Inside MaartenJan and Karin had a big living room and dining room, a great kitchen, and some super-steep stairs up to the bedrooms. They also had .... Bram! (hope I'm spelling that right), a cute little farm kitty who thinks he's a dog. We stayed with MaartenJan and Karin for a whole week (the week before their wedding), and during that time Bram grew about 25% in size.Since we landed at MaartenJan and Karin's house the week before their wedding, we got to help out with ... wedding preparations! So the day after we arrived, we headed over to MaartenJan's parents' house. I think we were supposed to watch MaartenJan mow the lawn or something, but he never got around to it. Instead, we were having a great time talking with his parents when the phone rang with important news: MaartenJan had to rush back to Utrecht to attend his bachelor's party. He invited Eric along. I was invited to Karin's bachelorette party.
If I understood correctly, the Dutch didn't used to have bachelor parties, but somewhere along the line, they got inspired by the Americans. So now the parties are common.
MaartenJan and Karin and their friends told Eric and
me, during their separate parties, about how FREE the Netherlands is. And really, compared to the Netherlands, the U.S. is a police state. In the Netherlands, 'soft' drugs like marijuana and hash are totally legal, while 'hard' drugs like heroin, etc., are often overlooked, especially if you only have them in small quantities (i.e. you aren't a dealer). One night later that week, a guy drinking a beer and holding a joint wobbled up to Eric, asking for a light. Eric didn't have one, but the guy was friendly enough to tell Eric that the Netherlands is so free that he could walk up to a cop with beer and joint in hand, and the cop couldn't do a thing about it.Then, of course, there are the legendary sex bars of Amsterdam (standard sex bars for the boys, and 'banana' bars for the girls).
Eric and I both figured, based on the FREEDOM in the Netherlands and the bachelor parties back in the U.S., that we were in for a wild night of drugs and sex.
Well, we got something even better. Eric's party of boys went out for go-kart racing, followed by food fights at an American rib restaurant. Karin and her gang of girls rented pedal boats in the canals of Utrecht (gorgeous! as much fun as Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco), and then went to a Spanish tapas bar. And both parties went bar hopping. But no one got naked.
The money was organized well. Basically, all the guests (except the bride and groom) contributed the same amount into a common kitty. One person held the kitty, and paid all the bills as we rented boats, bought sodas, or went into bars. Then, at the end of the night, that person divvied up the change. Eric says the boys had more fun because they had no change left at the end of the evening.
One of the most interesting parts of the evening was our transportation. Back in the U.S., everyone drives, or maybe they rent a limo. In the Netherlands, everyone just hops on a bike. And they don't
wear helmets. They view wearing helmets as a weird, paranoid act of Americanism.Eric and I had worn our helmets for more than 11,000 miles by the time we got to Utrecht. I was afraid that if I stopped the habit in Utrecht, I'd be jinxed and have some horrible crash (and without health insurance. Our insurance expired in December of 1998). So I was planning to bring my helmet. But my fellow Dutch partiers laughed at me and convinced me that I didn't really want to carry my helmet from bar to bar all night. So I figured, what the hell, if they've lasted for 25 or more years on bikes without helmets, I can make it through one night. I left my helmet home. And no, I didn't have an accident. Eric did the same and he didn't have an accident either.
MaartenJan and Karin were both worried that Eric's and my bikes would be stolen during the bachelor parties. Our bikes aren't particularly expensive, but they're unusual for the Netherlands (Eric's i
s a road bike, and mine is a touring bike, while all the Dutch bikes are commuter bikes), so they make a good theft target. So when I was with the bachelorette party, Karin's friends took great pains to make sure that my bike was right next to a railing, and there bikes were piled around it, to disguise it. Then we locked all the bikes with a lot of heavy chain locks. Looking at the pile, you'd never guess my bike was in it. The guys did the same for Eric.There's a reason for that. Lots of bikes get stolen in the Netherlands, especially in Amsterdam and Utrecht, a university town. MaartenJan, age 29? said he's had five or six bikes stolen over the years. He pointed out that a lot of the bikes locked to the canal railings in Utrecht are actually cheaper than the huge metal chains that lock them.
People who ride really expensive bikes have a different solution: they buy bike theft insurance and they lock the bikes in paid, guarded bike parking. One of MaartenJan's friends did that. The bike parking was far away from the events of the evening, so he had to ride side-saddle on the back of someone else's bike for the rest of the night. All Dutch bikes have built-in, strong back racks, and all Dutch people seem to be naturally gifted at jumping side-saddle onto the back of a moving bike.
Eric said that during his bachelor party, as he and MaartenJan's friends were walking around, two guys came up to them, walking three bikes between them. They offered to sell one bike for five Dutch gilders (US$2.50!), or all three for 15 gilders. It was obvious they had just stolen the bikes. In the girls party, we didn't meet any bike thieves, but I swear I saw three guys trying to steal a car. (And the streets weren't exactly deserted. They were full of partying people, kind of like Bourbon Street in New Orleans).
MaartenJan later told us that once, after one of his bikes was stolen, he was driving around Utrecht with his mother when he saw someone riding his bikes. All Dutch bikes have built in locks that go through the back wheel. MaartenJan still had his key with him. So he jumped out of the car, ran up to the guy on the bike, and put his key into the
lock. It fit. MaartenJan then told the guy he had five seconds to get off the bike. The guy on the bike protested, saying he had bought the bike. But MaartenJan knew that he had probably bought the bike for 10 gilders, and therefore had to know it was stolen. Instead of arguing, MaartenJan punched him, knocking him off the bike. Then he grabbed the bike, threw it in his mom's car, and raced off. That's life in bike-theft country.MaartenJan's and Karin's friends were extremely nice about going out of their way to speak English in front of us. Eric said all the guys in his party--seven or eight--spoke only English all evening, even though Eric was the only one who couldn't speak Dutch.
The girls asked me a few things about the U.S. At the start of the party, when we picked Karin up from where she works--she's a nurse at a children's ward in a hospital--we got to talking about childbirth. The Dutch said they only have babies in hospitals if there's an actual, or expected complication with the birth. Otherwise, they give birth at home. Also, they can't believe that American women ta
ke painkillers during birth.They also can't believe our police. Karin's sister-in-law, AnneMarie, told me about a trip to New York City where she was horrified to see the police watching a group of young men, just waiting for them to do something wrong. AnneMarie went on to say that the police in the U.S. would bust people for having just one ounce of heroin, etc. It was kind of funny to see a totally different take on drugs.
Ironically, after hearing all about how free the Dutch were, the Dutch gave me a warning just as we were about to ride home. Karin told me to look out for cops, because I didn't have a headlight, or circular reflectors on my tires--both required by Dutch law. (I did have a tail light, which is also required by Dutch law). I thought they were kidding. I couldn't believe that in a country where it's legal to do most drugs, I might be fined for not having the right reflectors on my bike. But the Dutch were serious. So I laid low. And I didn't get busted.
next: Netherlands Chapter 4: Wedding Preparations
