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Where, you might ask, is Nijmegen?
In the middle of The Netherlands!
Managed to acquire and pay for an upgrade between HK and Dubai. All I wanted was the flatbed to be able to get some sleep. And I did get the flatbed. But I missed out on the meals and the actual 'bar space' where you can sit and drink alcohol and eat chocolate.
Got a coffee in Dubai. Asked for it in a keep cup. Got given a takeaway cup and told "you can put it in the keep cup". Now I know this is a 'we're terrified we might give someone too much of something they've paid for and our bosses will rake us over the coals' thing for employees, but I'm just "..." because the point of a keep cup is to reduce the amount of takeaway cups used...
Anyway, when going through Dubai, B2 and I always get B1 a camel, because, IDK, B1 likes camels!
She's not getting this one, though. For starters: shipping to Australia would be awful! Although one could imagine it sitting in the middle of the lawn, just taking up space for the heck of it...
I didn't get her the peacocks either. I ended up with a little gold camel with a faceted gem in each side. It matches some pretty knick-knacks that we already have.
Left Dubai around 8am local time. Flight to Amsterdam was economy, but not full. Amsterdam immigration was about 45 minutes, so not dire (the US can take up to 2 hours) but also not fantastic.
That said, it felt like everyone and their neighbour on this flight had a cough. UGH. And no masking. More of that in Europe, although at least in Europe, very few people are going to be an asshole about masking up. America? I'm not so sure. We'll see when we get there.
My place in Amsterdam was right next to a daily marketplace, which made walking to the place really quite fascinating!
And that was before you realised that several of the stalls were selling weed or weed products!
Unfortunately, the host who advertised the room was away for work which was a pity because I picked the place on the fact that he said he wanted to have a meal or a beer with his guest and the point of contact was my line of interest. His room-mate worked restaurant hours and didn't speak very good English, but was nevertheless very kind and very helpful, including getting my 20kg luggage down the stairs for me!
When I say 'stairs', I mean four flights. FOUR FLIGHTS. Three flights to the apartment, and then a fourth one up to the 2nd floor where the bedrooms areWhich was in the advertisement, but I didn't notice it. Oops. Luckily I was healthy enough to haul it up, but it could have been direly otherwise.
Amsterdam wasn't originally on the plan - I was going to meet a friend and we were going to Christmas Markets in Germany. However, she did her ankle while hiking, resulting in a change of plan. I ended up staying in Amsterdam and going to meet her in her hometown Nijmegan.
>
That was an exceedingly cold week for the Netherlands - down to 0C. Mist everywhere, and biting winds. Luckily I had two pairs of winter-warmth trousers from my mum, and a nice thick jacket with a furry hood. That has utterly and completely saved my bacon for this section of the trip. It's BLOODY FREEZING.
Nijmegan is a small town in the middle of the Netherlands and I met my friend and we had a great time, including lunch, a walk around town - her healing ankle could take the walk, and a cat cafe.
It was so great to see Stef again, and to catch up. We've known each other 20 years and although we haven't kept close, she's one of those people it's easy to just catch up with.
In the middle of The Netherlands!
Managed to acquire and pay for an upgrade between HK and Dubai. All I wanted was the flatbed to be able to get some sleep. And I did get the flatbed. But I missed out on the meals and the actual 'bar space' where you can sit and drink alcohol and eat chocolate.
Got a coffee in Dubai. Asked for it in a keep cup. Got given a takeaway cup and told "you can put it in the keep cup". Now I know this is a 'we're terrified we might give someone too much of something they've paid for and our bosses will rake us over the coals' thing for employees, but I'm just "..." because the point of a keep cup is to reduce the amount of takeaway cups used...
Anyway, when going through Dubai, B2 and I always get B1 a camel, because, IDK, B1 likes camels!
She's not getting this one, though. For starters: shipping to Australia would be awful! Although one could imagine it sitting in the middle of the lawn, just taking up space for the heck of it...
I didn't get her the peacocks either. I ended up with a little gold camel with a faceted gem in each side. It matches some pretty knick-knacks that we already have.
Left Dubai around 8am local time. Flight to Amsterdam was economy, but not full. Amsterdam immigration was about 45 minutes, so not dire (the US can take up to 2 hours) but also not fantastic.
That said, it felt like everyone and their neighbour on this flight had a cough. UGH. And no masking. More of that in Europe, although at least in Europe, very few people are going to be an asshole about masking up. America? I'm not so sure. We'll see when we get there.
My place in Amsterdam was right next to a daily marketplace, which made walking to the place really quite fascinating!
And that was before you realised that several of the stalls were selling weed or weed products!
Unfortunately, the host who advertised the room was away for work which was a pity because I picked the place on the fact that he said he wanted to have a meal or a beer with his guest and the point of contact was my line of interest. His room-mate worked restaurant hours and didn't speak very good English, but was nevertheless very kind and very helpful, including getting my 20kg luggage down the stairs for me!
When I say 'stairs', I mean four flights. FOUR FLIGHTS. Three flights to the apartment, and then a fourth one up to the 2nd floor where the bedrooms areWhich was in the advertisement, but I didn't notice it. Oops. Luckily I was healthy enough to haul it up, but it could have been direly otherwise.
Amsterdam wasn't originally on the plan - I was going to meet a friend and we were going to Christmas Markets in Germany. However, she did her ankle while hiking, resulting in a change of plan. I ended up staying in Amsterdam and going to meet her in her hometown Nijmegan.
>That was an exceedingly cold week for the Netherlands - down to 0C. Mist everywhere, and biting winds. Luckily I had two pairs of winter-warmth trousers from my mum, and a nice thick jacket with a furry hood. That has utterly and completely saved my bacon for this section of the trip. It's BLOODY FREEZING.
Nijmegan is a small town in the middle of the Netherlands and I met my friend and we had a great time, including lunch, a walk around town - her healing ankle could take the walk, and a cat cafe.
It was so great to see Stef again, and to catch up. We've known each other 20 years and although we haven't kept close, she's one of those people it's easy to just catch up with.
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