The Queen's birthday in Holland is a very different affair to our Aussie Queen's birthday - rather than simply relax and enjoy a day off from work, the Dutch go a little crazy, dress up in orange and pile into the streets! For Brisbane folks, think the Boundary St Festival or Spring Hill Fair, but expanded to cover a whole city. The trams don't run, the streets are closed, and there are DJs, bands and buskers on every footpath, as well as countless market stalls (it's the one day of the year when anyone can sell anything, so it's like a giant jumble sale - even kids set up shop to sell their old toys!).
Highlights of the day included paying a euro for 30 seconds of applause (you pay your euro, step behind a screen, the organisers round up about 20 passers by, and then when you step out from behind the screen, the passers by cheer like crazy - a great ego boost, even if you know it's all a bit fake!), and a busker who we paid to play a Rage Against The Machine song, just because it seemed so improbable sitting there on his repertoire list - a valiant, but in the end very funny, attempt!
My aim for next year is to get on one of the hundreds of boats that ply the canals, many fully equipped with DJs and bars!
Queen's Day 2007 - Flickr slideshow
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