Goodmorning to you all, from behind our fried eggs and coffee in Cologne, some days after our Amsterdam departure.
The whoops and cheers and clapping that sent us off from Rapha last Saturday made us quite emotional and the closest thing to a rock star we will ever be. We are still buzzing with the best goodbye we could have wished for. Very cool! We continued down South through the Netherlands, enjoying the ride with friends to Utrecht, meeting up with friends and family in Utrecht, Eindhoven, Milheeze and Voerendaal over the last few days. Only yesterday did we finally find ourselves alone, on the road, across the border into Germany, after the last hugs and kisses from our parents. We had the sun in our face and the wind in our back and it felt as if we were being pushed along by the well wishes from our friends and family. A lovely start of the trip of a lifetime. Thank you all for the cheers and waves and sweet goodbye wishes, it will definitely help us on the more difficult days ahead.
The departure date is set: Saturday 30 April is the day team Oufti will hit the road. Please join us for a relaxed morning coffee from 10.00am at Rapha Cycle Club Amsterdam, Wolvenstraat 10 in Amsterdam. Coffee and cake are graciously provided by Rapha in support of our big trip.
We will leave at 11.00am to cycle to Tokyo and we would really really (really!) like it if you could join us for the first modest 45km leg of this trip, from Amsterdam to Utrecht. We will be going at a slow pace, being heavily packed and all, so this is a ride that is open to all kinds of cyclists, and not just the experienced racers.
We’re getting slightly nervous as we’re getting closer to the leaving date. The Big One is becoming more of a reality than an abstraction, and we are becoming acutely aware of what a huge project it is we have taken on. We love seeing as much of our friends and family as we possibly can before we leave, and a group ride to Utrecht would be a sweet start of this crazy leap into the unknown.
Here’s a thing that has been bugging me for a while now.
Cyril and I have been on some great cycling trips. Over the years we’ve hosted people who are doing the same through warmshowers. We choose to cross borders and live with what we can carry on our bikes. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes the weather is shit, but overall it’s a most beautiful way to travel. When we are done with traveling we come back to homes, jobs, friends and family. The best part of our travel memories is meeting people from different places and being made to feel welcome everywhere we go.
Refugee crisis
On the other hand there are the refugees crossing the Mediterranean. They have no homes, jobs, friends and family to go back to. They are crossing borders because they are fleeing wars and persecution and poverty. They are not welcomed and only reluctantly taken in.
I am embarrassed by the growing inequality in the world. I’m lucky to be on the right side of the divide, by the sheer accidental chance of having been born in The Netherlands. One of the richest countries in the world. I could have been born in Syria. I could have been involuntarily traveling this summer, risking my life in a boat across.
I’m embarrassed by my government not doing more to help and I feel helpless when I look at the media stories about the refugees. They are portrayed as a ‘swarm’, it’s a ‘crisis’. Overall the refugees are being dehumanised in the stories we read. Even more so in the horrible comments a lot of people post below these articles. People who apparently do not realize it could easily have been their family suffering if they had been born in a different place, at a different time. I know it’s not nice or pretty to look at. It might disturb our nice little lives. But, we cannot stick our heads in the sand and pretend that we don’t hear the people knocking on our door. Asking for our help.
This is a situation that is a given: people cross borders, lots of them. They are looking for a better life for themselves and their children. They are willing to do whatever it takes and that in itself is admirable. Lets help them make their own lives better and give them a place in our society. They might make our lives better too.
In Amsterdam
Today I visited an emergency refugee shelter in Amsterdam. It’s one of the places where people who arrive in Amsterdam can stay until they get somewhat better (temporary) housing where they await the processing of their refugee status application. The shelter was in an old school building close to the ring road around Amsterdam. The first impression was somewhat off-putting; security guards hanging around the entrance, gruffly demanding ‘which organisation?’ and ‘passport!’ from me, before providing me with a visitor pass.
Once I entered I noticed how Amsterdam volunteers make a great effort to make this makeshift home a somewhat more welcoming place. Kids running around, little groups of men and women talking in corners with sofa’s and plants, an overall calm atmosphere, a splash of colour here and there. I didn’t speak to any of the refugees so I can only imagine the many feelings of the people who are here: relief, resignation, despair, impatience, trauma, loneliness, sadness, happiness, anger, hope… I can also only imagine how I would react in a similar situation; probably a whole lot less dignified, knowing my own impatience.
I went to give away an old bicycle, and I hope someone in the shelter will gain a little bit of the freedom and agency, that we take for granted every single day, by riding it around town.
