Girl With A (Fake) Pearl Earring

Something I have had on my Holland bucket list pretty much sense I realised it was a thing  was going to the Mauritshuis Museum. It's in the Hague just next to parliament which made it one of those things that was too close and easy to make it a top priority.

However, I am proud to say that my last Saturday in the Netherlands I FINALLY made it! And it was pretty awesome. I've discovered that I really like paintings. And this place had some of the masters. Really, the way that those Dutch painters portrayed light was incredible. And I can't believe how advanced they were so long ago!

One of the awesome things about Europe is that many of the best museums are repurposed palaces and castles which makes them double worth exploring.

This was a former residence of someone important

The ceiling was really cool and modern!

Seriously, all these colors have just made me really want to get into painting lately!

The pride and joy of the museum is the famous Girl With a Pearl Earring painting. Since I was by myself I got some pretty rad and off center selfies: 

I wore my pearl earrings for the occasion.
Get it??

The Dutch Mona Lisa

There were also some really buzzfeed worthy paintings. I mean really, I just feel like these are waiting for silly snapchat captions: 

Just strummin my not ukelele

His eyes. So ridiculous.

I also got a great view out the windows. This is the top of parliament right next door. Parliament is my favourite building in The Hague. 

Not bad for a next door view

The visiting exhibit at the museum right now is called Dutch Self Portraits: Selfies of the Golden Age.

Pretty great title, no? The exhibit talked about the differences between self portraits (time intensive, well- thought out, usually made with the help of mirrors) and modern day selfies (momentary whims). Of course I took a selfie in the mirror with the Dutch selfies.

I'm one of the greats

And then in the gift shop I found this gem.
Cat with a Pearl Earring.
Maybe I will write a children's book....

After that I met up with Sameer and one of his friends in a nearby cafe:

Mauritshuis from the outside.
It's the little building on the left. It had started raining. 

We decided to go into Amsterdam to see this light festival I found out about on the internet. Also a proper exploration in Amsterdam was on my bucket list for the trip as well. I mean, I've done the big stuff in Amsterdam already but I figured I at least needed to go for me to have really been in Holland. 

We didn't have much luck with the light show but we did get to go to Dam Square: 

Sameer, Michelle, Me and The Earrings. 

Oh Christmas Tree. 

Time Machine- I remember going here in 2012 with my friends the first time I ever visited Amsterdam.
At the time we thought it was so funny and it was one of those things that I thought I would never see again cause why would I ever be in Amsterdam again and how on earth would I possibly find it in this strange city? Well turns out it's actually right in the center (not so random like I had thought) and  I don't know...it's just kind of funny when something you thought would be a one time exotic oddity becomes ordinary.

Ashley got off of work early that night so she came and hung out with me and Sameer and Michelle went back to the Hague.

We also didn't have very much luck finding the light festival. It started raining.
We did see a few things though.

We also passed a Christmas Market on the way so we went there and I got some food.
It tasted good but they had the WERST customer service there.
Get it?
:)

So that was my last weekend in Holland. Me, some Frands and a couple of fake pearl earrings.