Half of us booked an extended (3 day) layover in Amsterdam before returning to school. How this worked out in everybody's favour, I am not entirely sure, but pure luck and coincidence, really. Otherwise, we'd be in Turkey right now. (I wouldn't mind that either) And, as a sign of good luck, one of the the first things I came across was a playground!
But, let's backtrack a little.
We left in the middle of the night to the airport. As I was inhaling my last exhaust ridden wind blast from the window, I think I might sort of miss this place. And I cant entirely pinpoint it, whether it is travelling with friends, the project, or simply the novelty of everything, but I think it is the contrast of cultures. I'm going to miss the charm of the chaotic organized mess this place is in, and how a place --that works and functions-- like this won't exist anywhere else for me except here. At least that I know of. Even when I say it is kind of like rural Taiwan or China, it is different enough.
We are really excited to goto the Netherlands though. it's kind of equivalent to our safari break, another moment where we don't have to think about school after a concentrated chunk of days spent solving design problems.
When we checked in at the airport, we found out that one of us was missing a leg of their trip because when we had rebooked our flights (when we missed all our connections from Amsterdam) they also accidentally deleted an Entebbe to Nairobi flight. No big deal really we would fork up the money if we had to because we weren't going to leave our friend behind.
Anyway, the issue was resolved, the man who was helping us out just said, "Okay I'll call KLM," and raised his cellphone in the air then he walked away, we weren't even sure if he had a number. Meanwhile the longer we waited we imagined he was probably in his office sitting at his desk eating a sandwich.
We all arrived safely into Schiphol in the late afternoon. The instant we got off the plane we were gleaming and like, "We're freeeeee!" and then arranged to meet again in three days and picked up our luggage and split.
My friends in Netherlands picked me up at the airport. (The two that were in Berlin last time) We went for a little walk around the park and grabbed dinner nearby at a quaint restaurant. Actually it's so local that they only accept bank cards, no cash. I asked about it, and they said that no tourist would ever end up there anyway. If I remember the name of the place I'll tell you.
I'm happy, staying here for a few extra days was a great idea, and there's great company. Oh, how "幸福!"
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