Summer Madness Saga Part 1: ZNL Weekend in Amsterdam, July 18-20, 2014. Aka ‘The Weekend of Epic Stories, Not All of Which Can Be Told’.

The moral of this saga is once and for all to prove that Zouk people are insane addicts :). Let it, therefore, serve as a warning to anyone new entering the scene: your life will never be the same if you fall victim to the Zouk madness :).

The journey began on July 16 when I boarded the bus for a 16h journey to Amsterdam. Just about a week before that one fine day I woke up and couldn’t get off the bed. In fact, I could barely move at first at all – something got majorly stuck somewhere in my lower back. It never happened before so I’m not sure what it was, but it was tricky to even walk for the first few days after that morning. Now, a normal person would have gone to a doctor and most likely postponed any trips, especially those involving a lot of (at the time seemingly impossible) physical activity. But who said I was a normal person? I did actually postpone my trip by 3 days, but it was more because everyone else were arriving later that week than for any other responsible reasons…

Strangely enough, the back felt actually better after the trip. Maybe the bus had magic chairs or maybe the way I was sitting put everything in the right position, but by the time I arrived the following afternoon it was more than bearably unobtrusive. Huge shout out goes to our lovely Nicky who picked me up from the station and dropped me off at Yasmin’s place – it would have been a much trickier journey without you!

After a small adventure with the downstairs door key (now we all know it’s push and right, not pull and left), we dropped off the luggage, went to get some food, cooked a quick dinner and I set off for the open air party. I missed the actual open air part though (rather a shame, as the weather was glorious :)) because everything took longer than planned, but there was still some music inside. Trick question: what do you do when your back hurts? Answer: dance Zouk, of course! I was feeling even better after a few dances – a great start of the weekend!

I would like to add a disclaimer here: please don’t actually dance Zouk when your back/neck hurts! There are different types of pains and different things that can go wrong. For some of those, careful physical activity is something that releases the stuck parts and removes the problem. Yet for other problems, the movement causes more injury! Know your body, be careful and don’t force movement through the pain! The reason why I made the decision to try and dance was because during the entire week after the incident I noticed that movement relieved all symptoms for me, so it was a type of ‘stuck’ that could be ‘unstuck’ through familiar movement. I danced very carefully the first evening and was ready to stop the moment it would feel worse and simply enjoy myself in the city without dancing. Luckily for me, movement very quickly put everything  back in order.

On Friday the rest of the ‘weekend team’ arrived. We got some groceries, spent about 15 minutes trying to find where the pay machine for the parking was and how to get to it (seriously, that parking lot was a damn Narnia!), dropped the car off back at the flat and went to Vondelpark to relax in the sunshine… At about 4pm… The sunshine was still there for a little while, so we got our dose, then made it back to the casa, where our Mami Yasmin cooked a nice dinner for all us babies and a few additional dinner guests. Then it was time for the party at Mirror Center. By the way, enormous thanks to Ruanita for managing to organize the event that brought together two amazing DJs – Mafie Zouker and Nyx – and to change the date to a week earlier, enabling us all to attend! You rule!

The only picture of me from that weekend :).

It was a nice party, although a bit too hot, but no one can control the psychotic Dutch weather that decided to go all tropical that weekend and overheat the venue :). It was great to see everyone again and to enjoy great music! The party went on only until 3am – way too early the mad party people standard, so we planned, as is the tradition, an after-party at Leidseplein. The plan, however, took a few unexpected and partially rather unfortunate turns, but that’s one of those stories that can’t be told…

Fast-forward to (uncensored again) Saturday afternoon, when I got a chance to catch up on some sleep and to give a good start to the book Tipping Point – the one I was hoping to get a hold of for a while and finally spotted at Yasmin’s. After the nicely relaxing day, it was even easier to enjoy the Saturday night party, despite the heat. Whoever brought baby powder for the floor that night – thank you sooo much! I swear I’ll eventually get to carrying my own stash to all events – I just need to find a good travel container for it! My lower back was  still occasionally ‘communicating’ with me but it kept feeling better every day – I always knew Zouk has magic healing properties!

The afterparty that day began at Leidseplein without me – logistics dictated that picking up was out of question and I couldn’t be bothered going by public in the middle of the night. So I happily went to sleep… The party, however, spilled over into the house after 5am – it began by covering the living room windows with blankets (WHY U NO HAVE CURTAINS, YASMIN? Lolllll) to dim the light and waking up Erik with loud music :).

On (uncensored) Sunday the 20^th just for a change of a setting we went to the Brazilian music open air festival. It had an officially Zouk-Kizomba hall, entirely taken over by Zoukeiros, of course. The event kicked off a bit slow but then it picked up when everyone arrived; the music once again was great and it rained a bit later in the day, finally cooling off the heat.

At the end of the party we got into another tiny adventure involving trying to get back home – the train station we arrived to was quite a distance away, but that day the trains were not running on that line. So we needed to find another way back home. Basically, it was a nice long walk in fresh air :). 

Thus arrived the epic Monday – the day that for several reasons is bound to go down in history. The day kicked off in a complete chill mode – it rained all the time. I pretty much finished the book and stocked up on more sleep – a wise decision as it later turned out. This time there was a proper customary after-party – just the way it should be. The evening started at the Pancake Corner/Sport bar on Leidseplein, finally with the complete party people team, and carried over to Candela for the open mic night. The epicness of the night started rolling in slow at first, but right away nevertheless. To begin with, for some reason we were all allowed by the doorman to get in for free. At Candela it was happy hour by that time, so all shots were only 2.5 Euros (still more than the 10 for 10 at Sports bar, but definitely reasonably low by Amsterdam standards). Given that, one of the rounds was seemingly forgotten by the staff and we weren’t billed for it… A bit later after all the singing done by our own personal super star there was a girl walking past who gave us a flier for another free shot (are you noticing the trend?). Slightly later in the night while dancing around, I found pretty much about 75 euros on the floor… I honestly gave it time for anyone to pick up but no one seemed to be missing anything, so the ‘Lost and Found’ prophesy on the t-shirt Yasmin was wearing that night was fulfilled, too! 

When the club finally closed, we took the party back home with us and arranged an entire club this time in the other room with lights and sound set up just right (scene: 3 people are looking at the smart phone, searching App Store to download an app that lights up the display in succession by all the colors of the rainbow. Upon finding the right app, one person hits ‘install’ button and misses. Three people stare at the smart phone for at least 5 full seconds… For some strange reason, nothing happens… Nothing keeps happening for another couple of seconds either… Then I reach up to the screen and actually hit the ‘install’ button… The app loads. Three people burst out laughing. Cut scene…), and the window covered up by a mutilated black fitted bed sheet (that had to be cut at the corners) kept in place by green kinesiotape of all things…

The private party carried on well into (uncensored) Tuesday morning and I only slept for a couple of hours before it was time to pack and head to the airport… Final little cherry on top? The tourniquets at the train station were not working, so I basically got a free ride to the airport because there was nowhere to check in at the platform and no one checked tickets on the train :). It was such an epic night that I was still hyper when I arrived and joined Rose and Nicky for part two of the Summer Saga…