Netherlands: Day 7 and 8 — Tiana Daniella

Day 7

Today was a pretty normal day. After work we decided to walk to the city centre. We stopped at Pull and Bear to shop and I got 2 shirts on sale for $11 combined (score!). I also came veeery close to buying another backpack because it was covered in patches.

After shopping we decided to look around for places to eat. After wandering around for a bit we found Amarty's. It's a very cute little waffle and frozen yogurt place near the Dom (old church). For supper I ended up having the very nutritious meal of a waffle with nutella and a chai tea latte, followed by frozen yogurt for desert.

In my defence, I did put almonds and dried cranberries (and possibly syrup waffle pieces) on my frozen yogurt.

While we were eating, we looked at some movie listings and found out that a few theatres will actually play movies in english (or whatever language they were originally in) with Dutch subtitles, instead of rerecording the audio in Dutch. I definitely want to go check it out.

Day 8

IT'S THE WEEKEND!*

The original plan was to try to do everything on the Utrecht in 48 hours list done this weekend but that didn't quite work (for reasons you'll soon see).

Once we finally left around 10:30, it was straight to city centre. First stop: HEMA.

My pictures were ready from the day in Arnhem!! IT'S CHRISTMAS! I picked those up and bought a few more rolls of film, while Annie bought a disposable film camera. I decided to put the prints in my backpack so we could look at them when we stopped for lunch.

From HEMA we shopped around a bit, going to Lush and Sam Friday. At Lush we met a very nice sales associate and each bought a liquid eyeliner/eyeshadow and Annie also (shockingly) bought a glittery bath bomb.

Then to start off our 48 hours list, we headed to the Dom. The Dom (technically St. Martin's Cathedral) is a church in the middle of Utrecht that was built in 1254. It was beautiful inside, filled with carvings and candlelight. Someone started playing the old pipe organ as everyone walked around and it echoed all through the church.

After the Dom, we walked around outside and found a garden filled with sculptures and exhibits.

Right around now was when, tragically, my Pentax's battery died :^( Luckily, being the paranoid person that I am, I brought the Nikon along as well just in case it rained. If anyone knows where I can buy two 1.5V batteries in Utrecht, help a friend out and let me know.

After walking around the city for a while we decided to stop for coffee. We tried one place but they seemed to be very busy, and only sold dessert, so we moved indoors to a different café (which turned out to be a good move) and stopping for coffee turned into stopping for lunch.

As we sat down and ordered our food, it started to pour outside. Inside the café we flipped through the photos and watched people outside walk by with umbrellas in hand. We stayed for a long time, talking and listening to Stevie Wonder.

After finishing our meals (and dessert) it was still raining a bit outside so we decided to head home instead of finishing the 48 hour list that day. We began the walk back, stopping to look at buildings along the way, when suddenly it started to rain harder than it had all day. Even though we have a pile of umbrellas at the apartment neither of us decided to bring one with. Good one.

We had to run for cover at the side of a building so I could put my camera in the (relative) safety of my backpack before we made a run for it. It was hilarious. Everyone else had raincoats on or umbrellas or stood under store awnings to wait out the rain. Not us! We walked all the way home, in the pouring rain, as fast as we could without actually running. GOOD ONE.

By the time we made it home, Annie decided that we both looked like "drowned weasels". After that we decided to stay inside where it's dry and watch pokemon for the rest of the evening.

p.s. Jesse and James are my new favourite people 🌹

- Tiana Daniella