Archive for August, 2009
Shake the Planet!
It’s the slogan for Lowlands this year. And we did shake it!!! I’m still aching all over (hello muscles I never knew I had!) from ‘a campingflight to lowlands paradise’. We had the best weather (apart from a little rainstorm the first evening) and I’ve seen looooooooads of bands 
. It was a lot of fun .
After the first day I thought ‘HELL NOOOO, I WANNA GO HOOOOOME!!!’. We left the house at 12:30pm and arrived at the entrance at about 5:30pm (normally it’s a 20 min drive by car). The line of cars went so slow that we didn’t even turn on the ignition – we just pushed the car every once in a while. After arriving at the entrance we got to wait in line for another hour and then had the joy of finding a good spot for our tents. We did find one pretty quickly. Nobody told me it was right next to the 24-hour-party-all-night-tent though. Fun!! Soon after we put up our tents (read: after Maurice put up our tent and we stood and watched) it started raining so we hid in the 24-hours-tent. We spent the rest of the evening socializing with our neighbors (with one of them stumbling to her tent without knowing where she’d been the previous hours – drunk as a shrimp – hilarious!).
Then came the night. OMG that first night. The noises outside made it impossible to get any sleep!!! Even with earplugs in. I thought it would be impossible to get any sleep at all.. but.. I have to admit… the first night was the only night I couldn’t sleep. I slept like a baby the rest of the nights. The noise wasn’t any less, but somehow I could tune it out or something. It’s the craziest thing.. cause every time when I would wake up I would “hear” total silence.. and then I’d shake my head and ffrrrbbbbbbb there was the noise again! Really weird! It’s like you have these little doors in your ears that automatically close when you fall asleep and then slowly open when you wake up again. Madness.
Anyway.. on Friday the real festival started. The festival area opened and it was time to enjoy the music!!! I loved, loved, loved every second of it . The weather was nice and hot throughout the whole weekend, the food was delicious (although pricey) and the bands were very, very niiiiiiiice.
Here’s what I’ve seen:
Friday
The Tallest Man on Earth
Paolo Nutini
Bon Iver
Razorlight
Beirut
Lily Allen
Spinnerette
Ska-P
Grizzly Bear
The Prodigy
Joost van Bellen (DJ)
Saturday
Reverend and the Makers
Patrick Wolf
Moke
The Aggrolites
Them Crooked Vultures
Maximo Park
Kyteman’s Hip Hop Orkest
Basement Jaxx
Kaiser Chiefs
Sunday
Vampire Weekend
Snoop Dogg
Patrick Watson
Metric
Bloc Party
The Maccabees
Arctic Monkeys
As you can see we had the most energy to go see the bands on Friday and it got less and less on Saturday and Sunday 
.
With most bands we only stayed for a couple of songs, to be able to catch the next band as well. The ones we saw the whole set from were Them Crooked Vultures, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party. And some bands you just ‘happen’ to see, because you’re chilling nearby.
There’s only one band I missed that I’m bummed about and that’s Kasabian. They played on friday, in between Ska-P and Grizzly Bear, but we didn’t have the energy to walk to the Grolsch tent (where they played) and back again.
I don’t have any pictures, because – you know – stolen camera . But Marinus, one of the guys I went with, did take some pictures and hopefully I’ll get them soon.
Niels provided some cool pictures too. He flew over the festival area.. I think on Thursday (since the festival area seems empty) and took some pics from the air .
Texel’s crazy birds
I went to one of the Frisian (or Wadden) Islands for the first time in my life. They’re very popular holiday destinations in Holland, but somehow I never went to any. Until yesterday that is.
Texel is the biggest of the islands. I think. It’s pretty big anyway.
Anyhoo. Niels and me went there for a day, just to enjoy the beach, the sun, the nature, etc. It was a very relaxed day. But what stood out the most for me was the trip by boat to and from the island. The boat is surrounded by gulls that fly so close to you that you’re scared they’ll bump into you. Of course they do this all for food. Niels said it’d be fun to try and feed them. Of course he meant that it’d be fun if I tried to feed them while he took pictures of my face filled with fear.
Happy, but already a little scared
It’s so much fun when they do grab it (and not your finger)
A little girl in awe of the birds. Plus a little girl with a pink hairband
Should I or should I not…
It’s all fun and games, until some big gull almost eats your finger
The gulls weren’t the only animals we saw that day. We went to the Ecomare museum and saw loads of fish and sealions .
Oh, and while we were walking in the sea we almost stepped on a crab. It almost pinched Niels in the toe, but Niels outran it .
Shake the Planet
Time flies when you’re having fun. Which pretty much means: time flies when the weather’s good.
The summer is almost coming to an end already. Almost!! I still have a week in Spain to look forward to. But before that: Lowlands! It’s a little over a week from now and I started looking closely at the line-up today. The website www.lowlands.nl has the smart option to import the schedule to your calender. And OMG this is how it looks:
Normal week turns into festival maniactical frenzy
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
If that doesn’t drive you insane, I don’t know what will.
How on earth are we going to choose when to go where and how long to stay there????? Nobody ever told me you need a degree in math when going to a festival 
.
Kayaking
Not too long ago, at the beginning of this year, I went ice skating with Renee on the small waters of Lelystad. Yesterday, Niels and me took the exact same route. Only this time by kayak!
We only got to use a one-sided paddle, because one of the paddles got lost somehow so we had to share. But it went pretty well nonetheless. My arm muscles are in a lot of pain right now though lol. I wonder if Niels feels it too.
Ready for take-off
Niels is off to a fast start
while I’m struggling with the greens of nature
I’m getting there.. no worries
Once escaped from the green mass I easily out-paddled Niels whuahaha
He’s trying to get to me – without success of course
Everything under control (y)
Canal Parade
My sister, Renee and me went to the canal parade in Amsterdam last Saturday. After first settling down on the dock of the wrong canal some friendly people told us that we wouldn’t see any boats from there. We walked on and with a little help from my iphone we found our way tot the Prinsengracht.. but of course it was packed packed PACKED with people. After walking for half an hour looking for a decent place we found a boat that was half empty. So we sent Linda (’cause she was wearing the shortest skirt) with her sweetest smile to the boat owner to ask if we could sit on his boat. At first he was a bit hesitant, but just before the parade started he motioned us on his boat. Woohoo!! We had the best spot ever . Of course it took less than 5 minutes before everyone started cramping the boat and it was jam-packed with people (even Carlo Boszhard found our spot good enough for him and his boyfriend).
Anyway.. the parade was fun, but I expected it to be more extravagant and daring. It was all a bit tame.. but fun 
. The weather helped too!! It was nice and hot. I even sun-burned my nose a little bit :s.
I’veposted a lot of pictures and some vids on my hyves page. But here are some pics for an impression.
Foam party on board
Joling and his playmates
