Our First V-Day Together

I let Braden sleep in because he had not been feeling well, but once he was up we sauntered down to the free breakfast provided by the hostel.  I had terrible french toast with apricot jam...really not good, but enough to get me started on the day.

It was raining, but really not that bad, thankfully, I had my umbrella...but now Braden needed that rain coat. We slowly walked through the town, past the church in the heart of the red light district, and toward the Anne Frank Huis (house).  While on our way, we ran into the Homomonument.  It is a dedication to the struggle of homosexuals.  Amsterdam is home to the first gay rights organization in the world.  That was very cool.

After that, we found the Anne Frank house and were very moved.  When reading the book and picturing what it must have been like is one thing, but actually being there and realizing this is real and did happen, it's shocking.  The display there was really nice and powerful and I would highly recommend it to those coming to Amsterdam in the future.  We then had a little fight about what to do next and decided to wander slowly toward the Rijeksmuseet or something like that...I know it sounds like "Rejects Museum" when you read it phonetically. This doesn't have spell check, don't hate.  (Braden is currently playing solitaire).  We found the palace and National Monument and bought Braden a rain jacket and the walked to the museum.  It was by the Hard Rock and about a 1/2 hour walk.

The National Monument

The two towers in the distance are the Rijksmuseum

This museum took a lot for Braden to enter.  There was an x-ray thing and a metel detector and Braden had about 9 layers on...it was an ordeal.  Once in, we saw that it was 12.50 Euro....I'M SORRY WHAT?!?!  We had gone through the trouble, though...and the book said it was a must..so we did it.  It was ok, and I learned some stuff about the Dutch Empire and their 17th Centuray Golden Age and saw some amazing painting by Rembrandt, but it was not worth that much.  We got back onto the streets and went to lunch at an Italian place the book said was good and cheap, and it was! :)  I had pizza and it tasted almost like Italy.  Next, we ate at Haagen Daaz (which is actually a MN brand...but it looks Dutch) and I had some really great caramel banana ice cream with phenom whipped cream.

We found an English movie theatre and decided to come back later after a nap.

We napped, and it was glorious.

We then woke up, had some dinner at the hostel, and found out that we both got Orientation Leader positions for next summer!!!  So exciting!!  We're waiting now to hear about April... (UPDATE: SHE GOT IT!!) We had some time to kill so walked to Centrall Station to find out when I can leave for Brussels on Thursday.  On the way to the theatre, Braden doubted my directional skills...not a good idea.  We got to the theatre and saw Black Swan meeting some very nice people in line waiting for the tickets.  The movie was great.  I really loved it.  It was a little scary at times, but mostly amazing.  We walked home in the dark along the beautiful canals and had a great ending to our first Valentine's Day ever being in the same state.