Queen's Day

Today Laura and I ventured to Amsterdam for the yearly Queen's Day celebration, which honors the queen's birthday - just not that of the current one, Beatrix. Instead, they celebrate former Queen Juliana's birthday, mainly because it's more fun to get a day off of work in April than in January. Queen Beatrix still feels the love though, I'm sure.

I cannot even begin to express the enormity of Queen's Day in Amsterdam. It absolutely dwarfs any event I've seen before, including the more familiar St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. The city was completely packed with people from Amsterdam Centraal all the way to Museumplein, 3.5 km away - and probably much further than that. The massive crowds donned orange (the color of the Dutch Royal Family, The House of Orange) from head to toe, including orange suits, orange earrings, orange hats, etc. We were, at least for a moment, reminded of a game day in Gainesville^*... but then we'd walk through a cloud of marijuana smoke and snap out of it.


Because Queen's Day is the only day of the year that people can sell stuff without a permit in The Netherlands, we passed street vendors (and regular people) selling everything imaginable. Scattered among the soft drink and beer vendors were people selling purses, stupid hats, bed sheets, orange face masks (for the swine flu, of course), cultural outfits, and bathroom time. Amsterdam residents charging € 1 for access to their bathrooms surely made tons of money from the ladies, who don't benefit whatsoever from Amsterdam's infamous street urinals.

Laura and I spent most of the day walking aimlessly around Amsterdam, like leaves drifting in an orange stream. Most of the excitement not related to buying street junk was centered around various musical acts throughout the city. The coolest place to be, though, was on a boat in the canals. Party barges regularly grabbed our attention, with their dancing passengers and booming music systems.


Figuring we had surely spent more than enough time in the enormous international crowd to ensure we'll be suffering from the swine flu next week (it's just the flu, people!), Laura and I headed back to Delft around dinnertime.

In fact, it wasn't until we got home that we discovered there had been a lunchtime attack on the royal family in Apeldoorn. During an event there, some lunatic crashed his car through a barricade - killing several people - en route to ram the royal family's bus. He ended up smashing into a monument instead. It's a terrible event to have happened on a day of celebration for the people of the Netherlands.



^*Many of you might be wondering why I said Queen's Day reminded me of game day in Gainesville and not Clemson. The answer lies in the tackiness of the crowd - sorry, fellow Gator fans, but the blanket insult, "Gator fans wear jean shorts" didn't come out of nowhere.

St. Patrick's Day

No St. Patrick's Day celebration is complete without first having a few pints in the pubs while listening to Irish music. Here's the best & the worst of night.

Best Scene: Temple Bar (in the street)

The street running down Temple Bar was packed with people playing music, dancing, and dressing up in drag. (No, we aren't sure what that was about, either.)



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Best Music Scene: Oliver St. John Gogarty

The Trad music session was loud and lively with patrons singing and dancing along. One guy even tried to get Matt to do a little jig, but he wasn't having any of it.

Best Brews: Porterhouse Brewing Co

Porterhouse and its nine house brews made a great place to hang out and enjoy the craic on St. Patty's Day. Okay, it would be fun on any day, as they have live music 7 days a week and an awesome stage that is visible from every floor. We might have even visited the place three times during our stay in Dublin - we had to try all nine microbrews! My favorite was the Oyster Stout - it was just about perfect - strong but not bitter. I also discovered my new favorite beer here - Fruli - a Belgian white fruit beer. Delish! I hope Stubbie's in Gainesville stocks it for when I get home.

If the music and the beer weren't enough to give this pub its atmosphere and craic, the band (Sliotar) was relieved during a break with the world premier of "The Simpsons go to Ireland".








Best View: A Pint from the Grocer and seat on the River Liffey Pier

Needing to take a break from the crowds and grab a bite to eat, we picked up a sandwich and pint from the grocery store and headed across the river. We enjoyed our dinner (complete with Cadbury candy bars) and pints with a lovely lit-up view of the Temple Bar area from across the River Liffey.

Worst Line (and Crowd): Temple Bar

We had to have at least a pint in the flagship bar of Temple Bar. And just a pint we had... After waiting in line for a bit - yes, we should have known - the crowd inside was just too packed to stay any longer.

Worst Floor: Fitzsimons

Market Street and Tiger Town Tavern's floors have nothing on this place. My shoes were still sticking to the floor the next morning as I walked through the Old Library at Trinity College. The roof top terrace bar and its cool air almost made up for it, but then we would shuffle our feet and be reminded of the filth we were standing in. (I've never been in a more disgusting place.)

We had a blast spending St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!

St. Patty's Day Parade

We all know how Matt feels about parades and he wasn't thrilled to go to another one after the New Year's Day Parade in London (justifiably so). He wasn't quite kicking and screaming, but I did have to bribe him with Irish coffee to get him near the parade route.

This parade did not disappoint.

The characters from The Simpsons entertained us pre-parade to promote their upcoming episode "The Simpsons go to Ireland" (more about that later).

The theme for the parade was "The Sky's the Limit" (even with the woes of 2009) - no kidding, the parade brochure actually said that! So the parade was filled with fanciful characters with wings and feather and crazy flying machines. Here is a sample of our favorite attractions (you can find the rest of the photos here).

The parade moved fast and was the perfect length - a little over an hour. After the parade, we headed over to St. Stephen's Green for a picnic in the beautiful sunshine. Apparently, so did everyone else in Dublin. It was a lovely afternoon and every Dubliner seemed to be enjoying the sunshine before hitting the pubs.