Tomorrow all Dutchmen dress up in orange to celebrate Kingsday. King Willem-Alexander turns 51. What do international students do on April 27th?

Geraldine Escobar (Italy):

‘It’s the king’s birthday, but I think it’s just an excuse to celebrate. I really like that Dutch people enjoy being outside. Some people take it too far though, they drink too much. I’m from Italy and we don’t have a king. We don’t really celebrate on the streets in Italy either. In my city we do have a wine festival but it’s not the same.

Tomorrow I am going to Eindhoven with my boyfriend and some friends. There’s a free party that is outside. My boyfriend is Dutch and he really liked the line-up so I expect it to be good.’

Malte Schlossmacher (Germany):

‘I haven’t celebrated King’s Day yet. I usually go home for the ‘meivakantie’ so I am really excited to be here this year. Probably I’m going to Amsterdam like everybody else. We don’t have a king in Germany but we have carnival. It’s really inclusive and it’s outside, those are similarities. Like I said though, I haven’t experienced King’s Day yet so the verdict is still out.’

Karol Kuna (Poland) and Shovanah Biserta (Suriname):

Karol: ‘I don’t have plans for King’s Day yet. I took a day off and I want to do something spontaneous. Last year I had to work and I got paid extra money, also, there was special food but when I got home and everybody was drunk I knew I missed the party.

In our country we have had a lot of kings. My name also means king in Polish. On every money bill there is one of them. Right now we don’t have a king though, so we don’t celebrate anything similar to what you celebrate on King’s Day. We are a very catholic country so we do have more free days.’

Shovanah: ‘I’m going to Amsterdam on Friday. I just moved here so I feel like it is best to participate in this holiday. That way you experience the local lifestyle. Besides that, everybody likes a party, right?

Similar to Karol, we have more holidays in Suriname than in Holland. Besides, Suriname has numerous population groups, they all have their own holidays which means more days off.’