Amsterdam Gay Pride Week

'This weekend marked the beginning of Gay Pride Week in Amsterdam.  These banners went up on the canal bridges on Friday morning.

There is an extended list of events being held to benefit Gays.  We have attended two of the events this weekend.  On Friday we attended the "Drag Queen Olympics".  This was quite the event, which included the "spike heel" foot race, the "hula hoop" contest , the "how far can you throw the handbag" conterst, the "bitch volleyball" contest and the "pole dance".  Here are some pictures of the contestants and the announcers.  They are all men.

Announcers:

She did sign language throughout the show

Well, you might be able to tell  "Jennifer Lopez" is a man

Then there were the contestants:

The obvious

The not so obvious

The singers

This was a free event which was meant to benefit the Gay cause.  They did have some folks circulating with collection buckets.  You could contribute or not and all funds go to the cause.  I thought, "Why not?" and pitched in a few EURO.

Saturday afternoon was the canal parade.  It started right on our canal the Prinsengracht, so we just had to go down and claim a seat on the bridge.  We took a couple of folding chairs and got a pretty good seat for the afternoon festivities.  There were about 80 floats in the parade, all representing professions, religions and other organizations.  Most just represented the "live and let live" philosophy. It was a huge all day event.  Started at one and the last float went by around four o'clock.  

The lead float was a tribute to the Dutch citizens who died on Malaysian flight MH17

The professions:

The Amsterdam Mayor was prominent on one float

The Military

The Police Department

The Fire Department

Religions: There was a Jewish float

And a Muslim float

There was this one that said "Liberty and Justice for all" complete with US Flag

The pretty ones

The acrobatic (can't imagine doing this all the way around the canal)

We sat right behind a Dutch man and his family and he talked to us about a lot of the floats and who they represented as did a lady standing behind us.  It was a great day for a parade not too hot.  We did have a little shower right at the end.  We didn't have our umbrellas, but the ladies standing behind our chairs did, and when they raised them "Walla" we were covered.  

The party went on all night, with boats running up and down the canals and people out everywhere.  We did not partake.  However, on Sunday evening after dinner at home, we walked over to our neighborhood bar for a coffee and apple pie. We were able to get a seat outside, which is rare.  We asked our favorite bartender Jan, "Where is everybody?".  He said there all home with hangovers from partying Saturday night.  We laughed.  Been there, done that, got the tee shirt.  Don't need a repeat. Ha

They last tidbit of information that I must talk about is  "Marjuana", "Weed", "Mary Jane" or what ever you choose to call it.  We have walked past coffee houses and gotten a whif, but I gotta tell you, "I CANNOT RUN FOR POLITICAL OFFICE BECAUSE I HAVE INHALED".  At the "Drag Queen Olympics", the crowd was dense and so was the smoke.  You couldn't get away from it.  I think I might have been a teeny weensy bit high by the time it was over.  Ha!  Again, at the parade, we got a pretty good dose as well.  Not quite as bad, but Marijuana just the same.  Oh, the firsts that we are experiencing on this journey of discovery we are on.