<b>My Netherlands trip - the story of Day 1
Entry posted by Aphrodite ·
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I initially wanted to write my condolence note to Mike along with this journal but I just could not do that. My thought of him was too sad to put it aside my happiness you will see in this journal. So I finally decided to make a separate journal for him instead. Anyway, here is my story.
Day 1 : Arriving in A'dam
Believe me I did not plan to miss my flight or lose my baggage but it happened! I was intending to fly with British Airway on the 1st of July (basically its a night of 30th of June) All my bags were packed. I stopped over to have a dinner with Niels before heading to the airport. I had one luggage and two sport bags with me. I was not that late this time. However, when I got to the airport, the check-in counter told me that i was only allowed to carry one bag on board and one loaded on the plane! methought, "WTF!!" then she said well I could take a look at my booking confirmation which in fact remarked one bag allowed only. Never mind that. I was asked to unpack and re-pack my stuffs. I was amazed how I could put one smallest bag into a luggage I was going to carry with me on the plane. After I finished re-packing, miss oh-i-just-notice-that-you-got-more-than-100-ML-liquid told me that I was not allowed to carry the liquid stuffs you know all my beauty secret. I really needed those stuffs cos I knew for sure that my skin would be very dry on the airplane and I needed some cream to refresh me. No no its totally not allowed. I suddenly heard the guy whispered to his colleague wondering why I would need it on the airplane! I hope they would born to be a girl in their next life so they would understand why hahaha! I ended up carrying a luggage and a woman carrying handbag on the plane. I walked around the airport checking which bank could give me the best exchange rate. Yeah I forgot, their exchange rate is all the same. It was 46.87 baht = 1 euro that night. I was sort of running late when I looked at the time. 5 min till the gate would be closed and I was still stuck at the immigration! I ran and I ran. Arriving at the gate exhaustedly. I could not see any asian there but me. I was feeling a bit special. My seat was actually in the middle of the row. I was hoping to sit next to a hot sexy good-looking guy cos it would be a direct flight to London. I was totally wrong. I saw an old lady was sitting there. Her ears were not very good now. She could not hear anything very well. Just before the plane would be shifting, there was a guy came and asked her to leave cos she was sitting on his seat. She left forgetting her bag. So the guy had to run after her for that. He was not a middle age man who slept for the whole flight and did not speak a word to me once. Maybe he did. One or two word or something, like I care.
On the way to the airport...yeah I'm almost there
There we can see Suwannabhumi airport...merely lol
I actually had a problem with the immigration at Heathrow airport. You know why? I think I still have a child in me. I found it very cute when I was given a tiny can of diet coke on the plane. I thought I must have kept it as a souvenir. Yet, I forgot to finish it but put it back on my luggage. I would say my flight connection was very tight, only 40 min or a bit more time to catch the next flight. Then I was asked to stop while waiting in the line when walking through the immigration. The lady told me I could only carry one bag which means one luggage only, no handbag is allowed. Another "WTF!?" in my head. So I put everything in there including my cute tiny can. This is why when my luggage was checked through the x-ray thing, it was kept to be opened by some searcher. I could not believe myself that I was stopped there for 15 min cos of that cute little thing! The heathrow staffs were seriously not very helpful. I told them I was gonna miss my flight if they would not immediately search my bag. One guy came and told me, "Miss, you already missed your flight because you would still have to wait for a "lady" to search for what inside your luggage. There were 3 bags were kept before mine. I sweared to God, "what were I gonna do, **** I missed my flight!?". I could not believe my eyes when a lady came to open the luggage before mine. There were more than 20 small cups of orange juices and several pieces of bread from the plane in a bag which was checked before mine! Why the hell would these people keep that amount of food from the airplane!? It would definitely not cos it was cute like my tiny can!! Anyway, I ended up missing my flight and had to wait for the next one which would be leaving in an hour. Thank god for that. I thought I would have to wait for a day or something lol
I should have arrived at Schipol airport around 10. I arrived at 11 something. While waiting for my baggage, I heard my name and other 8-10 ppl were announced publicly that we all needed to go to Serviair room. I wondered what the hell was going on?! There were already about 10 people or less waiting in the line. I asked them why we had to be there. They told me that British Airway lost my baggage. "Huh?! WTF!!" I didn't know what to say! It never happened to me before. I was really speechless and asked them what they could do for me. Simple answer was well-received. "We could not do anything at the moment but we will keep you informed once we hear from British Airway". Can you believe that they did not even give me any compensation or anything! I was only praying that my baggage would arrive the next day or something. Another funny thing about this is that Samantha, the girl who handled my case, said that I should not call to the number on my paper to check for my baggage cos it would be v. busy and that i should write them an email instead, lol.
Never mind that. After been stuck in the serviair for almost half an hour, I was worried about my friend Ange who came to pick me up at the airport. Oh well my mobile phone did not work there! How could I forget to tell my phone company? Now I was looking for a public phone. Found the blue one but errr its system seemed to be difficult to be used for me! I tried to insert my credit card but it did not work. I could not remember how I dialed some number and it reached to the operator. He asked for my credit card number and dialed Ange's number for me. Ange aka Ling Yai sounded a bit mad at me on the phone lol He said he had been waiting for me for 2-3 hours already oops! I told him about what happened and we went home.
Me arriving with shitty weather
Best driver in the world... at least he says so lol
Ange, who I also call Aap(ie), took me to Van der madeweg station so he could park his car. Then we took the metro home. I just realized that its really difficult to find a parking lot in A'dam. I mean you REALLY have to register so you could park a car in town or else you would have to pay for something like 4-5 euro an hour WOW! Aap's apartment is located in Nieumarkt area, quite hip and right in the city centre, which is very convenient to me. Thank god I found him lol Another thing I learned was that most apartments here do NOT have an elevator! Aapie happens to live on the top floor, lucky me lol
First city map I saw... and many later on. Seriously I'm not very good with map and already got me and my friend lost haha
Start from Metro (Underground train) at Van der Madeweg station. Until now, I still cannot pronouce the name of its station correctly lol I know I looked like **** but its only cos I didnt sleep enough on the plane!
I have to say that their underground train is not that clean. You can always see a lot of graffiti all over the wall.
Martijn, another Thai addict and one of Aap's friends, called that he would like to stop by the house. He is the guy in white t-shirt in a below pic. I wish I could show his pic but I promised him not to post his pic on TF. Anyway, he said he used to be on TF and talked to me. To be honest, I could not remember lol Its ok he forgave me hehe I had a pic of me taken with him too and it turned out I became a dwarf cos hes 2 metres tall (or taller) lol
The guys took me out and walked around the town. I would have to say that after the rain, the sky become so clear and the sun is shining! They agreed that I brought the sunshine.......really? hehe
Crossing to Centraal station
I'm just a typical Thai girl who is afraid of the sun lol
A'dam Centraal Station from the other side of the canal
By the pierrrrrr... you can see how busy the traffic on the canal is!
After a long walk, Martijn suddenly felt so hungry. We stopped by at McDonalds - how typical and easy (me)! As you see, there're too many teenagers yo yo yo waiting in the line. I didn't know it was that popular in Netherlands. I swear I saw a lot of McDonalds there, like on every corner of streets or something.
It was unbelievable crowded in McDonalds......too many young teenagers
People come when there is a festival - some school football thingy - at the Dam Square
Actually we did not eat at McDonalds cos it was way too crowded (and I suddenly felt so old there) hahaha we left and walked to Dam square when Martijn could actually get a piece of HotDog. I just realize that I haven't tried any of these Hot Dog stands at all. Next year maybe lol
Queen Palace at Dam Square
**** Monument .... for me cos i still dont know what its called. Come on guys, no offence, but you can obviously see that the human statue there are also naked!! Anyway i just knew before i left that its for war memoraium at Dam Square.
We ended up sitting and chilling at Cafe Cuba where I learned that they did not mix up our drinks when we ordered it. Instead, they gave you a separate alcohol and a mixer for you. I remembered I ordered Barcadi Coke. They served me with a 1/3 glass of Barcadi and a bottle of diet coke. This is really nice and interesting cos in Bangkok, you would not get this amount of alcohol and a mixer which you can mix it yourself unless you actually order for a whole bottle of something.
Chillin' at Cafe Cuba
People come out when there is the sun
Then we went to a mini supermarkt called Albert Hijn (sorry if I spelled it wrongly) and bought a carton of beer (about 12 bottles). I did not realize that dutch people drink beer like a water lol Ange cooked for me that night. It was really nice to have someone cooked for you haha Martijn went home to get dress before we all headed to a Thai e-sarn party later that night.
The party was held at JantjesVerjaardag where we had to pay about 15 euro to get in. Luckily, I dont know why, the guy did not charge us for the entrance fee. I know that Martijn already got a ticket from the thai shop but its only for him. As soon as I walked in there, I saw a LOT of Thai people drinking and dancing there! Funny to see how they were all there talking in Thai. I could not help but wonder if i was still in Thailand lol The Thai (of course) DJ played music mixed between classic e-sarn songs (the ones I dont know how to sing) and western hip-hop songs. The drinks here is quite expensive like other places. I think my cocktail drinks would normally cost about 8 euro or more. Since I was with 2 guys, no one would wanna buy me drinks hahaha My friends had become poor cos they had to buy me drinks instead lol
All Thai people at Thai party lol
Aapieeeeee seemed to be happyyyyyyy
Yet he learned to dance too!
Yes that's JantjesVerjaardag
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