My Girlfriend and I left Mexico 3 days ago on our way back to Ireland, but if you have read my last post you will know that, to get to Ireland it was best for us to travel to The Netherlands and get a flight to Ireland a few days later. So that is what we did.
Now I'll tell you all about how the first part of our travels went and how our short time in The Netherlands is going so far.
On the 17th, we flew from Cancun to Brussels. We arrived at Cancun airport maybe a bit too early because we just wanted to be there and not chance missing anything or have to rush through the airport. I guess we could have left it a little bit later and we would have been just fine but if we did I would have been stressing just as much waiting at home so at least we were there with plenty of time.
We waited at the Airport for a few hours before we could even check in and just chilled out with @misslasvegas and one of her sons as they came with us to says our goodbyes. She was great for waiting so long to wave us off. It wasn't the most enjoyable thing to wait around. After about 2/3 hours we finally checked in and then it was time to say our goodbyes and go through security. It was sad to say goodbye and just felt very strange, I've basically lived with them for about 3 years now and it's my Girlfriend's first time being away from her family for a long time. Of course it would have been very hard for @misslasvegas to say goodbye to her eldest child but we will hopefully see them again sooner than later.
After we said our goodbyes and they waved us off, we went through security checks pretty fast, to my surprise. I thought there would be long queues just because of how busy the airport was but nope, straight through. By this time we were so hungry so we made our way to Panda Express to get something to eat and chill out for a while.
After eating we made our way to the gate to wait some more, now we were super tired from all the waiting around and just wanted to be on the plane. To be fair, once we were at the gate it wasn't to long of a wait and we were on the plane. Finally I could relax a bit.
My Girlfriend is a bit of a nervous flyer so I tried my best to comfort her and not let her run right back off the plane. Once we were up in the air though, she got better and was more chilled out. I think it's the initial feeling of taking off that makes her nervous. I'm the one that stresses at the airport but completely fine on the plane and she's fine in the airport but not so much in the plane.
At one part of the journey there was this beautiful view, my gf captured it on her phone:
The flight was about 11 hours and sure felt long but I did manage to sleep a lot of the time to make it go by faster. We got to Brussels on time and we were eager to get our bags and get on the train to Tilburg, The Netherlands but no we were stuck waiting for our bags for about 3 hours. It was ridiculous, but I guess what can you expect when you get one of the cheapest flights.
After hours of waiting we finally got our bag and left as fast as we could. Got some very overpriced Belgium waffles to snack on and headed to the train. It was easy to get to as they have the station right in the airport. Trying to purchase the tickets was a bit confusing but we were directed in the right direction.
We quickly got our tickets and basically ran down to the platform, we only had a few minutes before the train was scheduled to leave and if we missed it we would have had to wait another hour. Luckily we didn't and just hoped we were definitely on the right train. The train was a bit hectic because I had a massive suitcase and couldn’t really sit anywhere so we had to stand near the doorway along with others that had big baggage. We had one change over and thankfully the second train was a lot quieter. It wasn't too long of a journey, about 1 and a half hours.
Finally we made it to Tilburg. We were so happy to get there and chill out from all the madness of travelling. My gf's aunt greeted us and we stopped off at a store to get some groceries on the way back to her house. Our favourite part haha. We were so excited to get some yummy dutch food. Of course @whywhy we had to get some hagelslag and tijger brood.
When we got to her Aunt's house she had made a nice salad with vegan chicken bites that we really appreciated as again we were super hungry. Then we just chilled out and went to bed early which was well needed, we were so exhausted from our trip.
The next day was a lovely sunny day so we decided to go to a swimming pool and try to make the most of our time here. We had planned to go to an inside/outside pool that had a few slides we could have a bit of fun on but when we got there it was closed, even though the website said otherwise. It was a bit disappointing as we were mostly going for the slides but there was an outside swimming pool close by that we went to instead.
This one only had a small slide and a pool for adults and one for kids. Even though it wasn't the one we planned to go to, we still had a really nice time . The water was a lot colder than the pools in Mexico but we got use to it fast enough. We all went on the slide once and of course I had to be the one that got stuck half way and had to end up pulling myself down with my hands haha.
Later we went to McDonalds to get a veggie burger meal that we have missed since we moved, Mcdonalds in Mexico never had any vegetarian options. They actually had a lot of options here and i ended up ordering a veggie chicken Mexican style burger. Ironic really.
After filing our stomachs once again , we checked out a few shops and headed back to the house. Watched some tv and went to sleep pretty early, we are still feeling really tired and getting used to the time difference.
Today the weather isn't as good so we’ve just been chilling out, enjoying some dutch snacks and trying to gain some energy back from travelling.
Thank you for reading :)
Until next time...