Utrecht : Armin Only!

Utrecht : Armin Only!

Sunday (20th April), the day after our "Armin Only" experience.... we had crawled into our beds around 8 O'clock in the morning after a night out at an all night "Hardcore Dutch Dance Party".. and I spose that is just what it was. Steve was completely excited and enthusiastic about the event. Me? I decided to go in there with an open mind. I still enjoyed Techno/Dance/House music on some level, mainly when I was in the mood for it. I have to admit that around 4 days after my illness in Brugge, I was feeling a bit worse for wear and more than likely dehydrated on some level still... and knew that I wouldn't have the energy to be up on my feet constantly. Not like these hardcore party people anyway!

On the way to Jaarbeurs (the trade centre) where the whole thing was going to be held, we grabbed our dinner at the shopping centre at Utrecht Centraal Station. We arrived promptly on time around 10pm. There were a few people wandering around, grabbing drinks and getting into the mood... It at least gave us an opportunity to take a few pictures before the place got absolutely packed with keen party goers... We discovered the bars didn't take cash and we exchanged around 12 Euro's for around 4 little cards... 4 drinks.. for 12 Euro's... I spose that is reasonable. I wasn't planning on drinking anyway. I did grab one coke just to get a cup so I could then refill it with water... I think most people had somewhat of the same idea. As the night progressed there was a constant stream of women mostly into the toilet to refill their cups with tap water.

By 1am, I was already struggling.... Three hours in and I had, had enough.. ;p and I still had 6 hours to go.. MY GOD! Never mind that it took Armin 3 hours to finally come out of his little cylinder hidey spot. I intermittently left Steve's side to refill my cup with water and sit down for a bit on the sidelines. I marked his location with a point location of horizontal and vertical axis almost *chuckles* so I could locate him again when I was ready to rejoin him. ..

So, my critique of the whole show? Okay, so I am not a hardcore dance party girl.. and this all night bopping around to what I call "Doof Doof music" was just a little much, but I did enjoy the music in installments....One cool thing was that they had camera's all over the place and we went live all around the nation at midnight. LIVE on television. By the time Jaarbeurs, reached maximum capacity we heard that 15,000 humans were packed into that one gigantic room. Can of sardines anyone? Picture this, 15,000 people packed into a venue, smoking tobacco and the other whacky kind of tobacco (they are very liberal in the Netherlands after all!) and all those people drinking beverages... and NO BINS! Not one.... apparently this is normal at these events. I was a dance party virgin...and thought that was rather odd. You can imagine what the floor looked like by the time the whole event had finished?

Needless to say, I managed to hold myself together till around 6:30am.... I smelt like a smoked fish...and had just about enough of inhaling the fumes from cigarettes and other things... On a positive note, the show was an amazing production of sorts. Great music, excellent light show... guest artists and you just can't get that atmosphere in a club. Crazy Dutch! It was a gig for all ages because I occasionally noticed people in their 40's - 50's, enjoying the hardcore dance music. ... Still, I was more than happy to crawl into our hotel bed (which thankfully was a 5 minute walk from Jaarbeurs) after an intense shower to wash off the night...!

On the way home, we grabbed a small breakfast from the train station and crashed into bed around 8am. After getting an acceptable amount of sleep, Steve and I forced ourselves out of bed around 2pm for a couple reasons. The first, was that our stomachs were growling for their lunch... and secondly to try not to muck up our sleeping patterns. It was just too easy to stay in bed and sleep the day away...but for me my stomach would have won the battle anyway and ordered me to feed it! We took ourselves for a walk around Utrecht to get a feel for this city we spent such a short time in. It was Sunday afternoon and we had been blessed with an incredibly sunny afternoon and it seems the rest of the population had a similar idea to us. The green/park areas near the canal which we followed around were filled with people walking their dogs, taking a stroll with their kids, people cruising the canal in their boats or just couples enjoying the first glimmer of spring/summer weather.

We did walked around for as long as our tired bodies allowed us and then decided on passing a pub that looked respectable enough to stop in for a drink... and well a toilet stop for me too! It was a nice looking rustic pub... Steve indulged in a "Hoegarden" beer while I sipped my orange juice like a lady. The other cool thing this pub had was a little internet portal. A screen in the wall and a keyboard/mouse on the bench. Free surfing for maximum of an hour if you buy a drink in that pub! Nice! I took the opportunity to check my email and updated my facebook. ;o) The other perculiar thing I noticed about this place was the delighfully narrow staircase leading DOWN to the toilets. Not a problem for me, as I was sober.. but surely a hazard to anyone who had indulged in more than a few alcoholic beverages in this establishment... particularly getting DOWN. Coming back UP not such an issue since you could probably crawl back up the stairs on your hands and knees should you be THAT drunk... or simply just a clutz ;o) like me......

Thoroughly knackered, Steve and I eventually headed back towards our hotel grabbing something to eat on the way and crashing into bed quite early to try and get a solid night's rest for our train ride to Cologne, Germany the next day....

See you guys in Germany!

Of our afternoon in Utrecht.. just a few pictures : http://picasaweb.google.com/hillsj/Utrecht

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