Happy Birthday Beatrix
Just got back from a wild weekend in Amsterdam. It is the Queen's birthday, and everyone goes nuts. The entire country clogs up the nations train tracks and pushes their way, bedecked in orange, through the narrow streets of Amsterdam all night Friday and all day Saturday. Of course, we of the guesthouse were in on all the fun.
After class, we all made our way to Fenna's place by teh Vondelpark on Friday afternoon. Fenna and her mom made us "fruit chilli" which was just awesome. Me, Marco, Alejandro, Cam, Erin, Fenna and her mom (Anneke) enjoyed lots of little nibblies, a few bottles of wine and Marco had some Italian Lemon liquor waiting in the freezer with our ice cream dessert. We also had pie. ohhhh what a meal. Then we hit the streets and wandered all night long. The streets were filled with people just like us. There was dancing, smoking, drinking, --it was basically carnival all over again, only drunker, oranger and bigger.
Late Saturday monring, we made crepes for breakfast and then were right back at it. Another feature of the Queen's birthday is the vending. Everyone has their own little garage sale, performance, artworks with which to put a couple euros in their pockets. the vondelpark was filled with children who were experetly exploiting the strolling millions. One kid gave Fenna's mom a hand stamp in the shape of a rainbow or something. she was patient with him and all that, and thanked him for it, and he put out his hand and said "50cents!" Priceless! There were some other kids who got their friends to stand on the other side of the creek while they collected euros from tourists to use their waterballoon slingshot to hit said children. we watched that for a while because that' s just funny.
I got a few treasures as well: a plate in the traditional blue and white delftware style (but not delftware...it was 50 cents), two blue bottles to start the blue bottle collection I have always wanted, a business card holder for when I have some (soon I hope!), and erin got Fenna and I each a wooden fish statue because i told her bathroom has a fish theme.
i will carefully pack my treasures and ship them home later this week.
Finally, when we'd had enough walking, shoarma, waffles, beer and crowds, we piled into alejandros car and made it home to Maastricht by midnight.
A great weekend! Pictures, as always, are on their way.
KL
After class, we all made our way to Fenna's place by teh Vondelpark on Friday afternoon. Fenna and her mom made us "fruit chilli" which was just awesome. Me, Marco, Alejandro, Cam, Erin, Fenna and her mom (Anneke) enjoyed lots of little nibblies, a few bottles of wine and Marco had some Italian Lemon liquor waiting in the freezer with our ice cream dessert. We also had pie. ohhhh what a meal. Then we hit the streets and wandered all night long. The streets were filled with people just like us. There was dancing, smoking, drinking, --it was basically carnival all over again, only drunker, oranger and bigger.
Late Saturday monring, we made crepes for breakfast and then were right back at it. Another feature of the Queen's birthday is the vending. Everyone has their own little garage sale, performance, artworks with which to put a couple euros in their pockets. the vondelpark was filled with children who were experetly exploiting the strolling millions. One kid gave Fenna's mom a hand stamp in the shape of a rainbow or something. she was patient with him and all that, and thanked him for it, and he put out his hand and said "50cents!" Priceless! There were some other kids who got their friends to stand on the other side of the creek while they collected euros from tourists to use their waterballoon slingshot to hit said children. we watched that for a while because that' s just funny.
I got a few treasures as well: a plate in the traditional blue and white delftware style (but not delftware...it was 50 cents), two blue bottles to start the blue bottle collection I have always wanted, a business card holder for when I have some (soon I hope!), and erin got Fenna and I each a wooden fish statue because i told her bathroom has a fish theme.
i will carefully pack my treasures and ship them home later this week.
Finally, when we'd had enough walking, shoarma, waffles, beer and crowds, we piled into alejandros car and made it home to Maastricht by midnight.
A great weekend! Pictures, as always, are on their way.
KL
posted by Unknown at Sunday, May 01, 2005
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