May 25: Brief Visit to the Netherlands

Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands

I'm in a foreign country, and I don't speak the language. This ought to be an interesting 9 and a half hours.

Amsterdam is nice, from the little bit that I have seen of it. The first thing that I saw when I looked out the window of the plane was a large water filled ditch/creek/thing. And a duck. In the large ditch. It was special. I sat next to this nice Dutch gentleman that didn't say two words together to me the entire 7.5 hour flight. When we landed I said, "Well that's a quick way to lose 7 hours." he laughed...that was the extent of our interaction. *sad face*

I hauled all my stuff off the plane and wandered around in the gate area for a few minutes until I found the "Network Club" upstairs. After changing some money to buy a connection, voila...I have le internet and I am happy. I'm starting to get hungry. It's 1 p.m. here which equals...6 a.m. I'm hungry for breakfast when I should be hungry for lunch...at least that works out.

The exchange rate makes me want to cry. $100 = 63 EURO...ouch.

The thing that makes me laugh here is that they keep threatening the passengers... "[Name] traveling to [place], you are holding up the plane. Please board now or we will offload your luggage." all in this very proper British accent. It makes my day. Not only do you get embarrassed for being late, but the ENTIRE airport knows it. And they will take those bags off if you don't haul it over to the gate Darnit!

I'm sitting next to the kids' play area, which is like a giant padded jungle gym inside. It is more entertaining than watching TV. There is small-scale drama every now and then, but there is this little boy named Armand that is running everywhere (I know his name because his mother kept having to call after him. It's a hoot.)

The battery in my laptop isn't going to last this entire time unless I find an electric plug somewhere. The fun thing is...my converters are all stowed neatly away in my checked baggage. Useful. Forethought 1 Erin 0.

Anyway. Guess I'm going to turn this off and find something to get into for a few hours...