A Nederlands Avond: Football & Herring

This is a fun little post from my girlfriend Trudy about a recent night at a friend’s place for the Euro 2012.

The EK (Euro Cup) has started and of course it’s football fever here in Holland. Saturday night was the first game of the season so we had plans to spend the night with some Dutch friends. Unfortunately there wasn’t a whole lot ofcelebrating going on with Holland being beaten by Denmark (Ed note: Outrageous) but we had a good time partying in true Dutch style.

The last time the World Cup was on Tom and I got up at 3am to watch Australia’s dismal defeat against Germany in their first game. It was definitely a lot more fun being able to watch the game at a decent hour and with friends!

We cycled over the Willemsbrug to the other side of town (all rugged up as it was a typical Dutch Summers’ day) and arrived just in time for a drink and some orange snacks before the game started.

Surrounded by excited Dutchies; red, white and blue flags and a lot of orange we had a lot of chances to celebrate our Dutch swear words as the game progressed.

Jupiler is actually Belgium, the Dutch may pretend to be outraged but will all agree that the Belgiums just do better beer than they do!

While the game didn’t go the way we wanted the night continued pleasantly with Heineken, Orange Liquor and some raw fish for a midnight snack. The fresh haring (herring) are now in season and everyone is very happy (and smelly!) About 10cm long, you pick up your raw fish, cover it in diced raw onion, tilt back your head and start barking like a seal. No really, they are delicious I promise. I can imagine they would be quite an acquired taste if you didn’t have Dutch blood in your veins but as half a Dutchie I gobbled mine down stopping only to pick the bones from my teeth.

Some time after midnight it was time to get on our bikes and head back over the bridge to home. Another gezellig Dutch evening over.

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