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It’s summertime! Sum sum summmertiiiime!
You whistle a tune while the soft summer breeze is blowing through your hair. You decide that everyone is beautiful and you even show a friendly smile to the grumpy
police officer who wants to fine you for biking through a red traffic light. Tough luck, but your bag is full with park-goodies, your head’s filled with summer vibes and nothing can stop you. You’re a backpacker on a mission to the Vondelpark!
What Hyde park is to London and
Central Park to New York that’s what the Vondelpark is to Amsterdam! And best of all, you can overlook the park from the Flying Pig Palace.

that safety gear is obligatory for these tours. Are you more into chairs or is the sun refusing to do its work? Don’t worry. There
are several cafés in the park. Café ‘Het Blauwe Theehuis’, right in the middle of the park (the blue one) throws parties in summertime.
‘Vertigo’ close to the Leidse square
side of the park, has a nice balcony situated above the film museum that overlooks the park. Check the museum’s film schedule while you’re there! Close to the park, on the Overtoom, you‘ll find a monumental
riding school.

LAUGHING THERAPY
Seriously, it’s no joke! In summertime you can join laughing sessions in the park. A group of people gather in the park once a
week to laugh away their stress. Funny, hey! An experienced laugher makes you laugh until you burst out into tears. Afterwards you actually feel less stressed and more relaxed. So why not give it a try?!

AFTER SUNSET
The sun has set, it becomes quite difficult to locate your friends and cupid seemed to have lost his aim today. Still you are not heading home, because in the Vondelpark
the night is still young! After sunset on Sundays you can watch movies on a big screen and you can listen
to live concerts in the park!
So, whistle your own tune on the way, look around and find out for yourself that the livin’ is easy, fish are jumpin’, the cotton is high...
It’s Amsterdam’s sum sum summertime!

NECESSITIES AND POSSIBILITIES
Of course, some sun shine. (But even without sun shine the park has plenty of things to offer.) The whole park-idea is to start looking for the perfect spot in the early afternoon and once found, not to move from there all day whilst eating, drinking, sunbathing and having fun until sunset. OK, you also need a blanket, sheet or towel. Hmm definitely something to drink as well! Say, for example, rosé for the girls
and a sixpack of beer for the boys. What else.. oh right some salty crisps to nibble on and of course, since you are in Holland, we suggest to try a little smoke with that! In that case, don’t forget to bring extra
large cigarette papers and most importantly a lighter or matches. Remember, once you’re settled in on the blanket the

trick is not to get up anymore. What can be more annoying than having to ask for a light every time your smoke dies out? (honestly, no opposite sex falls for that one
anymore!) Back to the list: some baguettes are always good, and a bottle of water too. Check? Then, I believe you’re all set and ready to head off!

MORE OF AN ACTION HERO TYPE?
The Flying Pig Palace rents out free rollerblades! (Just leave a deposit) If you’re a more experienced skater you can join the Friday night skate tour. These start at the
Vondelpark and take different routes through the city every week. Please note

Okay, we all know about the Oscars, but did you ever hear about the Hoscars? With this award for best hostel in the world, all hostelworld backpackers act as judge and jury. Understandably we were delighted when we got the news that both the Flying Pig Palace and the Downtown hostel were nominated for best hostel!

of course the Palace staff. You try to hold back the tears and you eventually sit back down again. Overjoyed of course, and you
wait for the announcement of the big win- ner of the evening.
Uh?...No way…Our name again??? Not only did we make 7th place with the Pala ce Hostel, we also turned out to be the big winner of the evening! The Flying Pig Downtown has been voted number 1 hostel in the world. Wow!! Up that stage again… uhhh quite speechless this time (only prepared one). Winning means a lot of champagne corks flying around, a lot of kissing and who turned on that smoke machine? Oh, wait it’s our
tears fogging up the room.

We partied till the early morning hours and flew back home.
The tuxedo’s got returned and the
shoes went back into the closet to hopefully be worn again next year Life can be good as a big boss!
Thanks for voting for us guys! We are very proud and grateful to you to have been voted 1st and 7th in the world. And because we want to stay amongst the best of the world, we promise not to sit on our lazy
bums (as we Dutch say). We have to keep this up you know, so come on, back to work it is!

to London to check into theSt. Christophers hostel. There, we were informed that the red carpet had been rolled out in the midst of the crazy city centre. Gradually beer, excitement and loads of other hostel bosses appeared onto the scene.

Sweaty hands… what? Are we… Did they just call out our name? Yeah! The Flying Pig Palace is elected 7th in the world!! So what do you do as big boss? You give a little speech, thank your mom, your dad, and