What's missing in the list of London, New York and Paris? Amsterdam of course. It might not be the most exotic trip to do since it's only a 2-hour drive (or less), but there was a good reason this time for a day-trip to the Dam because Ben Hennon invited us to have a couple of drinks for his B-day. The plan was to go by train for obvious reasons but sometimes the train system doesn't work well. Some of it was blocked so parts of the trip would have to be done by bus, adding to the travel time. On the way up that might not be much of a problem but going back, you don't want to be stuck somewhere. Instead we drove over to the NDSM-Plein North of the city centre. Parking in Amsterdam is a problem but at the NDSM-Plein it's lots cheaper and if you can find an empty spot, parking is free. We managed to find a spot hoping it wasn't false parking but it was worth taking the risk.
The NDSM Plein has hosted several BMX events. Also the former shipyard was used to build ramps for the Red Bull Framed Reactions event back in 2012. Red Bull used to have their offices there and the place is full of graffiti which is always nice to look at. Next to the restaurants there are also some bars where we met up with Ben Hennon and family. They had taken the wrong ferry from the city centre to the NDSM-Plein and were thirsty for the first beer to say the least. Ben and his dad Tony are legends. We have traveled to many events where we ended up closing the bar.
Okay, the reason for the flight to Vilnius was the Ride The Dragon comp, but thanks to Martynas Martin we got to see a big part of the city on our weekend trip. It started off with the event host taking me to a traditional Lithuanian restaurant. The locals know what that means: pink soup and potatoes with meat inside. That berry drink that they serve on the plane must be a Baltic thing as well as the restaurant offered the drink with the lunch meal. Cold Beetroot soup isn’t normally my thing, but hey, gotta dig in and finish it up. It’s healthy apparently so why not. The Cepelinai meat potatoes were very good though. Very filling as well so no food was needed after this. Martynas showed me his killer park but more on that in the event report. My hotel was a bit outside the city centre but I got to hang out with Martynas, his girlfriend, Markus Wilke and Jacub Benda who all stayed downtown.
Vilnius has reached 1 million inhabitants and is the capital of Lithuania. Most of the old town is on the Unesco list which should tell you something about the history of the place. Lots of churches, statues, castles, parks showing its history. Of course we had to stop by the local White Bridge skatepark along the Neris river. It was packed on the Saturday night. The park has some bowls, plenty of rails, banks, and it made of concrete. Right next to it there were basketball fields, ping pong tables and shops across the street will provide you with the food and drinks you need. Nice location for sure.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.