Mostly Lucky Lately

*Disclaimer: This is a pre-post about how I met R&B, soul Hip-Hop singer Anthony Hamilton, got invited to his show, and got to see him and Maxwell (singer-songwriter) perform live the very next day* This may be in the next post

I realize that I just spoiled the excitement of this post, but read on for the fun details, and to read about my actual trip in Amsterdam as well! It's always a good time to fly with me, and hang out with me on layovers! 

So! I am a firm believer that I do not possess the best luck; but, due to recent life events, I have learned that I simply have cool luck.

Right after I worked a trip to Amsterdam for my birthday, I turned around a worked another trip right back to The Netherlands just three days later. Thinking this would be an easy in and out trip, I swapped with a friend and hopped on. The friend that I swapped with wanted to have A-days (which at my airline, these are our reserve days) instead of a trip. This friend is also married to one of my favorite people, so I happily swapped to help him out so that he could have the same A-days as she did. 

The ONLY down fall about taking his Amsterdam trip is that it was an earlier report to begin the trip and a really early pick up from the hotel to leave back out. The bright side: I would be getting back to my home base before noon. And anyone that knows me, knows that I love early releases from my trips because it gives me more time to enjoy my day, get errands done, meal prep, and best of all: see my beautiful girlfriend. 

Let's get started, shall we? 

I walk into the lounge of my base, where I begin all of my trips. I head to a computer to manually sign in (since my little work issued tablet didn't want to verify my location of actually being in the lounge that the time). Being on time in my job industry is extremely important, so I rushed to a computer. I arrived to work with 25 minutes before my check in, but I still like to be overly safe.

As I sit down at the computer, I notice one of my really good friends is in the lounge. He casually engages in conversation with me about where I am flying to, and I then tell him I'm headed back to Amsterdam. He makes a joke and says, "Wouldn't it be crazy if we were working the trip together?" I laughed it off, thinking about how I'm never one of those lucky flight attendants who gets to fly with their friends. 

Since I'm already at the lounge computer, I decide to pull up my trip rotation, and look at my other crew member's names so that I could properly greet everyone at the briefing. What do I notice when I inspect everyone's name? My good friend's name! Turns out that his joke about working together, was his funny way of letting me know that we actually were flying together! For a flight attendant, being able to fly with a good friend makes all the difference for a trip. It's at this moment that you realize the flight is about to be energetic and happier than it already would be, the layover will be adventurous, and the memories are about to be phenomenal. 

So, my good friend and I head to briefing together, check in for the trip, meet our other crew members, and head on up to the gate to get ready to board and take off to Amsterdam! 

The flight itself was a great time. We spent it laughing, and we actually bid for working positions that had us in the same cabin together for both flights, and we worked the same cart together in the main cabin. Fabulous! 

On to the exciting stuff: 

We get to Amsterdam, check into our hotel rooms, decide to nap for about 4-5 hours, meet up in the lobby, and go explore the town. During our day of exploration we bumped into friends from training who are based in other cities, went shopping, went to a Dutch casino, went to an amazing boutique (where I found a phone case I have been wanting FOREVER-I'll make a separate post about it), had great beer, ate plenty of food, walked through the infamous Red Light District and uh...we went to a sex museum. When in Amsterdam, right? 

Picture time!

What do you do when you walk into a random Arcade in Amsterdam? You play and attempt to pose while doing so. I am a better gamer than I am model. I am a deep rooted geek with no shame. 

Trying the Burger Bar for the first time in downtown Amsterdam

As I said, we went to a sex museum. 

Heres the Richmond&Finch case that I bought for 40 Euro. I do not regret this. #treatyoself

Red Words:
1. Rotation- Another word for flying/trip schedule or itinerary in the airline industry
2. Briefing- A meeting of crew members before we head up to the gate and aircraft. Here we discuss important topics such as safety concerns, pilot information, etc. No I will never disclose briefing locations. They vary 
3. Girlfried-if you haven't figured out by now that I am dating a woman, shame on you!