I'm splitting this trip into 5 parts (1 for each country). It will include 19 days, 5 countries, 5 goals, 2 continents, and one volcanic eruption. This is part 1.
[1] The Netherlands
Rotterdam
Flying into the Netherlands was surprisingly beautiful. The cities are built from beautiful designs by excellent architects. We began in Eindoven, and moved towards Rotterdam for our main event, Motel Mozaique, where we were planning to see Mumford & Sons.
Rotterdam was bombed during WWII, so nearly all of it is rebuilt into fabulous contemporary buildings. It was a great town to be in, and our couchsurfers even loaned us bikes to ride around with. The best thing about Rotterdam, however, was the festival. Motel Mozaique was so much more than I expected it to be, and well worth the (cheap) 30€ pricetag.
With a single day ticket, we were entitled to a list of artists playing at different venues around the city, as well as entrance to art exhibitions and performances. It was a cultural 'splosion all around Rotterdam. (I'll include the concerts we caught, but not the exhibitions)
Concert 1: TV Buddhas
Concert 2: Mumford & Sons Preview in the Motel Mozaique Chapel
This was a little construction in the middle of a plaza outside the main hall where Mumford would play later. We stumbled upon a crowd of people gathering outside of it, so we pushed up on it, and eventually got inside. Upon being inside, it turned out there was a little concert by Mumford & Sons with a HUGE camera recording. It was neato.
This was an amazing band that I'm tempted to count as "Experience something I never expected." The Irrepressibles are a 10 piece orchestra that put on an amazing and mesmerizing show of choreography and sound.
It was incredible luck because the only reason we went to this concert was so that we could assure front row seats for Mumford & Sons, who would be playing at the same venue later in the night.
Unfortunately, the lead singer's shoulder piece started falling off, so you can hardly see it in this shot, but he was wearing shoulder pieces with the color of mirror and magic.
It was like a mix between a rock show and an opera.
The pianist, Sarah Kershaw, picked a spot just above our heads to stare at the whole time, so it usually felt like she was looking directly at us. With her makeup accentuating the degree of open-ness she persisted with, it really added to the eerie effect of the entire show.
The whole show made me giddy and excited, and it was so much more than I ever could have expected. It was wonderful and magical.
Concert 4: Mumford & Sons
Definitely the most popular band at the festival, the show was packed full, and for good reason. They were an excellent band in concert, with a lot of energy, and you can tell that they really love the music they play as much as the fans like to listen to it.
Concert 6: The Strange Boys
Concert 7: Admiral Freebee
This was a concert we went to just because our Couchsurfers, Leen and Charlie said that they have heard of him before. So heck, why not? Well we went there about half way through the show, and at the end, he started pulling people on stage, so I ran up and got on it.
Shortly after, he started handing the mic over, and he got these eyes on me that said "You with the hat, you're next." Well, all I could think of was "Cuss, I've never even heard of you dude, I haven't even been here long enough to figure out what kind of music you play, and I certainly have no idea what to do with the mic you're handing me."
Well, I just kept on yelling the last words that he was yelling, which were "Nicotine nicotine." I did my best to play it off, but it ultimately didn't matter, I had just performed on stage at Motel Mozaique.Concert 7: Veenf Abriet Erckhardt
A dutch band that I didn't understand a single word when they were talking, but sang folky songs in English.
Concert 8: DJ St. Paul
This concert ended the night for us, and we really only went to his DJ set to see the club, WATT. Apparently it's fairly known and 'in,' and since we could get in for free with our Motel bracelets, we went to check it out.
Amsterdam
After Rotterdam, we moved onto Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a nice place, but it didn't have the same appeal as Rotterdam. I liked Rotterdam a lot more because of it's lively nature and it's lack of heavy tourism. (I think I also might be biased because our couchsurfers in Rotterdam were spectacular.)
On our way from Rotterdam to Amsterdam, I completed one of the ongoing goals of mine, number 54, Read "Notes from Underground" by Frydor Dostoevsky.
This book is was on my list of goals for good reason. However, I won't speak of it now, but later, in some sort of review or something. I think this 5 part trip is already going to be too much to speak of, so I'd rather leave the heavy stuff for another post.The rest of Amsterdam was spent as usual, seeing the sights, doing the things to do.
Of course we had to go to the Red Light District at night. While we were there, I wouldn't feel like I had really been there unless I actually talked to the 'merchandise.' However, I couldn't act like normal, or pretend to be a customer, so I came up with a few ridiculous things to say.
The first was in mockery of the Flight of the Concords song, "If You're Into It" (YouTube Video). I was eating a sandwich while we walked around, and I motioned to one of the products to open her door and talk to me. She quickly quoted me a price, and I squinted my eyes past her as if I was contemplating. My next move was to take the sandwich (which I had behind my back) out, and pose the question:
"Can we get lewd with this food?"
She was confused, but insisted that the sandwich could be finished, or put to the side. I sighed, and continued with the next indecent thing I knew from a song that had recently come into favor with my eardrums (Crank That Soulja Boy - Tetrastar):
"Can I superman you, hoe? You know, 'Superman that hoe'?"
She looked at me confused.
"It's where I supersoak you, hoe. Then you watch me as I flow."
At this point, she was annoyed, and practically slammed her door on me. The look on her face made it more than worth it.
We also saw a street performer. He took a long time to get his show going, but while he was getting everyone ready, he got thrown a couple of curve balls that made it interesting. First, a drunken hobo (seriously sloshed) wandered into his circle. He very smoothly shook the man's hand and pulled him out of the circle. The second was a laughing heckler that laughed loud and obnoxiously. The performer made a few verbal warnings before physically pushing him out of the circle. The guy came back, and was pushed out of the circle again by his collar. It was interesting and the performer had certainly made his point.
From Amsterdam we flew to Cairo, Egypt. That's a whole other story which will be continued with Part 2.
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