Amsterdam

Arriving early in Amsterdam was an experience. The train was longer than I thought and it was filled with people wearing orange. Everyone had football fever. The train station and the tourist office just outside are a madhouse. I am not sure if it is always like this but it took nearly and hour for me to find out how to get to my hostel. Again, a rather hot day. Always it seems I am trapped in trains or stations on hellishly hot days.

The hostel is huge and is much better than some of the others though lacking in some of the more preferred amenities such as a shared kitchen. I am tired of eating breakfasts of bread , cheese and muslix.

Not really knowing much about Amsterdam and it's layout I was unsure where to go to start off but as soon as I stepped out to the main street there was a sea of orange heading all in the same direction. When in Holland, follow the orange. We ended up at Museum Square where they had 3 giant screens, endless Heineken stands and more orange than the eye could stand. Not wanting to stand out I went in search of something orange to have. As luck would have it, there was a bus with people on top trowing out bright orange shirts with Berjt! on the front (I am going to assume this means Beer in Dutch, but feel free to correct me Dianne!)

Watching the crowd was more fun than watching the actual game. People are very patriotic here. They sing all the songs together, they hug, they blow in their vuvuzelas. The feel was very jovial, though the quantity of alcohol all over would probably have something to do with that as well. I watched people walk into the field with CRATES of beer. I guess we know the favorite past time here.

At one point one of the Police watching everything was near and I asked him if things did not turn out well for the Dutch in this game, were things going to turn ugly? He replied, 'We just like to party. Does not matter if we win or lose it will just be a party.' Pretty mellow for a police officer. The three helicopters in the air and the armored vehicles on every corner made me wonder though.

However, even with the loss it was a calm crowd. I am not sure but I get the feeling they did not actually expect to win this game. They were just proud to get to the point that they had.

My only criticism of the whole thing was how absolutely disgusting everything was afterward. The amount of garbage the lined the streets and the fields and the canals was disgusting. No one seems to care at all in that situation. Broken bottles were everywhere and I saw more than one person with bandaged feet from accidentally slicing themselves open on the bottles. Even the next day after spending all day cleaning, the streets were still a mess. I am not surprised though, considering 120 000 people came and there were no large garbage bins anywhere, it was bound to happen. Still it is not pleasant to see or walk through.