Celebrating Kings Day in Amsterdam

After spending a relaxing time in Le Mans I had rested enough to go to Amsterdam and enjoy a little party. Just beforehand I find out that this party might not be that little after all, I happen to be going during the time of the Kings Day. Which is one of the biggest national celebration days in the Netherlands. With its main characteristic being that everyone decides to wear orange clothes and funny hats. Getting there was a lovely hitch hiking experience, in the sunny spring heat with plenty of small rides. Of which the most memorable would have to be a ride in a truck that had hydraulic seats and an integrated movie system allowing me to watch movies throughout the entire trip. "So like I said earlier, all you have to do is go to the station up there and take the tram which will bring you to central." A black haired and slightly tipsy woman told me as I got out of the boot of the van. It was a group of women celebrating one of their 30th birthdays that brought me from a petrol station somewhere outside of Amsterdam to the city itself. "Thank you so much, enjoy the rest of your night." I reply and strap my backpack onto my body. Maybe it had been a stupid idea to take the Maasai costume all the way to Spain I thought. I had been carrying it through all of west Europe and only wore it about twice, with it's heavy weight it was really slowing me down. (that's a travel tip for all of you to note down: don't take a Maasai costume on your travels, you probably won't need it as often as you think) After finding Laura's place (Laura being the person I was staying with) right in the centre of Amsterdam, about an 8min walk from the central station, I fell into bed.

"Wake up little brother." Ben - my older brother who I had planned to meet for Kings Day - whispered into my ear. The night before I had been too sleepy to really greet him and now it was time for a little reunion. Lukas, a friend with which Ben had been travelling throughout Europe, was sitting on the window sill. His head facing outwards and looking onto all the old and beautiful little houses that were squeezed side by side into the limited space available and now showered with the golden morning light. "Ok let's go, I want to see Amsterdam." I say energetically as we finish a brief breakfast. "But it's Kings Day, you have to prepare yourselves at least a little bit." Laura says as she stands up from the sofa, walks out and comes back in with a couple of funny looking hats. After a very quick preparation Ben, Lukas and myself head out to the already packed streets of Amsterdam. It was just too much, too many people squeezing one another through the narrow streets which were surrounded by the narrow houses on both sides. The only refuge to be found was the side of the canal, however one was still surrounded by thousands of people in orange that were trying to get somewhere. I guess that was one of the problems of staying in the centre, it would take forever to navigate through the masses of people and reach an open park with some music. I had not even been there for a day and even though I was a tourist myself I imagined how difficult it must be for people living in Amsterdam. It made me understand why the Amsterdammers got so annoyed at tourist mindlessly crossing the bike paths (that only being one of many annoying things about them). Maybe it was just on Kings Day I hoped. "I don't think we are really getting to a location we want to get to, I think up there should be the dam. Let's go there and maybe there we can get a better idea of where we want to go instead of aimlessly wandering." Says Lukas and we follow closely behind him as not to loose one another within the turmoil. He turns out to be right and as we turn around a corner we enter the big central square called the dam. We rest underneath the national monument for a little and watch the people huddle into little groups all over the square. "Ok, after a quick evaluation I say we go to that group over there and see what their plans are, better than sitting around here." Ben says and starts talking to one of the girls of the group that had been resting on the stairs to the monument not far from us. It turned out they were just about to leave and go to a little park with some live music. We followed them but the density of the people did not get any less which meant that even though Amsterdam is a pretty small city it took forever to get to the park. Never the less it was a park and never the less there was music, so we spent the rest of the day there until it started to get dark and we decided to head back to Laura's place. "Let's head back out, Laura you probably know where some clubs are, do you mind leading us a little through the streets?" Ben asks after we had grabbed a little food and regained some of the energy we had lost throughout the day. "Mhm, I can go with you. But I have to admit that I don't really go to many clubs so I'll be as useless as you in terms of finding a good place." Laura replies and we all slowly get ready to leave. Again we have to wade through crowds of people until we reach an area which looked like it was full of clubs/bars. However the more we get into this area I have the feeling that people, in particular men start to look at us and every eye contact I make lasts a little longer than it usually would. We go into the one of the clubs and it looked like the feeling had not been completely unjustified as Laura appears to be one of the only woman in there and Lukas, Ben and myself get more attention than she did. After a brief stay in there we decide that the sexual tension was too much for us to enjoy much longer. "It looks like this would have been just the perfect place if one of you was gay." Laura says laughing as we walk away from the blaring speakers and lustful eyes. Shortly after she decides to retire and the three of us continue a little more. In the end we also reach a point where we want to go back, with tired legs we decide to take the tram back instead of walking back. We find the nearest station and after waiting there for some time more and more people come, the stop is nearly completely filled with people at this point. "The tram should have been here ten minutes ago," A big black man says loudly "I spent the entire day drumming and all I am wanting to do is go home and go to bed, that tram better come soon." There was a big bag next to him, probably containing the drum he had played all day. "Maybe play the drum while we are waiting, make time go quicker." I say to him and without a further word he gets out his drum. Another man near him, who must've been part of the drumming band, also gets out his drum and the two of them start playing. People must've thought we had gone a little mad but we started dancing to the melodic beat of the drums until the two men gave in to their exhaustion and took a taxi to their homes. What an interesting way to finish a night, I thought as I lay down in bed after our arrival in Laura's flat.