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The Europe Tour 2000-2001 >
Den Bosch, The Netherlands |
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Kandice and I arrived in Den Bosch two trains after leaving Amsterdam. The first train was so packed, we had to stand for the first half of the trip, then got to sit on some makeshift seats by the door for the second half. The second train was almost empty, so we managed to get some nice and comfortable seats! Upon arriving at the hotel, we checked in and pretty much went right to sleep! Both of us were exhausted (her from her flight, and me from not having slept since two nights before!). I woke up a few hours later and had to go to work, and Kandice stayed asleep :P. Well, she woke up just in time to give me a goodbye hug and a kiss :). This part of work ranks as the worst and most ridiculous day I have spent at work in a while. We had just finished a loadout less than 12 hours before and travelled to a new city and were now in unloading trucks. Okay, that's not the bad part, I understand that.
OK, enough of that rant!! Anyway, after we finished unloading trucks, we put the lighting grid together, minus cables and gak. Just the grid. In fact, I said that's all I would do. I had Kandice in town and wanted to spend time with her, not be stuck at work the whole time. It was already looking like I would be at work the whole time she was here, so any time I had I wanted to use!! When I got home from work, Kandice had just gotten up. We took a shower, then came out to talk for a while. A long and very emotional talk which got us connected again (no, not like that, guttermind!). When we finally settled down, we decided to go in search of some food. Well, I was hungry, she wasn't, so we went in search of food for me! :) We found the only place in Den Bosch open serving food, a little Kebab shop down the shopping street. After a good meal, we headed back and went to bed. Thursday morning I had to get up at 5am to be in the lobby by 5:30am. I went to work and we managed to load in quite fast. A very easy day really. I even had time to relax before the show, which is very unusual! After the show I returned home to see Kandice and found that she already had a visitor, Erik. I knew she had some friends here in Holland from the online chat we use (where we met incidentally), so I knew they'd be around. I took a shower then we went went to a pub down the street for a few drinks. Erik had to leave, so Kandice and I finished our drinks then went back home to bed. The next day was a 3 show day for me, so I had to be at work early again. Kandice went to Rotterdam with a few of her friends while I was at work. My day was just a normal day. When I got home I found a note saying "We are at the pub, meet us there." I arrived to find Kandice with Erik and another friend Petros. We chatted for a while until they had to leave, the Kandice and I joined a friend of mine from work who was going to another pub. We got there and ran into about 5 others from work, and Kandice became the life of the party, being the flirty type she is ;). I thought it was very amusing. She just makes life so fun :). Once neither of us could drink any more, we returned home to bed. Yet again on Saturday, I had 3 shows. Kandice again went to Rotterdam with her friends. However, when I got home there was no ign of her, no note, and no message on the phone. I was just a little worried, although I figured she was nearby and in safe company. Well, after half an hour I really began to worry. I was pacing around the room wondering what to do. About that time the phone rang and she was on the other end on her way back from BELGIUM. OK, whatever!! She finally got back quite a bit later. We were both hungry so we decided to order pizza. OK, ordering pizza in Den Bosch after 11pm is a real chore! Domino's was closed, and every other place we called was closed. So we asked the front desk and they gave us a place to try. Open! Yay! But they don't speak any English at all. Damn! So we had the front desk order us two pizzas. Pepperoni pizzas, not that difficult. The front desk guy knew what we meant and ordered it. About 45 minutes later, we get two pizzas. No pepperoni. Just red pepper, green pepper, onion, and something else. We tried to catch the delivery guy, but missed him. We had the frint desk guy call them back and clea rthe order up. They claimed that what we got was a Pizza Pepperoni. That was the name of it, so we were at fault. So the front desk guy tried to explain what we wanted. He knew what pepperoni was, they had NO CLUE. He even tried to explain it, and they were just lost. Finally he got the idea through, we thought. We got another pizza, which they tried to charge us for. We refused to pay. When we opened it, it also did not have pepperoni on it, but spring onions!!!! ARGH!!! We handed it back to the delivery guy, who told us we had to pay for it, we said no thanks take it back. He was not happy, but he took it back. Is a pepperoni pizza really THAT difficult??? I had NO problems ordering from Domino's in Holland before, and they called it pepperoni. Oh well. So I didn't mind the other pizza. Kandice had to peel everything off and just eat the crust with some cheese on it. After we finished, we decided to get some sleep. Sunday was a two show day, both early shows because it was New Years Eve. Kandice came to work with me today so she could see the show and hang out with me the friends she had made from my work. After the shows, we returned to the hotel to get ready for the evening. Once we took a nap, it was kind of late to meet the group that was leaving for the dinner we had planned (almost everyone in the cast signed up). So we decided we would meet them there. NOTE-TO-SELF: NEVER TAKE DIRECTIONS FROM A SKATER! We followed the directions to the restaurant we were given and ended up on the opposite side of the city. It turns out they meant to take a right out of the OTHER side of the hotel...the side I didn't even know existed because it's always closed during the hours I'm at the hotel! After about half an hour of searching, we finally found the restaurant, and arrived just after they had finished taking orders for the whole group. Therefore, we got our order in with everyone else without any waiting. In fact, while some people had to wait for all the orders to be taken and thus waited an hour for their food, we waited about 15 minutes! Perfect! Afterwards, we returned to the hotel for an AMAZING New Years Eve party put together by a few of the skaters. Even the people who had said they wouldn't attend becuase they wanted to do something better stayed for the whole thing. There were only about 5 people from the show not there! So we partied for hours and at the stroke of midnight I embraced Kandice for a wonderful New Years kiss...one of the best!! After a few more hours we decided to return to the room to continue the New Years fun. The second we walked in the room, however, she passed out. So I went to sleep as well! Monday, I woke up just in time to get to work on time. Kandice stayed asleep, still reeling from the night before. I did two shows then the fastest loadout of this show to date. I returned home to a sleepy Kandice at about 3:30am. While I packed my stuff (all nicely folded already, thank you honey! *kiss*), she read her book. When I was finally done, we went to bed to spend our last night together, knowing we had to leave the hotel at 7:00am for the airport. At 8:53am, we woke up. NOTE-TO-SELF: NEVER PUT KANDICE IN CHARGE OF WAKE UP CALL. :) Sorry, honey! Her flight left from Amsterdam in just an hour and 20 minutes and we were still in bed! Amsterdam is at least an hour away. No chance. But we gave it our best shot. We very quickly ot ready and jumped in a taxi to the airport. We arrived at 10:16, her flight having left at 10:15. Now what to do? We went to the ticket counter, and after lots of back and forth with every flight being booked for the next few days, we got her onto a flight, but it was the next day. I had to leave this afternoon, so we had to think of something to do with her. She called her friends here and found a place to stay for the night. They came and picked her up, and after a long, tight hug and a kiss, I had to watch her leave, possibly for the last time (for those who don't know, we have been broken up for a while, but I am trying to make things right). After she left I bawled my eyes out for a while, then hooked up with a friend of mine who was also at the airport, just having sent his girlfriend home. I quickly checked into my flight so I could avoid the long lines later when the rest of the group showed up. Then we went and found some food to eat, and I made my way to the gate to wait for the rest of the group to arrive. A funny episode at the gate... There was a woman sitting there waiting, and after about 15 minutes, she asked me what time it was. I looked at my watch and told her it was 1:30. She said, "Well, my ticket says my flight leaves at 13:30. What time is that?" I said that was 1:30, so she put two and two together and replied, "So my flight leaves right now?" And she looked out the window to see her plane pulling away from the gate. She had been there as her flight boarded and left, not having any idea!! So she said, "Oh, well, I guess that's my plane pulling away. Hmmm." And she left. After about an hour, the rest of the group showed up, and we boarded the plane, headed for Stockholm, Sweden. |
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