Queen's Day in Amsterdam

Queen's Day is a national Dutch holiday which celebrates the Queen's birthday. ACTUALLY it is on the date of the old Queen's birthday (April 30) because Beatrix, the current Queen, was born in January. Considering the day is all about festivals outside, the date made more sense in April. Many different cities in the Netherlands celebrate the holiday, but the place to be is Amsterdam. SO - we made reservations FAR in advance to make sure we'd be there to celebrate in the capital of Queen's Day!

I traveled with a different group this time. Theresia (Sweden) was there again, and I was joined by my other two friends, Brandon (goes to Purdue) and Farzin (Iran). We left on Thursday evening, as many of us had classes that day. The train to Amsterdam was PACKED! There wasn't enough seats, so our group sat in the area where you get on and off the train - a little platform that's separated from the rest of the seats. When we first got on, we were sitting packed like sardines with about 10 other people...I could have spit on each of them - that's how close we were sitting. Weird example, but I couldn't think of anything better. Don't worry - I don't spit on people. :) Our little spot was getting hot and uncomfortable, so the next stop, everyone who didn't have a seat dashed out of the train and ran up to the front of the train - where we'd been told there was more space. We didn't get seats the second time around, but did have the same little platform area all to ourselves this time. We played Presidents the whole way up to Amsterdam...and embraced our fun seating area. :)

Once in Amsterdam, we had a short walk to the hostel. It was a LARGE hostel, and looked more like a nice hotel inside (see left). The four of us had our own private room (below right), which was very nice. Brandon's twin brother, Ben, (who's studying in Vienna currently) was also in town for Queen's Day, and we decided to go meet up with him and his friends in the central area of the city. We set out walking...and it was a lovely, warm temperature. When we started. After a half hour of walking, the temperature started to drop as it started to rain. I should mention that only Theresia was smart enough to bring a jacket. The rest of us were in tshirts! No matter...we were all troopers and kept going until we got to the city center. By that time it was pouring, and there were people everywhere crouched under the awnings of stores. Some even had simply embraced the situation and were just going about their normal celebrations out in the rain. We finally located Ben and his friends...and we all attempted to dry off, ironically, inside an ice cream shop. No idea why I thought ice cream would be a good idea to 'warm up'. We had hoped to enjoy the Queen's Day-eve celebrations that evening, but realized with the rain and lack of jackets/umbrellas, that we'd be better off heading back to the hostel. Our group of four got a cab (45 minutes in the rain didn't seem appealing) back to our hostel. We had a GREAT night that night actually, playing Presidents until the early hours of the morning. Amazing how the best times are the simple ones. :)

The next day we were up early, showered, and decked out in our orange gear! For Queen's Day, anything orange goes - people wear all sorts of ridiculous apparel. Also, wearing the Dutch flag colors is also acceptable. It's like a 4th of July celebration on steroids - with all the dressing up and national pride that goes on, on Queen's Day. Theresia and I were both sporting orange shirts that read "If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much" and I also found this ridiculous orange glitter hat. The hat looks like something you'd wear in a 12-year-old tap dance routine. It was PERFECT (See the very top picture and the one to the upper right)!

It wasn't raining too bad...so we decided to walk to meet up with Ben's group of friends from the night before. We found them in the city center, as well as a group of our friends back from Maastricht who came just for the day. Our group for the day was HUGE - about 20 people (see left). We all grabbed lunch soon after, from one of my new favorite grocery stores - Albert Heijn. My lunch was pretty basic, a bag of chips. :) I shared though!!! (And I was on a budget here). We wandered through the city, checking out the different events and crazy canals. People would pile onto boats in the canals and dance on their boats as they'd just all float down the canals with music blasting. It was hilarious to watch, and I was sure there'd be lots of people falling out of boats, but the Dutch have good balance (see above left and right)! We ended the afternoon at the big plaza outside the Van Gogh museum, where there were live bands playing. We were pretty exhausted by then and it was almost dinner time. We split up there from the group (who we had left) and the original group of four headed back in the direction of the hostel. Due to the ridiculous crowds, this walk home took about two hours. We stopped halfway home to enjoy a dinner compliments of Albert Heijn, again. This time we were much healthier, with sandwiches, fruit AND chips (see right). :) Pictures below were taken throughout the afternoon!

All four of us napped when we got home, for a good two hours. Then it was time for Presidents - this time with costumes for the President and the loser. We used most of Brandon's costume from the day: President wore an orange tie and orange aviators; loser wore orange suspenders and (never before worn) blue boxers on their head. We felt like the boxers added the right amount of humiliation to the loser. Guess who was the loser for the majority of the evening. Yes - that would be me. I sported the loser apparel with pride - and we came up with many different ways to wear the costumes. It became a rule that you had to wear the tie, suspenders and boxers in a different fashion each time. It got pretty hilarious, as you could imagine. Below are some of the pictures...bah ahaha. I think Brandon got the award for being the most creative.

The next morning we packed everything up and checked out. But, before we left Amsterdam, we wanted to see some of the sights. Sadly, the city wasn't clean for the festivities the day before, so garbage was everywhere. We wandered in the direction of the I AMsterdam sign, that is quite famous. After much searching and eventually asking, we found that the sign had been moved! And it's a BIG sign!!! We were bummed, but decided to create our OWN sign. With only four of us, the spelling of it took a few pictures...but hey - it's all about the effort, right? :) First picture is what the ACTUAL sign looks like. Our pictures spell out: [I-A-M-S] [T-E-R-D] [A-M]


Theresia left us then - as she had to head back to work on homework. The boys and I wanted to see the Anne Frank house before we left, and walked in that direction, not far from the sight of the sign (normally) and our reenactment. The line for the Anne Frank is notoriously long, but we amused ourselves as we waited in the hour line. Farzin had already seen the House, so he went to grab coffee when Brandon and I finally reached the door to get it. No pictures were allowed inside, but the picture below left is looking up the outside)

I've read The Diary of Anne Frank a few times during my years in school, but it was VERY strange to see the house itself. You follow a path that takes you through the office (where Otto Frank worked) downstairs before climbing up the Secret Annex. The wallpaper is the same, and so is the structure itself. It's been kept up, of course, but it's the original building in every respect. The bookcase is still there, and you walk through before climbing the stairs to the Secret Annex. Each room is empty, as the furniture was removed after the inhabitants were taken, and Otto Frank didn't want the furniture replaced. Anne's room still has the pictures up that she glued to the walls over 60 years earlier. There is even a spot on the wall where Anne and her sister Margot's heights were recorded over the two year period they were there. It was so strange to see, and it kind of felt like you were walking through a doll house. There were excerpts from Anne's diary found throughout the tour, and it made me want to reread it. At the end were videos from people who knew the Franks, or Anne particularly. A friend of hers was in a neighboring camp, and had found out that her friend Anne (whom she couldn't see) was on the other side of the fence. She threw food over to Anne at one point. Crazy to listen to this woman, and know that she was good friends with Anne. Anne died one month before her camp was liberated.

After making it through the House, Brandon and I joined up again with Farzin. We stopped for one last Albert Heijn meal before picking up our bags from the hostel, and heading back to Maastricht. On the way home I learned another card game - Rummy. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and need to find friends back home to play with.

Overall, a fun weekend - Queen's Day was a blast. And, I was glad I was able to see the Anne Frank House, although it wasn't a 'fun' experience. It set things up well for the following weekend in Poland, as Carolyn and I headed to Auschwitz. More about that soon!