Koninginnedag

Today was Queen's Day, a national holiday that celebrates Queen Beatrix's birthday, even thought her birthday is actually in January, according to Wikipedia. From my impression this afternoon, Queen's day is basically a giant toys/antiques sale combined with orange clothes and silly hats. I stuck to the smaller celebration in Delft this year, although I plan to go to the bigger ones in Den Haag and Amsterdam in the upcoming years. It was an interesting afternoon, although I think it would be more fun if I wasn't attending by myself. There were street musicians, food, crowds, and sales, everywhere.

F told me that the garage-sale thing started as a tradition where kids could get rid of their old toys, but expanded into an anything goes sort of street sale. There were still a TON of kid's toys available though. I looked for baby books in English for J's upcoming baby, but didn't see any. I did buy some new boots, but from a nearby store, not secondhand. Now I have boots! Purple ones!

I enjoyed the music rather a lot, especially the children who were out playing various instruments. I always threw the kids change. And really, what's more adorable than a pair of sisters playing violin and cello duets? I found I preferred the instrumental musicians to the DJs, possibly because I developed a mild migraine and the speakers were LOUD. An accordian/flute/violin group was my favorite of the day.

Buying street food will be so much easier once I learn food words. That's what rosetta stone should start with, rather than all the airplane an elephant phrases. Lots of fried stuff, and an entire table of sushi, which I was scared of, because it wasn't that cold out today. I did not eat the sushi, even though it looked delicious.

I got a little lost, since sometimes I had to go the way the crowd went, rather than the way I was planning.

I had a horrible moment when I was putting the camera back in my bag, and someone bumped me, and the camera hit the cobblestones. A couple screws in the lens (that seem to hold the lens to the part that attaches to the camera) came loose, but I fixed it when I got back here. Fortunately, F has a tiny screwdriver, and the camera still works fine.

Overall, I think this holiday would be more fun with people, kind of like celebrating the 4th of July by yourself would be kind of boring, but I'm glad I went out after the rain ended.