Part 1: Stockholm
I left Gothenburg early on Saturday morning after not much sleep the previous night. I got to the train station and realised that I had booked the slow train to Stockholm. It might be only 2 hours difference, but on the slow train it feels like a lifetime! (The fast train, the X2000, has powerpoints next to the seat and internet access onboard. It also is much more comfortable and is awesome when it tilts.
I arrived late in the afternoon after 5 hours. I made my way to Roger and Mel’s place, where I helped them set up the IKEA stuff they bought. Not long after I already had to leave again to make my way to the first party of my trip: Sphere Experience!
The Sphere Experience was Sweden’s attempt at reviving large scale dance events. The Swedish government is very sensitive about drugs and alcohol, and as someone said to me: “The minute they hear a bass drum kick, they shut the event down.” This makes it difficult for promoters to hire large venues, and the end result is a complete lack of a community to attend the events. Anyway, Sphere was the first one in a while, and also had problems. About a week before the event they reduced the price by 200:- (about $35 AUS) and I wasn’t happy! I rang them up and asked for my money back or an upgrade to VIP, which they obliged. However 3 days later, the event was cancelled!
A friend told me that they had only sold about 400 tickets. A headlining act, Cosmic Gate, also pulled out. Anyway, they decided to hold a smaller Sphere Experience at the Gamla Tryckeriet in Alvik on the edge of Stockholm. Fortunately for me the event was only 250:- instead of the 600:- I originally paid for my ticket.
The venue was quite cool, very similar to the warehouse rave style I’m used to from Brisbane. I thought the venue was a club, so I dressed up (as you can see in the photos). I met some awesome swedish guys who I partied with most of the night. Funnily enough I met quite a few swedes that had been to Australia recently, which sparked conversation. I loved the headlining acts too, and stayed until closing (which was 15 minutes early, as opposed to most events where they try to finish later!). Weirdly, whilst cheering for the DJ a Swedish guy asked me if I was racist. Supposedly I was making some bad hand gesture with my glowstick. Getting back to Roger and Mel’s was a little hard, as I ended up missing two buses on the complicated way home.
The next day I slept in until 2pm or so and then went to Roger’s brother’s place to have dinner with his family. Awesome food! I also had a go on the brand new Wii Fit game, which is pretty fun with it’s balance games. Still tired, I went to bed early ready for the long trek to Amsterdam the next day.
Photos from Stockholm: here
Part 2: Amsterdam
I had originally planned to stay in Eindhoven for two nights, but 2 days before the event at Eindhoven got cancelled too! Amazing notice they give… Anyway, I decided not to stay in Eindhoven as it’s quite boring for tourists and I extended my stay in Amsterdam for two more days over the Queen’s day celebrations. From Stockholm I took the bus to Skavska, then flew to Eindhoven, and then took the train to Amsterdam (80 + 100 + 80 minutes!) Funnily enough this ended up being half the price of getting a flight from Gothenburg via KLM.
I arrived into Amsterdam at about 8pm and headed to the Bulldog Hostel where I had previously seen before during my first trip. It’s quite a cool hostel with good security, comfy rooms, included breakfast, and their own branded coffee shop next door. After putting my stuff away I headed to Dam Square.
To my surprise Dam Square was full of carnival rides. I knew Queen’s day was happening but I didn’t expect them to have the rides right in the middle of the city! It was really cool to see the old buildings lit up by the lights of the rides. I was pretty tired so I headed to bed and got up early the next day for Queen’s Night.
This time in Amsterdam I wanted to go to all the tourist stuff I missed out on last time. First stop was the sex museum. Only €3 entry, it guides you through a history of sex in Amsterdam and the world. Some of the oldest pornographic pictures are here, and the only thing that is different is that a lot of people didn’t shave. They also had an interesting history of the Red Light District.
Next I headed to Vondelpark, which is where the citizens of Amsterdam go to get away from the city life. It’s a beautiful park about 20 minutes walk from the centre. I just stayed, relaxed, and watched the world go by.
As the afternoon progressed I headed back home and orange was everywhere (the national colour around Queen’s Day). People were starting to drink and there was a lot more people out and about.
I had time to visit the Amsterdam Zoo so I walked about 20 minutes to the site. It’s a very old zoo and some of the original cages and displays from the late 1800’s are still there. It started to rain so I headed indoors. By the way, they have the most awesome ‘Warning, animals may bite’ sign on the displays, you can see it in the photos.
By the time I had reached the hostel again, orange was *everywhere* and the music had started. By the time the sun went down, there were people dressed in orange everywhere and people were out on the canals.
I should probably explain what Queen’s day is! Queen’s day is the Netherland’s biggest holiday, celebrating the Queen’s birthday. Everyone of all ages parties on the 29th and 30th every year. 750,000 people flock to the middle of Amsterdam, and there’s so many people they have to shut the public transport down and ban all traffic from the city centre.
Two Aussie mates from Gothenburg met up with me later that night, and we just went walking around to check out all the parties. It was unreal; there was a party on every corner, with music from all genres. The drinking age in the Netherlands (and most surrounding countries) is 16, so everyone over 16 was drinking, even the oldies. Street parties ranged from huge crowds with famous DJs to live bands singing traditional Dutch sing-a-longs whilst the drunk old people badly sing along.
After a fair while exploring, we split up and went to bed to get up early for Queens Day. When I woke up at 10, All I could hear was music and people, EVERYWHERE. Outside my window there was 2 or 3 houses blasting music. When I stepped outside the hostel, there were boats everywhere on the canal! All were painted or dressed up in orange, packed with people. Only in the Netherlands would the council permit people driving around boats in the canal drunk, whist DJs play music on the boat loudly and everyone dances. Absolutely amazing sight.
Speaking of which, the police are some of the most calm police I’ve ever seen. When people stumble around or do something in public that Australian police would jump at just to relieve their boredom, Netherlands police look and laugh and make sure everyone is just having fun without anything serious happening. It’s how it should be everywhere.
Amsterdam was PACKED. It was almost impossible to move in some places, with one block taking me 30 minutes to cross when it would normally take me 30 seconds. The pictures really say a thousand words on this one, there’s no way to put it into words easily. Everyone young and old was having a fantastic time.
At 1 or 2 in the afternoon I headed to central station to catch a train to Leiden. Armin Van Buuren was putting on a free party in his hometown where some pretty amazing DJs were playing. In Leiden it was the same as Amsterdam but just on a much smaller scale. The party was really well done though, it was awesome to see young kids and old people getting into trance. I also got Markus Schulz signature, and talked to him for a few seconds about coming back to Australia. My DJ signature collection is now complete!
I headed back to Amsterdam to do some more partying before I went to sleep for the trip to Antwerp early the next day.
Photos from Amsterdam: here, here, and here
Part 3: Antwerp
After checking out of the Bulldog, I headed to the train station whilst eating some fries and mayo. This was my first international train, and it was quite relaxed. No passport checking or anything, just tickets. You aren’t even bound to a time, just a date. 2 Hours later I was in Antwerp, the old city of the diamond trade.
The narrow streets combined with the very overcast weather gave my GPS a hard time. I ended up getting to the hostel which was right in the middle of the city. It’s in a little side street next to the old church, and all that signified I was in the right place was a giant green door with ‘hostel’ on it. Inside I was greeted by a very ..belgian man who set me up for the night. It’s hard to describe the people from Antwerp. They come across a little less friendlier than the Dutch, though this might be due to them not wanting to speak English as readily. The hostel was a very old building that felt like it was going to fall apart. This gave it character though! Much more relaxed than the commercialised Bulldog. The stairs are incredibly steep and you climb the equivalent of 2 storeys in about an area of 2sq metres.
Antwerp is a nice city with a channel running through the middle. It’s home to a big shipping port and until a few hundred years ago it had more shipping business than Amsterdam. There is an old fort on the river which is pretty amazing to see, and if I wasn’t so tired I would have walked the 1km or so pedestrian tunnel that went under the river.
The public transport system did not have an English translation so I decided to walk the 4.5km and see the city. I was on the way to the main event of my trip, A State of Trance Episode 350. For those of you who don’t know it, ASOT is Armin Van Buuren’s radio show, the most popular online trance radio show. It is my main inspiration as a DJ and got me into trance, as well as getting me through several late nights programming. 350 was celebrating 7 years of broadcasting, held at club NoXX in Antwerp and broadcasted live to 7 million listeners around the world (!).
After finding an ATM (which seem to be extremely rare in Antwerp), I waited outside the club. They were only letting the first 2000 in and the club was going to be full only a few minutes after opening. I arrived over 2 hours early and chatted with some cool Canadians and Brits whilst waiting in line. Inside the club, I was amazed to see that using the bathroom costs €0,50 every time. I knew that was the case in public, but in a club?! The club itself it quite good, surprisingly no lasers but lots of moving lights and the entire roof is covered in LEDs which act as a giant display. Every DJ did an amazing set and I met quite a lot of people including 2 Australians and a few Dutch (who are always friendly to English speakers).
I got back to the hostel with blistered feet and sore legs at about 6am. I woke up at 11 knowing that I had to check out and head to Brussels. My legs wanted to sleep another day or two.
Pictures from Antwerp: here
Part 4: Brussels
After I woke up I went downstairs to see a breakfast that seemed extremely fitting to the hostel’s character. A huge loaf of fresh bread that was anything but square shaped, some cheese I could not identify and will probably never know what it was, and of course coffee and orange juice. I ate and then headed to Antwerp Central train station to catch a 40min train to Brussels.
Another interesting run-in happened at the train station. I bought a drink from the bakery in English, and the man standing next to me immediately said “In this country, we say sorry before,” whilst giving me a death stare. Bewildered, I didn’t respond, to which he said “But I bet they don’t teach you that do they!” before storming off. At first I thought I had run into him without knowing, but I soon realised that he was angry at me for not apologising for speaking English. The tourist guide to Antwerp said the people can be a bit up themselves, as they even refer to Antwerp as ‘The City’ and never ‘Antwerp’. I guess that was an example!
The train to Brussels was really short, and it was cool to see the transition to a modern city with new buildings. Brussels is a completely bilingual city (French and Dutch, albeit mostly French). All street signs, street names, advertisements, etc are in both languages. I checked into the hostel which Matt recommended and had a long needed shower before passing out for 18 hours.
I woke up the next morning and went exploring. In this time I saw the Grote Markt which has a town hall from the 15th century. Next on the tourist list, I saw Manneken Pis, a famous fountain of a little boy pissing. He’s much smaller than I expected. Next on the list was trying Belgian waffles, and I bought one with chocolate and banana. Absolutely amazing.
I then went up to the top of a parking building to get some panoramas of the city. There’s quite a nice view to the old part of the city and to the Atomium.
Before heading to the Atomium I had to stop by the church next to the parking building and St Cathrine’s metro stop. It has a public urinal bulit right onto the church wall. You can be thrown in jail for pissing on a church in some places!
I took the metro to the Atomium stop to get some better photos. The structure was build in the late 50’s as a temporary exhibition, but they never took it down. I was going to go in but the line was horribly long and I had to catch the train to Utrecht. I headed back to the hostel and checked out, ready to catch my second international train.
Pictures from Brussels: here
Part 5: Utrecht
Utrecht is a city south east of Amsterdam. I had previously been there for Trance Energy at the Jaarbeurs event hall. I had no idea what was on the other side of the central station though. The Jaarbeurs side looks so new and modern.
Coming out the other side I was greeted by the Amsterdam style markets and buildings. I then saw the canals, absolutely beautiful. In Utrecht, which was first settled by Roman soldiers almost 2000 years ago, the canals are lined by old cellars for the houses above. Recently though, they have been converted into restaurants, cafes and theatres. The city has a really nice atmosphere: like Amsterdam, but without all the tourism.
I checked into the hostel and talked with an American who had been teaching in England. Soon after though I had to head to the final party of my trip: Solarise at Club Poema. The club was really small and you got to party with the DJs which is always good. I got a photo with Re-Ward, who is extremely tall! Unfortunately I had to come home at 3am because the hostel would have locked me out until 8am, and after 8 days of walking and partying I wasn’t up for waiting outside in the cold.
The next day I met a Canadian soldier who had a few weeks off from serving in Afghanistan. Really cool guy, very interesting to talk to. I took a canal cruise, and then in the evening the old church (15th century) began to ring it’s bells. Turns out it was a World War 2 remembrance day, and it was extremely surreal as the town began to gather to the church to have 2 minutes silence. Having the bell ring repeatedly and everyone slowly walk was extremely surreal, almost creepy.
As much as I love Utrecht, I had to leave to head back home. I took the train to Eindhoven, then the bus (which was free because they were on strike!) and then relaxed at the airport for a few hours. I cut it pretty close but managed to catch my train after the airport bus.
I am currently writing on the train, and I’m about to get in to Gothenburg at 11pm. This week will be catching up with University as I head into my final 3 weeks. I then start my Summer of Code project and the next week head to Rock am Ring for the concert of a lifetime! Check out all the photos I took on this trip, I took over 500 in total. Time to catch the tram and then pass out.
Pictures from Utrecht: here