Rave Review

The night I just had. It is 4 am as I write this and I have only just gotten home. It started out with me meeting up with a friend I had made in the park, Mafalda the other night and her friend, Stam. We met in the park and of course it started to rain while we were hanging out there. So we got wet for a while and then eventually went to stand under the cover of a restaurant awning for a while. We stood, the three of us in this location for a while as the sun eventually set and the rain declined to let up. Our plans for the night were yet to be determined. We were debating between three options; one, to go to a university-facilitated start of term party, two to go to a club in the city (with a lower than normal entrance fee), or going out to the forest for a rave. You probably know which option we went with. There were twofold problems with the rave to begin with. One was that the location hadn't been released yet so we didn't know exactly where it would be, just that it was "out in the forest". The second was that I was the only one with a bike, and the other two didn't have a reliable mode of transportation. Well we had a plan to remedy this second problem. We were going to go into the city center and find a homeless guy who sells stolen bikes for cheap. 

Now, I was highly sceptical of this plan, but I'm always down for an adventure. So we went back into the city center from the park we were at, on foot.We walked around for a bit, joking about stealing one of the hundreds of parked bikes we passed on the way. We ended up being at the club that was one of our original three options for the night, but it didn't seem like a vibe, so we continued on our search for the mythical homeless man with the bikes. We walked in circles for a good 20 minutes, before giving up and deciding that the best way to get to the rave would be to triple team my bike (one on handlebars, one on back rack, me riding). We were just across the street from where my bike was parked when the legendary man appeared riding a bike that he was selling for "ten or 15 euros". Stam bargained him to twelve euros, and we were set! As soon as the transaction was over, the man disappeared just as suddenly as he had appeared. Not one minute later, we see him hurtling down the street on yet another stolen bike that he was selling. He must be a wizard for sure.

Okay, now we had two bikes, perfect. Mafalda rides the bike and Stam rides on my back rack and navigates. We are the dream team! Nothing can stop us. Obviously the chain falls off and jams not two blocks after we start our triumphant journey. Not to worry! As soon as I start to fix it, not one, but two Dutch men come over to fix it for us (nice enough of them but they in fact did not fix it, I did). Off again! Or so I think. We are very close to Mafalda's apartment so we decide to make a pit stop there mainly to pee and wash all the bike grease from the chain off my hands.

Now we decide to go meet up with the Stam's friends who are going to the rave also. We end up at this house in the south of Utrecht, and we hang there with about ten people in the apartment for an hour or so. It is all very strange, I start to have moments where I step back from the situation and realize that I am in this completely random apartment in Utrecht with a bunch of people I don't know in the slightest. It all felt very surreal. At about 12:30 am we finally start out to the released location of the rave. It is indeed in the forest, and we have what some claimed to be a "15 minute" bike ride to get there. What it actually ended up being was a 45 minute trek out of the city on a narrow dirt and gravel road that ran about 3 inches away from the edge of a canal in pitch darkness. On this path there were intermittent narrow bridges that popped out of nowhere from the thick darkness we were traveling through which served mostly to keep me on my toes. All this would have been very fine, except that I had an extra person riding on the back of my bike, throwing the balance all wild on this narrow path (did I mention that it was dark?). At long last we reach the point where we park our bikes.

Once the bike part of the journey was over, now it was time to trample through a field of tall grass, go through a very low, sandy tunnel, illuminated only by a string of twinkly lights, and find the opening in the trees which would eventually lead to the rave. Well all of this was accomplished I'm happy to say, and there was in fact a party at the end of the tunnel. The rest was good, loud EDM and flashing lights.

The journey back was just me and Mafalda, we left before most everyone else in our group at around 3am. I biked with her on the back of my bike all the way back to her apartment in the city center, which was a lot easier the first time then it was the second. ON the way back, not only was it pitch black, but a thick fog had settled, so my bike light penetrated very shallowly into the night. I might as well have been biking with my eyes closed. Mafalda played some of her music for me on the way back through and for the most part it was a very pleasant and peaceful experience. We lived for me to tell the tale and now I am finally home. I feel like how buddy the elf is when he recites his tale of how he gets to New York. What a journey, but I am exhausted.