Two weekends ago (April 23/24) was Easter. I was saddened to hear the alarming news of tornadoes going through St. Louis, but I was relieved to hear that miraculously nobody was injured. Here in the Netherlands we saw much less excitement on the weather front, but it was great weekend as I went up to Doetinchem to visit family and celebrate.
I went up on Saturday afternoon to visit, we basically just sat back in the garden, had a few beers, and caught up. I was able to meet my cousin's new girlfriend and then go out exploring a bit of the Acterhoek with them. We went to Stroombroek, where there is a man made lake, to take Motte out for a walk. Then, it was about dinner time, and so we went out to a Mexican restaurant. I had mentioned to my cousin that I thought it would be a better idea to go somewhere else, because I thought it would be disappointing, but he was adamant in defending it's quality. And, to be honest, if it hadn't been called "Mexican Food" it was good. But I wouldn't consider it Mexican, Tex-Mex, American-Mexican, at all. It was very Dutch/American style food, but still enjoyable and a good time.
The next morning I woke up early and went out on a bike tour of the Acterhoek.
It was a lot of fun to see the area from which my family originated. We saw a few castles, a lot of farmland, and some nice windmills as well. After that, we went to Nijmegen to see the other part of the family, and Ebbe, who just celebrated his first birthday.
It was pretty amazing to see how different he is since I last saw him over Christmas. He has become a very happy little guy and seemed to enjoy listening to English. I also was able to go to the Liberation Museum (even though it was a bit early, because Liberation Day is May 5) but I was able to learn more about the occupation of the Netherlands and the way in which it was liberated by the Canadians, British, and Americans. It again hit me to think how, not that long ago, this country was in a completely different, and somewhat precarious, position with wars running through Europe almost as a common occurrence.
After the Easter celebrations, it was back to work for the week. But, this past weekend was Queen's Day. I looked it up and was surprised to find out that it's actually celebrated on the last Queen's birthday. I asked some friends, why, and basically they said because the end of April is a great time to celebrate, so they didn't want to move the celebration to another time when the weather might not be as nice.
Either way, we went up to Amsterdam, the heart of the celebrations. My friends Pedro, Chris, and I took the train, where we met up with Lauren (my friend from Mizzou) and Gabi (Pedro's girlfriend). We basically went out in the morning on Saturday to experience the vrijmarkt. This is the official day where anyone in the Netherlands can sell basically anything they want in the streets. It makes it into a city wide garage sale. Some people were selling really awesome stuff, a lot of people whatever junk they found in their house. I was thinking there must be some really awesome deals in there, but we didn't really have the time/patience to look through it all. We then went to the Vondelpark where people were playing music, dancing, playing frisbee, and generally having fun. We went through the canals, where there was basically a water parade going on, with anyone who could find anything that floated and could support an engine partying in the water, making it interesting for us spectators as well. We then went to Dam Squre, where basically a carnival was going on, and heard some marching bands going through. After a long day, we went back to the dorm, had some food, and hung out until getting some sleep.
Sunday was much more low key, with all the partying over, so I showed Lauren around Amsterdam, where we spent a lot of time just sitting around, drinking coffee, and enjoying the nice weather. After that it was back home to Maastricht and a catch up on homework. For this weekend, we have Liberation Day (3 weekends, 3 festivals!), but I'm not exactly sure what goes on with that. I think there will probably be live music in Maastricht, so I'll stay here and enjoy that!
