Where do I start... Koninginnedag is insane. The dutch word for orange madness is "oranjegekte"and this is the day that the Dutch people go crazy honouring the family of Orange- Nassau. In english it is Queen's Day- celebrating the current Queen Beatrix of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. April 30th is not her actual birthday but her mothers birthday, they just have kept the original date. On the 29th people drink, wear orange, and there is live music shows in the city centres. On April 30th people drink, wear orange, and there are festivals in most cities, street dance parties and flea markets. I could hardly walk after my accident but there was no way I was missing out on at least seeing what Queens day was all about.
The 30th is a National Holiday so that meant... No class! We went into Amsterdam for the day all dressed in orange with the dutch flag on our faces. The weather was beautiful so we sat in the park for awhile listening to music and observing the people. We were going to go to one of the festivals that is on an island near Amsterdam Centraal station but on our way there were confused why so many people in orange were walking towards us- someone stopped to asked and turns out they had to turn people away because there were 10 000 people on the island and it was too full- this gives you an idea of how many people were in Amsterdam on this day- and that was only one festival on a small island.
I went with a bunch of internationals from my building so this was a new experience for us all. After some sunbathing we went more into the city centre to see the excitement. Ended up in another park- this time the park was full of people selling things. The day is known for its mass amount of flea markets, and even in the parks people laid out things they were selling.
Then we went to the streets and found a huge dance party happening. There was confetti everywhere, drunk people everywhere, I found the dutch Situation standing above the ground giving everyone a striptease. Then as we continued walking I saw the canals- there were traffic jams of boats with hundreds of people all dressed in orange.
I was worried that we would have some difficulty with the trains as I had been told the stations can get very busy. We had no problems, there were just no places to sit except for in the first class section so we snuck into first class.
The day was very positive and it was a party for all ages, I only saw a few people who had had a but too much fun celebrating. Everyone was so happy, even the police were having a good time observing the madness. Arthur had a beer when we were sitting in the hot sun in the park and he went up to the police officer holding the open beer and asked for directions, no problem.
The only criticism I have for Queens Day is how much people littered... it was so sad to see the streets of Amsterdam with junk everywhere and bins overflowing but I guess that is to be expected when 700 thousand more people than usual cram into Amsterdam.
A once in a lifetime experience celebrating Queens day made me realize that there is really nowhere else int he world you would see anything as crazy as this.
My flatmate Gemma and I all in orange- these sunglasses were a good cover for my face!
Arthur and I looking pretty cool.
Heineken in orange
The parties in the canals
street party!
the ground :(
People partying
Dam Square.
the SITUATION! ( parents this is a Jersey Shore reference)
-Xoxo
