Start of 2.5 months holidays in Europe

 27th - 28th October 2023, Friday

This is a year plan trip which i had requested my company to let me work remotely from Netherlands for 1.5 months following a 3-weeks AL break. The whole trip will start from 28th Nov 2023 to 7th Jan 2024 and i had planned this with my friend who is currently working in Netherlands. Our plan was to visit her and stay at her place till we go for our long holidays. I had waited for the whole 9 month for it to actually start.  I finally flew to Netherlands on 27th Nov night (23:55 flight). My dad ferried me to the airport and had dinner together before i went to the boarding gate. There was a moment that i feel kind of sad seeing my dad left as this was the first time i ever leave Singapore for so long. I walked around the airport for a while and went to one of the airport lounges (Marhaba) to pass time. The lounges were so crowded and full of people. And it was so hot inside but they do have some snacks and drinks which people can take for free (free-flow).

There was some delay for the plane to take off from Changi Airport, so the plane eventually flew off around 30 mins. So the expected landing time was changed from 7:05 am to 7:40 am (Netherlands time). The plane was full with passengers and mostly were westerners. I was seated beside an elderly couple and i can never get used to sitting on long flights. I watched 3 movies and managed to nap a little throughout the flight and my legs were aching for sitting long hours.  I was glad when we were approaching Schiphol airport, however we got a rough landing. The plane kind of landed and the speed was so fast that we could being being pushed to the front. When the plane was finally parked, the pilot announced that it was a busy day in the airport and there was not enough ground staffs. So we had to wait for about 10 mins for the ground staffs to help open the plane's door for exit. When we finally exit the plane, i saw the plane was parked some distance away from the airport. Hence, we had to take the transfer bus from the plane to the airport. I was just wearing a tee-shirt n jeans when i alighted from the plane and it was soo cold. 

When i finally reached the airport, i took some time to take out my jacket before going to customs clearance. At the customs, i was asked by the official the duration of my stay and the purpose of my stay. However, when i told them it is going to about 2 month of stay, the officer was having some doubts on my purpose though i said it is holidays and visiting my friend. So he questioned how much euros do i have and if i have an invitation from my friend. Once i told them i did not bring any euro in cash, he called another colleague of his to escort me to wait by a room where the other colleague took my passport and disappeared in the room. While i waited outside, i tried to make contact with my friend to let her know of my situation. The officer came out and I showed him my friend's work pass. i also gave him my friend's number so he can call her for clarification. However, he went into the room for some time before coming out and asked me if i can call my friend instead as he wasn't able to get hold of my friend. So i showed him the number again which he recorded in his phone and went in the room. After some time, i got a text from my friend saying she had clarified with the officer. However, i waited for quite a while before the officer came out and notified me that all clarification was cleared. But the officer said that his colleague will still need to do some checks and said it will take a while. The whole time i was waiting there, i was so scared that i will be deny entry or something worse. I waited like almost 10-15 mins before i finally get my passport back with a stamp to enter Netherlands. I was soo glad that i got cleared and able to enter but i think they probably will keep a record in their system to ensure i return to Singapore before the visa ends. 

Well, so i headed to the belt to collect my luggage but when i reached there, the luggage were not even out. So i had to wait again for my luggage to come out and i definitely can't wait to get out of the airport with the drama earlier. My friend was waiting for me outside since and i was soo soo glad to meet her. So we headed back to her house first which was at Alemre Poort. We took train to Weesp and transferred to bus as the train tracks to Alemre Poort was closed. During the ride, i asked her regarding her conversation  with the airport officer earlier. She said she told her she had invited me over for a long stay but there is no letter written since we are friends. And she told him that she already had some friends came over for stay in earlier of the year with no issue. She said none of her friends got questioned by the custom officer in terms of how much money did they bring or how long they are going to stay here except me. When we reached Alemre Poort, we walked to the supermarket to buy some breads and drumsticks to cook our lunch. I was so glad to finally reach her house where i can eat and rest. So my friend cooked the drumsticks and fried her overnight rice with egg. After eating, i unpacked my stuffs and had my shower. Then we watched tv and had nap till 4 plus. After that, we made our way to Alemre Central for the light festival there. When we arrived there, there was a Diwali festival too to celebrate Deepavali here. It was crowded with the Indians at the festival, so we walked around the square first. 

Later, we went up the ticket counter for the light festival (Alluminous Festival) to collect a token and a cute collar pin. The token was for us to get any drinks at the food & drinks stalls in the festival (In the end, we didn't walk till the drink stall which was further in the road). The route for the festival covered a area of 5 km and it was around the lake. It would take 2.5 hours to cover the whole round by walking. As it was not 7 pm yet, we decided to grab some food first. But there were so many people around and we ended up in Burger King instead. We managed to get a table and bought a nuggets meal for sharing. After that, we started our walk in the lights festival and it was also crowded. A lot of people just walked very fast on the route and the light displays were so far away from each other. We only walked to the second point and it wasn't half way of the lake. There was also boat service which would take you from point 1 and point 3 which is on the opposite side of the lake and it cost 5 euro. It was also so cold to walk long outside. But we tried to stay till 8:30 pm which we caught on the fireworks display from the Diwali festival. The fireworks lasted 30 mins and it was a long long time i actually watched fireworks so near (Got tired of videoing the fireworks too...😅).

Route map of Alluminous Festival

Light display in lake

After the fireworks, we took the bus home and the bus was also crowded with people. We reached home around 10 pm and it was so lucky that the rain came after we reached home. Then we washed up and rested for the day. Such a long day for me.

Photo Album: Click here!