31 January 2008

Busted!

20 € ($30) ticket for bicycling without a headlight. Technically, I have a headlight; it's just that it's broken. A true Dutch experience!

01 January 2008

Happy new years!

For the past week, this country has sounded as if it is under attack, as the Dutch have spent their days lighting fire-crackers with maddeningly loud booms in odd tribute to the conclusion of the year. Personally, I can see the appeal of fireworks -- pretty colors -- but fire-crackers? All day, every day? For what?

Last year, the Dutch spent $80 million dollars on fireworks. This year stores are permitted to sell only 10 kilos (22 pounds) of explosives per person. And it is only legal to ignite such pyrotechnics from 10am on 31 December until 2am on 1 January, but that hardly seemed to deter the masses. The police in Amsterdam apparently made 162 arrests for untimely fireworking, so I guess they did crack down for approximately 28 seconds.

These pre-schedule inflammations built to a frenzied crescendo until yesterday, when the city around me entirely erupted. It sounded as if I was inside of a very large and loud pot of popcorn. When I left work, I could hardly see 10 feet in front through the very heavy cloud of smoke. By 11pm, firecrackers turned to fireworks and by midnight the skies absolutely ignited with color.

There's not even a municipal celebration -- it's all private. And as I came home at 2am from my friend's house, through the smoky haze, it looked a bit like the scenes of rioting from Paris. Large christmas trees burned in the streets, blocking traffic. Tables and chairs were added to the fires. Roving masses of drunken adolescents.

In Utrecht, a lovely city of 300,000 people, 22 cars were set on fire. Riot police were called out in Nijmegen (population 160,000) and Tiel (population 40,000). Arrests across the country....

And today, as I look out the window, I see the fantastic detritus of last night's aural invasion. The normally refined and ordered country went crazy for one night; maybe they're too ashamed today to clean up.