Amsterdam!

Around June, just after I'd arrived in Sweden I still had my Amsterdam experience fresh on my mind. So I started thinking, and those thoughts coupled with the fact I'd just FB friended a Dutchman I'd met at Revolution 909 in Amsterdam earlier that month, led me to book flights and tickets to 'Welcome to The Future' festival in August..

So here's the low down on what went down.

Rolled out of Kristianstad on the Friday afternoon with ominous storm clouds beginning to encroach southern Sweden with the dilemma; Do I bother with buying a ticket over the bridge or not.. well, my decision not to turned out to be a bad one with there actually being a ticket inspector between Malmö and Kastrup (Copenhagen airport), which is strange because I haven't seen that before and I'd been told by people not to bother because there's never inspectors, and after I stammered and stuttered out my excuse to this inspector in my best confused tourist voice he warned me in Swedish not to try it again or else it'd be an 800 crown fine. fail.

My flight was delayed 2 hours while they waited for a trustworthy aircraft to land and replace the broken one they'd intended to use, which was slightly annoying, but I did get to watch most of the second season of East Bound & Down.. so not all was shit.
I gotta say, Amsterdam is a beautiful city at sunset, especially descending into Schipol at that time of day. We even flew in low over Amstel Park and the particular part of it where Revolution 909 was held which made me very nostalgic in such a warm and fuzzy way!

After making my way into Amsterdam via train, Ruben and his friend Daan came to meet me with my loaner bicycle for the weekend and off we rode to Ruben's apartment. The two of them tried to apologise straight off the bat for the smell of cat piss at the bottom of the stairs, but I didn't give a shit, the house was so awesome. It was like old student housing with that twist of Amsterdam which looks like it's only being held up by the fact it's squeezed between two other houses. Ruben generously gave up his bed for me for the weekend, and after I was told 'no arguments' we got down to living like Romans.

Festival day started with a massive breakfast of spaghetti, kudos to Ruben on that one, top notch move given the hard day of partying ahead of us. I say 'hard' only as an adjective referring to the intensity of the party, not at all to the hour and a half we spent on the bikes trying to get home after the festival.
But I digress.. Amsterdam is such a special city. I found myself indulging in the fact I was riding a beat-up old town bike to a large festival through the streets with guys I hardly knew sucking on cold Heinies, and feeling seriously jealous at my fellow party-goers for the simple fact they live in what I'd now say is my favourite city in the world. Berlin is certainly in contention there, but I don't know anyone there, nor is it full of Dutch.



This is Jordy, who I met at Revolution 909 and ran into here. Busting what appears to be a form of the Melbourne Shuffle mixed with what the locals call the Dutch Shuffle.

The festival was in full swing upon arrival and thanks to the tightest security I'd ever seen at a festival I missed a lot of Egbert's set, but I at least managed to catch him play 'Haasten', a true techno anthem his home-town crowd went mental for. I think after that point I ventured out of the techno tent once for a beer and once for a quick wander around, otherwise I ignored everything else including bodily functions not even moving to relieve myself. I even ran into a few other cats I'd met at Revolution 909 which was completely random, but super cool they remembered me!

Thomas Schumacher started average but played some bangin' tracks, followed by the crowd pleaser 'Secret Cinema' and one of my personal favourites, 'Slam'. The evening finished off with Ben Klok who really got the crowd riled up with his driving synths and bass lines along with a well interesting light show. All the day and night too people were critiquing performances with the same sort of appreciation you'd give wine, or a painting of a naked woman eating an apple. All too soon the party was over and as soon as we'd gathered the crew together the usual arguement ensued, 'do we go to the after-party'.



Ben Klok towards the end of the night. You can see Ruben and Daan in the white t-shirts rocking the fuck out! Rock on boys!

What a fiasco that proved to be. Ruben was sure he knew the way, but someone else took charge and we ended up riding for what seemed like hours, completely wrecked from the festival. We found the party, but the line wasn't really moving and we decided to just retire to a friend's apartment for the wind-down.

When you go to another country and you don't speak the language people generally switch to English for your sake, but given the state of everyone all I heard was Dutch, and every now and then people would apologise and switch back to English, but I honestly really enjoyed listening to Dutch all weekend. It's very similar to Swedish, and has cool sayings like 'not in my street'. I think I'm going to try and learn some Dutch when I go home, make a stop at the foreign language book store and see what I can come up with.

Sunday was spent watching tv and chilling out. David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet' copped a work out, and MTV had a 'Community' marathon. Classic. I wish I could write more about what we did that day, but that quite literally sums it up.

On the Monday we decided to actually get out and do something, and that involved hopping to various record stores to check Amsterdam's stock of techno. RushHour records wasn't the best hunting ground for me the first time in Amsterdam, but with Ruben and his friend Reyn, who also spins vinyl, I found perhaps 7 or 8 worthy vinyls to add to my collection. With the vinyls I've already sent home and the ones bought in Berlin I think I'm up to around 70 or 80 for the whole trip, which I'm very impressed with and certainly itching to get home and listen through and start working into my sound. Monday finished off with enjoying some pints at a little street cafe in the city, while my counterparts sipped on 'gay' beers, then to the airport to fly back to Copenhagen.

The pricks at Schipol took my Polo Black cologne off me, because you're not allowed liquids on the plane.. I mean, they let me through Copenhagen with it, why not there?!? Well, this is Amsterdam, explained the security officer. I don't get double standards on security in airports, consistency seems like it should paramount when letting people onto planes.

Whatever.. You really couldn't top this Amsterdam experience, or knock me off my perch, so I told the guy to fuck off and I was on my way.

Massive thanks to Ruben for firstly trusting I wasn't some psycho and letting me stay in his house over the weekend, and secondly being such an excellent host and guide for the weekend. I will certainly be back to visit if not live for a while in Amsterdam. Also thanks to all his friends for being so hospitable, especially Daan for the loan of his bike. To all of those guys, you're all more than welcome to stay with me in Melbourne city, or wherever I may be living at the time. I'd love to show you guys around my home city and the way we do it down under!

Peace and Love,
Elzor.