Travel days! I woke up early Monday morning to shower and finish packing, then my roommate Gretchen and I hit the road! We made a quick gas, Fred Meyer, and Starbucks stop to get gas and snacks, then we were on our way! Gretchen came with me to take the car home after dropping me off, so it was nice to have someone with me as I was very stressed.
I made it to the airport with no issue and made my way pretty quickly. It was a bit of a process to check in for my flights to Dublin and Amsterdam, but I figured it out. The most annoying thing was finding something to eat because the place I picked out apparently didn't exist anymore, so I panic-settled for a mid sandwich and a mid mac-n-cheese. I also had a problem with the bank: Monday was a national holiday, Juneteenth, which I unfortunately forgot was a thing when I tried to call the bank and let them know I was traveling to a different country. I tried to take out some cash that I could then convert to Euros when I got there, but that refused to work as well. I would have to wait until 9am on Tuesday PST, which wouldn't happen until Tuesday night in Amsterdam.
In the meantime, my flight to Seattle went with by without a hitch, so I chatted with Fiona over text and got dinner. Then began the flight to Dublin. I've never enjoyed the few overnight flights I've been on, but this time I had little to no leg room, couldn't sleep comfortably, and couldn't change into my sweatpants for fear of waking the whole plane up. I was pretty miserable the whole time, and got about 20 minutes of sleep total. I was planning on taking a nap before my flight to Amsterdam, but by the time we pulled into the airport, I had about 20 minutes to get to my next flight.
My other problem was my phone battery. I had checked my plug converters, had no access to money, and all I had was my phone charger and my laptop. I needed to be able to contact mom and dad when they arrived in Amsterdam, and their flight had been delayed a few hours due to weather, so I needed to figure out how to charge my phone or make 5% last that long. I ended up remembering that I can plug my phone into my laptop and that charged it, so once I figured that out I was home free, but it took me a Minute to get to that point.
I sped through passport control and picked up my checked bag, and waited a bit before I met up with my family! They had been traveling with family friends, and it was so nice to see them all. We braved the train system to our hotel and got dinner, where we celebrated my birthday and chatted with our very kind server. We wandered around a bit more, then made our way back to the hotel to sleep.Â
Just from first impressions, the country is beautiful!! The canals, the bikes, the cobble/brick streets, all of the plant life, it's all so lovely. It feels so comfortable and familiar, and I'm really looking forward to walking around and getting to know the country a bit better. Tomorrow I meet up with my group and we're off to Delft!