Sunday, July 6, 2008

Independence Day & Atlantic City

After a long week of ´vacation´ in the Netherlands, I returned to the US last week. Just in time to celebrate Independence Day!

Americans celebrate their independence on the fourth of July, because on that day in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Congres. This made the United States officially independent of Great Brittain. It is a holiday in the US, and people celebrate it with family BBQ's and fireworks! This year it fell on a Friday, which made many people leave the city for a long weekend. So the city was a little quiet, but also a lot of fun! On Friday, my collague Mark came to the city with his friends. Around 3:00 pm the bars start to get busy and at 10:00 pm, there are fireworks behind the Art Museum. After that, the party goes on all night!

On Saturday, a girlfriend took me to Atlantic City where here aunt has a beach condo. The entire apartment complex came together for a BBQ! Arriving there was impressive: the American flag was all over the place and a lot of thing were colored red-blue-white. Two large picknick tables were filled with food, and some people were dressed perfectly for the event. The hospitality was amazing - the only rule: don't leave hungry!! After the BBQ, everyone started dancing on the parking lot on a weird combination of Italian Opera music & 70s American music. I think that was a little too crazy for us, and since we had a lot of food, it was time for a walk on the beach towards the casino's.

Many people warned me: Atlantic City is nice, but if you have been to Vegas, it's nothing compared to that. They were wrong! Atlantic City is also amazing, although not as big as Vegas, the casino's directly on the beach are very impressive and the atmosphere is great. You can drink a corona on the (always busy) boardwalk, walk into a casino, and take a walk on the beach afterwards.

Here are the pictures of the Independence Day weekend!