For our last day in Amsterdam we went to the Jewish museum, a synagogue, and the Anne Frank house. It was a very fast paced day and the coldest one yet. 

The synagogue was a cool experience because I haven’t been in one in a long time but it reminds me of my grandmother who was Jewish so I enjoyed it.The Jewish museum was another stop that made me thing of my grandmother because I got some potato latkes with apple sauce which she used to make for me and my family. Personally the Anne Frank house was my favorite museum of the trip. It was cool going through the house and reading all of the different quotes around the walls and watching video footage of some scary stuff like people being taken to camps.

Today was a hectic day as I may or may not have Lowkey overslept again.. Anywho, we went to the Rijchs Museum and the Van Gough museum. We finally got to see the Night Watch painting by Rembrandt and it was huge. At the Van Gough museum we went on a guided audio tour through the museum and the history of Van Gough.

My favorite Van Gough piece was “skull of a skeleton smoking a cigarette.” I think it stuck out to me because it was unlike most of his paintings which were landscapes, portraits, and still life’s. I liked it because it was much darker than his other paintings. 

On our free day in Ghent we were introduced to Christine, a Belgian native. She told us some facts about the city that we didn’t learn about in the museums. We learned about the divorce rate and how children are raised differently and the contracts couples can make for government benefits. We also learned about how there is government aid for families with children and where to find the best chocolate.

After we left the museum Christine showed us to Max, a famous waffle restaurant where we ate lunch. I had an awesome waffle wth fruit and liquor and that was wild.

I had the rest of the day to shop and sleep so I took advantage of the Zara clothing store which isn’t in North Carolina. Then I went back to the hotel and took a two hour nap. After I woke up, me Sydni, Julie, and Stella went out to the Christmas festival so get some street vendor food and rode the huge Ferris wheel.

Today we visited the churches, the chocolate museum, and the Groening Art Museum in Bruge. The churches were huge and full of amazing statues, paintings, and beautiful architecture. We saw some late 1800’s paintings of tapestries and learned the history of a family who sold a painting to the church to be buried near the alter.

The chocolate museum gave a very interesting look inside the history and making of chocolate. We watched a cool chocolate making demo and got to taste some chocolate from the museum.

The Groening Museum was my personal favorite part of the day… even though it was very short lived. There were many very detailed religious paintings and some large expressionist paintings. I was assigned lucky number 8 in the museum which was “Ontdekking Van De Tekenkunst” by Joseph Benoit Suvee. The piece is a depiction of what is known as the first ever drawing. A woman is outlining the shadow of her husbands face on the wall as she prepares to go off to war. The piece was large and dark. Their faces have a lot of emotion.

 

Today I went to the Fine Arts Museum and was assigned to go check out “Le Christ Vert” by the artist Paul Gaugin

I went with professor Goudas and my travel mates Elisia and Juliana to the 6th floor of the museum in its newer wing. The piece didn’t vary much in value, I thought the green figures with blurred faces were a little creepy, they appear to be on a beach but far from the ocean. I wasn’t really a fan of the piece but there was a couple infront of me looking at it and they seemed to enjoy it.

 

Hey y’all! Im Julian Fitch, I’m a freshman finance major and I’m thinking about pursuing an art minor. Im still not sure what i will do after college but I was hoping I would be determining that during the next three semesters or longer. I traveled abroad for the first time this past July with my parents. We went to London and Paris and it was the coolest trip I’ve ever been on. I was NOT ready for how different paris was from where I grew up in N.C. but it was a great experience and I’m hoping to go back eventually. In Art, Politics, and Power, I recorded a video documentary on “Boy Leading a Horse” by Pablo Picasso, unfortunatley I couldn’t get it up on Youtube and this site doesn’t allow me to upload video files without a premium membership…However, I am very excited to see more art and learn the history of the places we will visit. I’m excited to travel outside the country for the first time without my parents, not gonna lie I can’t wait to eat, my parents went to Belgium on their anniversary one year and they said it was beautiful so I can’t wait to take pictures of everything, and I’m excited that i have the opportunity to go on the trip with my roommate Ryan:)