Vespa World Days Gjøvik 2011

Close to 1000 more or less like minded scooter fanatics and enthusiasts, from 17 countries accross Europe, some as far as Greece, overcame rain, the freezing cold, immense side winds, bad food, cold coffee, overflowing toilets, sleep deprivation, hang overs, break downs, slim wallets, body odor, broken backs from camping, and all the other typical hurdles we experience on meets like this...  with the sole puprose to squeeze every drop of enjoyment out of the greatest scooter event of the year, Vespa World Days 2011, Gjøvik, Norway... and did we get some juice? In buckets! Unfortunately, like the previous VWD events before it, also this one  had to come to an end. Toatally knackered, completely spent, broken, and worn out, we left Gjøvik with black eyes and huge grins on our faces. What now remains are the new bonds made, the existing bonds that were strengthened, and the loving memories of the experience we collectively created... value which only a fellow scooterist can even come close to comprehend. Who else can really understand the value of having someone trip over your tent or doing burnouts at four in the morning while you are unsuccessfully trying to fall a sleep for the third night in a row? Who can understand how we, after having eventually passed out from exhaustion, muster to find the energy and enthusiasm, to wake up early in the morning to go through it all one more day? Yet we enjoy the hell out of it. Why? Because we are scooterists.

What makes VWD such a great event is that we for an entire weekend get to be 100% scooterists, among hundreds and hundreds of other 100% scooterists from all over Europe, and do scooterist things, whether it be; probing into someones mad scooter creations, dancing to scooter music, go on rideouts with hundreds of other scooterists and bringing the world to a stand still, or listening to the mindboggeling adventures of people such as Umberto Marinello  who rode to Mongolia (www.theitalianwheels.com/), or mad men who plan to compete in the 9350 km African enduro rally “Budapest To Bamako” on three Classic PX200E's (www.bamakobyvespa.no). We meet to share war stories and compare battle scars (on body and scooters alike), drinking beer and talking senseless stuff with people who can't even understand the language we speak... and so much more.
To sum it up from the unedited personal experience of one of the participants, Lasse Koxwold from Restless Scooter Club (Oslo): Wieners and fries, breakfast with jam, coffe ques, smell of Italian scooters, Restless stand with record player, theft, drink, grabby old women, camp idyll, nice conversations, dance, patches, old geesers who live in hotels, useless pickup artists, galla dinner, neck tie, kegged beer, canned beer, kings of the camp ground, parts swap meet, a German who wanted a hug, outhouse, break down, sunburn, the major of Gjøvik, Peter Berry  The Shake Set a genious band, boomblaster saving a partynight, Petter’s ingenious musical chair joke, Biltema, sidecar collision, Bamako By Vespa bar, bbq, pyramid riding on Vespas, old man jumping through fire, Jakob on a three wheeler, people laughing, mellow rough necks, two nice guys from Bergen. Thanks for a super duper weekend.

For us that were there to share the experience, knows that each of Lasse’s words were heavily loaded. To the rest of you who missed out and can’t understand what the hell Lasse is talking about, well, there is always VWD London 2012 (which we eagerly anticipate).

Thanks to all the organizers and all the scooterists that were there for a great event.

Adrien Bjørnskau (Restless Scooter Club Oslo)

Check out the pix of Magnus Knutsen Bjørke:

https://picasaweb.google.com/Magnus.Knutsen.Bjorke/WorldVespaDays?authkey=Gv1sRgCJPKroLn563lPw&feat=directlink