Photography - Queen's Day
Queen's day is all about eating crap food, wearing orange to show your love for the Mother Country, buying second-hand stuff that noone would buy on any other day of the year, or making your way through an extremely crowded street to listen to bad Dutch bands performing on tiny stages. I know it doesn't sound like a very attractive event, and trust me: it really isn't, once you get past the age where you can enter Bike Decoration contests or make money playing the recorder badly. For some reason I always venture out to take pictures though, so here's the result! They're rather late, as Queen's Day was on April 30th, but hey, that's early by my standards. I spent most of the day sitting in a café playing board games with friends, as the weather sucked this year, and I don't enjoy crowds a lot. I think this reflects in my pictures, so you might find a lot of cranky looking people here. But they're dressed up in orange for the occasion, so enjoy!
Queen's Night:
(Queen's Night is Utrecht's annual flea market event, starting the night before Queen's Day. People are invited to throw a blanket on the street and put all kinds of junk on it that they want to get rid of, like toys, CDs, homemade jewelry, etcetera. It also involves a lot of typical Dutch food like poffertjes (small pancakes), oliebollen (fried dough balls, filled with raisins and topped with sugar) and spring rolls. Okay, so the spring rolls are Vietnamese, but everyone likes them, so we like to think they're Dutch, and call them "loempias".
Poffertjes
This guy insisted I take his picture. He's showing off a print he just bought. XD
Fake Hara Krishnas, singing a chant called "Hara Majesteit" (a pun on "Her Majesty").
"Should I pay good money for this crap and take it home, or shall I just leave it with the other crap? TOUGH DECISION."
More food.
Oliebollen.
Queen's Day
Can you tell I liked the balloons? I totally wanted one.
Rescue Brigade
"Live music" consisting of a lot of bass and not much melody.
The Dom square, next to our famous Dom church.
One of the aforementioned Blankets Filled With Junk, in this case: stuffed animals and random toys.
"Gorgeous rings!!!"
I liked the patriotic dog.
Patriotic smurf, having a smoke.
Amazing Live Music!
They are American Boxing Gloves!
Awwww.
I think the green balloons had to do with global warming.
These girls were amazing. Pink Superwomen!
Café cat! He sat in our booth the entire time. Or rather, I think we sat in his booth the entire time, because he seemed to be just tolerating us.
This woman does not look happy, despite the beer.
My friend Erik.
Queen's Night:
(Queen's Night is Utrecht's annual flea market event, starting the night before Queen's Day. People are invited to throw a blanket on the street and put all kinds of junk on it that they want to get rid of, like toys, CDs, homemade jewelry, etcetera. It also involves a lot of typical Dutch food like poffertjes (small pancakes), oliebollen (fried dough balls, filled with raisins and topped with sugar) and spring rolls. Okay, so the spring rolls are Vietnamese, but everyone likes them, so we like to think they're Dutch, and call them "loempias".
Poffertjes
This guy insisted I take his picture. He's showing off a print he just bought. XD
Fake Hara Krishnas, singing a chant called "Hara Majesteit" (a pun on "Her Majesty").
"Should I pay good money for this crap and take it home, or shall I just leave it with the other crap? TOUGH DECISION."
More food.
Oliebollen.
Queen's Day
Can you tell I liked the balloons? I totally wanted one.
Rescue Brigade
"Live music" consisting of a lot of bass and not much melody.
The Dom square, next to our famous Dom church.
One of the aforementioned Blankets Filled With Junk, in this case: stuffed animals and random toys.
"Gorgeous rings!!!"
I liked the patriotic dog.
Patriotic smurf, having a smoke.
Amazing Live Music!
They are American Boxing Gloves!
Awwww.
I think the green balloons had to do with global warming.
These girls were amazing. Pink Superwomen!
Café cat! He sat in our booth the entire time. Or rather, I think we sat in his booth the entire time, because he seemed to be just tolerating us.
This woman does not look happy, despite the beer.
My friend Erik.