AMAYZINE QUESTIONNAIRE
Maartje from Barts Boekje
Do you know the most fun Barts Boekje? Well, Bart is the nickname of Maartje and she collects hotspots for you to enjoy. And this time you won't scroll through those findings, but you'll be flipping through them. You know where to shop and eat in Paris, Amsterdam, New York, or Stockholm, but where do you go when you're in Deventer or Assen? Maartje wrote Little Escapes, with the best sleep tips and dining addresses in the Netherlands and the southern neighborhoods.
Maartje, your book, tell...
“I start Little Escapes with the sentence ‘another blogger with a book?’, because I can imagine that’s the question. Because why a book if you already have a website? A blog is much more logical, practical, faster, cheaper, and definitely much more up-to-date when it comes to sharing addresses, right? True. But you can't fold pages from your laptop. And come on guys, a book! That's just cool, right? Even if no one buys it. Do it anyway.”
Why Barts Boekje?
“My father used to call me Bart, and later my colleagues did too. I worked as a fashion producer for a magazine and from there started writing travel stories, a handy little connection considering that fashion series are often shot on location. Moreover, I had graduated as a copywriter so I could manage it a bit. The love for hospitality turned out to be greater than the love for fashion and soon I actually knew more to tell about old and new spots than I could and was allowed to share. So I kept an offline blogger profile with new and old addresses that I didn’t want to forget (I can’t remember names). For myself. If someone wanted to know where to go, I would email a link. Until someone said: ‘Hey Bart, just put that little book of yours online, will you?’ That’s how it happened.”
First job?
“In the pub, or does that not count?”
Your favourite among shops?
“I can name tons of beautiful brands, but my closet is fuller than full with & Other Stories. Okay, and maybe also Sandro.”
What do you eat when calories are not a factor?
“Calories never play a role.”
Never have I ever...
“I ate broad beans, I think they stink so much. My mother too, so luckily I didn’t have to eat them when I was younger.”
‘Hey Bart, just put that little book of yours online, will you?’
Who do you swap wardrobes with à la minute?
“Nicole Huisman and her figure, please.”
Do you have a beauty secret?
“That I would like to have a beauty secret. Who will give me one?”
Who would you like to have coffee with and where?
“Can it also be a glass of wine? Actually, to be honest, I would prefer to have it with my own husband. Not a very exciting answer, sorry.”
No one knows this about you?
“I’m honestly an open book, but that I worked in a cafeteria for ten years, dated a truck driver, lived in Cavello’s, wore Nikes and loved my Puch Typhoon (that’s a scooter), always does well. Oh wait! Much more shocking and only my oldest friend knows this: until I was twenty, I didn’t drink a drop of alcohol. There.”
This must remain fashion forever?
“Flared pants. They are starting to go out of style again, I know, but I don’t want to.”
Ultimate moment of relaxation?
“I’m a very bad relaxer, but on Wednesdays I often have ‘no time’ because we do a Criminal Minds marathon then. And on the plane: I always barricade myself by a window, preferably with a stranger next to me (even if I’m traveling with acquaintances or it has to be my husband I can lean against – that sounds a bit socially awkward, but I have to talk so much for my work all day that I sometimes really don’t have the energy for that in my ‘me-time’) and I don’t touch the TV screen: undisturbed reading a book, preferably a good crime novel on the way to a sunny place and I’m happy.”
You want a ticket to?
“St. Barths. Buenos Aires. LA. Mexico. Cuba. Costa Rica. Bali. Barcelona. New York. Colombia. Sint Maarten. Santorini. Sicily. Miami. The Bahamas. Copenhagen. Thailand. Tokyo. Hawaii. Scotland. Cape Town.”
Name the last three things you bought.
“Does food count? I don’t think so. In that case: a dress from & Other Stories (again), Nikes (that was coincidentally a long time ago) and Book of Mirrors (a new book).”
Favorite movie-book-series-music of all time?
“Difficult! Music: Eddie Vedder. Book: I read a lot, but I also forget a lot. I just finished ‘A Little Life’, that was fantastic. Movie: I’m a terrible movie watcher… I love ‘The Holiday’, ‘Love Actually’, ‘The Notebook’, ‘When Harry Met Sally’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘Hitch’… Tearjerkers: wonderful.”
If your bag could talk, what would she tell us?
“That I need to clean up.”
With whom would you like to swap for a day?
“With an international girly type like Leonie Hanne from Ohh Couture, but it can also be one of those other stunning girls who travel the world and always look spick and span. Just because I’m curious how that life works. That can’t be possible, right? I would throw away that annoying bouquet of flowers that she carries way too often.”
Travel rule you live by?
“Oooh, I really fall through the cracks here. I don’t think about this at all. I live day by day, try to enjoy each day and sometimes it’s over, the days (and the plates) turn out to be too full and I stay in bed for a day – hardly a rule to mention, of course. Maybe this: I try not to look at others. I also prefer not to go on group trips or in press tents. I don’t live off Barts Boekje and therefore I feel I’m not quickly obligated to anyone; I prefer to pick up the bill. That way I hope to keep telling my own story and that Barts Boekje remains my taste. Of course, I also accept invitations, otherwise this already expensive and time-consuming hobby would become completely unaffordable, but only if it really suits me. A group trip often results in five times the same story anyway. Moreover, it makes me restless and competitive, not really a nicer person. Oops, that’s not a cheerful ending. Uh. Then a positive cliché: better too fat in the coffin than missing another party.”
Photo: Valentina Vos
