Last Thursday it was time for another Queensday! Queensday may be Hollands most favorite holiday. Everybody goes out, most dressed in orange (our national color), and parties, strolls around the city, visits the flea markets which take place everywhere, or just chills. All in all, it’s a great day!

This year, however, some idiot decided it was a good idea to drive through the crowd with his car and try and hit the royal family (which were parading in an open bus at the time). Fortunately he didn’t succeed in hitting the royal family, however, he did hit various people in the crowd along the way. Several people were heavily injured or deceased from the impact. The driver didn’t survive himself, so figuring out why he did what he did is up to the experts I guess.

As a result, lots of festivities around the country were canceled or toned down. In Amsterdam, our mayor decided that all parties should continue as planned, except for the largest party taking place at Museumplein every year (about 80.000 people attending), that one was ended earlier than normal after which the people slowly made their way home.

Me and my friends went to celebrate the queen lived! And ended up partying at the europarking lot near Elandsgracht. There was an excellent techno party going on there which was very fun, though a little bit crowded. Afterward we strolled down to the Westerstraat where we were mainly busy trying to find other people, after which we had some dinner in a local snackbar. Some of us went to Stevens after party, but I decided against it (since Steven lives on the exact opposite of town) and went home instead.

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Although the start of the day was a bit whack, it turned out to be a very nice Queensday after all and me and my friends had a blast!

Last weekend one of my friends from Tokyo, Chie, visited me in Amsterdam! She has been studying French in France for a couple of months and was about to go back to Japan. However, not before visiting me in Amsterdam. I already told her she could always stay at my place any time she wanted and she finally decided to take me up on my offer.

She arrived Friday evening around 11 PM, upon which we went back to my place to drop off her stuff before heading into town. We first met up with Maarten (whom she met in Tokyo at my sayonara party) in café Smoes near Leidseplein.

Having had our first couple of beers there, it was time to go clubbing, so we wandered off toward Studio80 for some minimal techno and goa trance (surprisingly good combination). There we met up with Renato, Marck and Roobin, who arrived there just before us. The party was great as usual and we partied till about 5.30 AM.

Saturday we woke up relatively early (noonish), because I of course had to show Chie around this nice little place of ours. We walked around town for hours, showing her various aspects of Amsterdam. We started off at the flower market, where she bought some tulip bulbs and small souvenirs. After the market, we wandered past Rembrandtplein to the Utrechtsestraat where we had lunch in Stacey’s Pennywell (seriously, go have lunch there, it rocks!).

After lunch we walked on to Waterlooplein to see the ever present flee market in action. Then we slowly made our way back to Dam square, followed by our final tour area, the red light district. At first, Chie wasn’t really impressed by it, just some stripclubs and sex stores, so far so good. Then we rounded a corner and entered one of the smaller alleys where the prostitutes are actually standing in the pink lit windows “selling their goods.”

Because we were talking about all sorts of things, Chie didn’t notice at first. However, once I pointed out one of the women (standing in a window at arms distance), she was downright shocked at the blatant display of women in the streets. It felt a bit like a pet store to her with all the women displayed like that. The shock was complete when she noticed a man leaving one of the rooms, “did he…”, “yes he did…”

After this shocking end of the afternoon, I took her safely home, where we had a typical Dutch dinner (well sort of), “gourmetten.” Which is a nice way to eat, grilling loads and loads of meat at the dinner table. We fell asleep watching a movie, but woke up in time to go clubbing yet again! Oh yeah, since I cooked most of dinner, Chie insisted on doing the dishes. Who am I to say no to that? :p

We went to ClubUp and De Kring near Leidseplein, where we partied the night away again. At first the party was a bit weird, with old slow dance music playing. Fun for maybe one or two songs, but after 30 minutes it started to get a bit old. So we just drank ourselves silly while making fun of everything we could come up with.

Once we were free to switch between party areas, though, the party kicked into full gear. Maarten joined us again, and we danced the night away.

Slightly groggy from the whole party weekend, I escorted Chie back to the station on Sunday morning and she headed safely back to France.

Chie, it was very fun showing you around Amsterdam! Feel free to come back any time. Domo Arigatou Gozaimashita.

You can check out my pictures at the gallery section. Chie’s pictures will follow once I have them.