Queen's Day! Bullet points!

April 30
Throughout my time here, when I've talked to Dutch people, they've excitedly told me about Koninginnedag, or queen's day, and asked what my plans for the day were.  The day is a celebration of the queen's birthday, although it is not actually on the birthday of the current Queen, Queen Beatrix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_of_the_Netherlands). Instead, its on April 30th, the birthday of the previous queen (Queen Juliana).

There are a few things that make Queen's day a unique and crazy holiday:

• All of the city streets are packed with people - everyone is partying and milling about, and the canals are packed with boats, all blasting music and full of dancing people. 

People partying on a boat.  Note the full dj setup.

• The city turns into a giant yard sale - people set up a spot on the street and sell their stuff, whether it be books, food/drinks, clothes, or other random trinkets.  Even the kids join in the festivities - I saw kids performing musical instruments, doing gymnastics, or selling things of their own.

• Everyone is dressed in orange.  The royal family is the "house of orange" - William of Orange was the guy that led the dutch in revolt against spanish rule, which was the basis for the founding of the nation.

• Bands play all day over at museumplein (a big open field right next to the Concertgebouw and the Van Gogh museum). I think they were mostly Dutch bands - the area was really packed.

Museumplein, early in the morning before it was super crowded

I spent most of the day downtown, just wandering around, and then went back later that night to see if any of the vendors had left free stuff behind. All of downtown Amsterdam was filled with trash.
I've never seen so much trash lying out on the street before - there were food wrappers and broken beer bottles everywhere.  At several points I got off my bike and carried it to prevent the tires from being punctured.  My foraging efforts proved successful, as I found a cool backpack and a glass goblet/wine glass thing.

Dam square turned into a carnival.

That next day, I went with another Calvin student downtown to the church we've been going to all semester.  Normally our trip down to church is somewhat hampered by the normal hustle of urban life, but the city was a lot more empty and quieter than normal.  Everyone was obviously recovering from the weekend of action packed festivities.  Add "queen's day" to the ever-growing list of things michigan needs.