What time is it? Hoe laat is het?

Did anyone else know that Dutch clubs are open until 5am here? Well, they are. Ladies, I'd like to recommend flats when going out dancing.

Saturday night I met up with my cousin's girlfriend, who I will call Vespa, in Gouda. She made us a wonderful Dutch dish (mash potatoes mixed with lettuce covered by curry flavoured ground meat and onions, topped with cheese, all baked to perfection! yum!) before heading out to watch my cousin's water polo match in another area of Gouda. I'm happy to report that they won (9-8) and it was a thoroughly entertaining time because of all the drama that ensued: one red card, the need for a 20 minute intermission because a player of the opposing team was hit/kicked in the head and then fell down on the pool deck after he got out, general pandemonium maintained through excessive pushing, shoving, scratching, screaming, etc. It's the Netherlanders version of hockey...except that their water is not frozen and their uniforms leave a lot less to the imagination.

From there we made our way out to a place called the Salmon (I believe) for a few drinks before heading over to 'the only club in Gouda', called Woodies. This establishment caters to a wide variety of listeners of all different ages and musical tastes. What this statement means is that people who were getting down to house and hip-hop one minute were doing a hoe-down the very next. Hoe-downs are reserved for those cherished Dutch classics which reminded me of earlier years spent in my Oma and Opa's basement learning the 'chicken dance'.

It was also cool to see revellers dancing on the bar as they stepped gingerly over drinks and succeeded in avoiding the transactions going on at the bar. The dancers gyrated on as money, glasses, lemons and limes were passed under their legs from bartender to client and back again. As far as I could tell no one kicked over a glass and none of the staff felt the need to enforce 'safety regulations' as they do so often in the clubs back in Canada.

And so the night went on in blaring harmony but I began to feel that it must be getting late. It occurred to me at one point that the DJ was in danger of running out of available material and that "it had be getting close to 2 am, any time now!" I should briefly explain that all the bars in Canada shut down by 2 or 3 am (unless you're connected enough to be locked-into an after-hours party). So when I asked a newly acquired friend, hey, what time is it anyway? he showed me his watch and I was astounded!!! 4:45 am. Well, no wonder my feet were killing me! With 15 minutes left, Vespa and I teetered out to our bikes (due to our sore feet and nothing more) and rode home. This was also in fact extremely treacherous, in my mind, as the paths we took home are flanked by slotten (narrow canals) on either side. Yet, fuelled by the need to take off our heels we successfully rode home and had a bit of coffee and crackers before falling off to sleep. Overall, I'm impressed by the individual responsibility that the Dutch allot their inhabitants (not yanking the dancers off the bar because they're worried about class-action law suits when one of them slips and falls off or the general proximity of canals to the bike paths). I'm also impressed by how late the Dutch dancers in Gouda were willing to stay up and party on. I'm not sure Canadians are ready for 5am closing times, well maybe we are, the Dutch in Gouda last Saturday night were a tough crowd to keep up with! And trust me, I was far from the oldest one there! So maybe instead of saying "what time is it?", I should be saying "how old am I?"