* cababarant *

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Konningendag Feestje!
Amsterdam on Queen's Day is like nothing I have ever seen before. There were people, people, people and more people, filling every street in Amsterdam, three-quarters of whom were wearing orange. I'm still recovering from it. This being Europe, you couldn't walk through the city without escaping the dance music, as you can see in this video at Leidseplein. There was even a house DJ in the ice cream shop at 3:00 in the afternoon. Imagine every street in Seattle completely overrun with pedestrians. And the trash! I have never seen trash like it, except maybe in the Manila slums. We were literally wading through paper and bottles and cans at some points. We went down to Vondelpark, where another Queen's Day tradition was taking place, the Vriesmarket, where kids can sell all their old things on the street and in the park. Basically a flea market of broken toys and torn clothes. Awesome stuff to go right into your own yard sale for half the price!

Sof and me getting our Queen's Day on

Dari gets the look at Vondelpark

Oh, the trash!

Wheels of steel at the Australian ice cream shop

We've got spirit, yes we do...

We were so exhausted the next day that the only thing we did was to go to the serene Japanese garden at Clingendael Park, here in The Hague. It just opened, and is only open for a month. So great.

Sof at Clingendael Japanese gardens

posted by sheryl | 9:09 PM |

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