From Archive: "how to..."

...fly to Schiphol, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Take a train towards Leiden. Forget to get off the train there, reach Den Haag before realising it. Take the next train back to Leiden. Get off the train there (and not continue to Amsterdam by mistake) and manage to get on a bus to Noordwijk aan Zee.

Find the Mitchbi and get a room there. Drink too much Kwak. Forget your red pills back in Sweden. Visit the ESTEC medical center. Run around Katwijk looking for a pharmacy you know is somewhere there. Borrow money from your friend in order to pay for stuff. Share a small bed with the same friend. Go from being asleep to being on the bus in 5 minutes. Lose a jacket. Almost miss the bus when going to the airport. Get stuck on an airport in Copenhagen (!?!) on a travel from Amsterdam to Stockholm, 4 hours due to a snow storm...

All this in a bit less than 4 intense days. You can make this happen if you are like Axel were.

Miss you dear
R.I.P

From Archive: "...lose someone at the Flying Pig"

One of these stories I once archived.
From my old very "closed" blog, that is.

This story is also from when me and my Greek sis (Irini) met for the first time.
One December in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

*** *** ***

Can you lose someone at the Flying Pig, Noordwijk aan Zee, the Netherlands?

In fact, you can. Trust me. If you haven't been there, at this particular the Flying Pig (also known as the Crazy Big to some of us) then just let us say that the place is really really small...

But - put in something like 70++ people in that small place and give it a try. Suddenly it is all possible! Also do throw in a Friday party with vodka shots (in plastic cups, not shot glasses), loads of beer & a bottle of Martini. Add a week almost without sleep and there you go.

I had the front door key. Irini had the room key. The other full set of keys were long gone. This with "one room, two sets of keys, three people" is back again!
End of the night, bar closes. People still around, drinking whatever they managed to order before the bar closed. We suddenly decide that it's time to go home, flights are leaving early next morning. I leave for getting my jacket. Irini talks with some people. Then we didn't really manage to find each others again. Ended up with us leaving separately.
Irini without key to the house, she did find some others that could let her in though.
I left with some other people, were still talking to them, being halfway to the hotel, when Irini managed to get hold of me on the phone...

Our situation with the keys made this entire trip to the NL even more interesting. A lot of doors are (surprise!) locked in the middle of the night and people are (surprise!) sleeping...

*lala-la-la*

By some reason, after some more of these evenings, I always get a key of my own when I stay at the Mitchbi.

Mark: sorry for all the nights we had to no other choice than to wake you up in the middle of the night (at 2:30 or so) in order to get back into the hotel...

From Archive: "when me and my Greek sis met..."

One of these stories I once archived.
From my old very "closed" blog, that is.

This story is from when me and my Greek sis (Irini) met for the first time.
One December in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

*** *** ***

Irini: "So when does your flight land? Perhaps we can meet at the airport and go to Noordwijk together?"
Me: "Half past twelve or so."
Irini: "Your time or Dutch time?"
Me: "Dutch time is my time too."
Irini: "Really? Okok, then I'll wait for you guys!"

In fact this conversation took place couple of days before we went there, we did meet at the airport (the Greek and the three Swedish). Managed to get ourselves to Noordwijk aan Zee and the Mitchbi, our home for the week. Found out that Irene and I were to share room during the week. Room number 1 at Nora's. One room. Two sets of keys. Three people. Can you see the problems coming...?
Sunday. Irini and I took the beds next to each others, they were like 10-15 cm apart...On the bathroom list for the next morning were: me, Irini and then Annelie (our roomie).

"Rrrrring" - Monday morning. Irini's phone goes off. She turns it off and then gently hits me couple of times on the arm, saying something like "Weren't you supposed to get up before me? What happened with your alarm?"

So I pick up my phone, puts it back down again and mumbles something like "It's one more hour until we have to get up, let's get back to sleep again!". Irene replied something in line with "Shit, I forgot to change the time on my cellphone! It's still having Greek time!!!"

Time zones...what else can we say? Lovely thing, especially when you kind of forget that you are living in different ones.

From Archive: "I think I will take a dead sheep, ..."

One of these stories I once archived.
From my old very "closed" blog, that is.

This "story" has its origin from back when me and my "Greek sis" (Irini) first met over in Noordwijk one lovely December some years ago.

(Irini: remember Ola? The Swedish guy who were also there at this moment. I randomly ran into him today. At IKEA of all places...)

*** *** ***

"Jag tror jag ska ta ett dött får i en barnvagn och gå längs stranden!"

freely translated into

"I think I will take a dead sheep, put it in a perambulator and then walk along the beach with it!"

So what does this really come from...? Well, see below.

It happened one evening that we went for Kwak & spare ribs (or Kwak & mushroom omelet if you don't eat dead animals) at De Wels, i.e. we had what's now formally known as a "Kwak evening".
At this very moment it was 5 Swedes, 1 Greek & 1 Hungarian "attending"...We got our Kwaks. We got our food. We ate. We drank. We talked. We laughed. By the end of the evening, when we were to leave this place some of us were saying that we just had to go back to the hotel in order to finish some stuff for the next day (Irini: don't we all remember that good old EPS TS!?!?!). Anyway, then one of the guys turns to another and asks (of course in Swedish...) something in line with "...and you, are you joining us to the pub for some more beer or are you joining them back to the hotel being boring, working?"

...and the guy replies "Jag tror jag ska ta ett dött får i en barnvagn och gå längs stranden!" and all of us 5 Swedes started laughing as if we were crazy. We just couldn't stop either...Next to us the Greek and the Hungarian were just staring at us as if we were all mad! Once we eventually managed to stop laughing, we were to explain to them what it was we had been laughing at. Right, good luck! Unfortunately, even if you translate it then you can not turn back time and get the same "moment of opportunity" back - hence it didn't really sound that fun anymore...

Crazy times, crazy times...

colourful leaves

Autumn is coming,
summer is leaving.
Sparkling colours to be found
everywhere.