luie zondag

today was my first day just ambling around the hague, with no real plan for what i wanted to see or do. we all woke up late-ish, and then stumbled around until hunger forced us to leave the apartment. we had brunch along a canal at a very nice sandwicherie. i had a delicious combination of bread, brie, tomato & honey. i've had this particular combination three times already. along with my chorizo baguette sandwich at edgar's, this is my second go-to lunchtime meal. good times. delicious cheese. honey. what could be better.

so after brunch, i walked off in the general direction of "embassy row." it turns out that there is a sculpture / art installation exhibit going on down the center park running the length of embassy row. very contemporary and often bizarre pieces. very interesting to check out. at the end of the street is the escher museum. and at the foot of the musuem, an open-air antique market was taking place. some really amazing stuff. i think it's probably for the best (for my bank account) that the things i liked were big, oddly shaped & heavy.

as per the usual hague weather - it started to get windy, cold & rainy halfway through the day. i bolted to the mauritshuis museum, which houses a lot of flemish art - rembrandts, vermeers. the museum was great - it's the perfect size -- just enough without being overwhelming. there are two floors of art, and the museum is itself art. the audio guide is very comprehensive. i recommend this place, especially if it starts raining spontaneously, as it will. anyway, i saw the big piece that this museum houses - vermeer's girl with a pearl earring. i'm not a huge fan of flemish painters, but the girl with a pearl earring is really quite a remarkable piece. the light and shadowing is really quite amazing. the other museum i want to check out is the museum of contemporary art, which i think will on the whole be more my speed.

anyway, later sunday night, i went to see a movie at the filmhuis (art-y theatre) with C and her friend K. K is also from italy. K is also super! the movie we went to see is called "death at a funeral". it was in english with dutch subtitles. i really wasn't sure what it would be like. i had vaguely heard of it but really didn't know what it was about. i learned a bit more from 1mdb - enough to explain it to C & K before they plunked down euros for it. anyway, it turned out to be hilarious. and all three of us liked it. and then P went and saw it with his friend L, and the two of them liked it. so all in all, i can say that a canadian, two italians, a sri lankan & one person -- nationality unknown -- liked it. pretty good endorsement.