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ROLLING THROUGH VONDELPARK

A Royal bike for Josselin

Two weeks ago I received the invitation to pimp my bike. The idea came from Amayzine friend Yara Michels. She was asked by Lipton Ice Tea to celebrate the Brightside of life for a moment and immediately thought of biking. Amsterdam may be a huge cycling city, but those things are horrendously ugly, which doesn't really contribute to a cheerful and colorful street scene. And just calculate that there are more bikes than people living in Amsterdam, so that creates quite a sadness. There had to be a change, and so she came up with the car wash where you could take your bike through to literally roll out on a joyfully pimped bike. Love for the idea and love for Yara, who was telling this as such an enthusiastic bouncy girl that you immediately wanted to push your bike through the pop-up car wash of Vondelpark.

I found the execution much more exciting. I've had my old trusty leopard for about ten years now, and it's my beloved Amsterdam bike. The translation of Amsterdam bike is ugly, trampled, and rusty, but on the other hand, it works very well and is loved, thus irreplaceable. So I was quite willing to have the bike pimped, but with preservation of the style (gold and rust) and the qualities. My girlfriend and colleague Lilian came along for photos and mental support so that I wouldn't drown in all the pimp drama, and she also made sure that this scene was captured. Side note: Lilian jumped on Blue Ivy, our editorial bike, and was very sternly told by Liesbeth that Blue Ivy should not undergo any metamorphosis. So the hope was really placed on me.

Back to the pimping. I planted all those flowers and streamers at my neighbor's house for a moment, so I could focus on all the functional and very cool gadgets. Yara gave the green light (understandably, she saw that I was sitting on my bike like a watchdog) and so I rolled into the car wash after the necessary pre-panic and thoughts.

Thus began the car wash with two handy Harrys who were going to repair my bike. I thought they were placed there for looks, but they turned out to be serious bike mechanics, which made me very happy. A bit of air in the tires (thank you), a new stand (extremely needed and extremely handy next to all those overcrowded bike racks in Amsterdam), and especially seriously happy with two new gadgets. The first is a golden cup holder for breakfast, and the second is a golden mirror. Now everyone finds my mirror hysterical, which I understand, but it is really very handy. Fly in the eye? Hop, right out. Touching up lipstick at the traffic light? It fits like never before.

The next little station was the pimp department. There you could choose from the necessary flags, beads for your spokes, flowers, picnic baskets, and that kind of stuff. Now I'm not really into all those hysterical things, so I decided to stick with the beads. In yellow. That matched best with gold. While I was neatly stringing those beads, suddenly a girl was enthusiastically mounting disco lights on my bike. A little gulp moment, because I found it quite circus-like and thus quite Pipo the Clown. But she was so concentrated and enthusiastic about it that I didn't dare to disturb her, under the pretense of that Brightside. So there you go, I rolled out of the car wash with two cool gadgets and disco streamers. Although I immediately saw the advantage of lighting on the bike, of course.

Alright, my bike has been pimped and friend Lilian was super jealous. That was quickly resolved when she hopped on dear Blue Ivy and cycled a round through Vondelpark next to me. Two happy eggs. Because hey, I have two golden gadgets. Way too cool. My bike was already gold, but got an extra royal touch. It's as if it finally got the crown it deserved. Long live the Brightside.

My bike was already gold, but got an extra royal touch. It's as if it finally got the crown it deserved.