Tulips, dancing and flair
I would believe only in a God that knows how to dance. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music. ~William Stafford
There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good. ~Edwin Denby
Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made. ~Ted Shawn, Time, 25 July 1955
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Excuse the plethora of quotes, please, but when looking for dancing quotes I simply found too many that I loved and were just so appropriate, so I thought; why not?
Anyhoo, it has been far, far too long since my last post, I do apologize. I just have been putting it off for a bit, but no longer!
So I shall start with last Saturday. Alex, Sarah, Christy, Hallie and I went to Keukenhof to see the tulips. It is the famous flower gardens of the Netherlands. In fact after a quick google search (for spelling accuracy) I have discovered that it is also termed the Garden of Europe and is the world’s largest flower garden.
We got up early last Saturday and started our adventure. We got joint transportation and admission tickets at the tourist center at Centraal (after waiting for an hour). We then took a tram to get to the bus that took us to the airport where we waited for another hour to board a bus that took us to the gardens (near Lisse). We and about 20,000 other people then entered the gardens. They are beautiful. Flowers of all colors and variations lined pathways throughout the gardens. Apparently this year (they pick a theme each year) the theme was China, so there were pagodas everywhere too.
I was pleasantly surprised about how much fun I had. I’m not really one that especially enjoys flower gardens but I thought, hey we’re a couple bus rides away from the largest in Europe, I should probably go. But it was so lovely and we had a great time so it was definitely worth the time and money.
It was kind of funny, because a lot of places I’ve been visiting I’ve felt like I have to justify to myself taking shit loads of pictures as being super touristy, but everyone at Keukenhof had their cameras out, it was so acknowledged that this is what you do when you go, take pictures. There is nothing else to do. And we got pretty creative, starting with a return of our jump pictures and progressing to crazy “senior pictures” poses.
By the end of the day we were all quite tired and people-d out (seriously there were like a million people involved in every stage of the day – the gardens are only open two months and during that span they get 11 million visitors, you do the math) but it was amazing to see. (See Facebook pictures, if interested in flowers).
We rested up that night then Alex, Sarah, Christy, Tim and I went to BBQ at the Bitterzoot. It was an awesome time! Best dance music I’ve heard since being here – some European techno crap, but a lot of recognizable hip-hop/dance rap stuff. And everyone was into it, although I think we were the most intense dancers there, shocker. It was packed, and we had to constantly fight for space, but that was part of the fun, too. It’s a shame it’s only once a month, but the Bitterzoot is definitely a great venue, that I think we’ll go to more often.
The next couple days are a mix for me, by now. Had class, walked around a great deal, enjoyed the nice weather. At one point I went back to FOAM (the photography museum) and the exhibition was on the Stasi secret rooms. It was interesting, but I didn’t find it as interesting as WeeGee. All the rooms were shot at the same angle and vantage point, so it was cool to see how they were decorated (and sort of enlightening) but the photography aspect was lacking for me (although I know it took skill, don’t get me wrong). Still I hope there is another exhibit before I go home, it’s a really cool museum.
I actually did do quite a bit of walking around and biking this last week. I’ve really taken a fancy to Oosterpark. It’s really close and pretty and hundreds of dogs are always running around playing. I also biked yesterday back to Flevopark (the wetland one that reminds me of Wildwood) and further to where Donny and I went. It was so pretty. Like I said, we’ve been having awesome weather here.
Also, Thursday night we re-fell-in-love with Pop Trash. It’s this party that’s held every Thursday at Milkweg. It’s lots of dancing and European techno but it’s a great time. We got really into it (again see Facebook pictures) and had a lot of fun. It was awesome, because we got there semi-early and were the only ones dancing for a bit of time, and we were dancing like crazy, so pretty much we were badass. Also they played “beeper” twice – so that got us extra super pumped up.
Yesterday, all worn out from pT, we mostly chilled. At night we went to the Eastern Docklands and found a really cute bar, had a couple drinks (well I didn’t) and sat outside on the terrace for a bit. When it got too cold we went inside and decided to play Dutch monopoly. It was amusing.
OH! Also we’ve all become addicted to flair. What is flair, you ask. Well it’s a Facebook app that let’s you put whatever buttons you want on the board in your profile. It is awesomeness personified (sort of). I’ve gotten multiple people addicted already, so watch out! : ))))
Anyway Queen’s Day, the mother of all Amsterdam shit shows, is on Wednesday. Apparently A’dam gets so crowded it can take a half hour to get from Centraal to Dam Square, usually a walk that takes about five minutes. It shall be awesome. I will provide more details for it’s post, but I’m getting really excited.
Other than that I have two weeks off of class (for Queen’s Day and other holidays around this time) so I’m going to buckle down and try to finish – or at least really work on – my two big papers I have due at the end of the semester.
And I think most of our Ireland trip is worked out (thanks mutti!) We’re going from Dublin (after a day there) to Galway. We’re planning on just staying in that area and exploring the sights around there, such as the Cliffs of Moher. We’re also going out to the Aran Islands and spending the night on one of them. I’m tre, tre excited : )
Anyway I believe we’re riding out to a “beach” today.
So I must go prepare,
Much Love
p.s. please excuse my overuse of both the word “pretty” and the phrase “had a great time”, neither are that desripitve or useful, but they are the truth ;p
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