Holland trip, Part 3

Find Part 1 here
Find Part 2 here

Part 3:

23-Dec-2011    

  

Finally, the day to fly to Czech Republic for Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations had arrived.

It was an evening flight I had to board and fortunately Holland and Czech Republic are in the same time zone (I am writing about time zone here just to “educate” my readers :-p).

I wished all my new Dutch colleagues “Merry Christmases’ and Happy New years” and left office at 13.00 pm and took a taxi to Zwijndrecht train station.

I had written down my train timings from stations Zwijndrecht-Rotterdam-Schiphol and I boarded the train from Zwijndrecht as per the time schedule which was 13.41 pm.

I reached Rotterdam train station without any issues. In this station, I saw a train ticket conductor and asked him when I could expect the next train to Schiphol and which platform I should be waiting for the train (I had a feeling that he might have an idea!). He did not seem to understand me properly and just said “For Schiphol, stand on platform 7”.

So I had to carry my heavy cabin luggage down the stairs (Damn it! there are no elevators in Rotterdam Train Station, I cannot believe this!!) and then again climb up stairs for the parallel platform. Then I saw to my pleasure three train ticket conductors all speaking to each other and I rushed towards them and asked when I could expect my next train to Schiphol. 
One of them said that I had to first go to platform 8 (Damn, I came from platform 8 to 7!!) and then said I have to catch the train which would leave in 4 minutes.  (I was shocked because I again had to carry my damned heavy luggage to another platform).

I rushed and saw the train blowing its horn or whatever it was (at that moment I was seriously out of patience!!). Then I asked 2 passengers (who looked like foreigners ((to whom? I don’t know, Holland itself is a multicultural country, but I had a feeling they were foreigners somehow!!)) and they were with loads of luggage with them.) whether the train would go to Schiphol (I had get a final confirmation, no?). 

They said “yes” and told me that they were also on the way to Schiphol. I was relieved and got into the train compartment. I had to stand since there was no space left to sit anywhere. After 20 minutes or it seemed so, these “foreigners” started to get down in a station and this station did not look like Schiphol station at all.

I was shocked and asked them whether it was Schiphol, they said “No” (Strange, then why were they getting down? I did not wanted to look too stupidly concerned by asking more questions, so I too got down!!). 
Once I was on that "unknown" platform, I fortunately sighted a train ticket conductor and asked him whether that place was Schiphol and he said “No, but the next train which comes after the train we came here, will go”.  
Then I realized that the train I came to that (damned!) station was just connecting train and fortunately I could see the board which showed "Amsterdam, Schiphol +/-5 minutes". I was so relieved at that moment that I wanted to kiss everybody on that platform.

The train to reach Schiphol at last arrived and I got in and these "foreigners" got in as well. I later spoke to these lot and asked whether they are from Spain since they were speaking Spanish. They said they are from Aruba. I said “where”?. They again said “Aruba in Caribbean Islands.”. (I see, so I was correct, they were foreigners to Dutch people hehehe!!)

Then we got down at Schiphol train station and I was damn sure it was Schiphol (my 6th sense was telling me so!!). 

Finally I took a deep calming breath and then realized (after looking at my written down time schedules) that I unnecessarily had rushed to catch train from Rotterdam to reach that (damned!) unknown station and then to Schiphol. 
My timings showed that I should have taken train from Rotterdam at 14:20 pm and this train would had taken me directly to Schiphol. I then cursed myself for my stupidity and haste and made a promise to myself to keep up with the timings I had written down in future.

So I reached airport and the sight of international and big airports always brings chill down my spine since I had a very bad first experience in Paris. (Let me not go into its details.)

I successfully checked-in, but while going through security, the security-folks said the liquid amount I was carrying in my bag was too much (It was just 120 ml of my eye lotion and some of it were used obviously!!). I told them that it was my eye lotion and I had to keep it with me while travelling (I was also thinking how to prove my point effectively!). 
Then these security-folks said that they will allow me to carry my eye lotion this time, but next time, they want me to carry less than 100 ml (as if they will remember my face next time and I am more than happy to suggest my eye lotion manufacturers to pack it in small bottles! And What the heck? in Prague, they said 150 ml is the limit and here 100 ml. These people are crazy!!)

After all the procedures were completed, I then successfully boarded my plane and reached Prague. 
It was 21.00 pm and I had to wait for 20 minutes to get my luggage from "baggage counter" . (This is another process which is very irritating- looking at the revolving baggage counter until we find our luggage. By the time we will find our luggage, our brains would had had gone through several revolutions and we would be ready to hit the ground with giddiness!!)

Kiran was waiting for me outside the Prague airport and we took Metro to reach Prague Train station. Kiran had booked 00.56 am train to Brno. Since it was Christmas time, the frequency of trains had been reduced.

We reached Prague Train station at around 21.45 pm and then we decided to have some toast for dinner. While having our toast, we saw a man who looked like an Indian, sitting just behind our table. Once we finished our dinner and few discussions on Vaclav Havel's death, Kiran introduced himself to this man (we usually greet those who look like fellow Indians) and we got to know that this man is a scientist as well (I am saying "as well" because- Kiran is also a Scientist!) from Chennai and is living in Germany. He was going to a place called “Olomouc” in Czech Republic to meet his Czech girl friend for Christmas. Apparently, they are going to get married soon. We were then talking about “this and that” and after sometime, me and Kiran realized it was 23.45 pm, so we wished him good luck and said byes and then caught our train to Brno.

We reached our home at 03.30 am (yes, that's the time)....

.. and yes, this was my return journey story.

I will be travelling to Holland again on 01-Jan-2012

"Wishing all my readers a very happy and prosperous new year 2012"

Cheerios..