So many closed doors
Joris is so old, he closed a lot of doors in his past.
Joris opened and closed a massive amount of doors in his life, with some really important ones in Amersfoort. Ward and Jurgen went on a, slightly melancholic, bicycle trip past several of these doors. See if you can match the doors to the story!
Starting off his teenage years in Amersfoort was the Afrikaring. This pinnacle of 90’s architecture couldn’t be farther from Afrika in any way possible, so how they came up with the street name is a mystery. This is the house where Jurgen met Joris for the first time, then still as a Rugby-friend of Ward. Little did we know… (do you recognize the door?)
From this house Joris had a couple of doors he frequented daily. Very importantly the Hooghe Land College, where he discovered his love for performing on stage. (door nr.?) Not too far from the school was proof that Joris is indeed very old. He used to work at the Videotheek, a place where people actually got physical tapes to watch movies over the weekend. This was a very important foundation for Joris’ cultural development, and his way of introducing his younger brothers to fine art (only the true connoisseurs will remember Basket Case).
After the divorce, Joris got a new series of doors. First on the Kattenbroekerpoort, and then on to the Longkruid where Joris and Ward lived together with Rien. At the same time Caterina moved to the Turpijnplaats. Can you still find the matching doors? During this period Joris frequented a couple more obscure doors in the city center. A regular Friday night would move past the Alem coffeeshop (for you non-dutchies, this is not a place to get coffee), then on to the Boothill Saloon where he practiced his cowboy skills. When the night progressed he would mingle with the local biker gang in the Flame bar, and ending a long night clubbing in the Kelder. As you can see from the doors, most of these places went bankrupt after Joris left the country.
Doing his best not to fit into the crowd, Joris got a lot of help from a hairdresser in the city center. The guy left the country as well, but there is still a (currently hipster) barbershop there! Do you recognize it?
Then the big Mix&Match happened, and suddenly the doors changed again. One new door for Ben and Caterina on the Poortersdreef, and another door for Rien and Wanda on the Sprokenpad. Not too hard to spot those! Joris occupied the smallest rooms in those houses, counting down to when he could leave and find his own door. And he certainly did that, moving to several houses and rooms throughout the city. Ward and Jurgen managed to find two of these doors, quite hard since the surrounding neighbourhoods changed a lot! Especially the Ariaweg got renovated completely, but the old building remains. Propabably because no one dared to renovate the dirty old structure, remember the fridge in the hallway? Not sure how many new lifeforms evolved from that…
After all these doors many many more would come all around the world, from Korea to Brazil to the US. Now on his 40th birthday Joris can definitely say he has found the most important door ever.