It's Queens Day!

Addict · 04-30-2009, 04:08 AM

Dear everyone but Wicket,

As you may or may not know, today is Queens Day (QD). And since I hate QD I'm staying home all day with pretty much the doors locked.

Why, you wonder? Because QD is the Dutch national excuse to go absolutely crazy. Every street with more than a single store is filled with kids playing violins, trumpets and god knows what other instruments play these days. As if htat's not enough there's orange EVERYWHERE (and I do mean everywhere, it's virtually unescapable). To complete the picture, there's adults, families and business owners selling all kinds of old stuff and food. Anything goes, from barbies who haven't been cleaned since the 80's ended to NES games, from VHS Tapes to Blu-ray disc. Now before you get the idea of some elaborate market plan or someting, this is what it looks like:

Next to this madness, there's music playing everywhere, and orange EVERYWERE. As you may or may not know our national color is Orange, has something to do with our royal family having the title 'Prince/Princess or Orange' (Orange is in France btw, not California ;) ). So there is orange everywhere. Everywhere:

So next to the incohesive markets, there's also organized events, concerts, professsional climbing walls, you name it, it's there. Here's a pic of the annual QD concert where hollands finest (not really good, but whatever) performs. These are big organized events though, this is last years QD concert on what's called museum square in Amsterdam:

To finish it off, there's the royal family. They visit a certain town or city and just roam around in front of cameras, and they meet kids, adults, organisations (all dressed in bright orange). Anything goes. Everything goes. Our royals just go crazy for a day. All this in front of cameras of every tv networks, so even if you're staying in (as I am) Queens Day is unavoidable. Our royals by the way:

(the lady in the middle is the queen, the others are behind her walking all over the place).

Oh I forgot to mention, everybody gets drunk. In fact, everyone gets drunk on Queens Night (the night before Queens Day, :P) and since we're the nation that gave the world Heineken, Bavaria, Amstel, Hertog Jan, Dommelsch, Grolsch and countless other beers, everybody drinks like there's no tomorrow:

So why, you may wonder. Why does an entire nation parttake in this insanity? What's the point? Well truth is there really isn't a major point. It's a day of togetherness, it's the day of national unity and ehm... yeah that's pretty much it. national unity and togetherness. We've been doing it for decades, and we'll probably be doing for decades since everybody loves it. It's a great day, it's fun to just go crazy for a day. Nothing is a problem, it's good fun and a great laugh.
In conclusion, I just thought I'd educate you kids on the national craze that my countrymen and -women are in today. Hope you got a few laughs out of it. If you ever want to go to Holland in the spring, I strongly recommend you go late april to catch Queens Day, it'll be the craziest thing you've ever seen :D. Last picture to end my OP:

also: here's the wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninginnedag

now I'll leave you to read this enormous post, but not before I spam you with a dutch flag on a windmill (what else?)

Caddy · 04-30-2009, 04:13 AM

I knew that Addict!

It's 'dress in orange' night at one of the local backpacker bars.

Addict · 04-30-2009, 04:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caddy

I knew that Addict!

It's 'dress in orange' night at one of the local backpacker bars.

really? that's just silly. I'm just watching it on tv now... looks awesome as always. So many people.

Mr. Hero · 04-30-2009, 04:50 AM

there's a reason I'm glad that i was born in germany. We'd be way to drunk to do stupid **** like those disorganized markets, ours would be nice neat and organized.

CJSchneider · 04-30-2009, 07:19 AM

From http://goamsterdam.about.com/od/plan...lor_orange.htm

Quote:

Orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family. The lineage of the current dynasty -- the House of Oranje-Nassau -- dates back to Willem van Oranje (William of Orange). But while the color orange has royal roots in the Netherlands, today it symbolizes a broader pride in the country and in being Dutch.

Gay Ork Wang · 04-30-2009, 07:57 AM

I pity you Addict, i really do

we have Oktoberfest you have....queens day

wicket · 04-30-2009, 09:01 AM

And we dont even have queens day anymore. At the town where the royal parade was with the entire royal family parading through the town a guy in a car raced through the crowds, killing four and injuring way more. The entire festivities were cancelled and the flags have been put halfpole. I think an announcement naming it a day of national mourning will follow within the next couple of hours to be honoust. The whole stuff became even more speculative because the car that he drove almost crashed into the bus carrying the royal family.
Its important to say that the early signs are that this is NOT a terrorist attack. It can prolly is more comparable with one of those random shootings of a person going crazy or something, but then without guns since they are way more tough to aquire here.

I'll give some more updates during the day but thusfar my thoughts go out to the four deadly victims and the (i believe 6) people still in danger and everybody else who got hurt and all of those peoples family.

wicket · 04-30-2009, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *** Ork Wang

I pity you Addict, i really do

we have Oktoberfest you have....queens day

i think carnaval is a better comparison to Oktoberfest. For americans, its a sort of mardi gras.

Gay Ork Wang · 04-30-2009, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wicket

i think carnaval is a better comparison to Oktoberfest. For americans, its a sort of mardi gras.

we also have carnival so we actually win

wicket · 04-30-2009, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *** Ork Wang

we also have carnival so we actually win

trust me, its not the same. But yeah Oktoberfest is pretty full of win. But then again you also have laughing-churches, we dont need them. ;)

Gay Ork Wang · 04-30-2009, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wicket

trust me, its not the same. But yeah Oktoberfest is pretty full of win. But then again you also have laughing-churches, we dont need them. ;)

we get 2 days off just to get drunk 4 days straight, how can yours be better? :D

Hawk · 04-30-2009, 09:31 AM

This sounds awesome, how come I wasn't invited?

wicket · 04-30-2009, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *** Ork Wang

we get 2 days off just to get drunk 4 days straight, how can yours be better? :D

cuz we get an entire week of, to get drunk five days in a row and have time to recover before working again

wicket · 04-30-2009, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wicket

And we dont even have queens day anymore. At the town where the royal parade was with the entire royal family parading through the town a guy in a car raced through the crowds, killing four and injuring way more. The entire festivities were cancelled and the flags have been put halfpole. I think an announcement naming it a day of national mourning will follow within the next couple of hours to be honoust. The whole stuff became even more speculative because the car that he drove almost crashed into the bus carrying the royal family.
Its important to say that the early signs are that this is NOT a terrorist attack. It can prolly is more comparable with one of those random shootings of a person going crazy or something, but then without guns since they are way more tough to aquire here.

I'll give some more updates during the day but thusfar my thoughts go out to the four deadly victims and the (i believe 6) people still in danger and everybody else who got hurt and all of those peoples family.

wrong focus bump

CJSchneider · 04-30-2009, 09:36 AM

Mardi Gras > all

I'd post pics to prove it, but it wouldn't end well for me.

Gay Ork Wang · 04-30-2009, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wicket

cuz we get an entire week of, to get drunk five days in a row and have time to recover before working again

well thats oktoberfest just shorter

trkaline · 04-30-2009, 10:20 AM

For some reason I thought this was gonna be a homosexual holiday

Brent · 04-30-2009, 10:26 AM

That sounds cool and all but in America we have The 4th of July. This involves: alcohol, bbq, explosives and any thing you can think up involving those.

Addict · 04-30-2009, 10:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wicket

And we dont even have queens day anymore. At the town where the royal parade was with the entire royal family parading through the town a guy in a car raced through the crowds, killing four and injuring way more. The entire festivities were cancelled and the flags have been put halfpole. I think an announcement naming it a day of national mourning will follow within the next couple of hours to be honoust. The whole stuff became even more speculative because the car that he drove almost crashed into the bus carrying the royal family.
Its important to say that the early signs are that this is NOT a terrorist attack. It can prolly is more comparable with one of those random shootings of a person going crazy or something, but then without guns since they are way more tough to aquire here.

I'll give some more updates during the day but thusfar my thoughts go out to the four deadly victims and the (i believe 6) people still in danger and everybody else who got hurt and all of those peoples family.

I was just about to post this (sorry was busy playing Total War)... pretty screwed up.

Were you gonna go somewhere? Since they cancelled everything in Rotterdam :(

CJSchneider · 04-30-2009, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent

That sounds cool and all but in America we have The 4th of July. This involves: alcohol, bbq, explosives and any thing you can think up involving those.

Mardi Gras has all those things only more breasts, oh and a few beads.

wicket · 04-30-2009, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addict

I was just about to post this (sorry was busy playing Total War)... pretty screwed up.

Were you gonna go somewhere? Since they cancelled everything in Rotterdam :(

I was gonna go for a quick beer, but couldnt do much anyway since i had to work a bit. I think Im gonna go drinking tonight but to be honoust the city isnt that sparkling at the moment. the atmosphere just isnt the same.
edit: I dont care much for QB anyway. Way to much people having fun at the same time. Way to busy and I dont care much for buying or selling crap.