The tradition is as follows: April 29th is Queens Night in The Hague and then Queens day, April 30th is in Amsterdam. Amen for both. I had yet to venture to Amsterdam so off we went. Mags, Petey and I booked our bus for the 28th at night and of course the bus was late. Nothing is ever on time in this country. You have a party for 10pm, it means show up at midnight. We knew this and yet somehow, for some reason, we showed up early. Well, we had a blast regardless. I had brought sandwich makings since we would be on the bus from 5pm-11pm-ish and well, I would need food. We devoured that before we even got on the bus. It was fabulous though.
We get on the bus and of course practically every seat is taken. We each split ways to find something. I found one with a guy, maybe in his 30s, and I sat down. Fabulous. Until he started talking. Oh Sarah, you sure do know how to choose em. The girls were pretty close by and were peeing their pants laughing. I not only learned about his girlfriend, work, sure the normal things, but somehow got into how he lost his virginity. Oh yeah, the big one right there. What the hell made you think I cared? I don’t think I even said two words, but at this point I’m begging for fresh air and a bag to breathe in trying not to hurl all over him. I was laughing, and I will admit that, because we had been talking about his girlfriend and work and him moving and then BAM, there we were. Right. Way to pick em’ girl.
We took the bus to the Hague where Mags mum and stepdad were picking us up. We were psyched. We got back to her place and it was to die for. One of those places you see in a magazine, all white and all I can think is that I would never even make it to the couch without spilling spaghetti everywhere. It was gorgeous. This was going to be home-base for the next little while. We had some food which the tummy agreed was much needed then it was bed time. Tomorrow was Queens night! Yay!
Mags’ boyfriend was doing his master’s thesis that day, so we would be meeting up with her way later, about midnight actually. So Petey and I got prepped for the day AND night. We had to dress all in orange, so of course I ventured to H&M a couple days before we had left and bought my orange hat and t-shirt. I had been informed I will be wearing the same outfit both days: bring it on. So Petey and I got ready and off we went: with out 167 of course. Now 167 is actually a Muscat wine, that just happens to be 1.67 EUR so naturally, we call it 167. This has been the most famously cheap and effective drink we have yet to purchase. Well…we bought 12 bottles for the trip to Amsterdam. I know, I know, but c’mon. They came in boxes of 6 that day, which is a hell of a lot easier for transportation and we loved it. Fabulous combo. Turns out it was all Mags had packed in her suitcase. Literally: our crate of 167. We couldn’t have been more proud.
So Petey and I had been given a hand drawn map from Mags about the Hague and what we could do for the day. We brought with us ourselves and 3 bottles of 167. Hey, no judging, we were only going to be meeting up with Mags at midnight and it was Queens night; so there. All justification needed. ALSO miss Amypants was going to be meeting us at 4! It has been a toss up if she was going to come, but that morning we were graced with the fabulous news that she was! She would be arriving at 4ish! Yay! More fun! So Petey and I left the house at 1pm, and we ventured. Honestly, we ventured straight to the beer store. Sorry mum. We each bought a 6 pack and were off again. We wanted to sit, drink and just enjoy what a damn gorgeous day it was. We ended up at one of the canals. We sat and just chatted for hours. Seriously, almost 3 hours. We laughed and watched the boats go by. We waved and got some waves: since well, we were a little early in being dressed all in orange but hey; we were tourists.
We had finished a good portion of our packs and were feeling great: now it was time to meet Amypants (AP for short)! We finally met her in one of the main squares and we were off. First something to eat while we put together a game plan for the rest of the day. We had been notified by Mags that there would be tons of little concerts going on, the fair and that we would have tons to work on: we weren’t worried. So we ventured, walked around the streets, window shopped and even ventured to a palace we saw on the map! Gorgeous park, and so we decided to sit and drink some more and just take in the scenery around us. That is where we met our duck/geese friends.
We ended up spending the rest of the late afternoon/evening walking from concert to concert. We started off at one where I saw a guy that had the same hat as I did, bummer and awesome all at the same time, in addition to us finishing our beers. Those things were a pain to keep carrying around and plus we had 3 bottles of 167 in the backpack. Oh yes we did.
The fair! Of course, how could you NOT go to the fair! It was crazy, everyone all dressed in orange having the time of their lives. So many people and we loved it. We walked around, you know, people watching when all of a sudden we came across A PHOTOBOOTH! Oh, how I love photo booths! It had been way too long and we decided to give it a shot. Now, there are three of us, and having two people in there is awkward enough, however, we were totally game for the thrill of fitting. We jump in and start going through the instructions: please keep in mind everything is Dutch. Okay cool. Continuing on, we take our 4 pictures and it’s time to print. We see our four photos lined up and we had to choose which one we wanted…no no; I want all 4, on one page. Well the timer timed out and out came a sheet with 8 pictures…of the same picture. Frig. How do we do it!? No idea. But we are determined. I had paid 4 Euros for the first set, now Petey was paying for the second. We get in, take probably the exact same four photos and its time to print: this time we are reading carefully and damnit we could not see where the hell to print all four. It said at the top either pick an individual or all four; but we COULD NOT see it. Again, the timer went off and out came 8 mini pictures of one of the photos. NO NO NO! Okay ladies, third time the charm. Amy puts in 4 Euros this time and we are so damn determined. Take the four pictures and jesus we couldn’t figure it out. We are dying laughing, slash screaming at the machine slash ready to cry at how much money were wasting. Surprise: out comes a sheet with 8 mini pictures of only one of the four shots. HOLY CRAP LADIES. THIS IS INSANE. We are in tears at how stupid we are. Honestly…this machine is made for idiots: and I realize its not our language, but still. Man oh man. We felt like morons.
Now a couple comes along and we let them go ahead: we told them we couldn’t figure it out but that fingers crossed they would and we could figure it out. Little did we know: the screen on the outside shows the people inside and the pictures they take! THE PEOPLE SITTING AROUND THE BOOTH HAD BEEN WATCHING US THE THREE TIMES! Oh man, we must have been the highlight of their day. I know someone as stupid as us would have been. This was ridiculous. Okay, we are paying attention. They take the four pictures (not bad shots actually) and then its printing time. EVERYONE WATCH. They are scrolling between the four pictures trying to figure out how to highlight all four when all of a sudden they move the scroll bar over one more and IT HIGHLIGHTS ALL FOUR PICTURES! AS IF! We felt like THE dumbest people ever. How could we not have figured that out?
We had to do this now. 16 Euros we finally came out with a sheet that had the 2 sets of the 4 pictures we had taken: FINALLY. We had spent 16 Euros….16!? Wow right? Mags wanted to hit us when we told her this story later. She couldn’t decide whether she was more outraged we had spent that much money or whether she was embarrassed she knew us.
We continued walking through the fair and just continued laughing at our pure stupidity. Then we came across the “fun house”. People watching at its prime. I cannot even express to you how hard I was laughing watching these people try and climb. So it had different blocks that were moving horizontally, but two horizontal levels for each foot. Well they moved at separate times so it was quite hard to climb these ‘stairs’ without following the pattern of the movement. People were almost doing the splits the poles were going at such different paces. Tears, absolute tears. We must have stood there for a solid 20 or so minutes just laughing our heads off. Unreal. The best was kids; as horrible as that is. They are too small; you would all of a sudden see the guy working there dive in to rescue the kid who was in legit splits or hanging on like Tarzan. Basically it was a home video clip, the ones where they show you small clips of gymnastics disaster. Fabulous. Just FABULOUS.
We then found a really cool concert that was playing semi-nearby the fair and decided to venture. They were playing some pretty sweet tunes when we decided to crack another bottle of 167. I had yet to pop a champagne bottle and I couldn’t wait. So there I am, about to pop the bottle and its time to pick where I am going to direct the cork. You see, it had been a competition for the past four months to see how far you can get the cork. We shoot them out my kitchen window and we’ve nearly hit the building across the street: impressive right? Well this was my turn to shine and I was ready. There was a bicycle parking lot in front of me so I pointed there. Pretty sure somehow my cork went diagonal and it shot right over the bicycle parking lot right into the crowd that was the concert we were just as. Bollox. Better luck next time eh?
We were partying and loving life. We had at this point met some friends from The Hague and we were just chatting, dancing and loving every second of Queens night. I had danced with an old woman, we had made a backpack dance with Amy and her belongings and were just having a ball. Then it started raining: of course right. It was raining just enough to be fabulous and yet not enough to be cold. I had my hat so I decided I was good to go but the crowd had been handed garbage bags to take shelter under and AP was all over that. Boy did we look great wet. Did not put a damper on our night AT all. If anything, made the night even better. I loved the rain. I was in the best mood possible.
Our friends said they were shifting spots and going to another concert nearby; wanna join? Sure! So we ventured along the streets which were now devoured in a sea of orange people and just ventured. We found the concert but turns out so had the rest of the world and we couldn’t get anywhere near the place. Food? Sure. KFC…dear god. I had not had that in years, but Amy had NEVER had it. Why we thought that was a fabulous idea, no one will know. But we did. I think it all started in the search for a bathroom. And alas, the line was like an hour. The lived in a dorm nearby so we grabbed the KFC to go and we’re off. Fabulous fabulous. Dance party and just loving everything about The Hague.
FINALLY we get the call at like 1ish from Mags asking where we were! Let’s meet up, let’s meet up! I was exhausted at this point however, when we met up with Mags, she meant game time. She hadn’t drank at all but wanted to celebrate Queens night. Let’s do it: off to the bar we go! We found this one little spot, not little at all really, but we went inside and managed to find tables up top on the second floor. We chatted with each other and others around us and just soaked it all in. Literally. We were exhausted by the end and finally decided to head home around 4am. We walked; oh yes we walked in the rain but it wasn’t that bad anymore. We were all feeling good, yet exhausted and could not wait to collapse in bed. It would be well deserved after all. I mean, we had been out all day, in the sun and rain, mixing and mingling and we deserved a good bit of shut eye.
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