Day Nine
Amsterdam
16 August 2007 22:39

Today was a lazy day. After more than a week of walking until we almost collapsed we needed some time off.

We ended up watching TV (most of which was in Dutch) until around 10:30am and headed out around 11:00am. An episode of Spongebob was quite funny in Dutch.

After, we strolled out to the Van Gogh Museum where we waited in yet another line for ~25 minutes before entering. I’m not a fan of Van Gogh’s style and don’t consider him to have been a particularly good painter and the museum didn’t change that. Justine did enjoy the museum though.

Walking back in the direction of our hotel, we grabbed some food from a local supermarket and decided to return to our hotel.

Some TV was in English so we flicked channels a little while, while eating our sandwiches.

Around 10:00pm (nothing opens hereuntil 11:00am or 12:00pm and is open late) we headed out and grabbed some fritjes (French fries) and fritssaus (fry sauce), which is a creamy mayonnaise-style sauce that is widely eaten here. A stir-fry place was next door so we grabbed some rice and shared both.

We needed a “day off” (strange we needed a holiday from our holiday) and both feel a lot better for it.

Tomorrow evening we leave for Munich on an overnight train which will be interesting, I’m sure.

Justine’s sick today, but got up early this morning to watch some TV on the couch. Because of the design of our couch, it’s quite easy to lay on it in a comfortable position when you’re sick… or when you’re lazy, for that matter.

But I digress. Before leaving for work I sat down next to Justine and watched some TV. We were watching some Spongebob when an add came on proclaiming that if you buy Lynx shoes (Lynx is a deodorant, not a shoe!), you will get a free professional handball (which looked like a tennis ball, to me). They then proceeded to explain the game of “handball” to the viewer, stating that there are four squares, and you slap/tap/hit the ball into another’s square, attempting to hit it in such a way that they are unable to slap/tap/hit it into someone else’s square.

Handball? What? That’s not handball! This is handball, it’s like soccer but instead of feet, they use hands. What they’re talking about is four square. I don’t know, kids of today, eh?

If you feel like causing yourself a headache attempting to read the comments, head over to Nickelodeon’s handball forum where you’ll see such gems as itz preti ovious, as well as U derNo handball!? and my favourite dnt by linx shu payback. Yup. Can’t wait to see corporate memoes in 20 years, “ur 4ll fyrd”.