Four months and ten days (at the time of writing, not posting!). That’s how long it’s taken me to finally write this down. Despite the vociferous nagging from certain quarters.
Day 1: Pack, Run, Airport, Airport!
Day 1 starts with being shooed away from a check-in desk and a lot of general standing around, with a hangdog look. Not to mention all the shooing away from the lounge. Let’s not forget trying to fit in last minute work. With a countdown from 50 for boarding the flight, what would you bet I got 3A? A cigar, or coconut to the one who bet I got shooed away from the boarding gate. OK, I lied. The countdown was from 39. The principle is what counts though. Right?
Day 1 continues with sleep deprivation and working on airports. Does it classify as Day 1 if I fly forward approximately 5 hours in time during a 10 hour journey?
The will to leave Gatwick for the great beyond sapped. Frequent impulse to grab people and jabber their heads off. Trinidad lives on in the veins. Hope that lunch would cure me proved futile. Withdrawal pains due to telephonic disconnection unbearable. And this is a holiday! I’m paying to do this to myself. Whoever said that only planning a holiday is painful?
Day 2: The Great Deal
So, I’m well planned. I sit at Gatwick and book a hotel in Amsterdam for the night and Day 1 ends with a fantastic savings price at a Best Western at Amsterdam. Yayy me!!! 55 euros for the night = Major steal!
So here’s the final mark up:
Discount deal (yayyyyy me!) = Euro 55
Realising there’s no shuttle and taking a cab at 12:00 am = Euro 25
Realising I’m at the wrong Best Western Airport Hotel and paying 45 euros to go to the right one (yes, TWO with the exact same name!) = Priceless!!!
Anyway, so the chap was really nice. He felt sorry for me and gave me what I later realised was a HUGE room. It’s another matter that for a minute there he seemed to be offering to share it. I managed to pull the keys from his hand. Eventually. (Ed.’s note: If you laugh at this, or make cracks about sharing rooms… it’s not going to be pretty!)
Of course, my initial reaction to what he called the “Bridal Suite” was to gasp with barely concealed laughter. It was a puny room, compared to what I’d expect of that tag in India. All ends well though, with the nice chap actually planning out my route from Ouithooren (where I was) to Amsterdam (where I thought I was) to Maastricht for the next day. It was fairly uncomplicated, for Europe and a shoestring budget anyway. A walk, a bus, a bus change, a train, a bus and finally Maastricht. Rinse and repeat backwards to arrive in Amsterdam after visiting studious people in Maastricht :D
Day 2? Day 3? : Emotional Abandonment
Day 2 (I’m too time zoned to figure which :) begins with utter and complete abandonment.
I wake up late, can’t figure what day it is – 2 days, 3 timezones! I call home. I say “Mommy!”. My Mom of course says “Who’s speaking?”. I say “Ma! It’s ME!”. So she does the entirely expected. She puts the phone down.
Apparently, distance wasn’t making that heart any fonder. Jeez. I suppose she’s going to start saying my sister is an only child really soon.
Right. So Day 2 sticks with the wake up and RUN! philosophy. Walk out into nice cool weather, realise there’s no cash and buses are hardly going to take cards. Walk to the nearest bank with two suitcases (yes, I SHOULD have packed lighter. Trust me. I kicked myself for two weeks). Walk back to bus stop, which of course was in the opposite direction.
Get to Amsterdam and get off at Leidersplein simply because it’s sooooo pretty. Walk into sleazy sidestreet café. Make a hotel booking.
Take a tram to the Centraal station (not a typo… that’s Dutch for Central Station). More running to baggage lockers then to train to Maastricht. Talk shop to totally cute programme director at the Uni. Dutch men are soooo cute. Tall, blond, pink and sooo well spoken. What’s not to like? Is there any wonder Amsterdam is the city of sex?
Saw a recruitment agency for foreigners. Undutchables. See? Dutch men even have a sense of humour!
The Tales will continue with… “Day 4: The attack of the Africans”
