I’m in the plane right now typing away on my eeeee. They’re doing the safety schpiel. Man, dutch is a funny-sounding language :) Think of the Swedish chef with a stuffy nose.
Security at Stansted was a breeze. I’m getting used to the routine – just dump as much stuff as you can in your backpack, smile, say yes sir, no sir, thank you sir and not much else. The less fuss you kick up, the easier it is for everybody
Travel time is 45 minutes and I should exit in Amstredam in the same lovely wet weather as is currently in stansted.
I’m not even close to Amsterdam and already I begin to understand why the country wants to clean up its act and start attracting a better class of tourism not hell bent on fucking every hooker in sight and smoking everything imaginable. The plane is half-full with lads and yobs who fit that exact bill. They’re loud, obnoxious and plain stupid. It’s at times like these when I’m happy to have good headphones.
The idiots next to me are either stoned or halfway pissed – and it’s not even 9am. I must be getting old if I find this behaviour objectable. I mean, I know I’ve been in similar state before, but at least I had the good graces to not acting like a raving maniac in public spaces.
The people besides me are real classy lads and ladettes. Things I never want to hear in an airplane now include: “come on, I dare you to smell my dirty knickers” and “woah man, look at that stewardess’s ass. It’s so tight! Man, she’s fitter than I am”. Classy, like I said.
Border control and luggage reclaim went without issue and I managed to make my way to the correct train platform to get to the central train station. I knew that my hotel was close to the train station, but I didn’t expect my hotel room window to be right above the train tracks with the squeaky steel-on-steel brakes for the intercity trains. It’s probably a good thing that I’m used to sleeping with earplugs because I think that I’ll need them.
The room itself has 4 walls and a bed and not much else to its credit. Still, it’ll do for 3 nights. There’s no mini-fridge, which will be a serious pain in the butt though. At least there’s a kettle though so I’ll be able to have tea.
I was supposed to meet up with Michel today but he texted saying that he was getting over a migraine, so I was on my own until 5pm when he’d give me a shout to see how he was feeling. He said that we would probably be able to do dinner. To be efficient, I took the tram up to the conference centre to register in to HUPO and pick up the conference materials. After that, I went walkies and got lost wandering around central Amsterdam. I managed to snap a few amusing shots here and there and spot a few places that I want to go back and explore properly when I have the occasion.
5pm came and went and no text from Michel. I went and had a pint of Old Speckled Hen in an English pub (sad, I know) and took a load off my feet. He did get back to me a bit later, saying that they were going to have dinner with a friend of Isabelle’s that was in town from Belgium and asked what I thought about spending the day together tomorrow. No biggie. I came back to the hotel, ate a bite while watching the Olympic highlights and now I’m going to work on my presentation for Wednesday.
I’m online, but just for a bit. The wi-fi is 6 euro an hour or 24 euro for 24 hours. Madness!
