Pls Revoke my Blogging License -- I Failed at Airport Exploration

Thursday, March 21st, 2019

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Ahhh Amsterdam Schiphol, my dear sweet friend, home to basically every transfer and layover ever. (Not an exact statistic, but it WAS the world's 9th busiest airport by aircraft movements in 2017. And now I will stop with airport statistics because you're really supposed to start with your strongest, most enticing information at the beginning of a post, and the only two people that will find that lead both strong and enticing are my dad and uncle John.) 

Now, this post was SUPPOSED to be about all the cool things you can do on a layover in Schiphol. (By the way, this is how you pronounce it, which just sounds super slippery to me? But since I'm thoroughly American, if I was reading an audiobook of this blog, I would still pronounce it "Ship-Ol", but I'm of course, vastly under-cultured. Please don't follow my lead. Be better than that. Tangent over. Last airport fact. Pinky-promise.) 

But as you could probably glean from my oh-so-clickbaity title, I failed. I didn't even fail in an interesting way! I didn't almost miss my connection, or get detained at border control, or get run over by one of those little old people airport golf carts. I just gave up. Ya. That's where I'm at right now. So the joke's on you, you're reading a blog post about nothing!! 

In my defense, Schiphol has really tightened security. Gone are the days of easy, leisurely strolls from gate to gate. There is a lot more border control between these gates than I remember. (Also, I am always sleep-drunk when I'm in this airport, so there is a totally real possibility that the border control has always been there between gates and I am just woefully unobservant.) This place has two museums, a library, and a meditation room, all of which sound extremely appealing to stressed-out little introvert me. BUT NO! THEY ALL HAD TO BE IN GATE E WHEN I AM IN GATE C. AND NO THANK YOU I DON'T WANT TO GO THROUGH BORDER CONTROL TWICE TO GET THERE AND BACK! But it's cool. It's cool. I was beaten by the bureaucracy but I am not at all salty about it.

Right. I suppose you want to know why I am at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. I know, as much fun as it sounds, I'm not just here to hang out and use the wonderful (but unattainable-I'm-looking-at-you-passport-control) facilities. It is Spring Break(!) and I am off to meet the rest of the Hawthorne family tooling around Spain, before going to spend a few days with my friend Elise in Seville. 

I'm very much looking forward to seeing my people! Mostly because I forgot to tell my card company I'd be in Europe and I only have 20€ to my name and I kinda hate traveling alone but also because I miss them. I know. I'm so caring. Also back to that traveling alone thing. Ya. Stresses me out. Lots to remember and no one to remind you if you screw up. But on the plus side, there's also no hurry me along out of the souvenir shops. Not that I have the money to buy things (again, see 20€) but I love reading all the magazine covers. 

Okay. If you read this far, sorry I wasted 15min of your life. Here is a Common Domain Picture of a Dutch tulip for your trouble. 

(I Don't Actually Know if This is a) Dutch Tulip

xo, 

Cristiana