Taking The Piss Out Of Ikea

A friend of mine argues that urban landscapes are the best. I partially agree, as I described best in a previous bike ride to Abcoude. This time around, the bike ride also had a functional goal: buy some stuff from Ikea. “Buy furniture at Ikea is not an ideal situation for a bike!”, I hear screaming from the back rows. I couldn’t agree more…. now. You should have told me before!

Where does the name of the post comes from? On the way to Ikea, I cycled through the Bijlmer again. And I was amazed by what lies under Dutch tunnels for the second time in my life: I’m sure that nowhere else in the world you can stumble across pissing men standing in the water.

The ride back from Ikea was complicated by the Ikea bag hanging from my back, but I enjoyed it nonetheless: I cruised through Diemen and, once back inside the ring, a sporting area full of hopping kids.

I was struck by Diemen, the little town just outside Amsterdam’s ring. It’s a cheap living area, where minorities and not very rich people ended up. I find it hard to describe, but the atmosphere is vibrant. The impression I was left with is that “should change ever come to the Netherlands, that it’s where it’ll come from”.

I mean, that’s where they put students to live in containers. Yes, containers, those that you usually see in harbors. I’m sure this will be a very efficient force for change. More on this in a future post.