Bijenkorf’s Maffe Marathon

I happened to be in Amsterdam on Easter Monday, which is a public holiday devoted to shopping. Throughout the country, DIY-stores are open as are all branches of a certain blue-and-yellow Swedish flat-pack furniture retailer. In Amsterdam however, all shops open up and the city centre gets raided by masses of people using their day-off to buy new (un)necessities.

Although I tried to avoid the shopping streets wherever possible, navigating the cramped city through backstreets and alleyways, I decided to go into the Bijenkorf, which is the Netherlands’ luxury department store chain, although comparable more to German Galeria Kaufhof than to famous ‘sister’ KaDeWe in Berlin or Harrod’s in London.

Inside the Bijenkorf store, their spring sale was ongoing. The ‘Maffe Marathon’ or Mad Marathon, which is the spring-version of the ‘Three Daft Days’, made sure the store was packed with people. I battled through, however, avoiding crowded elevators and escalators and made my way up to the fourth floor via the good old staircase instead. Walking through the ‘living’ department I came across a pair of glasses I had to buy.

For ‘just’ 12 euros I bought two glasses shaped like oil barrels with a ‘radioactive’ symbol displayed on them. As the box already suggested, it looks wonderful in green and I couldn’t help but imagine drinking Absinthe-based drinks from them. After convincing @hecubah we needed them, we headed home with our new glasses, which I’ve finally got to use today. Don’t they look awesome?

absinthe, bijenkorf, design, living personal