DAY 5: Amstelveen – Utretch

Filming today wasn’t as productive as yesterday, or as I had hoped. We got up early, got all the camera equipment set-up and had a goal to finish at least 4 of our remaining 7 interviews. The lighting was perfect, and the campsite sounded quite enough, so we figured this was going to be a breeze.  Well, it definitely didn’t end up that way. LOL. We managed to get two interviews done before packing it up. We soon realized we were right beside an airport, and had a plane flying over us every 10 minutes. Ah well, what do you do. The riders were about ready to hit the road anyways, and we had offered to help them find some tents before heading into Utretch today. 

Riel and I hit the mall with Keely Jade Dakin and Jake Moir, found some really cool pop up tents for 35 Euros, ate some lunch, and headed back to the campsite so they could pick up their bikes and start their 45km ride into Utretch.

Once we arrived to Utretch, we were pleasantly surprised by our accommodations for the evening. We were staying in an enormous abandoned semi-converted office building. Four young guys lived there, each of them with their own arm of the building. It was huge! Sam was our contact, whom Sabrina had found on couchsurfing.org, an online website that “…seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.” The building had everything, a shower, decent Internet connection, a kitchen, and a bar! The riders were stoked too as they each got their own empty room.

Riel and I wrapped up two more interviews before heading off into the city to meet an old friend of mine Parry Malm and his girlfriend for dinner.  Parry and I went to Simon Fraser University together a few years back and I hadn’t seen him since graduation, as he took up a job offer in the UK soon after, and just recently got transferred to the Netherlands. We ate Dutch pancakes for dinner on a beautiful canal side patio, while we reminisced about our old university days. The canal was breathtaking, and the company was magnificent, although our wine did end up getting bird poop in it, it was actually pretty funny. Our server was great; she replaced it for us right away. Once the bill came, Riel and I learned about the tipping system in the Netherlands. That is, one doesn’t actually exist. People don’t really tip in Europe I’ve come to find, and if they do it’s usually because they feel that the service was exceptional, but even then it’s minimal compared to the 15%-20% norm in North America.

When we arrived back to our accommodations, the riders were all sitting in a circle discussing microcredit, as the next day we were all going to the Triodos Bank in Ziest, to meet with some of their representatives. Triodos is one of the largest microcredit financing banks in the world and just recently received the Financial Times Sustainable Bank of the Year Award at the International Sustainable Banking Conference in London. Once the discussion wrapped up, we played two rounds of hide and seek, and I won the second round!