Farewells and Flying into Amsterdam

Alrighty, so hey I"m in Amsterdam and things are going pretty well I reckon! I'm sitting in Angela (my sister) and Michel's apartment right now at their kitchen table with a crazy cat who keeps swiping me stalking the place and trying to scare the crap outa me. And I'll tell you what - it's working!

I've been instructed by Angela not to touch him, not to look at him and to ignore him but it is a little bit hard when he jumps on the table that I'm sitting on, walks up to me, and literally lifts up his paw and slaps me in the face! No joke. He did that. And when I go to the bathroom, he stands in front of the toilet door and won't let me out, when I try, he swipes at my legs! So yeah, basically, we are pretty good friends now - that just about sums that up.

Pretty funny that this is my first proper blog about being in Europe and the first thing I do is talk about cats. I guess I really am a cat person. Well, I definitely know I'm not a dog person haha. And the thing is, this cat, Pofertje (not heaps sure on the spelling) is just like a dog, a super protective of his house dog, except with cat claws. Good combination? I think so! Ok ok, I'll stop TALKING ABOUT THE CAT. I'm sooo-rrry! You want to know about my trip and how I got to be in house beautiful little town you might have heard of called, "Amsterdam."

Well, the flight itself was long and relatively uneventful as far as a plane trip can get. There wasn't any hijackers on the plane or anyone smoking bongs in the toilet. I was even fortunate enough to not have to sit next to anyone annoying or fat! And that is always a bonus right?

It started I guess at the airport and saying bye to everyone. I'd been pretty good until then, well mostly, because I was trying my best not to think about leaving but I guess it was pretty hard when I finally came to realise that it was definitely happening and nothing was actually going to stop me from getting on that plane and leaving. I was showered with more love than I could have expected by my friends and family which made it even harder to go. It's funny how nice people treat you when you are about to leave the country isnt it? haha

<3

My friends were especially amazing and had put together like a big box of letters for me to take which were to opened at various steps in my trip e.g. Anything from "When you get to Europe" to "The First Time You Use A Swedish Toilet (Use When Toileting). OOoooh There is a giant clock like Big Ben, or not like Big Ben, near Angela's house that is going off right now. It is 9:30am. I wonder how often it goes off. MMmm, so anyway, as far as getting advice from my friends (something I often need in some situations), I am now pretty much covered. I wouldn't have otherwise known how you use a toilet, you know? On top of that, they also got together to take some photos and gave me a portable frame, a dvd they made (mystery dvd I will watch once I am in Sweden) and magnets of photos of themselves. I also got given lots of things I could use on my trip individually from friends like first aid kits, scarves,a leather bracelet that I didn't steal from the neck of an alcohol bottle in the store, sleeping masks and of course, worry dolls! They are TOO CUTE! So thanks everyone who has supported me and helped me, and made me feel so very special as I am embarking on this amazing and long-awaited trip. I love you guys and really appreciate everything you guys do for me!

Oh and here's one of the letters I read on the plane about emergency exits (helen)

Right, so the plane trip. I was on Emirates.They are a pretty good airline I have heard and they have awesome on board entertainment. The costumes that the flight attendants had to wear were pretty cool! Aw, I don't think I got a photo of it actually. It was like a flat circle hat thing with like a shawl coming out on the side. Very glamourous and elegant I think. And oh gosh, I'm telling all of this completely out of order, aren't I? Um, where was I before? Oh right, I was saying bye to everyone at the airport. And that was pretty sad. I had my polaroid camera which my friends got me which I took a few photos as well as a million on my digital camera. There were tears and hugs and I can tell you it was pretty hard to walk through that damn departures door. But off I went, and went to get myself security checked.

Now, I know I'm pretty dodgy so I shouldn't have been surprised that I was the one after seeing about 15 people go through not frisked who got picked to be security checked. Have you ever been felt up by an angry woman? I have (proud face!) They made me turn out my pockets and I explained why I had like a big stash of tissues in there. She also went through my bag a little and waved her stick thing around me. I looked pretty bemused. It was all a little silly. And then I went through to the Duty Free area and I was like HECK YES, I can go get some money back, claiming back on Duty Free for my laptop. My beautiful laptop which is an ASUS btw. PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Only to realise, crap! I ended up last minute deciding to pack my laptop in with my check in luggage cause I could only have 7kg of carry on and my laptop weighs 3 and now I don't have it with me and therefore cannot get my $150. LAME. So very lame. Maybe I can get it on my way back. Wait, no I can't. Damn. Oh well, there goes $150 Smackeroos.

So on the plane, after finally finding my seat, I sat in the wrong seat at first and then was duly booted out of it by the rightful owner of that seat. Man, plane seats are confusing and the crew weren't really helping me find my seat! I found I was sitting next to a couple, a red head guy and an asian lady who didn't talk much. And also, didn't go to the toilet much. I was in the aisle so that suited me. The asian lady only went like ONCE! The whole trip! The guy didn't at all. I went like 3 times cause I was making use of the free beverages thing...teehee teehee. But they got off at Bangkok so it wasn't THAT long to there. That's right, we stopped at Bangkok. Weren't you meant to stop at Dubai, you say? Why yes, we did that too. Two stop offs with people getting off and on on both! Talk about really milking a flight Emirates. Getting a lot of value out of the one trip. People had actually even been on the plane before I got on in Sydney, it had already been in New Zealand Christchurch. Maybe this is a normal thing that planes do that. I guess it is. But it was the first I'd ever known about it.

My, this blog is getting long. I should probably move on if I'm ever going to get out of here and get out of the house and actually see a little of Amsterdam. The plane food was pretty alright. For dinner I had a roast chicken with potatos, gravy and vegies and a nice sorta rice salad thing.

Sorry the picture is so dark. It was dark on the plane and I can't be bothered to whip up my awesome photo shop skills right at the moment. The screens we had to entertain us had a lot of features. I could watch movies, tv shows, apparently could text and call people from the plane but it didn't work,  I watched Crazy, Stupid, Love which was only ok. And I watched a bit of Up and then I think I had a bit of a nap. Oh, the screens also let you see your progress and all this other information like seeing downwards and forwards camera views from the plane and stuff.

Oh and this was the crazy bangkok cleaning crew who just marched on the plane when it landed and people leaving for Bangkok got off. They cleaned the plane as if it was new and couldn't speak English. I tried.

This is the Maccas in Dubai Airport

This is some pots in Dubai Airport

You probably can't read that but it says FINAL BOARDING and I nearly missed my plane from Dubai thanks for it being so sucky and long and silly and me not being able to find a computer anywhere to send a message to

And this is a very unhappy me back on the plane after hating Dubai Airport but also happy cause I got a 3 seater all to myself FINALLY!

Some views from the plane: AMAZING

travelling over Middle Eastern countries and first sight of snow!

EVEN MORE SNOW

JD AND COKE ON THE PLANE? Yes Please!

First views of Holland after getting through the super thick cloud cover

Me looking tired after landing in Amsterdam

Angela outside her apartment in Amsterdam!

And that's all for now. It's not 10am and I wanna go for a wander around the city and potentially go visit the Anne Frank House cause it's just around the corner from my sister's apartment.

Thanks for reading! 

Hope you guys are well in Aus!