It’s a bright June afternoon…

…it never gets dark, wah-wah, here comes the sun.

Yes everyone, you have reached the second part (of how many, I don’t know yet) of my vacation diary. So far, I’ve only managed to tell you almost all there was to tell about Saturday, June 13th, the day of our departure from Amsterdam and our arrival in Punta Cana.
And I’d like to thank Gin for commenting on so many Photobucket pictures *smiles*. Thanks gall!

Here is a small “vid” I made (very quickly, I must add) of some vids and pictures. Enjoy!

Punta Cana, video 1

Sunday, June 14th 2009

Our room

Since we went to bed on Saturday around 9pm. we all were awake before 6am the following morning. I texted Wimpy, a Belgian Tour operator in Punta Cana, whom we contacted before we went on vacation. I informed him about our room number, since he already knew the hotel and duration of our stay. Around 6:50 the phone rang in our room. Joyce was our assistant and picked up the phone. It was Wimpy. If it would be possible for us to meet him around 7:15 in front of our hotel to plan the first tour. So we all got dressed and were there in time. While we were waiting, some people even thought that George was the “famous Belgian from the internet”. Hihi… when we met Wimpy, we made a deal that he’d call again on Wednesday, since we wanted to wait a few days before planning our first tour. We wanted to get adjusted to the time difference, the weather and above all, the sun.

Our beds

After meeting with Wimpy we quickly went to have breakfast. It was almost 13:30, Dutch time, so we were naturally quite hungry. There was a lot to chose from and we enjoyed every bite!

After that, we went around the park for a stroll. To check out what was where and above all: to find the beach!

The beach @ the IFA hotel

There Joyce and I checked out the water, by standing in it till knee height. The sand was not sharp and the water was really delightful. After a while we went back, took a quick peek in the fitness area at the spa. Then we went back to our room, changed into bathing clothing, grabbed towels, a ball, books and went towards the biggest pool. So that we were close by the reception, because of our welcome meeting with the Neckermann dude.

Joyce and me in the warm sea

We thought we had our welcome meeting at 10:30. But later, it turned out, it wasn’t until 10:45. After some info about the country, the sales talk started. We just nodded and checked out what we already were planning with Wimpy. We did not mention Wimpy’s name though. After that, we went to the guest service desk because our toilet refused to flush in a normal way. In the DR, the toilets are not designed to flush away the toilet paper as well. So we guess the people before us dumped their paper in there and when we did it too (since no one mentioned this fact to us until the next day)…it was getting quite stuck… We informed the people at the guest desk and later on we told our house keeper as well. At the end of the afternoon, it got fixed.

The rest of the afternoon was first spend at the big pool, where we ate some pizza slices and enjoyed some drinks. After a while we went closer to our room, to the Jacuzzi's. There we enjoyed the shade, some drinks and even a book.

Around 18:30 we went for our dinner. We believe the waiters and waitresses in the dining hall are allergic to (almost) empty glasses. Before you could finish the last drip, they were asking if you wanted a new drink already. After dinner we went to our room, where we read some, played some GameBoy/PSP and around 9pm we went to sleep.

Monday, June 15th 2009

George forgot to turn off the sounds of his cell phone, which made it go off between 2 and 3am. It was between 7 and 8 in the Netherlands, so quite a normal time… Luckily, George turned his cell off and after a while I fell asleep again. I woke around 6:30. It’s hard to get adjusted to the new time zone and the climate as well. Since we went to sleep quite early, it’s not strange that we woke quite early as well. We got dressed and grabbed all our beach stuff. Since we wanted to have some nice shady places, we were planning on heading straight to the beach after breakfast.

When we got all we needed, we went towards the dining hall. There was a cart passing along, which we went on towards the reception. George bumped his head again, just like the first night we arrived, to the metal frame that’s holding up the cart’s roof. After breakfast, Joyce and I went to the toilet and George used our towel cards to get us 3 hotel towels to take along to the beach.

We found 3 nice places on the beach, which we later traded for even better places. We made some pictures, some of which can be seen below this text *winks*.

George & Joyce enjoying the sea

George & Joyce with the palm trees

My feet in the sand, while sitting on my beach bed

We played with the ball in the lovely warm ocean and we grabbed some drinks at the “Club de Playa” beach bar / restaurant. Joyce and I read our books and George was busy playing Tetris while we were on our beach chairs.

Early afternoon we headed towards the pools. It was way too hot to stay in the sun at the beach all the time. Joyce, George and I tried to walk bare footed towards the pools, but after a while we definitely needed our slippers! It was so freaking hot that you could almost hear your feet sizzle when you stood still for half a second too long.

We found some decent shaded places at the big pool, placed our towels there and headed towards the diner for lunch. Seeing our egg-chef sometimes used a “bit too much salt”, I already used my Spanish small travel dictionary to see if I could find the correct words to tell our chef to use just a little bit of salt. This would be: “poco la sal”. And he did understand it *smile*.

When I was in the “pasta line” there was a German chick behind me. We had a small conversation and she seemed quite nice. Actually, she was quite nice, her girlfriend (or just friend, we aren’t sure) was just a big b*tch… Interested? Just keep reading, hihi…

After lunch, it was just too hot at the pool, so George said we should go back to the Jacuzzi's. They have a screen over them, which provides some shades in the Jacuzzi’s. So we grabbed our stuff and went back to bubbles.

George and me in one of the Jacuzzi's

Because I was not feeling all too well, I took the key to the room and went back there alone. I rushed to the toilet and felt sand everywhere… So I took a quick shower after that. And then, back to the bubbles. After some drinks, the sun was getting a bit lower again, and we went back to the big pool. There, George found his water shoes back, which he forgot when we left the big pool earlier that day.

Eating a pizza slice

After a slice of pizza, Joyce and I went in the pool and threw our ball and enjoyed a drink. The German gall I met earlier that day was at the pool bar with her female friend. They were getting quite drunk and it was quite funny. After a while, a lot of men were made quite happy. The galls were so drunk, they were kissing and flirting on the pool bar and after a while, they were even topless… George was a happy man *winks*.

The drinks @ IFA

After a while we left the pool to dry and enjoy some more drinks, while watching the girls getting quite an audience. And I made some pictures of George & Joyce near the big fountain.

George & Joyce @ the big fountain @ the big pool

After a while we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. Change clothes and all. Then we went to dinner. After dinner we saw the German girls again. The one I chatted with earlier was most sober and still quite nice. But that friend really got a hangover and was being a total b*tch! It was very bad German language she was using and I did have to refrain myself from not saying something nasty back in German. As I do know some not very nice German phrases… The nice gall kept apologizing and after a while we went back to our room.

George playing with my PSP

Joyce and I wrote in our vacation journal and George played some more on my PSP. Around 9:30pm we closed our eyes for another night in Punta Cana.

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

Back home again

Hello everyone,

we're back home! The trip went OK, though not being able to sleep in a plane is not funny at all and when I start counting the hours, I've been up for almost 33 hours straight now, which also means that I'll be heading for my own bed soon! Luckily I have tomorrow off from work, seeing I'd be broken for sure if I would have been broken tomorrow morning at work otherwise...

I just uploaded all my pictures, and George's as well, to the external hard drive and I rotated all. I am currently uploading about 100 pictures that Wimpy made during our "Caribic Tour" that we took with him. Just follow the well known (by now) link to see the new additions!

Will be blogging soon (I hope) about all that we did during those 3 weeks. And I will need to catch up with my friend's blog posts as well for sure!

Off to brush my teeth now and getting ready for some well earned sleep!

TTFN, xxx Cynni

Last picture upload from the DR

Hello everyone,

I am informing you, that I am currently uploading the last pictures of our holiday. The day after tomorrow we´ll be heading home again, so the next blog/upload will be from my own comfortable (and less expensive) PC again!

You already know the link to the pictures, but for those who are to "lazy" to click the link in a previous post, here it is again: Bavaro Pictures.

See ya all when we get back on Sunday!

Loads of love and huggies,
Cynni xxx

More pictures @ Photobucket

Hello everyone,

at this moment I am uploading 109 new pictures to my Photobucket account!
If you'd like to check it, just follow this link: Bavaro holiday pictures

Thanks to the people who wrote a comment on my previous post :)

The weather has it's up's and downs here, and as we learned during our Eco tour yesterday, there are more things here that are more down than up besides the weather... But I will get to that when I am home again, and will be posting our vacation blogs. Then I will also use some of the pictures that are avalible at my Photobucket. So then you will know exaclty what you've been looking at before :) But as written before, I'll do that when we're home again and when I've got the time then to do so.

Today it's around 28 degrees Celcius, with clouds covering the sun every now and then, but no rain (yet). That's what you get in the rain season. But no complaints seeing we've got more good than bad days here. Even I am getting a slight tan... Or should I say a light tan, compared to some people around here who see the sun and are instantly part of the DR color wise???

Hasla la vista baby!
I am off now, so Joyce can use some of the time to edit her blog as well.

I'll be back before you know it!!!

Luv,
Cynni xxx

Dominic Republic

Hello everyone,

I received some text messages saying that people were checking my blog and they were disappointed that there were no pictures online... Since we don´t have much time here, I will quickly post a link to the pictures that I have already uploaded to my Photobucket account.

DR - Bavaro, Villas Resort & Spa

Enjoy viewing! More details will come later people!

TTFN, Cynni xxx

Just a quick one

Sorry, since I am posting this with my cellphone, I can't add a music video, so no "musical attachment" or title this time.

I did pack the biggest part of my suitcase. It's 18 kilo's now, am allowed 23. So I can even still use the small bits of spaces that are left, if needed. We did already pack a bag with old shirts and some pants, some pencils and paper stuff. Seeing many people in the DR lost all they had during the hurricane season last year, Wimpy (a Dutch touroperator on DR) asked if we could bring some old tshirts for the local population. And seeing we'll be doing a tour with him during which we'll visit a local school, he asked us to bring some pencils and all. Seeing we are all allowed two pieces of luggage, weighing 23 kilo's each (I've never been allowed to bring THAT much on a plain!), we'll take an extra suitcase with those clothes and all. I am thinking on buying some more pencils on Friday, seeing I have the day off then and we've only spend about 5 euro's so far... I guess if we're taking a trip like this, we could spend at least 5 euro's each to help out a poor children's school. So when we take Chance to my parents on Friday and visit the GWK (to get some dollars), I will drag Joyce along one more time to buy some stuff for the school!

My tummy's still not feeling OK and I've been typing this whole message while on the toilet (yeah you've always wanted to know that haha!), my legs start falling asleep and I should send this post and get off...

So just another small update. Will go to bed, watch some DVD and then hopefully (finally) sleep well for a change...

TTFN
Cynni xxx

Make every whisper turn into a scream…

…I wish I could fly… © Roxette

Today was another long day at work, from 7:30 till 17 (again!). Work went kind OK though, but the hours seemed to go way to slow. Around 15:30, I felt really hot and dizzy and not a bit nauseated. And because of this, I started to get a headache as well. But I held on till 17 and then quickly went home. I ate some dry bread (roasted) with bouillon and now I am here, posting.

I’d like to thank all my dear friends who have been supporting me the last few days! Thanks everyone, it really helps to know I got you to fall back on to when the going gets though.

I am a bit too tired to write a whole, long post. And I don’t have a lot of interesting stuff to tell. Only that, if Joyce succeeds this Friday morning in getting the tickets, she and Steph and I will see Rammstein live in Arnhem, on December 6th. I am really hoping she can log in in time to get 3 tickets. I just want seats though, no boots against my head! Haha!

Some good news though, before I go ahead and post this blog already: I will pack my suitcase in a few minutes…

Much love and many hugs, will keep you updated!
TTFN, Cynni xxx