Queen's Weekend 2012

Queen's Day is the biggest holiday in the Netherlands. I arrived here too late last year to experience it, but I knew if it was anything like Pride, it would be a good time. I was told it was 10 times bigger than Pride and insanely fun. To say I was looking forward to it would be an understatement.

The holiday is one day, Monday, but people celebrate all weekend. And we made sure to take advantage of every single minute of it.

Friday we got dressed up in our dance party finest and headed to Major Lazer at Melkweg. Can't say I listened to much Major Lazer before. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those leave-the-venue-covered-in-yours-and-everyone-else's-sweat-with-a-smile-on-your-face kind of time.

Sunday, Queen's Eve, we had a sunset canal cruise organized by our friend Rob. He initially planned for one boat (holding 40 people) but it filled up too fast, so he rented a second. And then a third. We had well over 100 people singing and dancing our way though the canals. Guided by trusty sober drivers of course.

Monday, Queen's Day, I woke up to some lovely weather. Our nicest day of the year. Decided to treat myself to a good omelet and some hammock time before diving into the festive streets.

After breakfast/snooze I waltzed over to Dan and Harriet's where they were hosting a brunch and I met up with a bunch of friends. The day was too nice to stay indoors though, so after an hour or so we hit the streets.

By the way, orange is the color. To be hung from banners. To be consumed. To be worn. Josh wins:

Lots of music in the streets:

Where's Waldo?:

Killer boots dude:

 Rachel dancing her way to the stage in the sky:

Ignasi was wearing too little orange, so I helped him out:

The dress makes it's second event in a week:

Oh hey guys:

This was one of the less-crowded canals:

Bought some maracas. Had to have some instrument to match our dancing in the streets!:

Among the singing and dancing in the streets, Queen's day is also a giant city wide yard sale. People mark off their domain days before and get out there to set up their goods at the crack of dawn. And the serious shoppers are out that early as well. You will also find lots of games and food stands on the streets as well as all the live music + stereo music. The whole city is erupting. It was fantastic.

Herma must have made a killing:

I was asleep by 8:30pm.