Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Once upon a time I went to Amsterdam

I thought about coming up with some sort of clever title for this post. But what the hell. Amsterdam. I went to Amsterdam. A simple truth. I can't be clever all the time, damn it. This will have to do!

Anyway.

I realize this short little intro makes it sound like I'm not very happy about this, which is wrong, as I am actually quite overjoyed, to the point of feeling very curse-everything-and-everyone about being home in Sweden again. I had such a great time! And that says a lot, considering that after this trip, I'm on pencillin, have my right foot wrapped up in a bandage, and have to walk on my toes because my heel is completely useless.

I'll get to that later. It's confusing to start at the end instead of the beginning, isn't it? So let's rewind this a little bit. Why did I go to Amsterdam in the first place?

Well, it so happens that my dear grandpa Kjell turned 75 on the 4th of May, this Saturday, and his wife went a little crazy. She invited me, mum, dad, my dad's brother i.e. my uncle, his wife, and my younger cousin Sasha to celebrate with them in Amsterdam. And she paid for our tickets.

I suspect she might have robbed some random bank.
I don't mind.

I haven't been abroad in a while, so I turned into a perfectionist wreck as the trip was nearing. I wrote a checklist with a million things on, re-dyed my poor hair, tried on clothes until I felt like crying, and so on. I have no idea how I managed to look normal on the picture I took of my travel-outfit. Let me just say that under the surface, I was pretty much ready to lie down on the floor and breathe into a paper bag for a few hours. Not my proudest moment.

I was quite happy with my hair, at least. Even though I ended up wearing a wig because it was quite cold and windy, and I flipped. I was also quite excited about something else. Not Amsterdam itself, strangely enough, I was just really excited about getting my hands on something from Starbucks. Yes, you heard it right.

Starbucks. Fucking Starbucks. Of all things.

It may seem weird, but the only place in Stockholm where you can find a Starbucks, is at Arlanda airport. I can't explain why I've been so obsessed with the thought of visiting Starbucks, because I don't know myself. I'm weird that way. I have a strange fascination with food and things I don't see every day. We have Starbucks in Sweden, but only in Gothenburg and at Arlanda.

No way I'm going to Gothenburg, so I was unreasonably happy about going to the airport, which was a good thing, it turned out, since the beautiful frappucino in my hand calmed me down quite a bit. Okay, I'm extremely weird that way. It just looked so... movie milkshake-y! 

Truth be told, it wasn't as good as I'd expected it to be though. It was pretty tasteless. Just my luck. But it looked beautiful, and at least I can say that I've finally, finally been to Starbucks, victory.

Once on the plane, I must admit I started to panic a little again. I like flying, but I hate starting and landing. It feels like the whole plane is falling apart. Extremely scary. In between the scary parts, however, I think everyone who's ever been on a plane can say it's very worth it.


My lovely country. It's not cold all the time, proof right here!
Look at all the clouds you can't look at because they're not there.

When we flew over the sea and above the Netherlands, all I could think about was how organised the crop fields were. It was completely ridiculous. Sweden looks like a messy quilt made by a five year-old in comparison. Everything was neatly arranged in a rectangular pattern, with little streams dividing the fields. Just, wow.

Surviving the landing came next, followed by riding a taxi for around 45 minutes with my nose pressed against the window and Sasha looking at me like I was retarded. We dropped them off at their hotel, then off to the apartment we'd rented over the weekend. Oh, it was crazy.





















Look. At. This. Place.

And yes, that's my family. My dear uncle was the only one who reacted when I said that I was about to snap a picture. The rest; completely ignored me while eating tapas and talking about the view.

The last hotel I stayed at had plastic sheets, one chair in the kitchen, we stayed there with another family of three, and I had to sleep in the same bed as my friend with her feet in my face. So I was kind of overjoyed coming to a place with fresh flowers in vases everywhere, lit candles and a fireplace, enormous windows with a beautiful view, and the best part was that the guy had squeezed in everything he possibly could in the kitchen. Juice, teas, ham and cheese, like a billion cans of cola zero, even artificial sweeteners. Or wait, that wasn't the best part.

There was a tap next to the normal tap in the sink that immediately produced boiling water so I could make tea without having to wait how do I even live with that it's too much fantastic-ness what are commas look at me losing track of everything.

This must be super boring to read, but I had to.
Like I said, from plastic sheets and feet in my face, to this. I'm allowed to brag.

After freaking out over the apartment, we didn't have much time left of the day, so we met up with the rest of the family to have dinner. We went to this insane place called Bazar, a restaurant in an old, gigantic synagog, with two floors and mosaic in the ceiling, which was at least 150 m from the floor. And I'm not kidding when I say the food covered the entire table. We couldn't talk because it was so loud in there, but “låt maten tysta mun” as we say here in Sweden. That was pretty much it for the first day!

My parents went with the rest of the family to their hotel for some drinks, while I went to the apartment and couldn't figure out how to open the door (neither could my parents, once they came home, so it took quite some time), so I ended up sitting in the stairwell, angrily eating apple pie from my doggybag. Then off to sleep.

I don't know why I'm telling you this, but hey, why not! I want to remember this trip, so might as well torture you, dear readers, and write it down. Now, this is getting very long, so no more torture for today!

I say that a lot, don't I? Hm. 

Have a quick picture of the result of my oh-no-it's-cold-my-outfit-won't-work-help-where-is-my-wig-and-knitted-beanie-freakout. Sigh. I'll have to recycle those twin buns with my Weasley-hair someday soon, without the freakout.

Oh, and about my foot, saving that for post no. 2, since it happened on day no. 2. Won't make a post for each day, but day two deserves a post on it's own, just saying.

Until next time, have a nice day and enjoy the sunlight, if you have some outside your window! Seriously get away from your computer. Just because I can't walk doesn't mean you can't. I'll limp my way over to Alex's place for a movie night later, but you, go outside and jump down a meadow or something, damn it. Okay? Good.

I'm off! Good day dear people (๑・ω-)~♥”

14 comments:

  1. I love your writing style(^_^)
    I want to say something about amsterdam and how ive always wanted to go so lucky you ><
    also lovely hair
    okay bye now

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  2. "There was a tap next to the normal tap in the sink that immediately produced boiling water so I could make tea without having to wait"
    OMG WHERE CAN I GET ONE OF THESE??

    P.S. great hair and coords as usual :)

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    1. I WISH I KNEW LIKE OMG NEED IT IN MY LIFE thank you ♥

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    2. It's called a quooker. It's sort of a cilinder tank attached to a waterline, which boils the water before sending it to the tap. Got one at home as well.

      *From the Netherlands*

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  3. Plastic sheets? what kind of crappy hotels do you choose?
    Boiling water tap tho, HOW.
    Also, officially jealous of your orange-ness now.
    And I'd be randomly excited about Starbucks too, we don't have it here; I could've gone last time I went to Barcelona but I had very limited money X'D

    (and btw, remember that tumblr convo we never finished? I got sick of tumblr eating every single one of my messages so I threw a tantrum and never wanna use tumblr for messages ever again. And then forgot it might be a good idea to actually tell you. So yeah, in case you were wondering, that's what happened)

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    1. MY PARENTS. They wanted to spend as much as they could on the trips on their own so "the hotels weren't important" sooo. Yeah but no. It's kind of important to get a good night's sleep if you're going to walk around all of Barcelona (that's where I encountered the plastic sheets)?!

      That tap. Moving to Amsterdam. And thank you! Both for the orangeness and the shared starbucks-fascination XD Like seriously, what is with starbucks...

      I remember! Kinda sick of it too, sigh. Hate messaging on tumblr. Maybe we could add each other on FB if we want to talk in the future? Easier, haha :3

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    2. Actually I added you on twitter (@anidharker), so if you want. I'm not much of a fb user, except for chat and Candy Crush actually welp.
      You should've kicked your parents for that, hotels are important. Barcelona is where I stayed in a hostel that recmmended us to bring our sleeping bags. Might've even been the same hostel lol but I brought my sleeping bag like I was told so idk how the sheets were. It was fine with sleeping bag XD

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    3. Yeah I added you too now 8D
      And I agree, definitely gonna argue more with them next time we go abroad. It IS important! At least you got a sleeping bag, that must have been better than plastic sheets yes,... funny thing is it wasn't even a hostel, it was an apartment we rented XD

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    4. That's more crap even, mine was a hostel we paid like 15€ a night for. There was like one shower and it had the door broken but the door to that bathroom could still be locked so it was fine, all in all. A couple friends who recommended the hostel to us then kept saying we were too ladylike for the place lol, but it was fine.

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  4. my grandfather is also kalled Kjell 0A0 WHAT ARE THE ODDS?? (oh wait, we´re scandinavian XDDD)
    I love your outfit! ^v^ Is that your real hair being so fabulously orange over there? *v* sooo cute <3 You look like a little pumpkin :D <3 *let me huggle you* >3<
    The place you stayed at sounds amazing! ;A; I wanna go also now XD!

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  5. ooh, another comment x3 haha
    I just wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award!
    http://frillypinkdreams.blogspot.no/2013/05/the-versatile-blogger-award.html

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    Replies
    1. Haha! I have so many friend who has Kjell-grandpas XD Well we're not only scandinavians, we're neighbors! I actually understand Norwegian pretty much as well as Swedish (ノ゚▽゚)ノ And thank you, that is my real hair, hehe ( ; u ; ) I'm glad you like it sweetie <3 !

      and agh, thank you for nominating me too! I feel bad though because I don't follow any blogs besides yours and one more, haha... do you think it would be okay if I did it anyway? Because I really don't have anyone to nominate ;;

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  6. Aw wow that sounds fun! I want to visit amsterdam! but yeh starbucks is always like that lol its not really crap or anything its just.. average haha

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  7. really really cute outfit <3 :) I absolutely love your blog too :D

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