Konninginnenacht

Konninginnenacht, the infamous "Queen's Night", is the evening before Konninginnedag, or "Queen's day". This is the Dutch Queen's birthday (not the current Queen Beatrix, but rather Queen Juliana who died in 2004). It's a giant 48 hour birthday party celebrated throughout the Netherlands.

Everything, absolutely everything, is transformed into oranje. The beer is flowing, the music is rocking, and there is a free market on the streets where "normal" people sell their old teacups, children's clothing and porcelain figurines to more "normal" people - like a humongous garage sale. Even the local police were celebrating outside of the hip and cool dance clubs!

Maaike, Andi and I went to Utrecht for the celebration, a cute little student town where Maaike lived. We met up with her boyfriend Bierend and a bunch of Maaike's friends and hit the streets!


Somewhere along the way we managed to pick up a previously stolen street sign at a student house where, in front, they were raising money by offering to smash raw eggs on this guy's head. We ate belgium fries, hit the dance clubs and wandered through the crowds.


By 10 am the next morning some orange people were still drinking from the night before while we nursed our cappucinos at the local cafe. Absolutely craziness. Happy birthday to the Queen! Whoohoo!