It’s been just over a week since I last wrote, mainly because it’s difficult to muster the energy for, well, anything, in a place where it’s hot most of the time, and the locals take life very, very slow. Certainly less important things, such as updating this blog, take the backburner to stuff like freelance contracts, which obviously take priority in the hours I do have energy to work.
Our goodbye party was fun – in typical German style, we ate greasy food and drank beer until everyone was pretty much sloshed and needed their beds. It was a good night, and a really fun way to wrap up our visit to Germany. While it was cool there most days, and I had very little to do, I’ll always have fond memories of my time there, and look forward to my certain return.
We headed on to Amsterdam for a 36-hour whirlwind tour of the place. Our main reason for visiting was to attend Sensation White Amsterdam, a massive party of 40k+ attendees, held in a stadium, with huge names such as Sander van Doorn. I really enjoyed the small part of the city I saw, and fully intend to return. I think because I had so much time to “get used” to Germany, Amsterdam actually felt like a different world when I was there – moreso than the west of Germany had felt in a while, anyway.
I loved the vibe there, so much – all the quaint, adorably-decorated buildings, and the tiny, winding alleyways – as if something was always present there, new buildings popping up in the small spaces between old ones. I would love to spend more time there, and explore more of the Netherlands.
I get the feeling it’s a place I’d love – not to mention some of my favourite drum and bass artists come from the country. I suspect I could come to feel a sort of adopted kinship with the place.
We met up with a good friend in the city the night of Sensation White, someone who’s been living in the UK for over a year now, so it was really good to catch up with her and meet her newly acquired British man.
Sensation White was even grander than I’d imagined it would be. We entered the arena and were immediately awed by the sight – everyone dressed in white (what an interesting way to get the audience to feel invested and therefore participate), 2 large massive lotus flowers standing at opposite ends of the arena, and an even larger lotus in the centre, around which the DJ booth spun the entire night (I began to wonder if any of the DJs were getting dizzy – it was slow-moving, of course, but still much faster than I’d have thought comfortable).
A tall column that reflected lasers and sometimes had water pour down it jutted up from the centre of the main lotus to the false ceiling, which was made of a tapestry of large balls that changed colours and moved in waves over the crowd to the soaring trance melodies, and the driving beats that had everyone moving, no matter how near or far to the centre of the action they stood. Many people took up residence in the seating area outside of the arena and watched the display below like a theatre production. At one point, spears of blue light began to penetrate the crowd, and we watched as the audience became even more engaged in the party, as the spears spread throughout the crowd and took over a greater area.
As the night wore away (too quickly, it seemed), the skylight high above the arena began to lighten up, and suddenly the canopy of balls didn’t have the same effect. I began to feel more tired, realising it was day and we’d be hustling back to the airport shortly. We exited the building an hour before the party was to end, and it seemed like much of the crowd had had the same idea as us. It took us an hour to get a taxi back to the hotel, where we quickly attempted to freshen up, grab a bite to eat and gather our things to catch our flights to Greece.
The experience was over much too quickly, but I’m certainly glad to have had it. The party was exactly the sort of experience I’ve been longing to have in Toronto for years. What really blew me away at this party, though, was the scale of the displays – the use of multimedia to make the environment pulsate and move like the dancers listening to the DJs. It was the kind of immersive experience I’ve been hoping for, craving… I didn’t think anyone was doing stuff like this yet, because why wouldn’t they bring it to North America? How could people not want to come together to witness a strange, pulsating, organism made up of thousands of tiny parts, dancing, celebrating, rejoicing about life together around beautiful, massive decorations to powerful rythms and melodies? It’s just always boggled my mind how people could be closed off to experiences like that. How North America, in particular, is so closed off to those sorts of experiences. I want to change that. But more on that later.
Wandering around the streets of Amsterdam piqued a curiosity in me – why is this place like that? Why do they care so much about environmental issues, when nearly no other country I’ve visited does half as much as the Netherlands? Why are drugs legal there – and do the locals have problems with them – does the legality of drug use cause the Netherlandish people to be held back – or does it really only affect them in as much as the drug tourism causes problems? (I don’t really want to get into the sex business issues. I don’t believe in it, I never will, and no one can convince me that I should. I’m allowed to have an opinion, and I’m allowed to have that opinion.)
I’ll definitely return, and explore more. And it made me curious not just about the rest of the Netherlands, but about Belgium and Luxembourg as well, though they’re a little lower on my bucket list. For sure I want to check out Switzerland, and then eventually the northern European countries, like Denmark, Norway and Sweden. I think I’ll sharpen my snowboarding skills a bit more before heading to those countries, though.
PS: As predicted, I had no time at all to check out any of the apparently many yarn shops in Amsterdam. But just so you’re not left completely knittingless in this post, you can check out this review of a yarn shop in Leiden, Netherlands. Yes, it’s in Japanese. And yes, Leiden is not that close to Amsterdam (it’s 40 minutes by car, which also isn’t that bad). But, if you’re using Google Chrome as your browser, it can translate the Japanese to English, if you want. And the pictures are really pretty.
PPS: Here, you can view the photo album of trip.
sounds like fun haha