Sunday, December 25, 2011

Day 1 - The Netherlands and Germany (Here we come!)

Firm shutdown, scheduled vacations, and a desire for change, plus some last minute shuffling, my bestie and I decided to head to The Netherlands and Germany for the holidays. The funny thing is the timing of it for the both of us did not really allow us to do any pre-planning.. so we are going on a hope, a prayer, and a few tickets (air and rail). We figured as long as we have some cities in mind, then we can figure out the rest of the stuff, right?

This picture was taken at 6am this morning. I have not completely packed but I have soo much work to do, I can't really focus. I don't even know if the right things are in my bag, but work is calling before I leave since I'll be disconnected for the next 2 weeks.















I'm working HARD, grinding out these last deliverables and I get a call that makes my heart drop! My bestie says that they are not going to let her board the plane because she was not at the airport 2 hours prior. I mean who needs to be at the airport 2 hours prior if you have a domestic connection that has a 3 hour layover.

They said they can rebook her for $2400. Now mind you her flight was still in the airport. it was 1hr and 20 minutes prior to her flight. I just cannot believe it. We spent the next 75 minutes pleading with the front desk and calling the customer service. The front desk came up with a $900 option. Still devastating. It's the devil, the devil I say. I'm on the phone with customer service and with my bestie and this guy has the nastiest attitude. My first thought was to hang up and call again but we don't have time. Eventually, we make enough of a connection where he is now listening to what I want him to do (look at other options that are significantly less than $2400. I thought he forgot about me, but came back, and fast forward.. he can only find the $900 flight as well. At this point, if we skip on the flight then we lose a lot of time and money invested. We have the agents at the airport talking to me via Porsche.. it's a mess! 

But I promise, I don't know what happened.. but some kind of way the customer service person made it to where we just paid the change fee and got a less than appetizing flight back to her, but we are back in the G-A-M-E and Germany is on again.













I finish up work, catch a cab, and I'm off to the airport. I get to the airport terminal for them to tell me I'm at the wrong gate and I need to go to the tram and ride to the other side of the airport. Are you serious right now? I check my watch and get nervous (see paragraph 1). I make it over and I see this ridicualously long line. Then I realize everyone is on the same flight. We are in business.. I asked the lady to take a pic of me waiting in line.


















I stand in line for about 20+ minutes.. get to the front and KLM puts a sky priority tag on my bag. I guess they treat the Delta Medallion members better than Delta. So I could have walked through the express lane. Go figure! I caused myself to be worrried for no reason. I digress. I'm here and checked in.

As I approach security.. the guy says if you want to eat you need to grab something before you head in.. WHAT?! There is no food on the other side of security.. he says no. I'm like what in the world is this?! The only reason I type this entire paragraph is because this was the best (and greasiest) chicken philly eva (or at least in a long time).

So I hop on the plane and I'm in economy comfort - 86inches of space. I had to take pictures. I've never seen a plane so big. It had a upstairs and downstairs on the plane. This thing is HUGE and nice. A few photos!


















This TV is nicer than mine at home. It's also flat! lol. I watched several horrible movies.. Contagion and Hangover Pt 2. I am not sure what it is with me and bad movies. I opted for Fast Five and caught a couple of Zzzzs.













I arrive in Amsterdam at 6:30am.. oh boy! That's a few minutes earlier than I was expecting and more time to add on to when I can checkin to the hostel and hours before Porsche is expected to arrive (2pm).

I think this is technically the end of Day 1.

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