I met up with Henry today at the Steven Holl building just to reminisce our architectural study project on that building. We then went on a day-long walking tour around the Jordaan area.
After walking for a bit, we went for lunch with Henry's friend Aduan that he met at TEI, at a cool cafe called Flinders Cafe. It was awesome because the place had designery stuff for sale.
We continued our walking tour around the De 9 Straatjes or the nine streets area where a lot of the shopping district is. There were some cool shops that we found. Raw Materials is a vintage furniture and knick knacks store. Fifties Sixties had some cool retro lamps. Went into Hester van Eeghen which was a nice leather bag/wallet store that I have been to before.
Henry got a espresso at this cafe, Kaldi. The muffin they sell is AMAZING. I don't know what it is, but it tastes delicious. The couple running the store was so awesome too, they were really polite and accommodating! The girl kept making fun of the guy about keeping his smile. :D
More stuff in the Nine streets area. The Lomography shop was cool though not really something I would invest in right now.
The Mendo store. O.M.G. This was my fave shop of the day. They are a very cool bookstore that only sells specific books. Art, Fashion, Architecture, Food, Travel, Design. The odd thing with this place is that they only carry hardbound and huge format books. I was there giddy just looking at some books on architecture, travel, and especially the book on Noma.
We met up with Henry's travel buddy from SIAT, David, and my high school friend Thomas. First choice for dinner was to try Japanese Pancake World, but when we got there and asked for spots, they were fully booked. :( We opted for looking something nearby and we went to La Perla. Another long wait, but it's a friday so it is to be expected. The pizzas were alright. I wouldn't go back specifically for it, but it was still decent.
AFTERWARDS. Oh yes. The ice cream. A short walk away on the same street from La Perla on Tweede Anjeliersdwarsstraat was Monte Pelmo. THE ICE CREAM WAS DELICIOUS!
Afterwards, I went with David and Henry to go find the Daan Roosegaarde installation piece I found online, the Boo zen light garden. We had an adventure trying to find the place, the Hotelschool the Hague in Amsterdam, near Mercatorplein on Jan Evertseenstraat. (Confusing name yes)
I had read on a website that the installation to the public and so I was worried because the hotelschool was not. I had to knock on the door and ask for permission from the hotel director/manager. He was really confused as no one had ever asked to come in to see it, but he was gracious enough to let us in to take photos and videos saying "This is not a prison, so visitors are okay".
When we were playing with the installation, one of the locals (not a student) named Vincent came up and started talking to us just finding more about who we are. He was a funny guy who was probably a little drunk, but made for an awesome conversation.
All in all. An awesome adventure day!
Food Notes
-Ice cream from Monte Pelmo is amazing. and 1.4Euro for a single and a 2Euro for a double is so cheap for amazing ice cream
-Flinders Cafe is a cool place, I tried the goatcheese sandwich and it was pretty good.
Highlights
-Mendo bookstore. Must....buy....books....
-random designery stores like Raw Materials and Fifties Sixties
-getting in to see the Boo exhibit even though it's not open to the public
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