Dutch Donderdag - Eggsellent

The massive chocolate binge that is Easter has come & gone... & it pretty much went same way as it did in the UK. Good Friday consisted of a mad dash to find Easter Eggs before they were all snapped up. Once again Waterstones in Amsterdam was my saviour... especially after one of the girls at my last cocktail night mentioned Cadbury Creme Eggs. Agh! How could I have gotten this close to Easter without thinking about their sickly sweet gooey-ness? Luckily the book-store did not disappoint & I left happy with a bag of mini Creme Eggs a bag of Mini Eggs (how could I forget about them to?) & an Aero Egg for my boyfriend.

Easter survival pack

Friday & Saturday saw the rapid demise of all the mini & creme eggs but they were replaced on Easter Sunday by the combination of a chocolate bunny & a chocolate egg from my boyfriend. I was quite please with myself actually, as I only devoured the bunny on Sunday. And the egg itself lasted a further two days.

Apparently chocolate bunnies are the more “in thing” in the Netherlands. I'm not sure if that's down to the prevalence of Miffy (aka Nijntje) or if there's a more Pagan reason to it. After all, The festival of Easter, the image of resurrection & rebirth & all it's accompanying symbols are based on the old Pagan spring festivities & the Netherlands was a typically pagan place. Even more so in the northern lands.

Anyway... The Easter weekend was rounded off in true Bank Holiday style, i.e. continuous, pouring rain! It's always nice to experience familiar things in an unfamiliar land.

Oh... & I made up a poem for Easter Sunday based on my experience.

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

First the ears.

Then the head.

Now chocolate bunny,

You are dead.

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

Dutch Donderdag - Congratulations! It's NOT your birthday!

I was reminded the other day of an odd (for me) Dutch custom, thanks to it being my boyfriend's birthday. We had a little soiree & as the guests arrived they would, of course, congratulate him on it being his birthday. The odd part is that they would then congratulate me... on it being his birthday.

Why?

Is there some subtle, underlying context to that congratulations that I'm not getting? “Congratulations... for not offing him & allowing him to reach this age!” “Congratulations... for putting up with him for another year & not running back, screaming, to the UK!”

If I was his mother I could understand the random congratulations “Congratulations... for birthing him & for him reaching a ripe old age”. But as a girlfriend, well it just seems a little weird.

Mind you, there's a lot about the Dutch I find weird.