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안녕하세요~  JOEY NG XIANGTING 1995선 Polkadots and Floral prints are th' love. //ELF//dancer//dreamer//kpress//travel//  paperboo@hotmail.com Kpress Singapore Instagram: @yourgentlesmile Youtube: @yourgentlesmile   Best viewed in Mozilla and Google Chrome |
Europe Trip Part 1: The Netherlands & Belgium
Europe Trip Part 1: The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Holland, Leiden, Alkmaar, Volendam) & Belgium (Antwerp, Brussels, Namur, Dinant)
This Europe trip marks the first time that I've travelled to the other side, as well as the first time I've taken a super looooong flight. I'm travelling with my aunts, three of them and we'll self-drive around Amsterdam area, and then we'll fly to Milan and London. This is the first part and will document up to day 5!
Below is my itinerary for the trip:
Day 1, 3 May: SIN-DXB-AMS, Amsterdam, Holland
Day 2, 4 May: Noordwijkerhout, Leiden, Amsterdam
Day 3, 5 May: Alkmaar, Volendam
Day 4, 6 May: Netherlands- Belgium Antwerp Central, Brussels
Day 5, 7 May: Brussels, Namur, Dinant
Our flight was a 2am flight, so we had to be in the airport at 12mn. And my aunts thought that we're flying on the next day but nope cause midnight flight hello guys. LOL Thankfully I called my aunt saying that we need to be in the airport by 12 if not they will miss their flight. Hi, morning. But in any case, Anni had exams so she had to miss the flight, and take the next day's one instead by herself. Its okay because I'm flying back to Singapore from London then Amsterdam by myself... 💔
Anyways, Anni's supposingly my aunt, because of the how the family tree works but she's a year younger than me. And she has the same zodiac as me... Okay complicated.
We took Emirates so we had to stopover at Dubai. But the flight towards Dubai had a layover at Colombia which was SO ANNOYING. Its okay as the flight was super empty, I had like 4 seats to myself. Talking about taking business class...
Stopped over at Dubai, where we had to take a bus over to the transfer gate, which took forever. The airport was damn big. And we ran after we cleared the bag check, cause gate closing fml. Its okay this wasn't the worse there's still competition /coughs. Caught the flight and hi another 7 hours of flight after 9 hours of flying from Singapore. 😪
I just remember eating, sleeping, eating, watching movies, listening to music, eating, sleeping and more eating. Too much meals ah, keep eating on the plane.
And then we finally reached Amsterdam! FINALLY. Hear my sigh of relieve when we reached like HOLY OMG FINALLY I CANNOT. Cleared immigrations and customs before collecting our bags. We have to head to the bus stop for the pick up bus shuttle which will bring us to the car rental place. It came in like 10mins? And their shuttle bus are those 12 seaters cars which was huge. I like.
Settled some admin stuffs and we had our car~! My aunt actually asked me to apply for the international driving license but oops sorry still on probation period I cannot drive overseas. Not like I drive often in Singapore too hahahahah.
Drivers in Europe drive super fast. And they expect you to do the same; 120km/hr and above. They have absolutely no patience, when my aunt was driving out of the small roads the driver behind was like horn-ing at us and showed us the finger when he drove pass us. No road manners bro, not cool. My aunt was still getting used to the car and the left hand driving can't you wait knmm.
Drove to Amsterdam Centraal and drove in rounds before finding a place to park... It was those roadside parking and they have these parking coupons machine which rejected ALL our credit and debit cards.
LESSON LEARNT NO 1: Whenever traveling to Europe, request for your credit card pin number before you fly!! All the auto machines need a pin for your credit cards. Even though in shops they will allow you to sign but auto machines which includes lockers, roadside carparks, etc requires your pin. If you're driving/ renting a locker at the Amsterdam airport, REQUEST FOR YOUR CREDIT CARD PIN!
So we just parked... Without paying. Its bad I know but we had no choice okay! Walked around the Amsterdam square, park and all the way down till the Amsterdam Ice Bar... We walked a lot, damn far from the Ice Bar. My aunt had already bought the tickets so we had to go on that day.
       
So Amsterdam Ice Bar entry allows you to have one pre-drink + two drinks in the Ice Bar itself. I ordered the Amsterdam with gin tonic, it was nice!! Grape flavored cocktail. ✔️
They will provide you with a windbreaker + gloves, but their gloves sucks because it was wet... Ew. It was -9.4 degrees and I was wearing my ripped leggings... I was freezing inside like hi I know Ice Bar but I'm not dressed for this shit?! I ordered this vanilla volka... The waitress poured it like free... It tasted like vanilla, too sweet bro.
And it was getting cold I had my second drink with beer. Which was damn bitter I gave up halfway and left since it was getting super cold.
I think I drank the most that day in my 20 years of life... Thanks.
Walked all the way back to our car and finally got to our apartment! Our apartment is located at Noordwijk Binnen, Holland, which is like around an hour drive from amsterdam. Its like camping style apartment and I love it. The only downside was their wifi sucks. Legit sucks.
 
Anyways the sun sets damn late like 9/10pm+? And we only had our dinner at like 10+ which was damn late... I wonder how did I survived.
Crashed after that and woke up for breakfast~ Kinda surprised that I even woke up for breakfast because in Singapore I don't even wake up until noon. Ooops. But because of the time difference, I was awake for breakfast! We cooked our own breakfast and dinner in Europe, unless breakfast is provided in the hotels we stayed.
 
After breakfast we went out for a walk in the tulips farm just right outside of our apartment area! So beautiful!!! It was the time where the tulips bloom and the area we're staying, Noordwijk was in Holland, the place where all the tulips farm were. Whenever we drive into our apartment we'll be welcomed by all the bloomed tulips. Ah I miss them.
     
Took photos with all the different tulip colors before driving out to Leiden.
    
Walked around, shopped for groceries and had lunch. It was our first meal that we've paid for in Europe and their serving was super huge...
  
And WE GOT A PARKING TICKET!!!! Because we parked without finding the ticket machine...
LESSON LEARNT NO 2: Always find a multi-story carpark because they accept cash payment! After we got the ticket, we became smarter after a few days and we will find all the multi-story carparks that accepted cash payment. Our ticket was like what 60EUROS?! Or was it 120... Nvm oh well.
Then we went over to the airport to fetch Anni before heading to Dam Square + Red Light District area! This time because we aren't that smart yet, we parked at the road side again but we got a local to help us pay. The locals aren't that helpful to take out their cards out to help us pay... Why not man when I'm paying you cash back. Argh oh well.
 
Wasn't expecting much so we walked round and went to the red light district. And I got shocked by a girl smiling at me when we got eye contact LOL. Because I wasn't expecting anyone to be standing there?! LOL
Anyways, we walked around and shopped and wow we found this shop which sells super cheap shoes when we only had 15 minutes left before our parking is up... Each pair of shoes cost only 10 Euros! Which was like $15 for boots? Like buy la. I bought one... Its okay Joey, you have too much shoes. Buy one can already.
And we headed back home for early dinner! Bought groceries from a supermarket and wow their pizzas were super cheap. We had our dinner the first day too late so we decided to have it early that day before we had for a swim.
My aunt said that the pool's a hot tub... Rubbish please it was cold. + the weather was cold. Double cold. K can. But still went down to soak for a while. There was this water slide but hi too cold outside not going out.
And dinner after that and slept early for the next day! Had batkuteh in the damn shiok weather for breakfast before heading back to the tulips farm outside our apartment area again for Anni. Round 2 of tulips photo taking.
    
Drove down to Alkmaar for some cheese market action, though all the cheese are in huge blocks we didn't to try any.
 
Walked around the shops and all and wow found a shop selling timberland for like $200 while Singapore is like what over $300?! Had too much faith in myself and told myself that I will buy at the factory outlet store... Very good, regretted to getting it over at Alkmaar!!
Went over to Volendam for lunch at this Fish and Chips restaurant but I had Chicken cutlet which was good too! But restaurants in Europe are expensive, if lunch is around $20-40, dinner will be even more expensive so really just cook your own dinner.
  
The dams around are also really pretty but dams are all around in Amsterdam too. So we decided to just leave and get back for early dinner as well as to pack our luggage because we'll check out from the apartment the next day.
 
Checked out of our apartment and managed to squeeze all of our baggage into the car, wow damn proud cause we had one big baggage and one carry on baggage with us each. And we also had our shit load of groceries. LOL Time to leave the Netherlands!
 
Drove for two hours over to Antwerp, Belgium and we became smarter and found all the multi-story carpark which accepts cash payment. Learnt our lesson.
Walked around the Central area of Antwerp and there're cheap shopping! Like 10 euros each and the cheapest was like 3 for 10 euros. No shit. Spent like 4 hours over at Antwerp and then drove up to Brussels.
    
Stopped by this amazing chapel along the way and legit all chapels in Europe are almost the same...
  
Stopped at the central area again trying to find the famous Manneken Pis but we've walked too far and it was like drizzling.
 
And the place where we parked our car was so creepy. We took the subway exit out of the carpark and there were so many drunk + homeless people sleeping over at the subway exit!! It was so creepy but I forgotten my phone, I left it in the car. So all of us went back through the subway exit again to get my phone and we're like okay lets take another exit to be safe. Thank god we manage to find another exit if not... I don't really wanna imagine what will happen.
  
So we gave up on walking for the day and went to check into our hotel, WHICH WAS THE BEST HOTEL IN THE WHOLE TRIP. But we're only staying for a day... K can. Four points hotel guys, best wifi connection, strategic location, comfortable rooms. (THUMBS UP)
But we checked out the next day, bye good wifi, and decided to continue our journey in finding the Manneken Pis. And yayyyy we found it!
 
Cause I entered the statue name and we just park at the nearest carpark heheheheh. Bought some waffles and it was good! Been having waffles for the two days that we're in Belgium cause they're famous for their waffles! Bought some chocolates over at the statue area as it was boxed. :))))
Continued driving around an hour down to Namur, where we visited the Citadel of Namur. Yay finally a castle!! And the view was amazing!
   
Walked around the castle grounds and woop so pretty!
  
Had our lunch there and it was so hot we decided to take out our chocolates as they were all melting in the car. Guys ya'll must appreciate the distance travelled all the way from Brussels okay.
 
Then we took around 40 mins to drove to Dinant, where we will be staying for 2 days. We tried entering our apartment's name but we couldn't find it so we had to just key in the road name and to find it later once we've reached. But we couldn't find it even when we reached so my aunt went down to asked around. And we realised we've drove past it a lot of times cause it wasn't a hotel but a guest house. LOL.
There wasn't any multi-story carpark but the hosts said that we can park at the side. So we unloaded all our luggage, all, including our chocolates and bring them across the road. Crisis when we saw that the rooms are on the second and third floor, so we just aiya, just leave our luggage on the first floor, very heavy to carry everything up, just bring up your valuables. /faith in humanity.
Actually it was quite dangerous cause the host said that our rooms are on the second floor, but one room was locked when it shouldn't be. So we found some spare keys for the rooms, and we unlocked the room. Holy shit, the room is occupied!! Thank god no one was in the room! We just like omg shit, sorry, and decided to take the third floor rooms instead.
The wifi sucks, the guest house has the worse wifi connection throughout the whole trip and wow we're staying there for two nights. Gave up connecting to the guest house's wifi and decided to walk around our apartment area which was the central area. But there was nothing much, dinant is a very small town actually, nothing to much to discover.
So decided to head back o our apartment to have dinner and sleep early. Wa this guest house sucks. Our room was the one facing the main road so in the middle of the night there were drunkards on the streets screaming and shouting and knocking. FML, couldn't sleep properly the whole night and guess what it was super hot + no aircon. zzzz At least there are toilets in our own rooms, if it was a shared toilet I would have swiped my card for a hotel.
Yay I'm done with the first part of my Europe trip!! #Finally but there is still two more parts to it. It will be a super loooooooong and big post if I were to post everything in a same post. Till the next post, xoxo
 Labels: #joeytraveldiary, Belgium, Europe, FIT, Free & Easy, Netherlands, Travel |
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