Queen’s Day in Amsterdam was said to be like our Mardi Gras. They celebrate their Queen’s Bday each year on April 30th. People everywhere, drinking, partying, and half naked. So since I’d never experienced Mardi Gras before I knew I would be in for a real experience. We weren’t going to be staying through this night, so we went that morning to walk through the streets, but not before Keri and I stopped to get ANOTHER waffle. There were TONS of people in the streets.
They estimate around 3-5 million people come each year. They have little garage sales in the park (where kids are entertaining for Euros/change) so we went to see what that was all about. They had tons of shops and people just selling their crap. But Keri and I managed to find some very cute clothes for our kids. It was pretty hectic getting around, but we managed to do ok. There were lots of partiers and people wearing the “orange” attire, so we fit right in. We were planning on heading to Rotterdam, after checking out of the hotel in Amsterdam. It was a lot of fun getting to experience the whole “Queens Day” thing. I HATE that we missed the party that night, but I’m sure it would have been crazy. Most of them already had the buzz on and it was only 12 in the afternoon. Anyways, we had to go back to the hotel and had to get all our bags/suitcases and head to the train station. It was HELL going through all those people with our luggage. We had to stop a few times cause Keith and I were having some malfunctions with our luggage. The streets were very dirty- as people were dropping their trash EVERWHERE- so we were hitting cans, etc... along the way to the train station. We finally made it there and got our tickets to Rotterdam. The train ride was pretty cool. I was more exhausted than anything, so I grabbed my book and read more of the “Twilight” series. The train ride was only an hour or so. When we got off the train, more walking, but not too far. Aryen (I kept calling him are you in or out?) haha! Not sure how to spell his name. He lives in Rotterdam and invited us all over to his CUBE house. 
It was the craziest thing. I could NEVER live in something so confined and small, but this is what they are used to and it was unique. We had a HELL of a time getting all of our stuff up and down those stairs. I pretty much convinced myself then that I was never bringing a suitcase to Europe- only a backpack. Anyways, once we got settled in. Aryen and his girlfriend made some delicious food and drinks for all of us. We took a tour of his place- and I slept in the “crows nest” portion of the house. It was actually rather breezy, but again, confined. We played loaded questions with a group of people till 1:30am or so in the morning. It was a lot of fun and I got to learn a little bit more about Keri, Keith, and their friends. We hit the sack- Keri, Keith, and I had to catch a train at 6:45am the next morning. Whew- what a fun and exciting day. I was pretty worn out, but no stopping us now. Tomorrow- it was a 3 hr train ride for Keri and I to PARIS QUEENS DAY/ROTTERDAM
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