Mini (Mis)Adventure in Amsterdam

I was with some excitement when i touched down at Schipol at 6.40a.m. partly, as this would be the longest trip that i ever taken. i would be travelling with SK for this trip, a long-time friend that i have not met in 2 years. Also, this trip features many of the european places that i would very much like to visit. Last but not least, the last 2 days, we are going to fulfil one of our personal dreams, which is watching Roland Garros live!



Schipol, despite supposedly being one of the best and most efficient airports in Europe, disappointed me though. I queued at the customs for 20 mins and waited at the luggage belt for 30 mins. Upon clearing the customs, the lady at the airport info counter looked as if i owed her 5k and pointed vaguely when i asked for the tourist info counter, which was hidden in one of the shop alleys of the airport.



It was about 8.15a.m. when i finally cleared with the airport stuff and took the first of my busses to my accoms. Upon arriving at the Amstelveen bus interchange to change another bus to my accoms also in Amstelveen (a suburb at the outskirts of Amsterdam) i was struck by how quiet the bus interchange was! During my 10 minute wait for my bus, there was nobody else in the interchange, save for an odd cyclist who wheezed through the interchange. The interchange was as large AMK bus interchange and looks new and modern, complete with giant electronic schedule screens, size of those at airports.

Being an ever pragmatic Singaporean, i thought to myself, " What a waste of money!!" But then again, the desertness could just be that it's a weekend morning thing.



After hopping on my bus, i cheerily requested the roly and kind-looking lady bus driver to inform me at the Graaf Florisaan bus station, which is a short walk to the accoms. As i admired the beautiful suburb scenary through the bus window, i also checked from time to time the name of the bus stations as the bus station. I also noticed that degree of urbanisation increased as we went along and thought that the bus must be nearing the accoms. Then i saw the following sight -








Shit!! must have missed the bus station! i quickly re-positived myself, treated it as a good city orientation cum sight-seeing bus ride and took it all the way to Amsterdam central. I congratulated myself too for the excellent foresight of copying also the directions from Amsterdam central to the accoms.



Unflustered, i took the return bus. This time again i requested for the bus-driver to inform me, but took the extra precautions of taking the seat just behind the passenger's entrance area (to be within the driver's view, of course!) and memorising the names of the few bus-stops before the one i was due to get off.



When i got off the bus at 9.50a.m., i followed the copied directions excitedly, eager to having get to the accoms finally. After following the directions for 2 right turns, i found that i did not see what i was supposed to, and thus it was wrong directions!

After directions from a gentleman, i finally reached the accoms at 10.10a.m. A good 3.5 hrs after i touched down!