Sun is out and the cold is gone.
Days are longer and the weather warmer.
Winter has come to past for Spring is here
Meanwhile, I have become an year older.
Sunny spring evening
Category Archives: Blog & Life
Zandvoort again
After not having travelled anywhere outside Amsterdam for over a month, I was restless. It was at 2 PM, on a lazy saturday, I decided that I had to do get out and do something. But given that it gets dark by 4.30 PM during winters, I was left with one choice of place – Zandvoort beach, which was only an hour away by public transportation and I had absolutely no complaints about it, for I can spend days just watching the waves.
I reached just in time to be able to capture some amazing beach-scapes, self portraits and few long exposures.
The Airport
Airports and Railway stations are some of the most fascinating places to watch life go by. They are at all times, flooded with people with hopes, with dreams, with aspirations and with purpose – all trying to go somewhere – maybe the first vacation of their lives; to grab that dream job; for meeting their friends or loved ones; to attend to an emergency; to home; to experience experiences never experienced before; for business; or to just make a living at those places, to get by the day, while watching others, in hopes that one day they might join the crowd, to go somewhere.
When I took a flight back to Amsterdam from my trip to Prague, I couldn’t shake the feeling of the need to take a moment to retrospect and realised that I felt some of those emotions, which I seem to remember in vivid detail, every time I landed at or took off from this particular Schiphol Airport.
(Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam)
Going Somewhere
Queens Day in Amsterdam
Queens day happens to be one of the most important holidays in the Netherlands, this year even more so, as the queen was abdicating in favour of her son and from next year the day will be the King’s day, which hasn’t happened in over 200 years. The event originally started to commemorate the birth of Queen Beatrix, but for people its an excuse to drink, party and vandalise the town.
The royal family’s house is Orange and Nassu, which makes Orange the predominant colour of The Netherlands, also the reason the entire country unanimously drowned itself in a sea of orange.
Orange was everywhere. People painted their cycles and vehicles
Shops and stores painted their logos in orange
Street vendors and hawkers were everywhere making a killing
People were sporting orange caps of all kinds
Even restaurant’s were following the suit wherever they could
Flags were placed at every nook and corner – outside monuments, buildings and houses.
Some spent their time either basking in sun, smoking up or going about their normal business, or all of them.
Amsterdam was completely crowded and littered everywhere! So much so it almost reminded me of India.
Even the flower beds on the streets were turned orange
Some even resorted to playing with orange color, which took me by surprise, as the only time I’ve seen it happen was during the Festival of Holi
Amidst the city up in chaos, with people on drinking binge and party spree, some found their moments of quietness
They even managed to organise a cheesy concert at the center of the city, where the only played songs of praise of the King and Queen and their children (ridiculous and preposterous IMO)
