Date: February 3, 2016
The day that Ryan (RSA) and I would fly off to The Netherlands to enjoy a well-deserved vacation had finally arrived. This was Ryan’s first time in Europe, so I can imagine the excitement.
We first started the day off by visiting a friend and former colleague as it was her birthday and later that day we met at the airport. At the airport we first helped out one customer in the duty free shopping area that had just started using our software. We even took some time to read and write a few mails in the airport lounge, where I made the blunder of wrongly sending an email to the wrong person, but let’s not get into that.
As night fell it was time to board. The flight as usual feels never-ending. I think we played a few games on an iPad, maybe even some shut eye, but eventually we landed.
Patrick and Raymill had to go to work, so Farid, Ryan and I made our way to Farid’s place. He lives with his partner in a very nice apartment with a gorgeous overview of Amsterdam. There we just caught up on life and other chitchat.
After that we went into the city center to do some shopping. It was mid-winter and Ryan needed some winter gear. Also we have planned to do a road trip throughout Europe, so we needed to make sure no one was about to catch a cold.
At night time we decided to go all out the first night. We had some drinks on the couch of Farid’s rented apartment, which he never even slept in and only still rented it so Ryan and I had a place to sleep. This was quite an emotional evening as the alcohol did its work and tears started to flow as things that were bottled up were laid on the table. Not exactly for me, because as you know I am very frigid, but we laid all cards on the table and discussed the whole issue of the group of friends that was slowly falling apart.I will not repeat the things said, but I think we all needed that to mend things again. We all understood each other’s own personal struggles a lot better and were able to move on.
But the day wasn’t over yet as we still needed to shock Ryan in the red light district.
I regret not filming the reaction on his face when he saw his first “ladies of the night” under the red lights, behind those glass doors. That was hilarious… from what I can remember.
I think we bar-hopped in the city until we almost started falling asleep in the bars. I remember doing shots with a hot American, entering a very sleazy bar that was another culture shock for Ryan and then we knew it was time to head home. For the sake of alcohol we took public transport and made our way to the rented apartment and Farid went to his living place. We were about to meet up again the next day.
