3 October weekend

WOW. Where to even begin? In an earlier post I mentioned that the 3rd of October holds very special meaning to Leideners. Apparently that is when Leiden stood strong and defeated the Spaniards in the 15th century and kept them from taking seige of Leiden. It involved breaking of the dams, flooding a city, and the mayor offering to cut off his arm to feed his starving city if they would not surrender.  The end result was that they defeated the Spanish Army and the mayor was able to feed his city dwellers white bread and raw herring. So, fast forward to present times and every 3rd of October there is a huge festival in the city. Imagine Santa-cali-gon but spread out over several miles, with Worlds of Fun-like rides.

This worked out great because Dan's friend Doug came in town last night. Dan told him that we had coordinated this festival for his arrival. In fact, he even got to take part in the parade that was winding through our city at 9pm at night. Dan went to the airport to accompany Doug back to Leiden and I waited at home. From my bedroom I heard the unmistakable sound of marching drums that can only be found in a parade. I quickly grabbed my camera and ran out on the street. There were laser lights, adult marching bands, and floats with light displays like you might see on Chicago street in Blue Springs. I was cheering on the parade, getting caught up in the excitement. As the first marching band passed, I had an incredible urge to follow after the parade, chanting something in Dutch. If it weren't for the thought that my husband might be a tad concerned to come home to an empty apartment, I'm pretty sure I would've followed that marching band until the end. Soon afterwards, Dan and Doug arrived and told their tale of them marching in the parade, poor Doug dragging his suitcase behind him.

We went on to explore all the festivities which included open air discos-lots of them, lots of alcohol, fried foods, glowsticks, pot, and crazy carnival rides. These carnival rides were scary. They looked similar to rides you might find at Worlds of Fun or Six Flags except these rides had been constructed in less than a week. One ride in particular stood out as it was like the Detonator at World's of Fun, only instead of seats that took you up, it had swings and it swung out and looked like a UFO.  It was quite a sight. By the end of the night, as we were heading home, we were left with one obstacle in our way. . .one more open air disco that was now packed with people. With Doug pioneering the way, we made it through the disco about 10 minutes later.

I can understand now why some people leave town on this weekend. It's definitely a fun, one time experience. I've posted some pics below of our evening out as well as some other pics of us touring around Leiden.

Oh! and we finally got our wardrobe together so that is in the pictures too!!