I wasnt quite looking forward to the long 13 hours flight to amsterdam. Luckily my blood sister Anika was there to send me off, even though she just did a long china flight. I went over to T2 transit and we had pizza before my flight.
I took 1/2 an hr to check in early and book my seat the night before my flight to ensure i'll have a nice window seat. It could have been a great, if not for the fact that the seat beside me was empty, and the stewardess asked if i could change seats so that a couple seated several rows apart could sit together during the flight. I got an aisle seat in the middle block in the end. The half hour spent "chopping" the seat online was in vain and i spent the next 13 hours trying to get some sleep. It was horrible. I was perpetually woken up by people queuing up for the toilet 2 rows in front of me, not to mention that the smell, sound and light from the toilet kept me up as well. Talk about a multi-sensory flight experience huh. In-flight entertainment was good though and i spent many hours watching movies and playing games on the console.
KLM's service standard wasnt too bad, but its certainly nowhere near SQ or MI. I love the creative packaging of their food though. Each meal was a surprise. The meals usually come with descriptions of the food, quotes and inspirational phrases, history of the dish, as well as sudoku puzzles printed on the box to keep u entertained during meals. Certainly nothing like the boring meal trays that SQ and MI serve.
I touched down at around 5am at Amsterdam Schipol Airport and had 4 hours to kill before my domestic flight to Maastricht, so i walked around the airport with my bulging eyebags and weary jet-lagged body. Schipol was one of the best airport in the world, 10 years ago, and the people there kinda think they still are. It was a difficult airport to navigate and it took me quite a while to get to the gates.
Luckily i had 4 hours to while away (unlike on my return trip, when i had 1hr 20 mins between flights, and it was a race against time to claim 130 euros worth of tax rebates AND get to the gate on time) , and thus was able to grab a coffee and sit down at the waiting area to enjoy my first sunrise in europe.
Europe here I come~!
Maastricht isnt far from Amsterdam and flight time was only around 35mins. Due to the short distance, the plane was flying at a low altitude. i was thus able to enjoy an aerial tour of the surrounding regions of amsterdam.
That is the fokker 50 aircraft i arrived in. It carries around 50 pax. The overhead compartments are so small that there is only sufficient space for handbags. Pax with standard cabin size hand-carry trolley bags, like moi, have to put their hand-carry luggage at the foot of the aircraft, to be stowed in the cargo hold.
Chris was at the airport waiting for me when I got there. He looked like he's lost some weight, whereas i looked like a dumpling in my winter clothes. Nevertheless, we were elated to see each other. =)
Chris was excited to show me the shopping district in Maastricht, and thus we spent my first night in Europe in a nice cosy hotel which is very well located. Its right on the town square itself and a 1 min walk to the nearest Macdonald and supermarket .
Unfortunately, the window opens to a wall.
Nevertheless, i was really happy to be finally there after a long tiring flight. We took a nice walk around town, where i sampled a yummylicious sugar waffle, and met up with chris's friends who cycled to town to have dinner with us. It was nice to be with Chris again and we spent the rest of the evening talking, getting bored watching cnn reports on the californian fires ( with re-runs of interviews with Mayor Arnold), and stuffing ourselves silly with chips, supermarket food, nice carbonated lemon tea and KFC chicken~!!! haha~i have a strange tendency to eat alot when i'm eating with chris.
The next morning, i got up early to walk around town again and had a nice fillet-o-fish burger for breakfast. It was ten times better than the ones in Singapore!
Fastfood in Europe, be it KFC, Burger King or Mac, tastes so good that it kinda justifies paying 6 plus euros (13 sgd) for a macdonalds meal. This is a fact that I'll find myself encountering over and over again in europe during my 3 weeks' stay.
We checked out of the hotel and headed for chris's guesthouse, which is around 5 bus stops away.
The dirt path which we all take to go anywhere, be it to town, school, or train station.
I spent the day unpacking my bags and messing up chris's meticulous room.
Hurricane qinlei unleashed.
Damn happy amidst the mess. heh.
