The Luckiest Weekend Ever

As you all know, last Friday was 11/11/11.   Ever year, Maastricht and cities throughout Europe throw a major festival and party celebrating the countdown toward Carnival.  Since it happened to be 11/11/11, the party was 11 times more amazing than usual years.  At exactly 11:11am (the time of day when you are supposed to make a wish) confetti flew into the air and everyone in the city enjoyed wishing for anything and everything for a full minute. 
I had heard about carnival before, but I never really thought too much about it.  From February 19th through the 21st, there is a massive party full of costumes and drinking for all ages.  I was bummed I wasn't going to be here to experience that party, so being here for the grand opening celebration was just as good and so much fun!  The entire Vrijtof square was closed off and full of costumed people.  The restaurants had cleared away their normal outside seating to make room for the hoards of people that were coming in from around the Netherlands and surrounding countries.  Apparently Maastricht has the best party in Holland :)  I'm not surprised!! 
The music that was playing was all American songs, but they were sung in Dutch!  We would recognize the song and expect to hear English, but it was so fun to hear it in a different language and dance with everyone.  During the day, the town of Maastricht was as busy as I have ever seen it...only this time it wasn't full of German's doing their shopping sprees, but rather a bunch of crazy looking people drinking and eating and having a great time.
Later at night, it was just as crazy.  I have never seen Maastricht so dirty or so wild at night.  Every single bar and club was packed full.  We enjoyed bar hopping and celebrating with locals.  

The huge stage looked so out of place in the square.

 

 

Some costumed gentlemen.

My friends and I celebrating...just because!!

Post Carnival.  A little dirty :)

Not many people can say that they have been to three major cities in their country in just one day...but now I can!  Last weekend, me and three friends decided to use a day on our Eurail Pass to explore the Netherlands some more.  We started out our day on the train to Rotterdam.  The train ride went by quickly, as we caught up on some reading from my Netherlands travel book.  Once we arrived in Rotterdam, we decided to go to the Delfthaven windmill along the water's edge.  The town was very charming and much quieter than Amsterdam, yet it still had the charm with the canals and boathouses.  We enjoyed a picnic of take out Chinese food and sat by the canals and basked in the sunlight.  I am so satisifed I finally saw a windmill up close.  How could I not if I live in Holland!?!  It was MUCH bigger than I expected and looked quite roomy inside. 

In the capital of Delft Pottery

Dutch Houses.  Straight Up!

Delfthaven Windmill

Beautiful Holland :)

After exploring the Rotterdam area, we hopped back on the train to Utrecht.  With a population of 40,000 students, the city is definitely built to maintain a scene for rambunctious kids.  It reminded me so much of Maastricht, only it was a little bigger and it had canals.  As we walked to the big church in town, Black Pete(s) came marching out of the church handing out 'kruidnoten' to little children.  Black Pete is Sinterklass' helper and he has a black face because he goes down the chimney and gets dirty with soot.  It was fun to experience this Dutch Christmas tradition in person.  I will also say that the church was beautiful, even though we couldn't go inside.  It was very gothic and was accompanied by a sky-scraping clock tower. 

Black Pete(s)

St. Martin's Cathedral 

 

Even the cats here are so Dutch

A night scene of the canals in Utrecht.

It is starting to get dark SO early here, but we weren't finished traveling for the day.  Since Amsterdam is only about 25 minutes away from Utrecht, we decided why not go for dinner!  We enjoyed delicious dinner pancakes at the famous pancake and crepe restaurant right down the street from Anne Frank's house.  It was very fun to be back in the city and know my way around.  After dinner, we took a walk down the shopping street and visited a favorite coffeeshop for some cappuccinos to keep us awake for the ride home.  A quick stroll down the red light district (since one of the girls with us hadn't seen it yet) and I definitely won't have to visit that part of town any time soon! 
With only 5 weekends left here in the Netherlands, I am realizing that there is still so much I want to do and so little time!  I will keep you updated on how I spend the rest of my time here :)