Amsterdam

So, Angela and I are sitting on the nice cool marble floor in the Amsterdam Airport. How did we come to be here?

I packed my stuff Friday afternoon in my carry on size suitcase and thought I was ready to go.  But when we checked in online, we discovered that we were allowed one checked baggage for “free” and Angela wanted to pack lots of shampoo and conditioner. So when I woke on Saturday and checked the forecast and saw that the weather for Novi Sad was going to be variable, I changed my plan.  Dumped all my stuff in my next bigger suitcase and added some extra shoes and layers for slightly warmer weather as well. It wasn’t packed very tightly, so if I go nuts shopping, at least I’ll have space.

Stuart and I spent the rest of the morning running errands, had lunch at Peter’s and then he took me out to the airport. I’m still not sure why I always check-in online in advance. The text message with my boarding pass never arrived and we still had to go through all the same rigamarole to check in our bags. But the nice lady did switch our seats so we could sit together on our second flight, so that was nice.

For those who are interested, we are flying KLM and in two legs: Calgary to Amsterdam and Amsterdam to Belgrade.  There’s supposed to be a driver meeting us in Belgrade for the hour-ish drive to Novi Sad.  Fingers crossed. Sadly, we have only a 3 hour layover in Amsterdam, not enough time to get stoned or laid.  Oh well.

The flight itself was fairly uneventful.  KLM offers a $100 upgrade to “comfort seats”.  As we inched passed those seats, we decided that what you got for your money was about 2” of extra leg room.  It would be nice, but not at $50 an inch, unless my legs were another 2” longer. The Indian gent in front of me put his seat as far back as possible as soon as possible, but he also had a gravity defying tilt into the aisle while he slept, so I considered the entertainment to balance the inconvenience. And it was typical airplane food: indifferent carbs with just enough protein to make it worth the effort.

I managed more of a nap than usual, but definitely not anything approaching real sleep.  That Kobo would have been worth the investment just for this trip! I drank lots of water and managed to avoid caffeine, but it didn’t last. We were delayed about 15 minutes getting off the plane, because they couldn’t get the gangway to hook up safely.  I was hoping they’d blow the emergency exits and let us slide down, but no luck.  They got it eventually.

By the time we staggered off and made our way down to the consumeristic area of the airport, I couldn’t resist the siren call of a Cola. Stuart will be appalled; a 200mL can of Coke cost 1.75 Euros.  But oh my god it tasted good.  We walked around for a bit and poked around in the everything store - here it’s called Vizzit! which is unnaturally funny in my current state. By the time we’d wandered down to our gate, the very few chairs in the area had been claimed, which is why we’re sitting on the floor.  I’m actually glad to be sitting, but not in the standard chair configuration, since we still have a 3 hour flight and one hour car ride ahead of us!

There is wifi here and I thought I’d texted Stuart, but it won’t access Facebook or anything, at least not on my phone.  So if you read this Stuart, but didn’t get a text - I tried!!!  When I opened up the computer, it doesn’t just hook up to the free wifi, you have to jump through hoops that didn’t get offered on the phone. Gah! Seriously people - you have a building full of tired, disoriented, grumpy people - making communication EASY should be a high priority.  Although now I have Michelle in my head making comments about large scale studies in social dynamics, so it’s probably time to sign off.  I don’t think I’ll blog again now until after I’ve had some real sleep and then we’ll have to go to the office.  So don’t hold your breath; you’ll turn blue.  Now to see if I can make the connection work and get this posted.

Amsterdam, October 28, 8:56am