Amsterdam: I AMsterdam

Ep.40

“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” – Ruth Stout.

AMS – Amsterdam, Netherlands.

29^th March – 2^nd April 2012.

Me at Volendam

Amsterdam? For Spring? Are you kidding me!? Of course I would go to see those tulips! No matter what would happen! I excitedly packed all of my things and glad to know that on this flight I would fly with one of Indonesian senior crew as well. And this time, I contacted my old friend (a very old one), the twins, Kenny and Kevin. Why I called them “very old friend”? Coz we’re actually a primary school classmates, and considering that I transferred school on my middle school, then I haven’t met them for almost 10 years.

guide guide

The flight was very OK! Not so many special demands and a very nice set of crew as well. Well, this flight ought to be a shuttle flight to Paris on the third day of the pattern. Most of the other crews consider this flight as a very tiring flight, while for others, it was quite a nice flight because it was followed by 5 days off. For me, all that matters was the Amsterdam itself. It was Spring and the Keukenhof was open already. During the flight I found out that some of the crews, which was girls in majority, has also planned to go to the Keukenhof. Well, that’s was a great news (considering going there with the twin would be awkward), and even one of them actually already bought the ticket via internet. Superb!

KLM model

Add caption

I arrived at the hotel in Amsterdam at about 7 am and the first thing that I noticed was the GRO’s (guest relation officer) eyebrows were trimmed into perfection. Wait up! I knew that such things like homosexual, marijuana, and prostitution were all legal here, but this man was obviously prettier than women. I keep discussed about his appearance with the senior Indonesian crew for the whole time of his explanation about the hotel and the privileges that we got.  Free in room wi-fi, a day pass of train and bus services, free breakfast, free bike to borrow, and so on and so on.

Keukenhof entrance

After agreeing the other girls, who agreed to go to Keukenhof together, about the departing time, we head to our room. I took a bath and took a nap a little then I felt my stomach started to be so grumpy. I met my Indonesian senior in the lobby and I ordered myself a ham and cheese toast (EUR 4.5). After collected some information regarding how to get ourselves to Keukenhof, we start our trip. It was actually not so cold, around 11-12°C, but then it was so cloudy and windy.

Dutchladies

And this was how we got to the Keukenhof: we headed to the Airport (that I later found out that the line to the airport was actually not included in our one day pass ticket, and luckily no one checked on us), we head to the passenger terminal to pick up the items of one of my partner that was left in the aircraft (which was handed over to the ground staff already), head to the Keukenhof ticket booth in the airport to buy our admission ticket (EUR 21 each person), bought some food for breakfast (I didn’t as I already got my ham and cheese previously), and headed to the shuttle bus station from the airport.

Me and my Indonesian senior crew

It was a 20-30 minutes bus ride to the entrance of the Keukenhof. Even few minutes before the bus came to a complete halt, our eyes has been pampered by the lines of different color tulips, one thing was, it haven’t bloomed at its full phase at that time. It was still in the form of blooming bud. When Rome and Paris pampered my eyes with its magnificent historical beautiful buildings, this place got me fixated and amazed by its colorful flowers. Even the cloudy gloomy sky could not even bother my mood at that time. It was like an inspirational place that was soooooo freaking colorful that wont make you bored at all. Well, I know that I am not that girlish, but seeing those many flowers before my eyes, at least I felt like a princess on her private garden.

My Team!

There were 6 of us altogether in a group (we do look quite different when we’re not in our uniform) and we were joyfully jump around the whole ground to take thousands of pictures, retake it, and again until we satisfied with the result. It seemed to be wasted if we didn’t pose whole-heartedly and it seemed for us that we betrayed the beauty that was provided for us already. We took many many pictures with many many different pose (we even copied each other and directed each other). We also asked people to take our picture all together. We went around the park as we took sooooo many pictures with many many different flowers.

In my opinion, this place was a “you name it, we have it” place for flowers. They got almost all colors, all combination and all types of tulips. Big, small, whatever and whichever colors and origin, everything was in one place. Moreover, the whole Keukenhof were covered with wi-fi, which enables you to connected and post the picture directly to whomever you would like immediately. There was one thing that was quite funny at that time; as it was so cloudy, we haven’t seen our shadow for the time being, and suddenly for a brief minute of time, the sun finally showed up (even only for less than a minute), what does we do? We took a picture of our shadows and said “Hi shadows! Long time no see.”

bike bike bike

Tulip land

We bought each of ourselves a cup of hot chocolate (EUR 4) near the playground that got Miffy’s big figurine and we managed to got into what looked like sort of a little farm that got cows, goats, and even pigs. It might be the atmosphere or may be the effects of so many beautiful things around me that I got hyperactive and full of energy that some silly poses was taken in picture. We came across a model of windmill, a big klompen shoes (wooden shoes), as well as a podium to make a speech. We took a picture with al of them for sure. And by the time we finished the park, we were exhausted to the max. We had so much fun there and we made our way back to the hotel. By the time we reached the hotel, it was already 5 pm. I managed to buy myself a bottle of milk (a must).

cheese land

I contacted one of the twin, Kevin, coz it was occurred that Kenny was in Indonesia for some reasons. Well, I also contacted Kenny to ask for his suggestion of places of interest here in Amsterdam. Ah, considering that Netherlands (water land in meaning) have colonized Indonesia for more than 350 years, some of the wordings even adapted, and in fact, there were a lot of Indonesia people here in Amsterdam as well. And this is a fun fact of Netherlands itself; it is a geographically low-lying country, with about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level, and 50% of its land lying less than one metre above sea level. Enough of the intermezzo. Kevin and I agreed that we would meet in front of the Amsterdam RAI (the nearest station from my hotel), for my own convenient, after his working hour. We haven’t met for such a long time, but I think it would be just fine, I would be able to at least recognize him.

Sex Museum

As my tour guide of the cities, he is familiar and knows his land well. All in need to do was just point out my places of interest and just follow him. I didn’t even got a sight of the train service map, coz he didn’t need to (I didn’t recalled him checking on map or something). Along the way, we were busy on catching up with each other’s news and of course about our primary school friends’ recent update. We went to downtown Amsterdam and the first place we visited was the Sex Museum.

what?

It was quite funny for me to see the whole history of sex and the history of all the sex icons even the tools, paintings, statue and many more. Everything related to sex, this place got it. The museum itself was located not so far from the Amsterdam Centraal station and the admission fee was only EUR 4 per person. (I just realized later that even for the change of money, they put a sex sticker on it. So it could be consider as a souvenir). What a unique place, such an experience. We then stop at several souvenir shops to buy something for those back at home country, then as he promised, Kevin would show me the all you can eat for dinner.

My RIBSSSS

The place was actually few blocks apart from the museum and it was quite obvious and easy to find as it was located at the corner of the building and got the big banner quoted “UNLIMITED SPARE RIBS” in bold red capital letters. It was crowded enough that we should squeeze in our way to find a table. I ordered the spare ribs (of course) and hot chocolate (thought you could guessed already) and Kevin ordered himself a quite reasonable amount of fish and chips. We dine as we talked about some of our childhood friends again. Some of them got married already, some of them were successful enough in their business already, some still pursuing their goals and etc. Time does flies by when you got many many things to catch up. As we finished our dinner (I finally finished few racks of ribs and considering it was midnight HK time, I knew I am such a sinful pig), we head on the next point of attraction, a must-visited place in Amsterdam, the Red Light District.

cheese tasting oups!

I felt lucky to visit that place with a guy with me. It might be only for myself assurance, but somehow it felt safer that way. One thing you would notice once you’re getting closer to the place, the marijuana scent was heavy and al over the place. This country is surely legalized everything. According to Kevin, the prostitutes here got their own doctors to ensure their hygiene and health. Along the district by the street it was amusement ark for those who seek for it. All kind of women stands up behind the glass window, again a “you name it, we have it” moment here. Kevin said even they got a marijuana cupcake flavor. Tempted?

Amsterdam RAI station

Finished with the Red light District, we were going back as I got to operate the early morning shuttle to Paris the next morning. Kevin sent me back to the Amsterdam RAI station and we agreed to catch up later on after the Paris shuttle. Early morning the next day, by the time of 6 am, we have to be ready already at the bus. The Paris shuttle flight was an easy one. It was clearly light load and fast straight-forward one. By the time of 2 pm, we’re back at Amsterdam hotel again. Ha-ha! I contacted Kevin ( he said he’d go for his morning soccer session), and he was actually finished already. The same as the day before, we start our trip from Amsterdam RAI station. Today, we’re heading to one of the nearby suburbs. But before doing so, (as I requested) we made a stop at the famous I AMsterdam wording in the middle of the city, just to take few pictures (few?). Ah! and along the way i just noticed that here at Amsterdam, people do loves to bike. They even got a parking building for a bike. phew!

Alida-Hoeve

As suggested by Kenny, we went on the bus to Volendam city (about 30-45 minutes). What can we find there? My favorite food, cheese! Yes! We visited a cheese factory, which is also located side by side with the Klompen (wooden shoes) factory. The place called Alida-Hoeve. When we came there, actually there were some group tours (French as I presumed the language their speaks), we squeezed ourselves among them. Even though we didn’t understand about the tour (all brought in French), at least we could see the factory and the “how to make” process, the rest we could assume. Ha-ha! We also came across a windmill on the grassland nearby. I was so thrilled to found one.

Windmill

I took the advantage of trying all of the samples of the cheese (another sinful thing which reflected on my size increase), as well as taking so many pictures. Actually, Volendam were also the place where people take picture in traditional Holland costume. But it was close already, again 5 pm seems to be the curfew for these Europe countries. We head back to the city strolled on the street. Couldn’t decide which restaurant we should enter for dinner, until we passed on Burger Bar.

Philly burger at Burger Bar

It was a quite small sort of fast food restaurant selling Burger (as per its name). The unique thing is that you can order your meat and topping as you like. It was just like Subway, but this one is burger. As Kevin suggested, I would be only order the burger as he would order the full package (including the French fries, as we would share the French fries). It cost me EUR 8 for the burger itself. Funny things, even though we ordered it separately, we ordered the very exact things. Philly steak burger, no chili, no veggie. Ha-ha! My first Amsterdam trip ends soon after we finished the dinner. Kevin sent me back to the Amsterdam RAI station and I gave myself a reasonable dose of rest as I have to operate back to Hong Kong the next day.

look at my new shoes!

Realizing that I got so many friends that still remember me after a very long time of separation is another pleasure for having this job. I couldn’t expect more. It's another blessing that poured upon me, I guess.

“What you called ‘friends’ were scattered all over the places, you just have to find them.” – Me.