Thursday and Friday - Netherlands

I woke up in yet another living room on yet another couch. My sister Klasien lives in a small and tall home in a quiet street not far from the city center of Utrecht, where I was born in one of the hospitals and where I also finished my highschool years in 1979. I like Utrecht: it's lively, it's funny, it's busy, it's old and it's also in the Green Heart of Holland. My sister has lived in this street for about 17 years now and has gotten to know a whole lot of people. She has also taken care of her neighbor lady Regina, who is now in a nursing home, and Klasien still visits her at least twice a week. One of the other people who looked after Regina is Kees. Kees is an 85-year old gentleman, who used to own and run a business where people took driving lessons for cars as well as motorcycles. He is a delightful person with great stories about the good old days, and strong opinions about pretty much anything and everything. Pretty much every morning around 9:30, he comes by for a cup of coffee and conversation... and so it was this Thursday morning! He remembered me from last year and we had a good time talking, laughing and drinking coffee!

At 11 I tied my shoelaces and walked to the nearby bus stop to get on a bus to the Central Station where at 11:40 I would meet my friend Marya Sloof who lives in Friesland... She is going on vacation next week, so my initial plan to go north to visit her did not work out and she was willing to come my way. And here we were in a very busy train station, trying to find each other... it took a few minutes and some quick thinking but we did it! We figured out that we had not seen each other for 10 years if not more, and we agreed that that was way too long! I met Marya when I started going to the Foursquare church in December 1990, we lived on the same floor of an apartment building in Gorinchem for almost 3 years, and Marya was also at Coastlands for a 6 months internship from July through December 1993. During Marya's last 2 weeks as an intern I visited Coastlands for the first time and got a taste of something that I really, really, really liked! Oh how good it is to see old friends and catch up! We had a great lunch on a terrace in the middle of the city, the sun was out, the temperature was great and the food was good! At 15 minutes after 2, I made sure she was back on the right train for another almost 3 hour train ride, and I walked around the shopping center surrounding the train and bus station, reminiscing about the time when I used to walk here daily... I even found the christian bookstore which was still there after 30 years! So surprising!

I returned home by bus and bought some treats for Klasien and I for Friday, when the entire nation celebrates Queen's Day (Koninginne Dag). When I was growing up, the following events usually took place in Kockengen: all the school children came together to sing in honor of the Queen, there were games for the kids to play after the singing, and in the evening there was a parade with the local marching band up front and whoever wanted could follow, just walking or riding your bike and carrying a "lampion", which was a paper contraption, round with a flat bottom on which a real candle was burning. The paper was held together at the top by another flat piece with an opening (so you could put the candle inside and light it) and then there were small wires tied from the top of the lampion to a stick that you held in your hand while walking. Now of course, caution was needed because if your candle was not properly attached or the wind blew too hard or your friend would run into you, your lampion would go up in flames in a moment's notice... And there were also the older boys who would carry torches... I am sure you can imagine the thrill all this was causing in our little innocent souls: fire, danger and adrenaline...

However, in 2010, it's a whole different story! Now there are orange colored pastries, orange wigs, orange crazy hats and citywide flea markets going on with thousands of people partying, dancing, drinking and trying to make a little money... Thursday evening at 6pm, the Utrechtse Vrijmarkt started, and Klasien and I decided that this was the time to be part of it! Some of you may know this and some of you may not, but I am a little bit claustrofobic and that was once more confirmed this evening. Klasien drove her car a little closer to the city center, she parked and off we went into the madness. I pushed Klasien in her wheel chair (she can't walk very well or long at all) and we walked through streets and streets with people with orange hair, orange shirts, orange pants, red-white blue shirts, orange noise makers and a whole lot of other orange things (someone had even decorated their cane with orange streamers)... And so many people!!! We even gave in and bought ourselves some funny hats (I hope you like them).... Oh my goodness. I had to pull Klasien over every so often to calm down a little bit and to catch my breath - I have never seen anything like it in my life! I will just show you a few pictures... I have no idea how much time we spent there; I was so grateful to be home again and I was also happy that I had experienced the Orange Maddness up close and personal! The Vrijmarkt goes on until 6pm on Friday; Klasien and I unanimously decided that we were not going on back on Friday! We were home and sat in Klasien's backyard for a little while because it was still so nice outside and we laughed so hard about the silly hats we were wearing and the silly selfportraits Klasien tried to take with my camera that we probably woke up any early sleepers that evening!

And before Thursday was over we had thunder and lightning and a lot of rain with more to come on Friday morning! Very unwanted weather for the nation-wide celebration!

The next day, Friday April 30, is the official Queen's Day celebration. Queen Beatrix became queen exactly 30 years ago, on April 30, 1980 in Amsterdam. At that time, I was going to college in Amsterdam and I watched all the preparations taking place. And although I stayed home on April 30, I saw the whole thing on TV and watched the riots that took place! Too much excitement, for sure! Anyhow, Queen Beatrix chooses each year where she and her family will celebrate April 30, and this year they went to the province Zeeland to visit the cities Wemeldinge and Middelburg. The entire event is televised and lots of orange can be seen! Klasien and I spent Friday morning in front of the TV commenting on the bad weather (it rained most of the morning), the cute clothes the ladies were wearing, and how enthusiastic everybody who was waiting for the arrival of the royal bus was even though it was cold and wet! This day is really a special day for the Dutch people. I suspect that even the fervent crusaders against the position and history of the royal family secretly enjoy the festivities and sense of comradery and community. This time I think that was even more significant after last year's tragedy where an alone, confused and sad man ran a car through the crowd in the town where the royal family was at the time and killed 7 people. This year's celebration was great, fantastic and no crazy incidents happened...

Later in the afternoon Klasien and I went to Ikea and to McDonalds! There were so many people everywhere that I was glad to be home again... did I mention I am just a tad claustrofobic? We watched the recap of Queen's Day on TV with a cup of coffee and an orange tompouce, which is two layers of flaky crust with yellow cream in between and a layer of orange sugar stuff on top... really nice!