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I was up early on Wednesday to pack and make sure I was ready to leave. Dad and Wanda dropped me off at the Dordrecht train station. After spending every day for two weeks with them I felt very sad to say goodbye. (The next day they were flying to Poland to spend 5 weeks there, visiting Luiza and Bartek and doing some travelling around the country.) I am very thankful to my Dad for taking me around Holland and being able to learn more about my heritage through and with him. And to Wanda for being a lot of fun - shopping, laughing, sight-seeing, playing cards, etc! They were waving bye as the train pulled away and I was on my own again.

It’s only about an hour train-ride to Schiphol Airport. I arrived with plenty of time to check my luggage and wander around the airport. I needed to find the money-back place (not sure what it’s called!) so I could get the tax back on my expensive boots (tax in Holland is a whopping 19%!!!!!). The shoe store in Rotterdam had given me a special receipt just for this purpose. I found the place but then proceeded to wait in line.... and wait... and wait.... over an hour and a half! Ridiculous. I was 4th in line the whole time. Note to all travellers - never stand behind a group of Asian girls carrying Luis Vuitton bags with dozens of other suitcases stacked beside them. Might as well go for a coffee and come back 2 hours later. Their tour guide took them up one at a time with their stacks of receipts - so much for being 4th in line.... actually more like 10th! The people in front of me (which included a couple of airline pilots who had a plane to fly!) started to get really pissed off and so the Asian girl group was told to take it to the back of the line. Thankfully I still had lots of time to get to my flight.

My flight left Amsterdam at 2:50pm and arrived in Calgary at 3:50pm - oh how I love arriving one hour after leaving! This time I actually flew KLM like I was supposed to - not Northwest. No flight connections, no one sitting behind me or beside me (the flight was probably only half-full), over 100 different TV shows and movies to choose from, no turbulence.... ahhh - Best flight ever! A bit of amusement at the end: I had a window seat and the captain announced that people could see the amazing views of the Rocky Mountains on the right side of the plane - my side. For some reason most of the people rushed to stare out the left side.... not sure why! Most were Dutch people or other foreigners and you could tell they were wondering if they’d made a big mistake flying into Calgary! All they could see were flat snowy fields as far as the eye could see! Haha. I motioned for them to look out my side but that was largely ignored. I figured, oh well! But then the plane flew over to the south end of Calgary, turned around and flew back over to the airport. Finally those people saw the mountains. You could sense the relief! As we lowered, I was pretty disgusted to see all the smog which ended up eventually blocking out the view. Pollution has sure become a bigger problem compared to when I lived there.

The flight arrived ½ hour early but Brad was already waiting for me. Kisses and big hugs and I was home. Then we still had to drive 5 hours to actually get home to Luseland. I was so tired - it was 5 am for me by the time we got there. But I was content with my amazing trip and happy to be back with Brad where I belong. Next time I hope both of us can go to Holland and he can see it for himself.










LISTS

Numbers of:
- Countries visited on this trip - 4
- Flights - 7
- Days away from home - 24
- Days in Barcelona - 4.5
- Days in Poland - 4.5
- Stops along the Bus Turistic - 38
- Dog poops almost stepped in - 3
- Toes in the Mediterranean - all 10
- Bocadillos eaten - 4
- Litres of vla eaten - at least 5
- Oliebollen eaten - 2 (not enough!)
- Self portraits taken at arm’s length - too many to count!
- Hours on a train - 16 approx.
- Dutch cousins - 11 (15 including significant others)
- Hostels stayed in - only 2

Things I Loved About Being in Poland:
- Seeing Luiza and Bartek and where they live
- Cheap food and shopping
- Old people
- The architecture
- Old Town Square in Warsaw
- Friendly people
- So much history and the resilience of the people
- Lazienkowski Park

Things I Love About Holland:
- Seeing my relatives again
- Windmills
- Narrow streets
- Listening to Dutch and trying to understand it
- Learning about my family history (both sides)
- Vla (and Dutch dairy products in general)
- Dropjes (salty black liquorice candies - so good but for some reason only Dutch people like them. Weird. The zoutier the better.)
- Gouda cheese
- Oliebollen
- Bicycles
- Feeling like I’m average height
- Cute little houses
- Water everywhere
- Swans and ducks
- So green even in November

Things I Don’t Love About Holland:
- Very little! ... Except that it’s too far away and expensive to get there so I’m not able to go nearly often enough.
- Oh and the windy roads which are really disorienting and make me nauseous!
- Rains too much in November


That's all! Back in Canada, safe and sound.

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