The beginning of a trip is always hectic, exciting and completely chaotic. We started our journy on a Sunday, getting my precious kitty over to my moms house where I had major anxiety separation. After peeling away from her, my father makes us a farewell, delicious home cooked meal of gilled shrmip, fired rice and potato salad. Yum. Not to mention the leftovers came with me on the airplane and all the way to the hotel where it gave me the little bits of energy i needed to carry on through the long, arduous journy.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare(i'm always early!), but of course got held up at the security line. Not only do they make you strip, take your laptop out and look at all your personals, but they make rules that are impossible to follow. I carelfully read all the guildlines before carrying on, knowing that I was not checking my bag. I bought all the neccessary 3 oz bottles, labbled and transferred everything. I mean, the store sells them as "acceptable for airplane carryon". Well, those containers are yet another marketing ploy. They are NOT acceptable, not allowed and should not be sold as such. It needs to be in the manufactuer container. SCORE for brand name product that can make minis and bank on that too.
The flight was ok, as good as a 7 hour overnight flight can be. They showed free movies, so I half rewatched the new Star Trek as I watched the sun set on one side of the world and rise on another. At 7am Amsterdam time, we land, safely ;).
Getting from the airport to Central Station should have been a simple hop, skip and a jump, but somehow, even though the arrow pointed towards Amsterdam, we were going the wrong direction. No biggie, we wouldn't have even lost a lead on Amazing Race for that mistake. Quickly getting back on track, we arrive in Central Station by Monday morning rush hour. We head over to the Tourist Infromation to purchase a ov-chipkaart, which is like an unlimitted metro card. Amsterdam trams are so efficient, clean and have a system even better than the metro card. you just get on to the tram on any of the several doors and wave your card infront of a sensor. When you leave you have to wave it again or it becomes invalid. So convienient. The only downfall is that if you forgot to check out when you got off the bus, you were out of luck for the rest of the card.
The TI (tourist info) operated like a DMV, take a ticket and wait for your number to be called, the approach the window. I knew the drill well, it's the same everywhere. The numbers ticked by as I patiently waited for my turn. 108, 109, 110...BING, that was me. Not even a NYC second later, she must have mistakenly pressed the next number because 111 is jumping out in front of me and being helped. BURN. Again, I patiently waited, I was on vacation, CHILL was my moto. As the 111 guy leaves I stepped up and said that my number was missed.
"You don't have to be so hostile" says the lady behind the counter.
What? I know that mya be true at times but this woman was buggin!!! I remained polite, trying to win back her negaive and misconcieved notion of me. Just another rude tourist messing up my day is probably what she was thinking.
After purchgasing my 48 hour unlimited tram ticket, we head to Hotel Kap to store our luggage there until we can check in. The number 24 tram took us within 2 walking blocks from our hotel which was on a beautiful, quiet block near the Heiniken brewery. The weather was cool and gorgeous and the air was still because it was early morning. After dropping off our bags and refueling with some coffee, we set out to explore the town until we could lay our heads for a while.
We met people from all over. There were Louis and Phil from England who were chatting with us and the Sweeds, who thought their English was bad, but in reality, it was better than most poeple that live in America. We ate some sandwiches next to the Herengraat canal and marveled in the fact that we were actually here!!! All the planning and anticipation and now we could just breathe it in.
Dinner was a falafel and fries, we're keeping it really cheap and since I'm the cheapest date i know, it should be one of the less chalenging things. Falafel is good for you, cheap and fills you up. French fries, well that's a different story. Hold the mayo, please!!!
By the end of the night, we were exhausted. We walked around in the rain with our new rain jackets and it was perfect. It reminded me of San Francisco in the summer, cool and rainy. By then, I had taken 321 photos and had to upload them. The day seemed like 2, but could have gone on forever.
I was so happy to have a laptop to be able to blog and post my photos, but alas major complications again!!! I'm writing in safe mode right now praying my every word and photo won't get erased, so I think i'll be transcribing things a day or two later. Maybe i'll just post photos also.
Next up...Amsterdam Day 2
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