Place: London - Brussels - Pinkpop Music Festival (Landgraaf, Netherlands)
Date(s) of Travel: June 14 - June 16, 2013
My Experience:
Friends(Mariana and Court) from Amsterdam, whom I met during skiing trip in Alps asked me, it would be nice if I could join them for an upcoming Pinkpop Music festival in Netherlands. I really like music festivals in Europe and I promised to join them.
On Friday morning(I took friday off from work), I started from London to Brussels by Eurostar. I found a ride from Brussels to Pinkpop festival site in Netherlands in a carpooling website. The drive was so much fun with strangers from Brussels as we were all enjoying to techno music all the way. Once we reached the festival site, it was hard to find a parking slot and we decided to park the car in the city centre of Landgraaf and walked to the festival site. After reaching the site, I said bye to my carpooling friends and walked to campsite B(little far from festival site) where Mariana, Court and their friends were camped. Court and his friends came to the entrance at campsite B to pick me up and we reached their tents. After saying Hi to everyone, me and Mariana went to get my festival band and in the meantime their friends pitched my tent. Fran and Anais from skiing trip were also came along and it was nice to meet them again.
After few beers, around 3 PM we all walked to the festival site to catch some music. The festival site contained 3 stages namely Mainstage, 3FM stage and Brand Bier stage and in which last one was the smallest among three. The weather was nice and sunny and I drank only beer for the whole day and had lot of grass(Common the festival was happening in Netherlands). We watched bands like Jimmy Eat World, Queens of the Stone Age(I liked it), Script and Killers. There were plenty of beer shops, food shops and falafel was quite tasty. The festival closes at 11 in the evening and everyone goes to their respective campsites either A or B and party till wee hours in the party tents in each campsite. The party tent in campsite B where we were camping was full of techno music with DJs giving their best. After partying for a long time, I went to bed around 4 in the morning as was very tired due to the long day.
Next day was same routine as previous day and watched some bands like Gaslight anthem, Phoenix and Kings of Leon and also partied in the campsite B for long time in the night. On Sunday around 12 PM, I said bye to everyone as I had to get back to work on Monday morning. After so much delays in the train, I reached Brussels around 6.30 in the evening and stayed in a hostel where I had stayed 3 years back. I went for a stroll in the city centre and tasted some belgian chocolates and local bakery food. Next day morning, I took the early morning Eurostar at 7 AM to reach London.
Thought of Day: The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - Saint Augustine
Place: London - Paris (Roland Garros)
Date(s) of Travel: June 8 - June 9, 2013
My Experience:
It was a friday afternoon and I was very nervous and couldn't concentrate on finishing my work in the office. It was because, my favourite tennis player Rafael Nadal was gonna compete against Novak Djokovic in the french open semifinal. This match had a very high significance for both the players, for Rafa it was to reaffirm his authority as king of clay and for Novak to achieve the career grand slam.
I am following tennis from a very young age and I used to be a very big fan of Pete Sampras and for the last seven years I am a even more a fan of Rafa. Whatever timezone I am in, I try to watch his match live on television. This french open 2013 was the first grand slam he was playing after seven months injury. All the tennis pundits and fans were predicted that Novak would thrash Rafa. But as a hardcore Rafa fan, I had hope that Rafa would win the match. I was following live scores then and there in between work and some of my colleagues too and were updating me. When the match went to fifth set, I couldn't hold my nervousness and went for a walk in the office corridors. The moment I saw the score on my mobile and knew Rafa won the epic, I ran to my desk from the ground floor and shouted Rafa won. Lot of my colleagues were aware that I am a big fan of Rafa and they all laughed due to my craziness.
I was very happy and suddenly decided to fly to Paris to witness Rafa clinching his 8th french open. I booked a flight for saturday morning, booked a hostel and bought a ground pass ticket to Roland Garros in Paris. The ground pass ticket allows me to enter the Roland Garros but will not allow me to Philippe Chatrier court which is the main/centre court. My plan was to watch the final in the giant screen adjacent to centre court and if possible try to have a glimpse of Rafa holding the trophy. I was so excited to do these crazy last minute trip just for the pure passion of following Rafa and his never say die attitude.
It was sunday afternoon in Paris and I went to Roland Garros. This time in Paris by a surprise, whomever I asked for directions/help were happy to help me and replied in english. I went to Suzanne Lenglen court and watched senior doubles final match. Inside Roland Garros, there was a festival kind of atmosphere as artists were entertaining the crowd with music, dance and acrobatics. I went to the racquet stringing zone where they were telecasting the matches live on Ultra HD television. There were some kids painting activities, flight simulators and even you can try tennis in nike dark room with radium coloured tennis balls. When the time was just 15 minutes before the start of the match, I decided to go near centre court and see what's going on.
I could watch some sports celebrities like Usain Bolt, Mary Pierce entering the court through the tunnel. Then finally, I went and stood near the Court 1 which is adjacent to centre court to watch the match on big screen. There were lot of people and it was fun to watch among them. Near the end of final set, I started watching people coming out of the centre court knowing that Rafa was gonna win the match. I ran towards them and asked for their tickets, if I could watch the remaining match. Finally, sixth person whom I asked gave me his ticket and I ran to the top of the centre court to watch Rafa. I still remember the moment when I was one among the thousands of people watching the epic match. When Rafa won the match, I felt elated and stood calm due to thousands of things going on my mind. Usain Bolt presented the trophy and saw the presentation speech by the runner-up David Ferrer and winner Rafael Nadal. I was the last person to leave the centre court till Rafa left the court after doing press meets and photoshoot.
Then, I went to the Roland Garros museum where they had a section for the french aviator Roland Garros and a section for all the tennis players who won the french open. I talked to fellow Rafa fanatics and it was so much fun sharing the passion. After few hours, I left the stadium with loads of nice memories.
Thought of Day: Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. - Steve Jobs
