Dutch Trailer Parks and Non-Carnival Non-Keggers

I've been staying in a Dutch trailer park, or as Mom puts it, "a trailer park without white trash." Let me explain...
A popular way to vacation in Holland, where there isn't much space for a sprawling summer home or endless B&Bs, is to stay in a "caravan." Caravans are kind of like trailers- they are semi-permanent structures that are small, attached to the ground (no wheels, platforms, or tornado worries), and kind of a mix between a double-wide and a cottage. Many people keep theirs in a large park with 100-150 other caravans, and most of them have small canals that run through for people to keep their boats on, as it is the un-Dutchest thing to not have a canal and access to boats. That would not be a vacation, that would be torture. Anyway, I've included a few pictures to prove that I have not, in fact, been staying with the Hollish equivilent of bumpkins, but an efficient yet cosy Dutch holiday home.

The top picture is Emily, one of my favorite people in the world. She and I met at college in a Dutch class and became fast friends. I even visited her last year when she was studying abroad in A'dam. We happened to be in Holland at the same time right now, so I was fortunate to hang out with her and stay with her family (that's her mom at the kitchen table, one of the nicest ladies on both sides of the pond). Emily's dad and step-dad are both Dutch, so it's a lot of fun being here with her and seeing her family. Listening to her two teenage cousins speak in Dutch is an exercise in keeping my brain from spinning too fast. I can barely understand American teenagers these days, let alone in Dutch! They are very nice though, and treat me like family when I'm here:)

One plus of staying here with Emily is that I get to meet a lot of her friends and do crazy Dutch things, like attend a "kermisborrel," or as I like to call it, a non-carnival non-kegger. Kermis is kind of like a county fair- they are little carnivals/festivals that occur in the smaller towns and villages of Holland for about a week in the summer. A borrel is a kind of like our keggers, except they don't have kegs here. So, while the families attend Kermis during the day and go on the rides, get faces painted, etc, the adults of the surrounding villages get drunk off their clogs. They pregame, but without attending the game. This goes on all day, and later in the night people often decide to actually go to Kermis, which by this point means joining all the other drunk villagers at the bars NEAR the Kermis, as the carnival has long closed. So it's a non-kegger that goes on all day and leads into not attending the carnival at night. Naturally.

Here are some pictures from my first kermisborrel:




No, I have NO idea why those people are in a large birdcage.
A few interesting points from the kermisborrel- Dutch people are really friendly! At parties, oftentimes in America I feel like people aren't as welcoming and friendly, unless its toward someone of the opposite sex they want to score (points) with. Here, everyone was coming up and introducing themselves, guys and girls alike, and when they talk to you it's very genuine. It was really a pleasure meeting such down-to-earth people at this strange and drunken event. Also, many people asked if I was from England, America, or Australia. Maybe it's cause I was out in the country? I don't know, that's never happened to me before in Holland! I always thought it was quite obvious...

A kermisborrel can be summed up with how the night ends: with about 7 or 8 completely trashed Dutchies shouting along to "Hey I'm from Holland! Where the f*** you from?!"

So that's trailer parks and kermisborrels!

Dutch words learned during this adventure:
aangeschoten- tipsy. literal translation is "grazed", like by a bullet
bezopen- hammered
op de bonnefooi- play it by ear
drempel- speedbump. literal is "threshold", i think
de mazzel- guys say it to each other when they say goodbye as "best" or "success"- from our mazel!
wel trusten- sleep tight
what the f*ck- said by the Dutch in otherwise completely Dutch sentences. Example: "De kippen zeiden what the f*ck, dieren kunnen niet spreken." (The chickens said wtf, animals can't talk.)

That's this adventure, thanks for reading! de mazzel:)

xoxo
kosher waffel