Violet: I hope you enjoyed the appetizers!

Violet: We now move on to the speeches of the witnesses. The first witness is one of Arnoud's witnesses, René.

On this beautiful day I would like to say a few words.

And I am going to try to do that in a mixture of Dutch and Italian.

Trying to break down the language barriers of this day and make this beautiful crowd more united.

In the app you will find the translated inversion of this speech, hopefully it works and it can be followed and maybe you will pick up something from each other's languages.

Arnoud and I have known each other for more than 20 years. We went to the same school here in Amsterdam in different years.

We both created websites (that was quite new at the time) and had shared interests in art, photography and the city. And so a special friendship developed that continues to this day. Over the years we have organized things, experienced all kinds of things and made special trips.

Our most memorable trip was undoubtedly the one to the Caucasus. We did the whole first part, all the way to Istanbul, by hitchhiking.

Arnoud was a hitchhiking expert at the time, arranging one ride after another, and when we finally had someone who really took us a few hundred kilometers further, Arnoud said that maybe he'd rather get out and find someone who was both a little nicer and above all faster.

From Istanbul there were five of us and we continued the journey through the high mountains of eastern Turkey, walking through the clouds toward the border with Georgia.

In Georgia we traveled again by hitchhiking, towards Azerbaijan, where at one point on a mountain road Arnoud stopped a truck with an open cargo box. Arnoud climbed in first and announced that there was a huge bull in the back of the truck but that he was tied up pretty well and encouraged us to climb in as well. And so we continued on, the five of us, plus the bull, toward the border with Azerbaijan.

And after a long journey we arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea. At this point the end of summer was approaching and we planned to return via the Black Sea and Ukraine, but Arnoud had decided instead to continue eastward, toward Iran, Tehran, Esfahan. And so one fine evening we said goodbye to each other at Baku station, from where our overnight train to Tbilisi was leaving. Arnoud, and this image will always stay with me, stood on the platform, with his bag, ready to continue his journey east.

During our trip, we also learned a very nice way of toasting in Georgia. During a long Georgian dinner, guests take the floor when they feel called to do so to honor or praise something or someone, and at the end of each toast, the other guests endorse the toast with a powerful "Gaumarjos!"

I would also like to make some toasts, which I hope you can endorse with a powerful "Gaumarjos!" Maybe we can practice it: "Gaumarjos!"

Actually, you have to empty your glass after every "Gaumarjos" but not necessarily..

Tradition has it that the first toast is always to those who made the day's meeting possible: to the parents on both sides, "Gaumarjos!"

This toast is often immediately followed with a tribute to those who are unfortunately no longer with us: "Gaumarjos!"

Many other toasts can be made afterwards, but a very important one is to a bright future, and in particular the bright future of the children present: to Ravi and Luna: "Gaumarjos!"

Then more abstract concepts can also be toasted to, whose importance and beauty people want to extol. And as more is drunk, the concepts become more abstract and the stories longer....

At this time, I would suggest celebrating the absence of war in this part of the world: to peace - "Gaumarjos!"

I myself would also like to toast to retrieving as often as possible all the things we have shared and experienced: to all the beautiful memories - "Gaumarjos!"

And a classic of the toast ritual that always comes back and I absolutely don't want to leave out today: to everlasting friendship - "Gaumarjos!"

And of course, on a day like today, a final toast to the most important thing in life: to love - "Gaumarjos!"