LIKE AN IKEA VIRGIN

Back in South Africa we don't have IKEA. 

 

Because of this, I deemed myself an IKEA virgin amongst the other American au pairs in my town who had been numerous times back in the States. The main reason behind our great trek to the store was to purchase a plate of their famous Swedish meatballs in the cafeteria.

 

And so I had the meatballs, and they were as delicious as I was told. On finishing our meal, I dreaded the thought of having to split the bill and pay separately between the 7 of us, only to realise we had already paid in the food line. I liked that. No having to argue with the waitress about separate bills,  wavering the right amount of change or under tipping the staff. IKEA really got that down!

 

The actual store part is great too. You worm your way around a maze of fake living room, kitchen and bathroom layouts of all the store furniture and write down the number of the items you like. When you get to the ground floor, you go to the designated number area, collect your box of unassembled parts from the shelves and go to the self  service check out points. Sure I knew that was the concept behind it, but to see and experience it in the flesh was pretty cool too.

Also, I realised this is what my face looks like when I'm in mid conversation

KNITTED BRIDGE

 

My first encounter with the knitted bridge in the Westerkade area of Utrecht was actually in the first few weeks of my new life in The Netherlands. I never seemed to have gotten around to writing about it, which is somewhat odd since I was in complete love when I accidentally stumbled upon it. The correct term for the whole concept  behind the knitted bridge would in actual fact be 'urban knitting'. This one in particular has the wishes for the community written down on squares of fabric by the children of the Westerkade.

 

TAKE THE EDGE OFF THINGS

 

A South African friend of mine also residing in Holland, recently introduced me to this edgy and frivolous group that I found an extreme liking to. Skip and Die have a loose, raw sound and many of their sounds contain words in Afrikaans, Zulu, Spanish and Portuguese, think 'Die Antwoord' but kinda cooler in my opinion.  I  of course am going to check them out live at Tivoli in Utrecht on the 19th of December for a mere 13 Euros. Thins are going to get out of hand, what what!

 Taken from their website

 

' The group consists of

 Cata.Pirata // vocals / visuals
Gino Bombrini // guitar / percussion
Daniel Rose > string instruments (sitar/guitar/sas)
Jori Collignon > electronica / keys / FX

 

 

What started as a collaboration between South African artist Catarina Aimée Dahms (aka Cata.Pirata) and Dutch producer Jori Collignon (C-Mon & Kypski, Nobody Beats The Drum) has now grown into a full-fledged live band. '

 

 

 

EXPLORING UTRECHT

Yesterday I set out to explore Utrecht on my own. It was initially a bit daunting at having to buy a ticket and travelling on the train alone, due to fear of getting lost or taking the wrong train. On the 2 occasions I have been in Utrecht by train, I managed to observe and pay close attention to which platform I needed to be on , where to buy tickets and what time the latest train leaves at night. For that I am grateful.

I was meeting a friend at 6 so had the afternoon to explore. I must admit that I got slightly lost if one can call it that. After biking for 2 hours, my caffeine craving got the better of me. I stopped at some café 'the Coffee Company' and ordered a small black coffee robbing me of 3 Euros. I paid with a 10 Euro note and on receiving my change, the barista had only given me 3 back. Now everyone who knows me will know my math is not what it should be but this was not right. Turns out she conveniently forgot to give me  5 Euro note back.

I sat outside and watched all the bikers pass me by whilst sipping on my horribly brewed coffee. The paper cup was leaking drops of coffee just about everywhere when Ewout, the young man sitting to the left of me asked if I wanted to use his napkin. We started talking and I went on rambling about how terrible my coffee was and the barista's sucky cashier skills. On his departure from the café we exchanged names (not numbers) and vowed to add one another on Facebook.

Laurence, the  man sitting to the right of me was just as cool. We had a fat conversation about travel and music. He told me all about a music festival in Siget, Hungary, Tivoli de helling, and his change in careers from marketing to setting out on his dream to become a musician. I gave him my card (how professional of me) and we bid our goodbyes. It was one of the coolest conversations I had in a while and it was great to meet some of the locals.

Travelling solo is the new black...

I AM BUT A MERE SPONGE

Today I ventured out into Utrecht. The initial plan was to cycle there and completely wander off adventurously. Obviously the weather didn't play along with that idea and about 5 minutes into biking, we decided it was way to cold and ended up taking a train instead.

 

The train ride from Driebergen-Rijsenburg to Utrecht is a mere 7 minute train ride and only 3 Euros for a return ticket. Most of the girls have OV-chipkaarts which entitles you to a 40% discount on 'off peak' travel. This is a good investment if you plan on staying in The Netherlands for a long period of time and want to travel extensively.

 

I had been telling one of the girls that I feel like a sponge of information, even just walking down the road, I gawk at my surroundings like a child seeing everything for the first time. Its truly a magical feeling and I'm going to embrace it because It probably wont last long after being here for a year. I mentioned to them that I'm just a 'sponge on a bike' ,we thought it was quite funny and had a good chuckle.

This was my first time seeing the city side of Holland so most of the day was spent walking around gawking at everything. We were lucky in that it was September the first and there was the 'Uitfeest' taking place as well as 'Culturele Zondagen' and 'Vrede van Utrecht'. The city streets of Utrecht had such a great vibe and we stumbled upon musicians playing on the side streets on 3 occasions.

These guys had a really eccentric sound to them and gathered quite the crowd too. I got quite entranced by the music and would have stayed all night if I hadn't been for the girls shaking me awake.

There is an abundance of quaint design shops all over the city streets. Naturally I was drooling over their shop fronts. Cafes galore let me tell you, I did not see one unattractive badly dressed person. Everyone has this quirky, practical, colourful style that I am just fascinated by. Those who wear spectacles, have the most beautiful frames and yes, almost everybody was on a bike.