This last weekend was the biggest festival day in Leiden, celebrating the hard-won independence from Spain. However, after the last "biggest event of the year" was spoilt after me getting prematurely excited about it, this time I had no expectations. And when you don't have expectations, you should expect great things.
So, on Friday the 2nd of October- the biggest party night, I was busy not expecting anything when my flatmate said- "Hey Ruben, you like cooking, it's the 2nd of October, do you want to make "Hutspot" for us... for 6...8 people?"
I said "Sure... What's hutspot?"
It's basically just mashed potato with onion and carrot. There were some crates of beer, and so, the night organically grew into a great night out. After eating (and drinking) in, we headed into town, which had transformed into a giant carnival and festival with rides, games, outdoor beer vendors, thousands upon thousands of people (sometimes literally), drinking on the streets and in the canals on boats, and outdoor DJs. One of the DJ events we went to was on a small barge in the water, from which many people peed off. Again, I will not divulge whether I partook in this ages-old Leidse tradition, but I will say that it was awesome. The whole night was.
I was in such a good mood that it felt like New Years. But instead of saying "Happy New Year" to all the strangers, I adapted the saying to "Happy Leidse Omzet!" I now know that it is actually "ontzet", but I don't think it mattered much. Most people didn't understand what they were supposed to say back to me. So, after some trial and error and persistence, I adapted it to "Happy Leidse Omzet, WOO!", which got a more-or-less desired result ("Woo").
Actually, after a getting home and spending a full day hung over, we all finished the beer and had another night out in town. Rinse and repeat. The two nights melted into one weekend of pure awesomeness.
I know, this post isn't really leading to a point, but I promise it is leading to something much better: a compromising photograph of myself as a visual representation of how great the weekend was. It was at 4:30 AM after the first night. I had gotten home, and had finished chatting and sobering up with the others who had made it home. This photo shows where I took a rest at the halfway point between my living room couch to my bedroom. I wasn't actually sleeping; I was more "doing a David Hasselhof".
In all fairness, the photo probably looks worse than it is... Anyway, here you are.
Happy Leidse Omzet everyone!...
Woo!
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