Amsterdam Airport

After my flight lands, we off load and I take off to my connecting flight. Since I dont know the airport, I make a note of my new gate and head over there.

During the last 30 minutes of the flight, the airline showed a little video about the airport and the different things you can do there. I was kind of excited to check the place out since I had 3 hours to kill and decided to take a look around while I made my way to my gate.

If you recall the last post, I was wearing my comfy pants on the flight. This part of the story requires a bit of background.

I've had my velour pants for a while and occassionally use them to run quick errands to the market or to get gas in addition the their laying around the apartment responsibilities. One time, I wore them to go to the market with Kostas and he gave me such shit about "wearing my pajamas" out in public. And when talking about the trip, I told him that I was planning to put them on for the flight - I could hear the eye roll over the phone. Back to our regularly scheduled program...

So I'm walking through the airport, in my velour pants, and no kidding - I got some looks. And I'll be damned if I'm going to admit this to him - he'll have to read it on my blog like everyone else!

Because of the lack of sleep, my body was all wonky and all I wanted to was to sit down somewhere to relax. I also had to stop and get some souveniers. Let me state that the dollar is worth effing nothing! Its not that I didn't know this but its different when you are signing those charge slips.

After my purchases, I headed to the immigration checkpoint to get to my gate and because of my lack of sleep, it really didnt occur to me that once I pass I probably wouldn't be able to see the rest of the airport. So I pass the immigration point and get my little stamp - my first stamp in my passport!!!!!


I put my things on the belt for the xray machine and as my stuff is passing, I see the video lady giving my bag to the security guy. He asks me if the bag is mine and asks for permission to look inside. I was thinking if there was anything in there that might be an issue but couldn't think of anything. Until he pulled out my water bottle that I had bought at LAX. He proceeded to give me a lecture on liquids and the appropriate sizes and all I could do was apologize. I jokingly said that it was probably because of the lack of sleep from the flight - to which he looked me up and down and well...lets just say that sarcasm doesn't translate very well over in The Netherlands.

After my mini-security incident, I get on the moving walkway to head to my gate - this airport is very nice but effing huge. Because I was so tired, I was tempted to just stop where I was to take a short nap (which work out since I had my pillow and was already wearing my jammies). I took a few pictures as I made my way to the gate and figure that some pictures were better than none.

After finding a phone to call my mom and Kostas to let them know I had arrived, I went to sit at the gate until my departure time. I was so tempted to fall asleep but decided to fight it because I just couldn't do it. I could hear my mom's voice in my head "Don't fall asleep!! Those Europeans will steal your things!" and whats worse was that everyone around me was asleep. I changed into my jeans and washed my face and teeth to try to wake up.

A couple of hours later, my connecting flight is called and we get on a bus to get shuttled to the plane. When I sit down at my seat, I notice that I am, in fact, in the emergency exit row. Sweet lord - I HAVE LEG ROOM!!! I was so excited that I fell asleep for 45 minutes.