Koninginnedag

I wasn't aware that the Netherlands has a monarchy until I moved here. But they do, and they celebrate their Queen's birthday annually with parades, street parties, and concerts. Apparently the current Queen, Beatrix, decided to keep Queen's Day on the date of her mother's birthday, since the weather tends to be much better at the end of April than Beatrix's birthday in late January. So now, every April 30th, the Dutch take to the streets in bright orange to eat, drink, dance, and shop the day away.

I was joined for Queen's Day festivities by Kat, who lives in Utrecht, but grew up outside of London, and Kat, who lives in London, but grew up in New Zealand. The name similarity and the fact that I'm an ignorant American who can barely tell the difference between a Kiwi accent and an English accent added a little sliver of fun to the weekend. 

I'm told that, in recent years, Queen's Day has been preceded by Queen's Night, which is more of a clubbing/concert night than the street party the following day. Kat(s) and I set off on foot from my apartment to Dam Square and the Jordaan around 6:30pm on Sunday.

There were several vendors - some stand alone, some tables outside of restaurants - already selling food. There was no real dinner - just a series of stops at vendors throughout the night:

Yes, that is bacon on those fries.

Dam Square was set up with (what I interpreted as) an American style fair. Though perhaps fairs like this originated somewhere else. Regardless, the entire square was filled with rides that took people to heights above the tallest buildings in the center of town or spun them around in circles through a smoke machine. There were also games where people threw baseballs at dining plates, punched a bag as hard as they could, and tossed rings onto a pole. 

Small stages were set up in many spots in the center of town, with some holding DJs playing house music, others hosting instrumental musicians, and some having rock covers. This group did songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens of the Stone Age, and Foo Fighters. It's always fun to hear Dutch conversation followed by English vocals. 

Amsterdam was blessed with brilliant weather the following morning. It was cold and very rainy on Saturday, mediocre on Sunday, and it's supposed to be quite rainy on Tuesday. But Monday - Queen's Day - was clear, sunny, and the warmest day (around 70 degrees) of the year.

We set off around 10:30am on foot from my apartment. The day started much earlier for some. The day is a city wide street party, but it's also a massive flea market, where people sell all sorts of odds and ends. Dining plates and cups, old paintings, VHS tapes, CDs, clothing, books, and food were spread on top of blankets covering the pavement by the sidewalks, and chalk advertisements drawn on the ground beckoned pedestrians to vendors.

The inside of a Coffee Company (local coffee place - the coffee kind, not the marijuana kind) branch, decked out for Queen's Day.

Sarphatipark, packed with people around 11:00am. It was packed tightly enough that we had difficulty walking through. 

It is customary (nearly requisite) to wear orange on Queen's Day. I don't have any orange clothing, so I bought a knit hat, an orange feather boa, and orange wrist bands the previous day, and I wore them around town. I thought these flowers might provide a good photo op. 

A pair of Dutch girls apparently liked the pose, but they thought they could add to it with their triangles strung together. They seemed pretty excited to be helping. 

A large picture of the Queen's face was put on the Rijks Museum.

While passing near Museumplein, a parade of Hare Krishnas sang and danced past us. You can see one girl give me a coconut cake desert dyed in orange.

The canals in Amsterdam were filled with boats of partiers drinking beer, dancing, and blasting music. Most boats just had young people dressed in orange, but a few were a little more creative, like this guy above riding a pink elephant and trying to catch hats on a pole, and another boat of Sprite employees dressed in green and launching bottles of soda into the crowds.

Vendors sold cups of beer (usually Heineken) for 2.50 euro, plus a euro cup deposit. Along with multiple beer stops, my tally for the day included a 50 cent cupcake thing that some Dutch girls were pushing pretty hard, a two euro piece of raspberry rum cake that I split with on of the Kats, a meat pie filled with Thai Curry, a piece of French Toast, a deep friend Vietnamese bun thingy, and a plate of green curry and chicken. Oh, and ice cream.  

The noise might be a drawback of a canalside apartment. But this guy had a nice view of the party. And a good place to get a tan. 

Even the vans were orange today.

This was a bit of a rare scene. Most cans ended up left on the street.

I've never experienced something like the Queen's Day party. It seamlessly mixed children, teens, college students, people in their 20's and 30's, parents, grandparents, elderly people tourists, expats, and Dutch. The atmosphere was overwhelmingly positive and cheery, with no one yelling or fighting (an even bigger accomplishment given the amount of alcohol consumed).

The mood did change a bit as the day wore on. The clean streets and fresh atmosphere at the beginning of the day yielded to garbage, urine, and spilled beer flooding the streets, and more drunk people and less children in the afternoon. During our walk back to my apartment, men were brazenly peeing on buildings and sidewalks. We had to squeeze and snake between the dense crowds to make out way home. But still, no violence or bad spirits - just a different type of festive.

I'm not sure what the cleanup is like, or what to expect in the city tomorrow. I will go into work and treat it as a normal day, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's an unofficial second holiday for many nursing hangovers, sun burns, and sore feet.