I’m currently sitting at the kitchen table at my mother’s cozy house in New York, where I’m spending the holidays on a two-week interlude from my life in Rwanda. Being home with readily available hot water, lightning-fast internet, my little sister Julia, and lots of cheeses has been wonderful. But I had to go through 49 hours of traveling hell to get here. The saga began Friday the 17th, when I arrived at the Kigali airport and was told that all connections onward from Amsterdam were cancelled because of imminent snow storms sweeping Europe.
After weighing the pros and cons of different flight options, I decided to take my chances and get on the original flight to Amsterdam. I accepted the fact that upon arrival in Amsterdam I would be “considered a local passenger with a destination of Amsterdam,” but I planned that I would fight my way onto the next flight to JFK. To make a long story short, my plane arrived late into Amsterdam on Saturday, the airport was a WAR ZONE, I missed the original connection, I spent three hours waiting in wrong lines, I missed a second flight that a kind KLM agent helped book for me, and I ended up sleeping in the airport so that I wouldn’t miss a Sunday morning flight.
There were three redeeming parts of the trip:
1. Watching Eat, Pray, Love and Inception in between passing out on the flights.
2. Discovering that the Amsterdam airport has shower facilities after going through security. The glorious hot water made up for the fact that there was no towel, shampoo, conditioner, or soap. (I devised a way to fill my deodorant cap with hand soap and then used paper towels for drying. It wasn’t glamorous but it got 2 days of airport/airplane dirt off of me.)
3. Venturing into Amsterdam during what became a 24-hour layover. Tired of feeling like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, I put on 5 layers of clothing and caught a 15-minute train to Amsterdam’s Central Station. After strolling through adorable but freezing alleyways and canal streets for a bit, I decided I deserved a nice dinner and was beckoned by an inviting corner restaurant called The New Dorrius. Described as “Inspired Fresh Dutch Cuisine,” the restaurant offered an array of exotic, mouthwatering, and definitely inspiring dishes. I settled on a glass of Shiraz and the monthly menu, a three-course meal featuring a salad with grilled scallops and saffron dressing; back of hare with pepper sauce, stewed pear, red cabbage, and almond potatoes; and a tartlet of chestnut pudding with caramel nuts sauce. Needless to say, it was the best part of my trip home.
It’s nice to be spending some time at home with my friends and family, but I’m already missing all my Rwandan friends and the perfect temperate climate. (In my opinion, if it’s going to be so cold and dreary over here it should really just snow already. Fingers crossed for a white Christmas tomorrow.)
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!