So Europe is a little funny, from an American point of view, anyhow. In Amsterdam, everything closes early. EVERYTHING. Restaurants, supermarkets, bars, even coffeeshops. If you wanna get your smoke on so you can better appreciate the ramblings of Stephen Colbert and REALLY appreciate the texture of the velvet curtains next to your bed for like, three hours, you'd better do it before 6pm, because otherwise you're SOL. Tying into this theme, a lot of stuff closes early on Saturdays. It's not like in the US where the weekend is the big hitter and stores are partial to staying open late - stuff closes at the same time as it does during the week...seems Thursday (of all days) is the day stores stay open "way later" (ie 9-10pm). On Sundays, lots of shops close. I kind of like it, since it means everything is a bit quieter, plus it means people that work in the shops always have at least one day off a week (working a 10 day week in retail isn't unheard of in the states, sadly, due to scheduling mishaps and such).
That being said, on Saturday, the Albert Cuyp Markt was open from 9am-5pm. We went midday and it was moderately crazy but very nice, a big mixture of hippie stuff, wholesale makeup and goods, vintage, shoes, bags, lots of foods, cheeses, fish, etc. I picked up a cute cotton scarf for 1€, and we were tempted by fresh squeezed juices and samples of edam and other snacking cheeses.
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| Albert Cuyp Markt |
Also it rained a bunch. The whole weekend!! Grr. This is the (rainy) view from our balcony earlier in the day.
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| Baz is not pleased with this turn of events |
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