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Interview op Dutch national radio

Monday September 2, 2002, we are guests in the radioshow WegmetBNN (away with BNN) on Dutch national radio. About a week ago we got an email from Marjolein Dekkers, the presenter of the program, with some questions about our website. After our answer we got an invitation to come to the studio for an interview, from her colleague Marlies Kruizenga. We like the idea, but in the afternoon of monday, August 26, it turns out to be that same night. And we can never make that in time.

But our mail-contact continues and we are invited for the next monday: on September 2nd we (and our website) will go on air!

The location is a studio in the Arendstraat (not on the well-known mediapark where Pim Fortuyn was killed a few months ago) in Hilversum and after a drive through the boring Dutch landscape we arrive at Hilversum after 2 hours. At least we haven't lost time photographing the sceneries on the road on the way.

Marjolein has offered to arrange a studio near Groningen, because of the distance, but we like it much better to go to a real studio in Hilversum. A trip we look foward to with growing excitement in the week before.

We arrive quite early and report to the reception of BNN. We want to have a snack in a pub nearby and then return to the studio, but we don't know the neighbourhood.

We are welcomed very friendly and soon Marjolein joins us. She offers to arrange for some Chinese food that we can then eat in the BNN-bar which is much better since we are not near the center of Hilversum.

We are the only guests tonight and we can help ourselves. We are still a bit tense and look through our list of questions and answers which we have drafted together with Marjolein. Well, she did the questions, we provided the answers.

A long time ago, we have both been on Radio Noord, a local radio station for the northern province Groningen, but now we are quite nervous to be on national radio. And we also have caught a cold and Teije is coughing all the time. Or would it just be his nerves?

When our food arrives we forget our papers and enjoy the chinese meal: all small bowls with different sorts of food, very tasty.
We have the bar for ourselves, so Teije washes the dishes, but is secretly photographed by Elisabeth.

We are glad we didn't drive into the centre of Hilversum because time goes faster than we thought. We feel quite relaxed now, mainly because the people who walk around, are very nice to us. So, why have we been so nervous all the time?
At a quarter to eight Marjolein joins us and at 8 she enters the studio, while we stay chatting to Esmee, the hostess of BNN this night.

At 20:12 we join Marjolein in the studio while Esmee takes some pictures of us and provides us with several glasses of water for our dry throats. In real we don't use these headphones, but it looks real. We feel the itches in our stomaches again, especially when the lights show we are really on air.

Although Teije always has an answer on anything, this time he has to swallow once before he can speak. But Marjolein directs the interview in a fantastic way and before we are even aware of it we are in a lively and interesting conversation with her. All preparatory talks are forgotten and we only have to be ourselves. So easy it can be!

Sometimes we falter for a moment, but before we realise our conversation is ended. We have the feeling the interview has lasted only 2 minutes but in realtime it was more than the planned 7 minutes. The subject was writing your own website about travel stories, but in the end we talked a lot about our own website. And don't you think Teije talked too much?
We will get the program on cd, but we never get it...

We feel ready for our next interview. We try to be modest on the site but when we start talking about our travels we are unstoppable. Meanwhile Marjolein continues with the show and we can walk around through the studio.

Teije has the camera and he sneaks off to the technicians room (well, we just made up this term). Elisabeth sits next to Marjolein listening to the way she handles an interview with someone about a disaster-trip.
The artificial lights make it difficult to take nice pictures and we don't want to disturb the people working here too much, so we don't use flashlight. Therefore the pictures below are a bit dark.

Microphones rise impressive from the table. We just sat there, talking on the radio! Quite an adventure for us: we started less than a year ago in an amateuristic way to put some pictures on the internet...

While Marjolein is continuing with the programm, Teije walks to the adjoining technical room where Rohan (director) and Hans (technician) are busy with a lot of equipment. They follow the script painstakingly and intervene when necessary.

Elisabeth is still in the recording studio while Teije at least can take a deep breath in the adjoining room... At the next song we leave the room to the large bar behind the studio. There we chat for half an hour with Esmee, the hostess, and Astrid who will present BNN United between 9 and 10. Together we try to fix the beer barrel; to get a drink but nothing works.

After the show Marjolein joins us and we stay for another half hour. And of course we need prove that we really were at BNN. We are on the stairs, the BNN-logo is on the ceiling.

Walking down we take a few last pictures. We have had a very pleasant night. We think the drive of 3.5 hours for an interview of 7 minutes was very worthwhile!
Very satisfied we descend the stairs: it was an adventure for us and nice to meet Marjolein and the other BNN-employees. There were not many and now we have seen that the glamour of the radio exists for a great deal of hard-working people, just like everywhere else.

On our way back to the north, driving through the dark on the highways of Holland, we suddenly realise we have forgotten to tell one important thing: building this website and keeping it up makes us enjoy our holidays double, or maybe even triple! First we have the joy of preparation, which now also consists of preparation of the website: making an information-page, so we are better informed than we normally were. Then we have the journey itself which gives the most pleasure, but during the journey we have now and then moments that we enjoy pictures or events of which we realise we can later use on the website. And sometimes we see things of which we are sure they will make beautiful puzzles on the site. And finally, all those days, sometimes weeks, that we are busy with the site after a journey, sorting all the pictures and writing the stories for the website. With the Scandinavian pages it took almost two months and all the time we were reliving this holiday, very vividly. And before we know it we have to travel again...! Between holidays we work, to finance all our travels instead of getting a payday loan or bank loan. And we keep buying lottery tickets...

BNN, and especially Marjolein, thank you very much for this opportunity to tell about this hobby, which has get a bit out of hand, on radio!

Travel through Europe and Africa

with Elisabeth and Teije