Bori goes to Holland

Surely you have some idea about how tolerant the Dutch are - concerning ANY topic.

Well another nice example of that is the Amsterdam Gay Pride, which took place last weekend, and we were touristic people enough to visit it. I have already gotten a glimpse of Dutch partying when I was here in March: the Carnival fever takes over these civilized people and they happily dress up as idiots. 

Carnival in the Netherlands is also called "Vastenavond" or "Vastelaovend", and is most celebrated in Catholic regions, mainly the southern provinces North Brabant and Limburg. Dutch Carnival is officially celebrated on the Sunday through Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday.

I was lucky enough to wittnes this madness in Eindhoven, which is pretty much down there in the region. This picture was taken in Eindhoven downtown, Sunday, 6th March, 12:19 PM. So they are doing it for 3 days, non-stop. It might not be clearly visible, but the age of the participants varies from 10 to 80. 

 This day on the train I was sitting together with two surgeons covered in blood. A few stops later Batman joined us sitting next to me. The freakiest part was that it was totally normal, everybody was busy texting each other, not even noticing the customes' of other. That's why I didn't dare to take pictures.

So, I already had this impression of crazy-Dutch-daytime-partying, but the best was yet to come: visiting a the canal parade of the Amsterdam Gay Pride. To be honest, I would have never expected such a crowd: as you can see there is a huge line of people standing in front of me, standing on the bridge and in between they are standing on a boat. 

 I could hardly see anything, all these pictures were taken during the few minutes I spent sitting in (on?) a neck :)

  Please take a close look at the cute bathing suits of these almost naked piratemen, matching the inflatable masts of their cute little pirateship. 

 The Canal Parade went through the whole city, and this massive crowd was accompanying it all the way. I mean not walking along, there were people standing throughout the whole length of canals, staring at the 80 ships passing by.

They arrived in the big bay of which I still dont know the name. It was lovely how the overall grey color of the bay was lightened up with these pink patches floating on the water.

Of course all this with some lovely (?) trance and techno music. After these experiences I have no idea what I should expect on the next Queen's day, which is said to be THE biggest happening for the Dutch. Fortunately I still have time to prepare, as this event takes place in April.