I have been to hell...and it´s called AMSTERDAM...but i loved it

Okay...I am still catching my breathe from Amsterdam. What can I say about it. It´s got a million different cultures, foods, and sights. I can´t seem to say enough about it but if you want to know history and all, you need to go to a library or something.

So Alex, Carme, Natalia (Carme´s sis), Noelia (natalia´s daughter), Johnnie (Natalia´s husband...who is dutch) and I all are on this trip to visit and stay with his family in Holland. Carme, Alex and I were to sleep in the house of her parents and the rest were to go to Johnnie´s brother´s house for the few nights. More on the sleeping arrangements later.

They have this Irish airline called Ryanair which offers some cheap flights. The only twist is you get what you pay for in the way of service. So when we got to the counter to check in, we were hit with a 3€ charge for not doing the online check in. Well to their defense, you can only buy tickets online so not having Internet access is not an excuse. Still, the tickets were only 18€ so I can´t complain. Also, there is no checking of luggage under the plane. you have to carry it all and you are limited in what you can carry on board of course. And don´t expect to be handed a bag of stale peanuts...you pay for what you get and you pay out the nose for a 3-swallow can of coke. I think you ever get to inspect the plane before you take off. ha ha. Also, it seems they only fly to smaller airports. Small enough to be remote but large enough to land a 737-800...which is about 180 passengers.

So we head over to the gate and we see this long line forming. We figure for 18 euros it´s every man for himself, right? Well they had one line for people who already checked in (they get to sit first. Never mind the handicapped or people with small children) and then there is the rest of us. Natalia and her family did the online check in so they got on board before us and saved us a row of seats so we could all be together. Funny thing is when you are allowed to go to the plane, it is indeed every man for himself. The best of people come out as we make a mad dash to the plane to hurry and get a seat. As we make it to the plane, an old lady tripped me with her walker and dashed ahead of me. Still my mother taught me manners so instead of drop kicking her, i gave her a wedgie with her granny panties. Sad thing is she was wearing a thong with the really high hip cut so I had to search a bit to get a good grip. So I rode her and her walker, like a rodeo, until I got a grip. Once on the plane, there was a row waiting for me. I felt sorry about the wedgie I gave the old lady but she deserved it. As I sat down and started to dose off as we were running a bit late but i think I remember the captain asking if anyone was able to give him a jump so we can get flying.



We took off from Girona (which is the largest city in this area outside of Barcelona and landed in a small German town called Wheeze. I figured the town was full of asthmatics and smokers, but who knows. I noticed the area looked a bit military like. Johnnie confirmed that it was an old German airbase. Still it was a little creepy in that it seemed like a setting for a concentration camp.


Soon, we were out of the town (Alex likes to ask if we are "out of town yet" whenever we go away anywhere). After two hours of flying and getting a great view of the Swiss Alps, we were heading to our decent into the small industrial town of Weeze, Germany. We landed and it was cold. Check online conversions because i still can´t do it in my head...but we went from 20 degrees C to 4 degrees in one flight. Luckily I brought my gloves, hat and heavy coat.

All my life I have heard of the audobon. A highway where you can drive just as fast as you want. So i turned to Johnnie and his infinite knowledge of Germany and ask him where the audobon is. He laughed and said, right here...and there...and pointed to the map at 500 other ones. You see, I never took the time to look up the audobon on wikipedia. If i did i would know it was spelled autobahn, ha ha. I found out that the autobahn is a collective system of highways across Germany, Switzerland and Austria. There are posted "recommended" speed limits but you can go as fast as you damn well. Johnny decided to to go about 160km/h (99 miles per hour). woo hoo! Unfortunately the drive to the border was all of 5 minutes long at the rate, and we were forced back down to the standard 120 km/h (74 mph). Then it seemed like eternity to get to Johnnie´s parent´s home.

So back to these sleeping arrangements. Well Carme and I slept at Johnnie´s parents house. His mother, Hattie, is from Indonesia, but she speaks English and Dutch also. Johnnie´s father, who just survived major lung surgery, also speaks English so we had a nice little conversation while we waited for Johnnie´s brother to arrive.

Johnnie´s brother is also half Dutch and Indonesian. he married a lady from Thailand name King and they have two kids, guy and Natasha. It´s really quite amazing when we all sit to eat or talk. it´s like the United Nations. at anytime, there are 3 or 4 languages going around and of course my American tongue can only do so much damage. Still this is one of the reasons I am here in Europe.

More later...