Europe Trip Diary : Day 4 Part 1 (Volendam)

Heyllowww...

Writing this entry on Sunday, really wanted to stay at home and sleep but my sis asked me to accompany her and my niece to TP to buy some clothes from Mango (they are having a re-opening discount, 30% off only in TP, today's the last day for the promotion), as usual i simply couldn't say no *LOL*... We had to wait for hours at Mango because the SAs couldn't find the stuffs she already ordered the night before at GM *___*, so long that we lost patience and left..

Went to LV store at Sheraton Hotel next door (only to check out the prices of the bags she bought at Europe recently-she went to Russia+Scandinavia at the same time as my Europe trip, she bought four or five bags OMG she's nutz-and i think i fell in love with LV Catalina now FML) and had a drink at Coffee Bean until the SA called her and told her the stuffs could be paid in TP (to get the discount) but she'd have to retrieve the items at GM *___*, even after all that we had to wait for almost another hour i think to settle the payment. She did bribed me with a Mango tee so i'm not too annoyed *cheap* LOL.

Went to GC afterward because the photo corner vouchers expires today, surely we wouldn't want to waste it right *LOL*, had dinner and stuffs... Just got home and am tireddd... zzz... But i still feel like blogging haha... Let's continue with Day 4 of my Europe trip, shall we? A teaser photo first :p..

Where did we go to that day? Well, it's written on the post title *LOL*, more about it later!  First, OOTD!

I learnt from my mistake the day before and really layered to kept myself warm. I looked bulky but who cares, i still look stylish right (haha)? And i was warm and cosy hahaha. This is actually been a long-time desire, being able to dress up in winter-ish style clothes and run around it it. I'd die if i dress like this back home in Indonesia, got a heat stroke or something WTF.

White Dress-coat : Online Shop, Grey turtleneck inner : Esprit, Stripe Harem Pants : can't remember, either online or some cheapo FO hehe, Socks : unbranded

Then also FOTD, i put on light and simple make up everyday :).

Scarf : Payless

That scarf was the only scarf i brought (and the only proper scarf i actually own!) so you'd be seeing it in almost all of my photos hahaha. I forgot to bring it the night before when we went to RLD, L forgot hers too, dunno how could we be so stupid, we were lulled by the warm hotel room i guess, totally lost track that we were in super cold Amsterdam and not in some hot Asian country that we carelessly tossed our scarves to the side and forgot about it! Never made the same mistake again though *LOL*.

Almost every morning the code was 6-7-8, which means : morning call at 6, go down for breakfast at 7 and be ready to depart (and check out, almost everyday, we only stayed in one hotel more than two nights once, in Paris). Sometime the morning call's even at 5.30 because we almost didn't get any breakfast a few times, the food's finished already after being attacked by scary China tourists *___* WTF. 

Yeah, don't imagine the breakfast to be vast and consists of many varieties like in Asia's stars hotels with never ending refill, the choices was very limited (mostly consisted on one type of egg, bread, bacons or sausages, and some varieties of cold cuts, which as a typical Asian, i never touched. My Asian tummy needs warm breakfast lah...) and once it's finished then they'll not refill it (except once in a hotel in Switzerland). 

I kept on taking pictures of my breakfasts everyday *LOL* (of course with the background of Eek's nagging "Is it important? Really? So unimportant!" FML, one day snapped and told him it's my blog lah STFUP. Problem is, he doesn't seem to know what blog is zzz), to show you i almost have the same thing everyday. I'm not complaining though, i totally can survive on scrambled egg and toasts for breakfasts!

First breakfast in Europe

The only thing that shocked me was... the scrambled egg tasted weird... Scrambled egg is one of my fave thing to eat, ever, but the scrambled egg in Europe... they looked right but they never tasted the way i thought it would be (oh except once in Italy! For 12 days i only had one yummy tasting scrambled egg OMG), it's... weird... kinda tasteless and too chewy *shudders*. But i finished them anyway (after sprinkling salt and pepper like crazy on them), shoved them down my throat because i do not want to starve and then became cranky!

The baked beans was nice and the bacon also nice (very salty, but that's to be expected from bacon, right?). What i have to point out is... The scary staffs! I've always heard about unfriendly European (especially who works in service industry, how weird), and i've been bracing myself to encounter some, and of course we did haha... First encounter was at this breakfast.

There's this older lady, probably the restaurant's manager or something?, who kept an eye on all of us while we were having breakfast. There was a huge selection of Dilmah tea bags, and hunny was eyeing them *like typical Asian hahahaha*, wanting to snatch a few. Luckily before he did a Japanese woman picked up two bags, and she was scolded right away by the scary old lady. "Take one please! If you really want two flavors then finish the first one before taking the second one!". OMG, WTF? Seems like guests are not kings here but more like beggars!

Hunny also got his share of scolding, he went to retrieve forks and knives for Eek and L  (who hadn't showed up by now), and he was chased after by the dragon lady! "You already have fork and knife on your table!!! Why are you taking another one???". OMG OMG, why so scary??? Seriously WTF *___*. I expected them to be unfriendly, but never expected it to be to this extend lah! Are they trained to yell at guests? WTF.

So, the breakfast was filled with drama *LOL*, you know, with the dragon lady and then some more with the cray cray auntie. I got even more annoyed when Eek brushed things off and told me "It's okay lah, be flexible lahhh." Be flexible my ass, you could say that because it wasn't you who was being attacked like that lah, later he also got treated similarly by the aunties and only then he started to curse hahaha. That's why, it's better not to make stupid and dismissive comments if when the same thing happens to you you can't take it cooly and be "flexible". Seriously. Just stop talking so much. WTF.

Of course, i'm not the kind who dwell in things, as soon as i exploded (and exploded i did! LOL. I was bitching at rapid fire speed to L until later the cray auntie came and said "It's clear now yes? Sorry sorry, i'm old, i forget things, sorry" i guess she heard me being angry and felt bad about it?) that's how fast  i'd forget all about it (at that moment lah, when i write everything came back to me and i got emotional writing about it all over again LOLOL *dramatic person*). Even got time to snap a picture with L.

We always had breakfast speedily (less than 20 minutes) so i think after the first day we never went for breakfast precisely at 7 anymore, more like 7.30 because we preferred to pack our things up and be completely ready before having breakfast so after breakfast we could just went up to get our things and go to lobby straight away.

Our hotels' almost always located in secluded areas with pretty views surrounding them, so we always tried to take some time before boarding the bus to snap some pictures haha.

Taken with my crappy Blackberry camera, sorry for the bad quality hahaha

Then we rushed to board our big bus (different bus and different driver than yesterday's, it was a local bus yesterday while this new bus would be our bus for the next 8 days, with the same driver as well, the best driver we got throughout the trip, Mr Lubos-or was it Luboz-from Czech Republic), so big that we each got our own two seats to hog!

We always sat at the back of the bus, apparently my sis (on her own tour) did the same and she used the words "naughties" for us who sat at the back as the more prim and proper "students" would always sit in the front right. We could always do whatever we wanted on the backseat without anyone noticing LOLOL, much like in school!

The first destination was Volendam! Volendam's originally not included in the tour schedule but L told one of the auntie (not one of the 12 aunties, this one's not Chinese but Javanese, she's the one who's traveling with her husband and two doctor children, her husband is an important judge but he's very friendly and funny, we gelled instantly with her and her husband, let's call her Mrs. S and her husband Mr. H!) who then nagged Kikie about it (because Volendam's very famous and one of the must visit place when you're in Holland, right?) and then Kikie announced that we're going to Volendam to replace the lost diamond factory river cruise :D!

Welcome to Volendam hehe :)

So cold, i ended up wearing three thick layers of clothes :p

Volendam is a charming little fisherman village, famous of their traditional clothes-wearing ladies (although we didn't really see any except for the waitresses at the place where we had lunch). There were also stretches of super cute little houses, super cute i'm telling you! We dreamt straightaway about owning one when we retire haha (because all of the resident we saw inside the little houses were senior citizens lah, i guess the youngsters all migrated to the city already?), it's a super quiet and pretty place to live in!

We took a lot of pictures in front of the houses, there were a few with tables and seats in their balcony and some of the aunties and uncles actually trespassed and sat at their balcony OMG FOL!!! The owner just starred confusedly from the window, unfortunately they weren't angry! 

Was that EUR that L was showing??? Dunno why she did that haha

 

Was that a "For Sale" sign they were pointing at? LOL

I think at the house in the picture below that we spotted a sweet older gentleman smiling and waving at us from the window, L shamelessly waved and beckoned at him to take pictures with us LOLOL, she's almost as bad as the aunties and uncles (who kept on stopping locals or even Japanese tourists to take pictures with them LOLOLOL, seriously, they targeted mostly handsome Caucasians but they'd settle even for teenage boys HAHAHA) OMG, unfortunately he refused to haha.

Snapped one more picture because i found this house to be very cute and interesting!

Unlike the other houses that's located at level height with the pavement, this house actually located below with a staircase leading down

At the end of the street, the stretch of houses ended and stretches of stores and little cafes and restaurants started (just before the harbour).

Dunno what i was expecting but i was surprised when i saw the little stores were very similar in style with local (as in Indonesian) stores LOLOL, i guess it's the same style everywhere lah #Pink WTH.

We went to the biggest store there to shop, been warned that all the souvenirs were made in China lah (what do you expect?) hahaha, but you cannot find those stuffs in China anyway since they especially ordered them to sell in Europe. If you refuse to buy China made souvenirs i'm afraid you'd find it really hard to find any souvenirs, especially cheap ones. They were dominated by Made in China stuffs lah, just like the rest of the world.

Snapped some pictures inside the big souvenir shop while busy shopping!

Ya lor, all of the aunties in this picture belonged to our group haha

Bought this chocolate just because of the wrapper *LOL*, tourist mah! I know chocolates must buy in Belgium lah zzz

Bought this cute and fluffy Klomp for Baby Boy :D

Bought quite some stuffs here, mostly for Baby Boy lah (i was determined to buy stuffs from every country we went to for him *LOL*), the klomp (clog) and a long sleeved top for Baby Boy, spotted a nice soccer tee for hunny (he doesn't like soccer but the material of the shirt's exactly like the one he always wanted to wear to the gym), Dutch cookies (Stroopwaffle) and chocolates to bring home, a klomp key ring (which later we realized bore the alphabet "S", originally bought it for Rosemary because she asked for a keyring from every country as a souvenir, so in the end i didn't send it to her, but i bought more klomp keyrings later so i sent one to her anyway, just not the one from this shop).

For myself i bought a knitted cap (which i wore in Switzerland later), i've seen the same cap in the hotel's souvenir shop, it was EUR 9.50 and i thought it was reasonably priced, thank God i didn't buy it because i got it for EUR 4.50 here! Also a little gold plated necklace with klomp charm for myself as a souvenir, basically we bought anything with klomps on it hahaha! Spent around EUR 54 here and it ended up being the only place (oh wait, later there was another one but at the airport) where we got tax refund, Holland's minimum price for getting a tax refund is the lowest among all (Swiss was the worst, it was EUR 300, or was it CHF 300?). I will show you the stuffs i mentioned on another post, okay! But first, here's the picture of the pile (but you cannot see what's inside hahaha).

After we're done shopping, we were asked if all of us wanted to take pictures with Dutch traditional clothes? You know i hate studio photos, especially the ones with costumes!!! But i was peer pressured by all (Hunny, Eek, L) zzzzz so i had no choice lor WTF. Kikie went to book the studio for us (there was only one studio apparently) and we went around taking more pictures outside.

Yes, that's the photo studio

One more ah, the upper one's taken with my BB so not so nice *LOL*

There's a hotel there! But it must be antique-ish, meaning : scary lah!

Then hunny spotted a seafood cafe selling tempting deep fried seafood, he wanted to try some but unfortunately we were too full to try any after lunch haha.

Oh, got lots of comments regarding my "edgy" colored sunnies (Rosemary's words) *LOL*, Eek (what do you expect?) kept on saying "I really like #Pink's sunnies, green!!!", well he's not complimenting me, i'm, telling you! I don't give a sh*t lah *LOL*, i wear whatever i like and i looked damn good on it, would you be able to say the same for yourself?

Whenever i see giant food statues, i'm always tempted to do this kind of poses :

Everytime. I can't help it *LOL*. Spotted a cheese shop/museum, took pictures outside but had no time to enter, but we did later so i will show you the pictures outside and INSIDE the museum, okay!

We were summoned *LOL* by Kikie soon, it's time for the Dutch costume photo session (zzzz). Had to queue up like kindergarten children, guys on the left and ladies on the right for the staff to dress us up. There were lots of commotion and worries over pick pockets, since we had to put our bags aside while getting dressed. Pickpockets are the biggest concern in Europe for tourists i guess, so much horror stories there. Two members of my sis' tour group got their wallet snatched! Her tour group consisted super rich people ones, the pickpockets got EUR 1.500 from one person! So scary...

Awas copet!!! Meaning : Beware of pickpockets. I guess 90% of tourists that came to have their picture taken were Indonesian *LOL*. Saw lots of famous Indonesian (celebrities, former presidents) photos on display there :p

Okay, i normally wouldn't put pictures of me looking ridiculous on display but... well... this one's pretty funny lah, and we ended up paying a fortune for them, so i will *LOL*. Are you ready to see me looking absolutely ridiculous? LOL. Of course you are :p.

LOL. Yes, you're welcome. I know, i know, Yeah, keep on laughing. It's okay, you'll see plenty more, we took lots of pictures there, on every set available. While others had their pictures taken professionally (which doesn't translate into GOOD, mind you), we were busy running around making fun of each other while snapping pictures of each other. As usual, being the youngest group, we were pushed to the side and expected to wait until they were all finished. No matter, gave us more time to play around like crazy little kids on a crack. LOL.

Personally i think i didn't look like a proper milk-maid at all, i think i looked like an elf from the head up, but more like a garden gnome in total. FML. The dress totally swallowed me whole, somehow it made me look super short (and stout), L's slightly taller and has bigger face so i think she looked slightly more acceptable than me. They had to use clothes' pegs to make the top fits me, it's super huge lah. I guess L's huge boobies made her fit perfectly into hers because she got no pegs attached to her back, i looked like a balding porcupine from behind.

You know, people rarely take nice pictures of me (#Undecided does, but she only take nice ones of me, she couldn't take any food pictures without making anything looks unappetizing), all of the pictures hunny took of me in the costume looked OMG... so i begun taking selcas *LOL*.

With L

Alone

One more of me while L snapped her camera of me taking pictures of myself on the mirror LOLOLOL

With hunny

We had to wait for a very long time (coz the aunties wanted to take their pictures alone, all 12 of them, and the in 3s, and then in 6s, in pairs, etc. Never ending lah WTF), we progressively got crazier and crazier, we also started using all kind of props available *LOL*.

The guys' costume's even more ridiculous looking hahaha

Village couple?

Flower, anyone? LOL. The friggin hat's too big and kept on sliding down my face WTF zzz

HAHAHAHAHA!

Tried lifting it but it's apparently super duper heavy hahaha

Then i saw some huge dolls so i grabbed one, it was very heavy too zzz.

WUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, petulant little child

Modern posing really doesn't work with this costume hahahaha

Hunny spanking Kikie. He's 29, single and looking for a girlfriend. Any takers? Hehe

Did you hurt your tummy looking at our pictures yet? You're welcome. I'm not done yet, more to come. Anyway, L finally snapped when the others had finished taking pictures, and then we were forced to take a group picture (didn't know it was mandatory), and as soon as the group picture's done, they were like "OKAYYY LET'S GOOOOOO!!!!". LOL. We waited so long so y'all can take pictures first out of respect because y'all so much older than us and then when it's our turn y'all tried to skip us? HAHAHAHAHAHA. So ridiculous i could only laugh. 

But we should've skipped our pictures taken by the actual photographer anyway. They made you pose stiffly (so it's more believable with the dress and background i guess) and you head was forced to be titled up and then they made you say silly Indonesian words like "Nasi gorenggg" (fried rice), "satayyyy", etc that your face's stretched to the sides super widely. The pictures turned out... Well, i am tempted to burn them. But it's so expensive (EUR 38 per couple, one couple photo and one group photo) so i just burried them somewhere in my closet (#Undecided's determined to see it). It's actually worse than my visa photo, i looked like i gained 50 kgs on the FACE instantly. 'Nuff said.

So we really should take the opportunity they provided us to skip taking pictures, we should've just taken the group photo and run. We didn't even know that we HAD to take the picture, we were ushered into the group picture without any question asked and when L asked if we could not take the group photo, the staff got mad and gave us an attitude. Horrible service by Dutch staffs twice in one day, fantastic eh? LOL. We didn't know it's a must hello, you could've explained it to us nicely you know, no need to be such a sour b*tch about it really.

My advise is, if you ever go there with a tour group, get dressed up (for fun, you never know how it'll transform you, maybe you'll turn into a garden gnome like me? We could take up a side job guarding and decorating some gardens for money) and take the group picture, then take as many pictures using your own camera as you possibly could. You'd only need to pay for the group picture, trust me it's not worth it to get anymore pictures taken by them*LOL*. I wasn't the only one not satisfied with the result, all the aunties also kept on complaining on how they all looked super round in all the pictures *LOL*.

Here are more "serious" pictures of us, it's so much better than the "professionally taken" ones, like 10000x better.

With this kind of dress and hat, even when i don't smile my face still looked like the moon zzz

HAHAHAHAHAH hunny closed his eyes, and Eek looked like a beer barrel. Or in L's words, sack of rice

Okay that's more than enough humiliation in one day! Moving on! Next is lunch. In the tour package that we took, lunch is not included so we had to feed ourselves. But Kikie kept on offering to book us a place (mostly Chinese food FML), and this time he asked us if we wanted to have a local special lunch. He kept on saying fish but it was fish and chips lah i dunno why he had such hard times just saying fish and chip hahaha. We joined because he kept on saying there were no other restaurants in Volendam, he's lying lah! I obvi saw (and took pictures) outside a seafood store zzzz. Should've never listened to Kikie, he cannot be trusted 90% of the time LOL.

Appetizer was bland soup with tiny shredded noodle hehe.

A closer look :

Had to sprinkle a LOAD of pepper to make to er... tastier a little bit hahaha.

L and Eek on another table

They served boiled vegetables, salad and fried baby potato on bowls and you could take as much as you wanted (the older people didn't  even want to touch the salad *LOL*, but i found it quite nice and refreshing) and then the waitress came back and plopped down huge fish fillets on our plates.

The fish's not bad, but it'd be better if it's warm *LOL*, too big so i had to gave a quarter of it to hunny. I love the potatoes though, yummy! And dessert was even better, just a simple ice cream but not the kind that you can find just anywhere. I think it was home-made? Creamy and milky, and very fattening *LOL*. Who cares about diet when you're on a vacation anyway?

Lunch was at an antique little restaurant, i kinda like the ambience, not the service (obvi) *LOL*. Hunny was still trying to drink when the waitress threw towels in his glass and hustled him out, by saying "Thank you! Goodbye!" but the tone really was like "Go away! Don't come back!" LOLOLOL.

Hunny being bustled away by aunty waitresses haha

We were given more free time to roam around while waiting for the pictures to be developed. We went further down the street, found more (smaller) souvenir shops, instantly regreted buying the klomp keyring at the first store because they sold klomp keyring sets here, much cheaper! But then again, the material and color of the first keyring was better than the latter, we did bought two sets on the second store for souvenirs (for friends and employees both).

Told you, there were a lot more older people there than youngsters, i only saw a few young-ish people who worked at the photo studio and the biggest souvenir shop

 Now let's go to the Cheese Store/Museum!

They said cheese factory but it's not lah, it's a fake factory haha. See the writing on the the huge fake cheese, it's a factory demonstration museum. First floor was more of a store than demonstration museum :p.

I also packed and shopped for new clothes for hunny to wear, his was probably 50% all new? Haha

Wah, nice bridge! Must cam-whore!

One with hunny

And one with L haha

Then we went downstairs to see more of the factory demonstration parts :).

OMG, more cam-whoring spots! My fave picture :

HAHAHAHA!

Heeled booties' a real torture so whenever i see a place to sit, i park my ass off lor, to ease the pain a bit haha

Ohhh nom-nom-nom!

Gimmie!

I didn't know they'd put the cheese on water, and didn't know it'd foat!

Milking cow hahaha it had real squeezable nipples OMG!

If it was real cheese i wouldn't be able to do this i think hahahaha

We were at the museum for so long, it was almost time to board the bus! And we haven't even taken any pictures at the harbour! So we ran like mad to take a few *mostly using Eek's, only had one on mine*.

We were running late, and i hate being late so i began running like a mad person lah zzz... L and Eek were walking more leisurely and soon, they were left very faraway behind. L then tried calling me, i suspected that she saw more members of our group still behind so she wanted me to slow down, but i was too far anyway so i just board the bus anyway. I think we were a bit late but almost nobody's in the bus yet *LOL*. Well, i always prefer to be early than late anyway.

Couldn't bring real tulips home so i just bought a EUR 0.90 wooden one hahaha

It's still halfway through the day and i've written (and uploaded so much photos) already, better stop now okay! Part two would be about the rest of the day and if you love flowers then you'd love part two, so keep on tuning in (even if you don't you still have to) hahaha!

#Pink