June 27th, 2007: Random

The European Football (soccer) Championship is currently underway. Holland is now out of the tournament - but about a week and a half ago they were selling these special "Hot Holland Hot" Pringles in the store.
Below are some pictures of the oven that my friends got me for my birthday, since I've been asked a lot of questions about it. Basically, it seems that it is very uncommon for houses to come with ovens in them. Instead, these small, portable ovens are more common. It is similar in size to a microwave and you just plug it and to use it (heats with electric coils). Mine is the extra-large one, most of my friends have smaller ovens. They work ok - it's definitely not as good as baking with a proper gas oven; however, it works.
Note the extra small fridge, which two of us are sharing! Large fridges are also not common here.

And a picture of the main room of our new house (was standing in the kitchen when I took this photo).

April 30th:2008: Koninginnedag 2 (Amsterdam)

Queen's Day in Amsterdam was sort of crazy - it was very crowded (almost impossible to move at all in some places), loud (there was lots of music everywhere - bands just playing on the street, large concerts in some areas of the city, and just about every boat that passed was blasting music) and everyone was walking around and drinking beer.
This stand has music on top and beer for sale on the bottom.



Everyone on these boats was drinking beer as well... On some of them, it wouldn't surprise me if the captains were also drinking beer since I saw several near accidents involving multiple boats - such as the picture below...
Note that the boat in the above picture actually has a portable toilet on it...
The park in Amsterdam was also filled with people selling stuff and music...

On Queen's Day, you are supposed to wear as much orange as possible. I found this nice orange belt for 50 cents and a friend lent me this silly hat. Some people were completely dressed in orange.
In the museum square, there was a huge area set up for concerts. We stayed here for a little while and heard some of the popular bands in The Netherlands, such as Nick & Simon and Racoon.



As you can imagine, walking through the crowds was very slow...

I tried "poffertjes" for the first time. Poffertjes are like little pancakes, cooked on this special grill. They are served with powdered sugar and a big pile of butter. They were good.
This boat had some problems fitting under the bridge... It took it a while, but eventually it managed to get through.

The train ride home was also very crowded and noisy - but I actually think it was better than the train ride in the morning (maybe everyone was tired by that point?).

April 30th:2008: Koninginnedag 1 (Texel)

April 30th was Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day, which is one of the biggest Dutch holidays of the year. Queen's Day is a celebration of the queen's birthday - for more information you can check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koninginnedag

My Queen's Day started at around 6am, when I was woken up by what sounded like 30 kids running down the street and screaming... At 8am it sounded like there was a brass band playing inside of the house. It took me a few minutes to figure out where the music was coming from - and then I spotted the band playing from the top of the church tower.A big part of Queen's day is the markets - basically, everyone claims a spot on the street and then attempts to sell their old stuff. I didn't get a good explanation from my Dutch friends for what the markets have to do with the queen's birthday - but it is tradition.


The photo above is of people selling their stuff in the streets of Den Burg. Also, a main part of Queen's day seems to be to drink as much beer as possible. Even at 8am I saw people walking around and drinking beer! At around 10am, I was on the train to Amsterdam - and I think I was the only sober person in my section of the train. The train ride was very loud and crazy - and there was a lot of beer drinking!
I spent the day in Amsterdam, and then returned to the island for the bonfires in the evening, which are a tradition on Texel. As the ferry approached the island, the smoke from fires all over the island was visible, as well as the fire from t' Horntje (the small village located next to the ferry).
The picture above was taken the day before Queen's day - notice the pile of wood behind the van. People dropped off their extra wood for the bonfire (basically, everything from tree branches to old chairs, tables and doors). I missed the lighting of the bonfire - but it was still huge when I got there. I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was still smoking today...
All around the big bonfire, there were probably 50-75 smaller fires - and people were cooking and drinking beer around the smaller fires. The kids come up to you and rub soot on your face - another tradition here.

April 24th, 2008: tulips!

Spring has finally arrived on Texel and the tulip fields are starting to bloom. Here are some photos taken on my ride to work this morning.

March 25th, 2008: lots and lots of hail!

This may look like snow, but it's not - it's actually hail. This picture is from my bike ride in to work this morning - it was a bit slippery! For the past few weeks the weather patterns have been sort of strange. There seems to be lots of small clouds passing over the island. It will be sunny (or sort of sunny) for a few minutes and then an intense but relatively short storm will occur. For the last week and a half, I have been caught in a hail storm on nearly every bike ride to or from work. I have to say that I'm not a big fan of hail when biking - it's really painful!


Yesterday was a strange day. It seemed like it was doing something different outside every 15 minutes or so. It snowed for a few minutes.


The daffodils are now in bloom! I took this picture last week. Now, they are covered in ice from the hail...