Yesterday my roommate and I joined the owner of the hostel for my first time on the other side of one of the most Dutch experiences - a gigantic flea market! I have previously been to a few in Maastricht, mostly at the
MECC, but this was going to be my first time working behind a stall selling - and also my first time ever at the largest flea market in Europe, at Amsterdam North's
IJ-Hallen.
In order to prepare, we had been told to bring a packed lunch, wear lots of warm layers (as the market was outdoors this time), and to get a good nights sleep as it would be a long day - we needed to
be there for 7am. The afternoon before we encountered our first problem when trying to make a route; on sundays trains are typically restricted anyway, and this sunday there were going to be none whatsoever. After very briefly toying with the idea of cycling there (not ideal as it would have taken at least an hour and a half if we managed to stay on track without getting lost which was honestly unlikely, not to mention that we would then have to cycle back again at the end of the day), we arranged with the owner to go a little later so that we could take an IPV train at 6.35 which was running, and then get picked up by her father from Amsterdam Sloterdijk at 7.10 to drive the rest of the way.
Feeling happy with our plan, I prepared my packed lunch of a packet of chocolate rice cakes, a bag of my new favourite crisps (l
etters & cijfers, basically paprika flavoured pom bears in the shape of letters and numbers), and then mini-wraps with spicy brown beans, roast sweet potato, yellow pepper, and lettuce. After getting my bag ready with everything, having dinner, and writing out the route, I went to sleep at 10.30pm with an alarm set for 5.30am.
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| lunchbox preparation and spicy brocoli pasta for dinner |
My roomie followed me to bed around a half hour later, however unfortunately we were not in for an easy night. With a huge group of 19 men occupying the 2 downstairs dorms and a private room, a group of women occupying the upstairs dorm, and a group from a wedding taking up several private rooms, on a saturday night, we both agreed that without a doubt it was the worst night since we had begun. Fortunately for me it was not my night to be on watch, however this did not mean I didn't spend the whole night awake listening to what was going on, checking out the window, and feeling stressed about things escalating or causing trouble for the neighbours. My poor roommate was forced to go outside to usher in groups of rowdy drunk guests at least 10 times, he had to enter both a downstairs dorm room and the upstairs to ask the groups to keep quiet, he had to deal with a group of drunk people walking through the street neither from the hostel or the bar across the road, and finally had to deal with one very drunk wedding-goer who had her private room window open and was shouting out to people in the street - causing the immediate neighbour to shout back. The last trouble I heard which my roomie had to leave to deal with was at around 4.30am, an hour before my alarm. I was incredibly impressed at how he dealt with everything so quickly and efficiently throughout the whole night, because truly it was chaos.
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| preparing the wedding room from the day before |
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| lovingly decorated |
By some miracle we managed to get up at 5.30 to break into the kitchen (the doors stay locked overnight until whoever is working on reception arrives at 8am, forcing us to jump over the bar and set off the alarm in our room) for breakfast. We left the hostel at 6am for a chilly walk to the train station, only to discover that even the IPV trains had been cancelled, and we had to double back to the bus station for a replacement coach. Oh, the best laid plans. Fortunately the replacement coaches in the Netherlands are insanely efficient (something which as a Londoner I am not at all used to) and one arrived rapidly, getting us to Sloterdijk for only 10 minutes later than the train would have, where we were picked up and after a short drive arrived at the IJ-Hallen.
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| scandalous break in to fry eggs |
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| replacement coach |
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| Amsterdam Sloterdijk |
The IJ-hallen is located in North Amsterdam, the up-and-coming industrial side of Amsterdam above the river. Previously nothing more than the shipping dock of the city, now more and more new businesses of all sorts are popping up, from gyms to trendy city beach restaurants. The IJ-hallen is the name for 2 large shipping halls and the surrounding grounds, and the market (made up of around 700 stalls) is held in one of the halls or outside depending on the time of year and the restorations needed in each hall.
There is no real theme to the flea market (stalls are open to anyone who buys a slot early enough!), and it is said that if you can think of it then you can buy it here, but there did seem to be a lot of antiques, vintage items, and generally good bargains. We met the owner of the hostel in her car, completely jam-packed full with all sorts of stuff, in the queue to get in at the main entrance just after 8am. By 8.30 she had been guided in her car to the space where the Hello stall was going to be, and we were able to start unloading and setting up.
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| the first hall |
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| second hall, currently undergoing renovations |
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| huge space of currently empty stalls |
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| our row! |
The owner had organised 2 adjacent stalls, one corner and one normal stall, and had already devised a scheme of where she wanted everything - vintage maps at one end, "old shit" in the middle, and clothes and jewelry at the other end. Although it was strange to see what looked like parts of the hostel up for sale (as the purpose of the market was to empty the hostel's storage unit of excess decorations that were not needed), we put everything out and each took a task - the hostel owner manned the clothing and jewelry area, my roommate organised the maps to know how to best find specific ones quickly, and I did the "old shit" area while helping my roomie by speaking Dutch with people trying to buy maps.
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| organising maps |
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| getting the hang of this panorama thing: our stalls from my position! |
At the exception of one guy who came within 10 minutes of us being set up to buy all 15 of the small porcelain white & blue clogs we had used to prevent the maps from blowing away, the morning was quiet...and very cold. We knew it would be cold, and I had worn the warmest clothes I'd brought with me to Haarlem, but still it was very very cold. Luckily we had coconut water, krentenbollen (delicious small raisin bread rolls), and good company so the morning passed by quickly and it got a little busier - and a lot warmer in the afternoon.
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| nachtwacht by day |
Naturally around midday I had had too much coconut water and it was time to try to find the toilets. With seemingly foolproof directions ("toilets are next to the giant tree"), of course I managed to get totally lost. Because of the area we were in (nearby to the water) it was not possible to walk straight towards the tree, it was necessary to walk around the edge of the market, also the layout of the stalls themselves prevented me from being able to stick to walking in any sort of straight line. This was not an absolutely tragedy however as it meant I got the opportunity to look around (although my distraction by what was going on around probably contributed to my being lost) and see what was happening in other areas of the market. True to what I was told, I saw a totally arbitrary mixture of everything imaginable; a home-made shoes stall, a crochet draft extractor stall, a stall of collectible cartoon figurines, a TERRIFYING life size porcelain doll, a lot of random nonsense, and a looot of vintage clothing stalls.
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| by the water |
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| looking back: our stall was located in the area behind the trees |
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| at the base of the crane hotel |
After a good 25 minutes of wondering around I spotted an office for those coordinating the market, and at this point I was getting slightly desperate so I asked for directions to
de WC, and although I got the exact same as I had been given before ("naast de grote boom") at least this time he pointed at the specific tree. As I walked off towards the tree I was entertained to hear the conversation (in Dutch) behind me;
did you just tell her to go to the toilet against the tree? - No I told her to go to the toilet NEXT TO the tree! - But why would she go to the toilet next to the tree when there is a block of actual toilets right near there?
A mere 5 minutes later I did in fact find the toilets, however I did not have sufficient change (I had only 35c and required 40) to actually use them. At this point on the verge of running I headed back to the Hello stall, borrowed 5 cents, and made another attempt to go to use the toilet - successfully this time, in a round trip taking under 15 minutes.
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| not in fact the tree near the toilets... |
After being put to shame by my roommates ease at locating the toilets, then queuing to buy food, and return, all in under 20 minutes, we took a short break to enjoy lunch in the now bright and sunny weather. We were very entertained by the women at the stalls across from us who (after sharing a bottle of wine) were joking around by discounting everything in their stalls (
everything in my tent, 50 cent! - and over here its 1 euro! - don't go there, its far to expensive! - *everyone falls about laughing*), trying on each others clothes, and buying flip-flops from each other when the weather got a bit warmer (
everythings a euro, but for you, 50 cent! - thats great, I'll take them...but I'll give you 25 - *more hysteric laughter*), and I enjoyed my wraps and some slightly melted chocolate rice cakes.
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| Dutch lunch |
After a few more hours of practicing my best Dutch in attempt to sell maps (and learning the names for a lot of countries in Dutch by guessing the accents of the people who asked for them), it was 4.30 and time to pack up. Having sold sadly very little, it was a challenge to try to fit everything back into the car but this time making space for the 2 nightwatch to sit. For our help with for the day we were allowed to have some of the treasures of the stalls ourselves, and I got a (home made) tin lamp, some pages from a vintage anatomy book, and a map of Africa from 1915.
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