Holiday report!
Now that I have been home for a week, let me tell you about my visit to the Netherlands! My poor social update skills, let me show you them.
My vacation started nice. I was all ready to get on the plane when they told me "sorry, you just want to visit our country so you have to get off. Oh, and listen to the speakers, idiot."
Well, more or less. The plane was overbooked, and since I was travelling alone and didn't have a connecting flight, I had to wait for the next plane. And of course I couldn't reach omnicat no matter how many times I tried to call, so I was stressing out over her stressing out over me not arriving. SHE managed to call ME, though, so we managed to sort it out. And I got a refund voucher and got to fly business class early the next day, so it wasn't too bad. Only extremely annoying, rather than "must-strangle-someone"-annoying.
My first impressions of Holland/the Netherlands was: HOT. FLAT. LOTS OF BRICK. I had been warned of the heat, which kept for two days, and knew it was flat, but that more or less every house was brick came as a surprise - though it probably shouldn't have. Omni and family live in this nice brick house filled with cat figures, and omni's room was filled with other figures, and I was completely charmed.
Like I mentioned, the heat kept for two days. The second day we wanted to go to the beach, but the forecast said thunderstorm, so we went to look at windmills instead. We ended up at the beach for a short while, but had no swimsuits, so we just waded. And then they drove me to the Dutch Bergen, and Omni's dad took a lot of pictures. Then we went to have dinner at the foot of a sand hill, escaped indoors as the rain burst out, and afterwards, when we had eaten and it had stopped raining, Omni and I climbed to the top. I had to run down and then up again to meet her on her way down - showing off a little, after my admittedly dismal bike riding the day before. What can I say. I grew up on a hillside.
We also went to the cheese market in Edam, saw a lot of cute animals, and went nerd store seeing in Amsterdam. I bought some figures - a Transformer for my youngest nephew's birthday, some Patlabor figures for me, as well as a Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. When we got back, I realised that the superheroes were missing, and concerned that I had thrown them away along with the bag they were in, we got on the bus back to Amsterdam - only to find that they had emptied the trash can. So no Wondy and GL for me.
The day afterwards we did what normal tourists do in Amsterdam - went on a canal cruise. I managed to convince Omni that we should go to the big market afterwards, and I bought a pair of old-style skates (the type you just strap onto your boots) that I fully intend to use if there's ice the coming winter. The day after that we visited NEMO - the technical museum, and Anne Frank's house, I tried and failed to make Dronning Maud's pudding (though Omni and her mum said it was nice even if it wasn't properly stiff), and then, the next day I went home. My plane left early, so I figured I'd have time to settle in before my sister and her family arrived.
Yeah, right. Fog on the airport caused the plane to get redirected to Stavanger, so I had to ride a bus back to Bergen - and half-way there, the bus broke down - the doors wouldn't close properly - so we had to wait for a new bus. I got home eight hours after I should have been home, and was decently pissed off. I spent the rest of the evening putting clean bedding on the beds for sister and family and straightening the house after the group of Opera-participants that had borrowed it. They tried to clean, bless them, but understandably enough they didn't really know where everything was supposed to go.
Anyway, travel issues aside I had a lovely time, and I have aired the idea that if neither of us is bankrupt next year, Omni and I should go to England.
In two days, however, I leave for my second holiday trip - my mum and sister nagged me into agreeing to a trip slightly north of England, so we're going to Scotland on Tuesday. Expect a report from that trip as well. The way I'm going, you should expect it sometime next month.
Ingvildout.
My vacation started nice. I was all ready to get on the plane when they told me "sorry, you just want to visit our country so you have to get off. Oh, and listen to the speakers, idiot."
Well, more or less. The plane was overbooked, and since I was travelling alone and didn't have a connecting flight, I had to wait for the next plane. And of course I couldn't reach omnicat no matter how many times I tried to call, so I was stressing out over her stressing out over me not arriving. SHE managed to call ME, though, so we managed to sort it out. And I got a refund voucher and got to fly business class early the next day, so it wasn't too bad. Only extremely annoying, rather than "must-strangle-someone"-annoying.
My first impressions of Holland/the Netherlands was: HOT. FLAT. LOTS OF BRICK. I had been warned of the heat, which kept for two days, and knew it was flat, but that more or less every house was brick came as a surprise - though it probably shouldn't have. Omni and family live in this nice brick house filled with cat figures, and omni's room was filled with other figures, and I was completely charmed.
Like I mentioned, the heat kept for two days. The second day we wanted to go to the beach, but the forecast said thunderstorm, so we went to look at windmills instead. We ended up at the beach for a short while, but had no swimsuits, so we just waded. And then they drove me to the Dutch Bergen, and Omni's dad took a lot of pictures. Then we went to have dinner at the foot of a sand hill, escaped indoors as the rain burst out, and afterwards, when we had eaten and it had stopped raining, Omni and I climbed to the top. I had to run down and then up again to meet her on her way down - showing off a little, after my admittedly dismal bike riding the day before. What can I say. I grew up on a hillside.
We also went to the cheese market in Edam, saw a lot of cute animals, and went nerd store seeing in Amsterdam. I bought some figures - a Transformer for my youngest nephew's birthday, some Patlabor figures for me, as well as a Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. When we got back, I realised that the superheroes were missing, and concerned that I had thrown them away along with the bag they were in, we got on the bus back to Amsterdam - only to find that they had emptied the trash can. So no Wondy and GL for me.
The day afterwards we did what normal tourists do in Amsterdam - went on a canal cruise. I managed to convince Omni that we should go to the big market afterwards, and I bought a pair of old-style skates (the type you just strap onto your boots) that I fully intend to use if there's ice the coming winter. The day after that we visited NEMO - the technical museum, and Anne Frank's house, I tried and failed to make Dronning Maud's pudding (though Omni and her mum said it was nice even if it wasn't properly stiff), and then, the next day I went home. My plane left early, so I figured I'd have time to settle in before my sister and her family arrived.
Yeah, right. Fog on the airport caused the plane to get redirected to Stavanger, so I had to ride a bus back to Bergen - and half-way there, the bus broke down - the doors wouldn't close properly - so we had to wait for a new bus. I got home eight hours after I should have been home, and was decently pissed off. I spent the rest of the evening putting clean bedding on the beds for sister and family and straightening the house after the group of Opera-participants that had borrowed it. They tried to clean, bless them, but understandably enough they didn't really know where everything was supposed to go.
Anyway, travel issues aside I had a lovely time, and I have aired the idea that if neither of us is bankrupt next year, Omni and I should go to England.
In two days, however, I leave for my second holiday trip - my mum and sister nagged me into agreeing to a trip slightly north of England, so we're going to Scotland on Tuesday. Expect a report from that trip as well. The way I'm going, you should expect it sometime next month.
Ingvildout.