‘After months of studying from my student room, and now a summer holiday spent in Wageningen too, I thought, it’s time for a change of scenery. What if I try out what it’s like to entertain yourself for a whole day just with what’s going on around you? To do that, I decided to go to Amsterdam on my own one Sunday.
No sooner said than done. At lunch time, I picnicked on the Museumplein, and at first I felt a bit at a loss. I wondered why I felt that way. Was it because I was surrounded by people who were out together with others? From my observations from the Museumplein and later from a bench in the Vondelpark, I’d say that at least three quarters of the people in Amsterdam city centre that day were not out on their own. And even the people who were walking alone or sat down somewhere on their own, usually made contact with someone else, often on their phones.
When you are alone it sometimes feels that everyone is just as focussed on the outside world as you are
When you are alone somewhere, your conscious attention all goes to your surroundings. It’s different when you go out with friends, because in that case it’s more sociable to focus on them. Your surroundings play a less important role in how you experience the situation. But when you are alone and conscious of your surroundings, it sometimes feels a bit uncomfortable because you imagine that everyone is just as focussed on the outside world as you are.
The funny thing is that that is probably not the case. I have experienced how when I’m on the phone while I’m on the move, I can suddenly find myself somewhere completely different to the last location I consciously ‘registered’. I watched that happen on that Sunday with the clarinettist who was playing beautiful music near me. Most of the passers-by didn’t even notice him. When I had given him a couple of euros, I realized that even though I was out on my own, I was surrounded by strangers all day long: I didn’t feel alone at any point all day.
Have you got a day off in the next couple of weeks? I can recommend swapping a bench in Wageningen’s Torckpark for another part of the country. You’ll be amazed how much there is to experience when you just sit down and look around.’
Livia Franssen is a second-year Bachelor’s student of Environmental Sciences, and lives at Droef.