Home, sweet home…

…but having to wok again tomorrow :( (while I was typing it; the day in question is Tuesday, July 7th)Me don’t wanna… Been feeling like crap at work lately and think that things haven’t changed a freaking thing, so after 3 weeks of no stress and relaxation: it’s back to stress again! which is really unnecessary, we know what needs to be done, but it’s the boss who’s stressed. I am doing my work the best I can and customers rarely complain, on the contrary, I get more compliments and all. But I’m still told that my work ain’t fast enough (behind the cash register) and I am too chatty to the customers. But the thing is, some customers prefer to stand in my line just because  I am this chatty and interested in them as a person. But well, he seems more concerned about money than the customers and I think that is not too good. He’s changed and I truly feel like I just don’t fit there anymore. But I do believe I mentioned this before… I am just dreading tomorrow…

OK, back to my/our vacation. You might have seen all the pictures that I will be using in my more detailed blogs that are to follow/come now. But this time, you’ll actually will be able to read what exactly you’ve been looking at. This holiday report will come in more parts since it’s just not achievable to post it all in one post. And it would be way too biggie for the blog to be read and maybe to handle as well. So you are currently reading part 1 of many *winks*. For those who wish to check out all the pictures, here once again, the link: Bavaro Holiday Pictures 2009.

 
On our way in the train, packed and ready for a vacation!

We had to get up early on Saturday the 13th of June. Around 6 am we were all up and running already, seeing we had to catch the train that was leaving from Nijmegen at 7:50 (around that time, I believe). And so we would drive our van to Nijmegen, where we would pick up my mum. Then drive on to the train station and from there, my mum would drive the van back to their house and park it there. So she would ne able to use it, if it were needed. And it would not stand in front of our house, unguarded for 3 whole weeks. George was in full stress mode, as he always is before finally going to easy up when at the airport. Grr, it’s so irritating and I know he does behave like that every time and I keep getting frustrated with him every time as well. But all in all, we did arrive at my mum’s in time and we were in time at the station as well. We even could post a letter that George needed to post before he could go on vacation, so all went well.

Luckily, now a days the train to the Schiphol Airport is starting in Nijmegen and ends at Schiphol. So we’re first in, last out, which can be very easy when carrying along a whole lot of bags. Seeing they always put in a double train (seating up and down, easy with big bags…) which have not a whole lot of special storage room for big bags and all. But we found a good spot, easy to reach and were on our way to the Airport.

Breakfast/brunch/lunch at the McDonalds @ Schiphol Airport

After arriving at the airport, we gave away our train ticket to two very lucky (or so we thought) Americans. Seeing we had a 2 person day ticket, which could be used for train transportation ALL that day. We would not be using it anymore, so I asked a couple of people who were almost ready to buy tickets. The first couple did not really understand but the second ones did and so they received my and George’s ticket and they could travel by train for free for the remainder of that day.

When we were checking in, we got a trainee so it took a bit longer than usual. Then we went through customs, got our ID’s checked and we were ready to wait, until boarding time was there. We went to our normal waiting area, the McDonalds area, and got ourselves some seats. Joyce and I got some food and George got a snack roll and coffee. Then we went ok to the shops, and I bought a laptop set, including a card reader and mini-mouse. Since we forgot to bring a card reader and it would be easy to make a back-up of all our pictures while on vacation. We checked out some more shops until it was time to head for the second (and final) security check and boarding after the final check.

 
George grabbing our carry on bags after our toilet brake

At the last security check, there is a metal detector which you have to go through. Of course I went off and got checked inside and out. I had my hip card with me, so they could see that I have a prostatic hip and there for would buzz all the time. After 5 minutes of checking I was allowed to go through. Then there was the ticket check and after that, you were in the waiting room and finally within reach of the toilets again! Joyce and I went, while George was watching the bags.

Our Martinair plane that would take us to Puerto Plata & Punta Cana

This plane was the one we’d be in for a whole lot of hours, before we will finally get out at Punta Cana Airport. They were still pumping kerosene when we were waiting before we were allowed to board the plane. There weren’t enough seats so we set down on the ground near the entry towards the plane. This was not a too bright idea, because this way, we were in the plane early and (almost) all those people who were previously occupying all the seats had to pass us to get to their seats… So we planned to get in at the last time possible for our way back.

 
Grabbing our seats, aisle 6

We were allowed to board at 13:10. At 14:00 we were served our meal already, veggie pasta and (well, or, you had to chose one) chicken with mushrooms. I had the pasta, Joyce & George the chicken. Around 14:30 (Dutch time, which is in zone GMT +1, in case you were wondering) we were almost above London, UK.

Because we had “Comfort class” seats, we also got a DigEplayer, which had many movies and some TV-shows on it for us to enjoy. I watched the last “X-files” movie and both George and Joyce played “The curious case of Benjamin Button”, which I watched along as well (while watching my own movie). After the X-files, I watched “WallE”and then 3 different series episodes: Boston Legal, How I met your mother & Gilmore Girls.

At 20:07 (Dutch time) we were somewhere across the Atlantic Ocean. We had already passed about 4115 kilometers (around 2175 miles, I believe) and still needed to fly 2285 kilometers (around 1425 miles) before landing in Puerto Plata. Seeing we first would make a stop there and then load passengers that were on their way to Amsterdam. Then head for Punta Cana where we would depart and more people heading for Amsterdam would take our old seats. We flew around 910 kilometers per hour, which would roughly be 570 miles an hour. And at an altitude of 10.400 meters, where the temperature was minus 46 degrees Celsius.

Feels good to have such a kit on board, doesn’t it?

The “Ex-Mexico kit” was in one of our overhead storage lockers. I quickly made a picture before they closed it up again. It really gives you a warm feeling inside. Not too warm though, you never know if they might think that you’ve got it…

The Airport

Here we are, finally in Punta Cana. It's still light, even though for us, it was already around 23:00, Dutch time. But seeing the DR is in GMT -5 time zone, it was only around 17:00 there...

Waiting for our bags @ Punta Cana Airport

We took a small stroller, which we thought would come in handy for our suitcases and bags. But when we finally got them all and they were all on it, they told us after walking about 50 meters, that we were not allowed to take it any further along. And of course, there were already bag carriers trying to zoom in on our luggage to make a few bucks. But seeing we are Dutch, we quickly took our own bags and headed for the Neckermann check-in. There they told us we needed bus number 19. And that is was located somewhere near the back of the parking lot. Well, yeah, it was almost in the back alright! The first stop would be at our hotel, the IFA Villas Bávaro.

The cart that would bring us to our room, 1208

When we arrived, I went with the vouchers to the desk to check-in. George and Joyce were getting the bags and suitcases. We got our towel cards, our keycard for the room and then our stuff was loaded onto a small cart. When the carriage and cart were fully loaded, they noted all the room numbers and we were slowly on our way to our room. There the driver took my suitcase, tried to kill it on the pavement towards the room and Joyce even rewarded him $ 5,- for it… We were all dead tired! So we opened up our bags, took what we needed and got ready to call it a night!

So now, we’re finally in our room for our first night in the Dominic Republic.

I hope you enjoyed my “diary” so far. Today, by the way, I had my first day of work and all welt quite OK. Partly because the boss wasn’t around all the time, which kept the working floor easy going, non stressed and all the work got done in no time, no time at all *smile*.

I will start working on a follow op diary blog post about our vacation to the DR. I also made a small video already, which I will upload to my YouTube asap and then, of course, add in the following diary blog post!

TTFN, Cynni xxx