Queen's Day

Yesterday was Queen's Day. It's 30th April every year. What do you say, yesterday was 29th? Well, apparently there's a rule for which, if 30th April is Sunday, Queen's Day is on 29th that year.

Dutch people go mad on that day. People on streets, live music in stages all over the city, orange clothes (Oranje is the royal family. And also the colour of the football's national team).

In many places, including around where I live, there was the free market: everyone could sell thier used objects. It was more of a dump than a market, with old and useless stuff for sale, but it was fun. Also, stands with food, books, children plays...

Then I and Elisa met in Leidseplein with some of her colleagues, nice people. We strolled around the crowded streets, until finally we got to the Jordaan district and stopped in a pub.

People in boats in the canals

The wise man does not piss in the wind (a Latin inscription near Leidseplein)

A guy who charged 1 Euro to have eggs thrown on him. But very few could hit him

It was very hard to find a place to eat, but, after a long wait, we did. And, after that, we went home with the metro (as there were no trams and buses in the centre). A very fun day.

Maybe I will learn this bloody language (eventually) (in 10 years, or more)

I found an ad from a man wanting to exchange Dutch lessons with Italian lessons. So I answered. We exchanged some e-mails: mine were written in Dutch, and his in Italian, and we corrected each other's mistakes.

On Thursday we met. His name is Gert and he is very keen to learn Italian. He already writes very well, and speaks it slowly but correctly. I also tried to speak, and discovered (as if I didn't know before) that I still speak in a terrible way. Slowly, without knowing the indispensable words, and with completely wrong word order. .

But I found the evening very useful. Practice is definitely what's needed. If he is patient enough to bear with me and my horrible Dutch, we both will benefit.

Five

Another hole in my bike's rear tyre. The fifth one. My neighbours tell me I should throw away the bike. Maybe they're right. Surely, a visit to a (trustworthy) bike repairer is necessary

Leaks

Last Thursday I fixed a leak in the rear tyre of my bycicle. It's the fourth time since I'm here. Maybe this blog should be renamed to The eternal struggle of one man against one bike and only report about leaky tyres. There would be enough material to fill a blog, although it would get a little repetitive.

Visits

After being in Italy for the elections, I'm back to Amsterdam. So I spent Easter in the Netherlands. Many tourists came here for the holidays, so the city is much more crowded than usual.

Among those tourists, two former colleagues of mine, of the time I worked in Turin, with their respective girlfriends (one of which works in the same place). It was a pleasant experience. We first met on Friday evening, they let me and Elisa (who didn't know them) in their hotel room (note: they were not use to Amsterdam's steep stairs), then we had pizza together (real Italians! We dared eat one of those touristy, un-authentic, mozzarella-less pizzas! Not so bad though) and had a little walk. On Saturday we did probably the most touristy thing we could: a boat ride through the canals. It was the first time for them, and for us too.

The six bridges over the Reguliersgracht

A house-boat for sale. Anyone wanna buy?

Then everybody came to my house, including a Dutch friend who studied in Turin for his Erasmus, and now studies in Delft. Italian food galore. Actually, not so much, it was the first time a dinner was prepared for so many people. But everybody seemed satisfied. Overall, they've been two great days. Let's hope my friends could visit the Anne Frank museum (when they tried, the queue for the tickets was just too long) before coming home.

Forza Italia!

Now I'm proud to be an Italian. Again.

Funny signs

No alcohol (in the Oosterpark)

No noisy thingies. Also no grilled meat (or whatever is that in the bottom right) (in the Vondelpark)

Danger, birds! (on the road to Marken)

Some years ago, in Eindhoven, I saw a "No pissing" sign, which is even weirder than those.

Het is lente

It's spring! The weather has suddenly changed (all weather changes are sudden here) for the better, and it's more sunny. But, most important of all, there are more daylight hours. Also, the daylight saving time, although it forces to wake up earlier, means that the sun goes down one hour later, and that's such a pleasure.

I'm getting ready for my return to Italy. On the 9th, there are general elections. And they are very important, because they are a unique chance to pose an end to the Berlusconi premiership. Berlusconi is a great liar: he lies, but in a very convinving way. He points out all the opposition's misdeeds, and he never cares about his, which are exactly the same, only 10 times greater. His government is very much committed in laws that influence him directly, yet he is very good at shifting the focus away from that fact. He loves to choose as government partners some very conservative, when not outright racist, people, which have a great deal of influence in government policy, yet he is the frontman, so those people can act unseen and undisturbed, while he gets all the attention himself. And he simply does not care about the reputation of clown he earned abroad, because those people do not have right to vote in Italy.
I don't think his opposition is the best possible opposition, but i do think that things would improve tenfold if he stops being the prime minister.