners. The other day there were two guys in here who were literally just sitting and staring. I left and came back a few hours later and I swear they hadn’t moved an inch.