Hostel Issues
Shortly after arriving in Amsterdam, Ned and I hopped on a train to Rotterdam where we were to spend our first night in a hostel. Of course, my Netherlands book was a few years old and when we finally found the place it was shut down.

Me and the shower

So we began to wander the city aimlessly asking people if they knew where we could find a hostel. No one seemed to know. Making matters worse was my huge backpack and the cold weather. Finally, after nearly two hours of wandering we got a lead and found a nice place in the city center. Of course, there was a metro stop right next door and we could have been there in five minutes if we had any idea where to go.

The next night we headed to The Hague. Deciding not to get off at the first train stop in The Hague was our first mistake. After arriving at Centraal Station, we began another hostel-finding adventure. This time we knew for sure the place was open, but after a 30-minute walk we learned that they were quite full. So we wound up having to get a hotel down the block for a couple of Euros more. We soon found out why this hotel basically had hostel prices: there was no bathroom in the room and it smelled like poo. The best part was there was a glass shower in the middle of the room with nothing surrounding it (see the pics). Ned and I quickly decided there would be no bathing in The Hague. And of course, when we went to leave the next morning we found the train stop we didn't get off at first was a half a block away from our hotel. Oops!

Sinterklass
Before heading back to Amsterdam to meet up with Brent and Larry, Ned and I headed up to Haarlem to explore the city. After waiting out a rain storm and wandering around for a bit we began to discuss how we had not seen a single black person on our trip thus far.

Sinterklass arrives on his horse

Well, mere moments after finishing this conversation we enter the town square and see a mob of families surrounding a center aisle. Dancing and singing down the middle of this aisle are what appeared to be court jesters dressed in black-face...straight out of an old movie or something. Many of the children in the crowd have also painted their faces black and some were even in full costume. Up above the crowd on the town hall balcony are more black-faced people with microphones saying things in Dutch and getting the crowd excited.

Every so often the people on the balcony would start counting down from ten and when they reached zero all the children in the crowd would chant, "SINTERKLASS!" While this was happening, the black-faced jesters continued to dance, juggle and sing their up and down the aisle, handing out quarter-sized cookies to the children in the crowd: none of whom ate the cookies. After an hour or so filled with a mini-parade, a marching band, countless Sinterklass chants and tons of singing, Sinterklass himself finally came down the aisle riding atop a white horse. Like Santa, he was wearing a red and white jacket with a big white beard. Unlike Santa, he was thin and had a papal-esque hat on with a cross on it.

One of the Black Petes

At this point the crowd went crazy cheering and Sinterklass waved to them as he made his way towards the town hall balcony where he said a few words to the crowd and then left. Shortly after, all the children ran over to tables where the jesters had set up some sort of games that the kids had to use their cookies to play. I'm not sure what the games were, but the kids were throwing the cookies at targets…and this explained why none of them ate the cookies when they got them.

Perhaps the most disturbing part was that the event seemed to be sponsored by McDonalds. Right in the center of the old town square was a Micky-Dees, which was giving out paper Sinterklass papal hats with a M in place of the cross.

Sinterklass Explained:

According to Google, Sinterklaas Season begins in the middle of November and is when Sinterklaas and his helpers travel around the country, visiting hospitals, schools, shops, restaurants, and even homes during the three weeks before the main Sinterklaas celebration. Sinterklass and his Piets seem to be everywhere at once, asking about

The Black Petes get the crowd excited

children's behavior and listening through chimneys. The children leave their shoes out with carrots and hay for the horse. In exchange the Piets put candy or a small gift in the shoes to be found in the morning.

As for the people in black-face, Black Pete is specifically a Dutch Christmas character and he is one of Santa's helpers. According to the Dutch version of the legend, Sinter Claas arrives simultaneously in every city in the Netherlands bearing gifts for well-behaved children. He is always accompanied by Zwarte Piet, or "Black Pete". In various versions of the Sinter Claas story, Black Pete is depicted as male or female, of normal stature or as a black dwarf.

Zwarte Piet always wear colourful and jovial costumes. They are adorned with gold earrings and hats with feathers and are generally considered simple and full of beans characters. Their role is to assist Sinter Claas by performing various holiday tasks, like delivering presents down chimneys and recording names of naughty and nice children in Sinter Claas' book of names.

The town square that held the celebration

While Santa Claus leaves chocolate and sweets in the shoes of children, if the children have been naughty then Black Pete takes the nice presents and replaces it with lumps of coal. The child who is really naughty is threatened with being placed in Black Pete's sack and taken back to Spain - surely a throwback to the Catholic wars with Spain.

Despite his colourful image, Zwarte Piet is a very controversial character in the Netherlands. He is called Black Pete because of his dark colouring, and while some attribute his skin colour to the soot from the chimneys he slides down, others criticise the character for being an old-fashioned stereotype and racist symbol. In fact the original legend has St Nicolas traveling to Spain where he meets and befriends a moor by the name of Peter who accompanies him on his travels through Europe.


YouTube Videos:

Sinterklass enters on a white horse

Below are select few photos. To see more, click here