On track: Steampunk Voyager, Amsterdam

Greetings everyone,

First of all, I've been to the Elf Fair yesterday. Not much to say about that other then I enjoyed it alot more than I thought I would. The last time I was there was two years ago, as an entertainer, and left with a 'meh' feeling. So thats positive.
I also enjoyed my time inside the elleborate camp of The Steampunk Objective, whom won the price for the best vehilce by the way. So, good going there.

But to day I want to talk about an other event. I differing from my usual Dutch format and write in English because this was an international event. Not only did many our fellow Steamers come all the way from Germany to participate in this gathering, one of the hosts lives in Germany. So, for their sakes, I’ll write in English… This time.

So, I went to the Steampunk voyager. An event organized by Marina Mirisha and Natalia le Fay. It involved a tramride on three of the historical electric trams from the ‘Electische Trams Museum in Amsterdam. A privately owned collection of trams dating back to 1904. A group of volunteers collect old trams from all over Europe, disassemble them and rebuild them again to bring them back in working order.
Now, this is more of a collection then a real museum. Their trams are stored in several depots which can only be visited on Sundays.

After a tour inside the Depots we rode the track past the Olympic Stadium through Amstelveen.
Now, there is a certain irony to this. I hate public transportation. I dreaded to travel to Amsterdam by train, but there is a certain charm to riding these old carriages. The old commercial posters. The wooden interior. Despite their simplicity and lack of comfort these trams are more inspired in design then modern trains are. Maybe because traveling was more exclusive and less people had to be packed into them, but still. In modern (western) eyes they are Spartan. It makes you wonder why people are appealed to these archaic vehicles to begin with. Maybe it is this simplicity. It symbolic for our nostalgia to a simpler way of life in which public transport was more of a luxury and less of a necessity… Like when you want to travel to Amsterdam nowadays.

After being kicked of the tram behind the Olympic Stadium we went to an Island (yes, there are small islands in Amsterdam) to enjoy our picnic. Before the end I was stuffed but the food and treat were worth the extra few pounds.
Tried some new things like cakepops and shooterssandwich and an almond cake we called Herman. Some of us got acquainted with several meads. One of them being pepper mead, which caused some hilarity. 
There was a contest which had the best flavor, between chicken salsa, balinesian chicken and chicken … Can’t remember which one won out. I guess we’re gonna have to organize a rematch next time.

And with the picnic we ended our day in Amsterdam. Plenty of photo’s were taken which can be seen in the Gallery of Natalia Le Fay.

Be sure to visit ‘Oh, Marisha’s’ shop. Her costumes look really great. If she organizes other meetings like this one she would let me know, so watch the Dutch Steampunk Agenda on this blog for updates.