Tuesday, 13 September, 2022 – Day 50! Oh my gosh. After the first week he was gone, I managed to stop pacing during the day. Now I finally have stopped picking up my phone every 30 minutes, to see where he is.
Elias texted today: “Made it to Amsterdam. Everyone is doing good. We needed a break from each other so Ian and Kelsey are staying in a hotel south of the city and I’m by oosterpark. We bought tickets and are going to the Van Gogh museum and probably hang out at vondelpark on the 15th – I don’t know what day it is or that will be.”
While he was hanging out at the park, we got a chance to talk for a little while today. When he said in his text, “I don’t know what day it is,” he meant it. He doesn’t know what day of the week it is, or what day in September it is. I know he knows it is September still because they are going to Germany for Oktoberfest, whatever that means. He knows the day they intend to go to Munich and that’s about it.
Sort of the same way Elias was figuring out how he likes to travel, how to look for places to stay and eat, find trains, etc. – the three of them have been figuring out how to do all that together. Elias’s phone apparently has a better signal on a regular basis, so he does a lot of the finding stuff and making reservations. Taking charge comes pretty naturally to Elias, for better or worse, but I expect they all have tired of Elias being “in charge” every day, just because his phone has signal.
I am proud of them for recognizing the tension and settling on a way to deal with it. I remember traveling with my two friends for several weeks in Thailand and not knowing what to do with the irritation and impatience that inevitably creeps in when you are together all the FREAKING time. In a threesome, it is maybe more complicated than two people traveling; three people with three different opinions, three different wants, three different worries can be a little exhausting.
(I am guessing since I have not traveled for any length of time with one person. My grandmother does not really count. Well, maybe she does, but at 14, it did not occur to me I might be irritated with her. I probably was, though. We shared a bed for most of the trip!)
In any case, it sounds like they figured out how to deal with it. Elias is in a hostel in a different part of the city and feeling fine about that. I think he is staying in the same place he stayed at the beginning of August. I already wrote about the hostel and the funny, few-second clip of him riding a bike.
I looked up more about Oosterpark, where Elias was sitting while we talked today. All the websites said it serves a “diverse” community. One of the sites explained, “Many newcomers to the city from Suriname, Turkey, Morocco and more recently from Eastern Europe, live in the area.” Rather than force you to sit through all the ad popups, I am going to quote one of the sites:
The Oosterpark is a large city park located in Amsterdam Oost [East]. This open green space is filled with ponds and streams, a wading pool for children and plenty of walking paths. Considered Amsterdam’s most multicultural park, it draws a diverse local crowd and hosts a variety of festivals throughout the summer. There is also a ‘speaker’s stone’, where people speak their minds every Sunday at 13:00.
https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/see-and-do/things-to-do/nature-and-active/overview/oosterpark
If Elias is still there on Sunday, I want to ask him to go listen to “people speak their minds,” just out of curiosity.
He also mentioned the Van Gogh Museum and Vondelpark, which is near the museum. It is apparently the most famous park in Amsterdam, a high honor given the number of parks in the city. At the risk of providing too many links to too many parks, I am going to include this one: Vondelpark. I appreciate that the park, and its website, are maintained with loving care. Who knew toad migrations, 2007 – 2020 merited so much attention and dedication?
Here’s a map of where Elias is in Oosterpark and where he will go to get to Vondelpark, and the museum.
