Travelling to Europe

Living on the west coast, we're pretty much at the farthest place from Europe in North America. Well, save Hawaii, but hey, if I ever lived in Hawaii, I don't think I'd ever leave to go on vacation. I mean, what's the point, right?

Anyways, my flight left at 8:40pm, and I would land 9hrs later in London. My last Europe trip was 3 years ago, so it seems that I forgot just how excruciatingly small the seats were. Holy cow. Plus I was late to the airport, so I got stuck with a middle seat. Now the ladies beside me were nice and talking to them definitely helped alleviate the boredom; one lady was from Dusseldorf and we talked about travelling and my plans for Germany a bit; and the other ladies were from Vancouver and they were paralegals/lawyers, so we had a lot to talk about in that area as well.

Still, by the end, the German lady got sick and started coughing all over me; the old Indian grandma in front of me decided to keep her seat lowered straight into my lap for the majority of the flight, for which she was rewarded with my knees sticking into her lower back (not my fault I have long legs), and I generally felt quite crappy. I did manage to catch maybe 3 hours of sleep, so that was something (I usually don't sleep at all), but let's just say I wasn't at the top of my game when we arrived in London. I think I managed to almost forget my laptop in those little trays at security. I mean my laptop was gray and the tray was gray and it was just gray up in my head.

Also, my flight to Amsterdam got delayed, so I wasn't a happy camper. But on the flight to Amsterdam, I had an aisle seat, FINALLY, and the man beside me was super helpful and fun to talk to (and not so bad looking, if I do say so myself). Plus the flight itself was only an hour or so. When I landed, I had a bit of a phone crisis, because I was supposed to phone the people I was staying with and my credit card was having issues fitting into the phone and I was all sorts of loopy. Thankfully that got solved though, and I hopped on the train to Den Haag (the Hague) and then switch to a different train heading to Rotterdam so I could hop off at Delft, which is where I will be staying.

First impressions? The Netherlands is very green. Very green and very orderly. All the fields and parks are just right, and neat and everything is perpendicular (which of course my OCD brain LOVED). There are so many bike paths, it's not even funny, and now I really wish I had packed my running shoes so I could run-plore (explo-run?) the country. But of course I had to make room for all my dresses, so I didn't (may have been a mistake - it's so darn windy here, I don't think I could wear anything skirt-y or dress-y because I would just be giving everyone a strip-show).

Anyways, off to a real bed now!