amsterdam the clusterfuck

Yeah, i found the catches. First off, the Netherlands is 8 hours ahead of my local timezone. The ambien i brought on the plane with me did NOTHING to help me sleep, so when i got into Amsterdam it was 9am and a brand new day, but i hadn't slept more than an hour.

I wandered around the airport after getting through customs looking for a way to get to my hotel. The cabbie told me 90 euro to get to the hotel, so i told him i'd take a train. psh, in retrospect, cab here i come!

The train stations in europe are pretty amazing. At the airport was an entire mall, food court and train station. there were platforms everywhere. I called the hotel to find out which train station they were closest to (Utrecht Centraal) and purchased a ticket to get there. then i went back to the counter to find out just where in the hell i needed to go to get said train. She informed me i needed to get onto platform 1 and get off in 3 stops, then get on some other train. ok i can handle this.

I got on my first train, got off 3 stops later into another massive shopping center/train station. they say america is the land of consumerism? psh, they have us beat hands down. I wander off the train and realize i still cannot really read the schedules and have no idea where i'm going. again, i ask and get pointed in the right direction. I get on the next train and start south towards Utrecht.

As we get further from the last station, i start to see cows, sheep and cyclists. No people, and no cars. It looked a lot like southern Ohio. . I rode stop after stop and got less and less sure i was going in the right direction. I pulled out my directions and asked the only other person in my car if the train was actually going here (points to paper with name of station). she tells me she has no idea, so i get off at the next exit. When i look at the map, it turns out there was 1 more connection nobody told me about, and i JUST missed it. I get on the train going back the way i came 1 exit and find the appropriate train to get to Utrecht Centraal.

When i get off the train in Utrecht Centraal, i am presented with another problem. The young lady at the hotel told me to get off the train, go right, go left, go right, and the hotel would be on my left. notice, there are no streetnames, or real starting point. The train station at utrecht centraal is even bigger than the 2 i had been in previously! It is bigger than any mall i have ever been in, and had exit points stretched city blocks apart. I had no idea where i was.

I wandered around following signs in a different language, with no idea which was i was supposed to be going. After about 20 minutes of wandering, i gave up and found a Taxi stand. I again point at my paperwork in the international language of dumb tourist (which aparently i'm fluent in) and he puts my bags in the trunk. We drive a grand total of 8 blocks or so, where he delivers me into the shelter that is the Karel V.

The Karel V is a hotel that used to be a hospital, and also a monestary. their regular bill rate is somewhere around 250 euro. A nice young man comes to greet me in the cab and carries my bags inside. I check in, and the same young man takes me across the garden to my wing. He walks me to my room and drops off the bags, takes his tip and leaves. it's now around 1pm on sunday. 5am my time. no sleep. I quickly rip off all my dirty travelware and shower in their awesome bathroom, put on the terrycloth robe to walk back into the bedroom, and pass out in bed.

I wake up around 9pm, toss on some clothes and wander into town looking for a coffee shop and something to eat. Suprisingly, i wandered for a good 30 minutes and didn't find one coffee shop. I finally gave up, knowing full well i would have an adventure to the Red Light District to find myself some herbal refreshment, and went into a Italian restaurant to get some grub.

In the restaurant was a couple of people that worked there, a couple of people eating, and a cat just chilling on one of the chairs under a table. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fly by FDA standards, but nobody skipped a beat. I had some lasagna and left, walking by the canals on my way back to the hotel. I managed not to get lost, and was very proud of that.

When i got back to the hotel, i flipped on the tv and surfed for a while. I plugged in the 220v -> 110v adaptor i bought at radio shack and waited for my laptop to explode. It survived, so i puttered around the internet and watched tv. I drifted to bed to reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard. i was very impressed. makes me wish i had cable and a tivo, cuz i'd definately like to relive some duke experiences gone by.

Day 2

When i woke up, i was well rested (i had slept like 16 hrs in the last 24) and ready to tackle the day. I got a shower, walked to the train station and wandered again trying to find the right platform. Again i gave up and asked. I took the train 1 exit to my classroom and checked in to find myself about 30 minutes early. yay

The people at New Horizions were friendly, and i got set up without major problems. There were supposed to be a whopping 4 people in class with me, and only 3 showed up. They were good guys, and we had a lot of fun in class.

At lunch on the first day, we went across the street to this little cafe that New Horizons bought us lunch at everyday. I had no idea what was on the menu, but managed to figure out sandwitches. I had a ham n cheese on a roll, and a ham n cheese "tosti"... basically a ham sandwitch thrown in a george forman grille, complete with textured lines.

Class went by quickly, and i managed to get a trane home by myself and didn't even fuck it up i also managed to get back to the hotel without screwing THAT up! I went out and got some thai for dinner, and wandered the streets of Utrecht for a couple hours. Everything was closed (as it always seems to be whenever i go tour anywhere), so i watched some tv and went to bed.

The next day was pretty uneventful in class. Again we ran thru the examples in the book, talked about some real world scenarios, and generally goofed around. We had a new student on tuesday. He managed to show up late, then broke his install of WPS by messing with his clock... so he spent most of his day reinstalling the classroom dependencies. I went home after class and wandered around. i did happen to wander into this coffee shop and procure myself a couple of treats. 2 different ones to be exact.

The first treat was "orange dream" and it was consumed when i got back to my room. i wasn't really impressed with it. I went and got a bite and walked around, watched some tv and slept.

Class on Wed was pretty quick. My new student didn't show up again. The 3 hardcore guys and i again spent the day going back n forth on Wise technologies, which was good. We talked about the upcoming strike of the train system, and that it may affect my route to work. perfect, just when i was learning how to get around this place! The reason for the strike? not enough time off and pay. Turns out they only receive like a month's vacation, and they didn't think that was fair. i get roughly 2 weeks. The guys in my class were closer to 8 weeks paid leave. not including holidays. :o so. not. fair.

On Wed nite, i went back to the hotel to check out the other treat i had procured myself, White Widow. Unimpressed by my experience the previous nite, i rolled one up and got about 1/2 way thru it when i started a horrid coughing fit. I decided that was a sign to stop for a bit, so i went back into the room from the patio and sat down at the computer to check my mail (my office was just waking up) and then go grab a bite. What really happened is i stared at the screen for a while, then turned on some music, laid down on the bed and just chilled for a couple hours... with no desire to leave. Needless to say, the Widow was much better than the orange dream. MUCH better.

Thursday i went to the train station and found out that my train was running, which made me happy. i ended up taking a little longer in class, and taught some things that weren't really in the syllabus because they weren't really getting the hang of packaging. Because i took so much extra time, by the time i got back to the hotel it was a little too late to go up to Amsterdam to look around up there... so i just went to dinner at a local place in Utrecht and wandered about, then back to the room to sleep.

Friday morning i got up, checked out, and headed to the train station. i got my ticket to Schiphol Airport and managed to transfer trains and not screw anything up too badly. Passport checking in Amsterdam was slow... and then i had to enter security. once thru security, i went to the gate, where i went thru security AGAIN. weird.

Once onboard, i fell right asleep and woke to us landing in cincinatti. Once i deboarded in cincy, i got in a huge line for passport control in the states. after getting thru passport control, i had to go stand in another line to go thru another security/customs check. wow, what a pain. I was finally in the states tho, so i couldn't complain.

I went to the gate for my SLC flight, got onboard, and away i went to utah. I got in at a reasonable hour and went to Chang with crystal. I had a good time, and i look forward to going back someday... maybe even making it to amsterdam this time