The wonderful long Easter weekend,
Was spent in The Netherlands.

The journey started on Thursday evening.
Left the office with my 25L rucksack at 1830h,
Arrived at Victoria coach station at 1900h.
The queue for tickets was shockingly long.
Luckily there was a seperate queue for ticket collection,
Or I would have missed my Eurolines bus.
Nearly went up a bus to Poland in the mess.
At 1939h, the bus set off for its 12-hour journey.

The joy of finding 2 seats to myself,
Was soon drowned by the screams of the little girl behind.
With her high-pitched screeching & hindi ramblings,
i.e. incomprehensible & long lines,
Anyone would be turned into a child murderer.
I turned around,
Giving the mother & child a cold stare.
Mother panicked & cupped the yelping kid's mouth.
Sadly, the silence was not to last.
Fortunately, I drifted off to dreamland.

2153h, coach went up the ferry at Dover.
Crossing the English Channel took about 1.5 hours.
Sat on the deck & stared into darkness for a long time,
Before the cold got to me,
And I decided to return to the cafe.
Along the way,
Met 2 Italian guys who were on the same coach.
Arrived at Calais at 2349h.
Tuned my watch to GMT +1.
Slept all the way till I arrived in Amsterdam.
The bus was 2 hours early.
Which meant it was only 5am on Friday morning.
Obviously there was no train in service,
So I spent 2 hours in Amstel station,
Waiting for time to pass with the Italians.
The ticket booths finally opened at 7am.
Got my tickets to Delft via Rotterdam.

Loitered around Delft station for abit,
Before hearing a cheery voice,
And seeing a warm smiley face.
XY said I should have just called her at 5am,
Since she kept waking up to check her mobile,
Hence didn't sleep well.
Whoops.

Picked up some food & Hoegaarden,
Before going to XY's place to drop off my luggage.
XY's room was like a small studio flat.
Although some may think it is too small,
The cosiness appealed to me greatly.

After washing up & settling in,
We made our way to Rotterdam.
Snacked alot on chips/fries & gelato.
I am now an official fan of fat fries/chips.
With mayonaise & curry sauce, please.
XY gave me a crash course on Rotty's architecture.
Due to laziness & cold weather,
We didn't check out all the stylo buildings.
However, the visit to NIA,
And OMA's Kuntshal,
Was enough to impress me.
Had a sumptous Chinese dinner,
Before heading back to Delft.

-to be continued-