We started out pretty mild at 8 am by walking over to a children and family celebration in Vondelpark. We got some strawberries covered in orange chocolate on the way.
Outdoor peeing is also one of the pass times. This was our first encounter in the park with the temporary urinals and they turned out to be everywhere.
We saw this sign as we started walking the surrounding neighborhoods early in the day. No one paid any attention - we have never seen so many people urinating in the streets and off boats into a canal.
The streets were pretty crowded with people drinking beer - and loud music is allowed (or encouraged) from the boats and canal houses. Normally no music is allowed on the canals.
We found a relatively quiet place at the bar at the Doubletree
We rented a private boat and then experienced it from the water. We were like celebrities since we were about the only group of two on a 100 year old boat. Our captain was Joost and he was great. He kept checking on us to make sure we were okay. We assured him we were fine. We had been warned to either escape it or put ourselves in the thick of it - so we chose the latter.
A boat next to us ran out of alcohol and convinced us to give them a bottle of champagne for a girl’s birthday who just turned 21. At first there were a lot of hand gestures we did not understand. The boats were really crammed at one point so then we conversed in English and got the gist of what they wanted. We became the popular Americans because they wanted to pay us for the champagne and we said it’s on us.
The boat dropped us off right across from our hotel about 8 pm so we didn’t have to walk back through what had become an even more rowdy street and canal party. Overall it’s in a way good clean fun - just a lot of heavy drinking, loud music and dancing. No protests. No fights. And we didn’t see anyone fall in the canal - which came as a huge surprise!
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