Amsterdam Kings Day 2014 :)

I so wasn't ready for this picture to the left but oh well, it a memory I suppose lol!

Hey guys! I have a lot of interesting things to post about today, like seriously my weekend was fun-filled and packed to capacity. It would still be going but I decided to take a break, as my leg isnt feeling so hot, so I can always use a bit of a lie in day. Okay so lets get this blog post started shall we! So as I had said in the last post that this upcoming weekend was called Kings Day, a major thing here in Holland, and I got to experience it. It was wild. So it all started on Friday

Friday after I finished work around 6:30 I headed into town by my bike. I know usually I don’t ride my bike when I'm off, but I know the trams stop running after 1am, and I had a hunch we would be there until later then that so I rode. I headed into the library to check out the wifi as I still had a few hours to kill. But finally it was 8:30ish or so and I met up with Marcy and Camilla(an Au Pair from DenMark) and we around the center of the Hague to check out what they had in preparation for tomorrow. It was Kings day weekend and I was told that on Friday you want to be in the Hague and Saturday for Amsterdam. So They had a few different genres of preforming artists and everyone was getting drunk.

I don’t like the taste of booze, but I had some mixed drinks, so that was okay. So then it's still not a lot of people there yet so we decided to go check out the carnival again, Okay here is the fond moment for my night begans. I had no camera that night I accidentally left at the house charging for that night(The irony still gets me). So we decided to head to the bumper cars. Now back home, I remember the bumper cars fondly, a bit of childish fun for evryone. In a line, and maybe 15 or less people at a time. Not Friday! They had maybe 25-20 bumper cars in the mini arena thing they had and there was no line, only chaos. They gave you a token after you paid and when the people before you turns was finished, you ran out on the arena to grab your car. It was whoever got there first, and we managed. So when we went on the bumper cars,

I had just opened one of my mixed drinks, it was coconut, rum and Cola I believe. It was pretty gross as all I had tasted was conconut, however I was going to drink it as I paid for it. So I get inside my bumper car with my drink and the person there puts my token in. My car starts spinning in my place, like my wheel, as well as my friends I heard later, it had a mind of it's own. So I finally figure out how to drive it, with one hand I may add as I was still holding my drink, when all of a sudden, I got bumped. It was so intense but so fun, we were flung everywhere and no one had time for the seatbelts,

so it was just crazy. I managed to get bumped so many times I lost count....and what of my drink you may ask? The majority of it, end up all over the bottom of the bumper car...oops. It was hectic there but oh so fun. So after the ride was over we headed to another one, who we found had doubled the price of the ride and made it not worth it. We didn’t do it having already done it last weekend, and started to head back to square with all the music. At the point I think it was like 11pm or so so there was quite of lot of people there. 

We ended up in the middle by this statue and dj and they were dancing, I'm awkward so I just stood there lol. We met some guys and had some fun, I suppose. And when it all finally said and done with, I left early( I know party pooper right?) But by then it was between 1-2am I can't remember and as the next day we had to be at the train station early, and I knew I hated waking up on a few hours of sleep. So I biked home. I'm beginning to really like biking at night, it's so calm here, and quiet and peaceful. When I got home I'm not sure of the time I know I fell asleep at 4 ish....all I know was I only got 3-4 hours of sleep.

Saturday I woke up around 8am to get to the train station and biked there and parked my bike before heading in and waiting on Marcy and Camilla. We then got snacks, and then headed onto the train at 9 for the 50 minute ride to Amsterdam. This was my first time going to Amsterdam and it was insane. Everyone was more or less in orange. I didn’t have anything orange but curtsey of my friends I had some glasses and a whistle(lmao) but I bought a shirt later on. I have some pictures of Kings day that I'll put here, but the rest will be on my facebook.

So we got into Amsterdam at 10am and headed outside. It was a beautful day in Amsterdam, and as I had only brought a sweater and a sweatshirt with me, that was good news to me. We met up with another Au Pair, Carman(she from a Latin speaking country unsure of which one) And we all headed down to the carnival they had there. The prices for that one was insane and I was short on cash as the bank hadn't cleared my money from this month because of the Holiday weekend. So anyway we headed to it and it wasnt a lot of people yet(to me it looked like a lot but I got the shock of my life a few hours later) It was crazy.

 We walked around looking at all the markets and I got me an orange shirt where I can blend it. It says Bedankt which means thank you of some sort shirt. The shirt shows the queen passing the day along to the King. As yesterday was the first Kings day in 100 years as usually it's Queens day. Exciting huh? Heres a few pictures so you can see what I mean.

Alright so then we walked around for hours checking out different sites and meeting up with friends of friends. Around 3 I think we headed to the Rijes Museum, pronounced rice and it holds paintings and all that good stuff. We didn’t go in it, as it was obviously closed but we went through it, a passageway they had underneath and it led us to the I am Amsterdam Sign but there was a ton of people so I couldnt get a picture in front of it. I'll go back this week I think, in the day time and hopefully not that many people will be there. The sun was bright and we headed out on the grassy field and took a seat. We had been walking since 10am, functioning on 3 hours of sleep, so what did we decide to do. Take a nap right there on the grass. We werent the only ones. The grassy area was filled with different groups of people more or less doing the same thing.

This was us...before we went to sleep lol

We slept for an hour, and it was so great lol. When we got up we were refreshed for a bit and we started walking again. Well we headed to look for a bathroom for my friends. Every bathroom there mostly coasted between 0.50 cents or 1 euro or 2 euro, one bathroom was 1 cent per second....lol. Everyone was trying to make fun off of the toilets. I didn’t spend much on them, due to my body's capacity but my friends did. The guys however had those portable urinals that I've seen in festivals abroad here, it interesting. They were put there as if it wasnt guys would pee on the walls and it would be just gross. Not that it mattered as towards the end of the day, the urnials had all overflowed into the sidewalk and streets...and more guys were still using them it was gross.

I got photobombed yesterday didnt even know I had until I went back and looked at it. Lol. Here it is.  Oh yeah, it was so much yesterday. The colors on my cheeks are of the Dutch flag, I know..I'm American but I needed to blend in lol and I did. 

Okay, and then because we were in amsterdam and in the daytime, didn’t notice but we were in the redlight district every single shop we went into to buy drinks, had a section for cannabis/weed and the like. I was in line to buy a mixed drink again, and next to me was a shelf of cannabis cookies and brownies....was I tempted...Hell yes lol. I didn’t have a lot of money as I stated before so I didn’t buy them, I did buy a Cannabis Lollipop and it was kind of gross at first but I got used to the taste I think. It tasted like grass, and I clearly knew was I was eating, and then coupled with the mixed drinks, I figured when In amsterdam, and why not right? I probabaly will try the cookies another time definitly. So then back to my mixed drink it only had 6% of alcohol in it, which we then added more vodka and tequila too, I got buzzed but that was pretty much it. It went away after my nap. Due to my father, my brother and I have a HIGH tolerance for Alcohol so it's really hard for me to get drunk. Anyway, heres a picture of my treats though, the tipsyness was fun, I felt a bit free actually and though I've only been truly drunk once, I do know my limits.

So I think thats it. We stayed there until late, like 12:00am, as we werent sure when the last train left and none of us wanted to get stranded in Amsterdam. We were so not gonna call our Host Parents, they tend to chat quite a lot with one another as their friends lol. By the end of the night though, the trash, despite all the trash cans, the streets were filled with debris it was just crazy.

Wait I alomost forgot to mention, we went back to the Redlight District at night, as my friends heard some music and they wanted to check it out. I didn’t know truly what the redlight District might truly consist of as the one in Groningen was nothing compared to this one. and it was a shock. A ton of guys were just stopping in the middle of the street to look at the girls in the windows or doors. We passed this erotic theater where they had a live sex show going on <.> I'm sorry but that just wasnt for me. I was super embarassed as Prositution is legal here and a respected? Perfession here. I was uncomfortable as we passed the windows, and tried not to look or make eye contact as we passed. Not for me...never in the night again..no thanks!

I bought a souvenior for my mom and I saw something that reminded me of my brother and I'm going back to Amsterdam this week to get it for him, and something for me. Anyway, I think that's my post. It was a hell of day let me tell you. And now, I'm relaxing on this Sunday and looking up places to go this week, starting Tuesday I have the whole week off until Monday night. And i'm so excited....Somewhere here I come!