Welcome to the first report on Letmestayforaday.com. For as long as time can be on my side during this project, I intend to report about my daily adventures in this kind of reports.
English is my second language here in The Netherlands, so don’t think I am too bad for an Englishman’s writing: I am Dutch.
Here I go….
As the clock struck noon, I bid farewell to my parents, friends, and neighbors. The scene was captured eagerly by two television crews, several radio reporters, and two photographers. Internally, I was feeling quite emotional as I am not accustomed to saying goodbye to loved ones for extended periods of time.
Tonie, a fellow Dutch weblogger, stopped by to ensure that I had indeed started my journey that day. He kindly offered me a train ticket, as he had to commute to work anyway. With Tonie’s generosity, I hopped onto the back of a friend’s bike while he and a small group of our mutual friends accompanied me to the nearby train station.
Tonie is employed as an editor at Planet Internet, which is considered one of the top internet providers in the Netherlands. His workplace is located in Amersfoort, which happens to be en route to Hilversum, where I was scheduled to spend my first night in a radio studio.
Upon arriving in Amersfoort, we walked for about 15 minutes (despite my heavy backpack and equipment) to reach the Planet Internet building situated in a small Silicon Valley Park. Tonie introduced me to some of his colleagues and suggested that we grab breakfast together, even though it was already 1:30 PM. He took me to a nearby restaurant where we both relished a delicious and nutritious meal, with Tonie kindly footing the bill.
Following our meal together, I spent some time in the editorial office until around 4 pm. I then expressed my gratitude to Tonie and his colleagues before departing for Hilversum on the train once again.
By 5:30 pm, I had arrived at the entrance of the Radio 3FM studio. The receptionist informed me that since the radio show I was supposed to be a guest in, was scheduled to run from 3 am to 6 am the next morning, I was eligible to stay in a nearby hotel on their behalf. With a hotel room, I could enjoy a complimentary meal at the restaurant and even catch some rest beforehand. What an incredibly thoughtful gesture that was!
To my amazement, the hotel was situated no more than 500 meters away from the studio. After checking in, I dozed off promptly and was then collected by Patrick Kicken, the host of the radio show and my first ever Letmestayforaday host, around 2 o’clock in the morning. In his small and disorganized office, we discussed which music would be played and then commenced the show at 3 am.
During the broadcast, I was required to feign sleep on the studio floor, which was a relatively easy task for me. Later on, I joined in the conversation and spoke about my travel project, the possibilities of hitchhiking by plane, and even presented him with “The Gift.”
The Gift?
Let me introduce The Gift.
As part of my travels, I bring a small gift for every host I visit. Each recipient is then required to pass on a similar item from them to the subsequent host.
Through this approach, everyone who has welcomed me into their homes and those who will do so in the future will receive an added token of appreciation. I found the concept to be quite clever, and I anticipate that this will evolve into a significant chain of gift exchanges in the coming months!
UPDATE ON THE GIFTS: I managed to keep up with the gift exchange for around 8 months, but eventually, the chain was broken a few times during my travels in Spain. Carrying all kinds of items with me was already challenging as I had around 30kg of materials in my backpack. As you might imagine, some of the gifts became quite cumbersome to transport…
Because Patrick Kicken was the first who had invited me over, the first Gift was from myself. I gave him a t-shirt of one of my sponsors, the AM-radio station ‘Q The Beat‘ (ceased existence in August 2002). Of course this was quit hilarious, because all radio stations in Holland compete with each other! The t-shirt ended up hanging on the wall of the 3FM studio. Haha!
After the show ended, Patrick escorted me back to the hotel, where I indulged in a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs. It was early in the morning! I then dozed off again until checkout time at 11 am.
As my first host, Patrick Kicken was responsible for choosing a gift that I would present to my next host. He opted to remove a unique picture of the band U2 in a glass frame hanging on the wall, which was quite personal to him.
Despite the fact that the gift was not exactly what I had in mind regarding a small, personal item, I accepted the substantial glass frame and carried it with me to my next destination: Amsterdam!
