Image Map

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Greetings from Amsterdam!

It is still hard for me to believe that I am typing this blog post from a hostel in the middle of Amsterdam. The past 4 days have been crazy and exciting and tiring.

After I said a tearful goodbye to my parents I walked to my gate and waited patiently to board my flight.  Fortunately, Sunday afternoon's are not a busy time at the airport so I did not have to wait in a line at security but then I found myself with a little over 90 minutes with nothing to do but wait.  I sat and watched the people around me making up stories as to where they were going and why.  About 30 minutes before boarding a lady who was sitting two seats down from me proceeded to wrap up her half eaten quesadilla in a napkin and place it in her purse.  It was at that moment that I prayed that she would not be next to me on the plane.

Once I landed in DC I had to walk for what seemed like forever (probably 30 minutes) to get to the next gate.  There I met up with the 5 other people I would be flying to Amsterdam with, including my French roommate Cheri!

Goodbye, America!

DC at night from the plane


The flight to Amsterdam was about 8 hours and pretty uneventful.  I sort of slept but I lost 6 hours as we were flying due to time zones.  I was really jealous of the guy who was in the middle 3 seats of the plane because he ended up not having anyone on either side of him so he got to lay down across the 3 seats to sleep.  Not fair.  This may be a surprise to you, but I was not flying first class and all I could think of was the movie Bridesmaids as they closed the curtains to first class.



Once we left the airport I became very thankful for that one bag I had initially complained about.  Between my 50 lb (exactly) suitcase and my probably 18 pound carry on and purse I was thankful that I didn't have a second big bag because we walked a long way with our luggage to get on a train and then got off, walked some more (tried not to get hit by a bike - more on Amsterdam later) and then got on a tram for a few minutes to finally arrive at the hostel where we are staying.  OH, and then the lift was broken so we had to carry our luggage to the 3rd floor which is really like 5 flights of stairs.

I will use my next post to tell you more about my time here in Amsterdam.  It is a beautiful city but I am ready to go to Marseille to get out of the cold!

The view from our hostel


4 comments:

  1. 50 pounds...exactly!! That took some skill. At least you go to do a lot of people watching while you were waiting for your flight...that's always the best. PS....Face timing this morning made my day!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am so happy anytime I get to see you and your boys :) And somehow when I flew from Amsterdam to Marseille it only weighed 47 pounds... which means 3 extra pounds for me to bring stuff home! I might actually pay for an extra bag or to ship things home because I know I will want to buy things & I have no space. Oh well!

      Delete
  2. Ah! That view is gorgeous. Glad you didn't have to sit next to quesadilla lady. Who does that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The quesadilla lady confused me so much. I'm not sure if she paid a lot of money for it or what but it was definitely a first!

      Delete

Thanks for stopping by & commenting! I look forward to reading your comment and responding!