Queen's Day - Amsterdam 2011

Queensday is the annual celebration of the queens birthday here in The Netherlands. The hostel has been fully booked for weeks, and all the Dutchies talk about it with awe. The cafe was scheduled to be shut down, and the person in charge of scheduling made sure that everyone had at least one block of time to go out and enjoy the festivities.
I worked the sleeper shift on queens night, the night before queens night. The night started off pretty normal, there where more drunk people than usual and everyone was wearing orange.
I went out with a couple of guests at 2am to Niewmarkt square, right next to the hostel, and was amazed at the insanity... The streets where piled high with empty bottles and cans of all kind of beverages, from absinthe to Hieneken, no joke - it made the streets in Mumbai look clean in comparison.
The bars here all have a deal running where you can save up the plastic cups that your beer comes in and at the end of the night cash in the cups and get a euro for each one, a couple of us exploited this deal, and collected cups all night, when people get drunk they forget about this fantastic money saving opportunity and the cups litter the ground like popcorn on the floor of a movie theater.
While I was digging through a trash pile for cups, I heard "hey your the guy from the hostel!" A group of girls from Finland came over and we began to chat, they where really drunk and only wanted to make out. I talked for a minute, then one of them dumped a glass of beer over another ones head, and they all began crying. I excused myself and returned to collecting cups.

I periodicly checked into the hostel to drop off my ever growing cup stash, and make sure Heibert wasnt getting overwhelmed at reception.
Then about 3:30am it happened. I bumped into one of the Finish girls who was starting to get worried about her friend, the really drunk one. She had disapeared. An over dramatic yet fun man woman hunt began, and we searched the city like TSA dogs searching for an ounce of weed.
We decided to call it a night around 4, and hope that our drunk friend made it back alright, when Matt made a joke and pointed to a random person and said "HEY THATS HER!" we all looked and it actually was, Matt was more surprised than anyone, and we swore not to tell the others that he was joking.
The friends where re-united, and it was beautiful. We all shared a group hug, and the girls started crying again and babeling in Finnish, so I went inside and cleaned the bathrooms.

I got up this afternoon and went out once more for cups, I wandered around more and saw lots of people who had been out since the night before. The police just kind of step back for a few days, and Amsterdam turns into a wild west "anything goes" place. The drug dealers go from conspicous to REALLY conspicuous, and the uninforced "no marijuana in certain public areas" rule disappears all together. I watched a young kid on a bad acid trip literaly try to eat his own arm while his girlfriend held him and cried because she couldnt do anything. The streets are full of people walking around with nitrous oxide canisters offering a balloon full for 4 euros (thats the happy gas they give you at the dentist) the streets flow like rivers with a mixture of piss, vomit and beer. Dubstep and house music is blaring from all angles at all hours, and nobody rides bikes anymore, half because of the broken glass covering every surface, and half because its impossible with all the people crowding the streets.
I saw 4 police officers the whole time.
The canals are jam packed with boats full of drunk people wearing orange and dancing, and the redlight district is surprisingly empty...

Insanity

After my walk, I cashed in my cups and ended up with about 50 euros! I then began my evening reception shift. In the first 60 minutes, I had grabbed a drunk guy who wasn't staying at the hostel and dragged him out of one of the girls dorms, chased a guy upstairs after telling him he couldn't go upstairs, forcefully removed his beer from his hand and threw him out the front door, and broken up a party on the steps of the hostel that was blocking guests from coming in.
The rest of my shift was pretty quiet, then I walked home a little after midnight and took in the carnage. The streets are pretty much abandoned, save a few die hards still trying to find a party. The wind has blown the bottles and cans into snow-drift like piles, and leftover items that people didnt sell on the street are piled everywhere. Tons of clothes, toys and everything else left in heaps. cars drive slow and you constantly hear the popping when a car hits a beer bottle on the road. On my ten minute walk home, I counted numerous syringes, barbie dolls, books, glass beer mugs, refrigerators laying on the sidewalk and more empty cigarette boxes than you can imagine. The evidence of car crashes is everywhere, bent poles on the side of the road and shattered tail light remnants.

Its going to take a few days for this city to recover...

Niewmarkt Square