Running to Schiphol

Last Thursday, I flew to Amsterdam for Tim Gubner's PhD defense. The defense was on Friday. I booked an extra day for myself in the city, since I like Amsterdam and I thought it would be a nice break after the extra-busy September.

I have been to Amsterdam many times at this point. This time, I did two things differently.

Firstly, for the stay, I picked a part of the city that I haven’t stayed before to explore something different, meaning I chose a hotel that was not 10-20mins walk to the central station. This choice came with the extra benefit of an additional m2 at a cheaper price for my stay while still being in a central location. 

Second, I didn't inform any of my friends living in the area, since I needed some time for myself, like it is expressed in that beautiful Lucinda Williams song Side of the Road. 

And I had a lovely day in Amsterdam.

Then, it was time to go back. From my hotel, the easiest route to the airport was taking bus 397 from Museumplein. My bus ride on the way to the hotel from the airport was ~30mins.

I was at the bus stop around 16:00. There seemed to be some delay in the bus schedule according to Google Maps, and I could see the traffic in front of us, but the cars still moved, and the bus came earlier than what Google predicted, so I got on it ~16:10. The bus moved slowly but steadily, so I decided to chill and turned on audible to continue listening to Kelly Bishop's memoir, The Third Gilmore Girl.

From the memoir, I learned that Kelly Bishop is a Tony-award-winning actress and dancer who has been rocking being a childless cat & dog lady since at least the 60s. As a Gilmore Girls nerd, I knew her as one of the pinnacles of the Amy Sherman-Palladino TV-universe, most notably for her role as Emily Gilmore, the mother to Lorelai Gilmore and grandmother to Rory Gilmore. The first time I watched the show, the mother-daughter relationship I focused on was the one between Lorelai and Rory. As I got older, in my Gilmore Girls rewatches, I became more drawn to the relationship between Emily and Lorelai and highly appreciated the existence of a matriarch like Emily on TV.  

Emily Gilmore is also part of my TV battle crew, which, in addition to Emily, includes Sister Michael from Derry Girls, Olenna Tyrell from Game of Thrones, Xena from Xena: The Warrior Princess, Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Villanelle from Killing Eve.

Let's get back to the bus, which stopped moving somewhere after two stops. It was 16:45. I had been in the bus for more than 30mins at this point.

My flight was at 18:45. I prefer being at the airport at least two hours before for within-EU-flights, since there are no passport and visa checks. I aim for three hours, otherwise. In other words, I was already late based on what I was aiming for. While there was no reason to panic yet, it was time to put Kelly and my battle crew on pause and start thinking about alternatives.

I checked Google Maps again, but it wasn't able to show me a solution. There was a tram stuck in front of us and heavy traffic left and right. It was too far to walk to the Central Station at this point (~1hour), and I wasn't sure which other station I could check. I didn't know how to call a taxi in Amsterdam, but even if I did, I wasn't sure how a taxi could enter that mess or where to walk to in order to call one. In the meantime, we managed to move a little bit, but not by much. There were no announcements by the driver. Some asked the driver to open the doors so they could leave, but all the people with luggage remained in the bus, so it wasn't only me who didn't know a better way to get to the airport.

I decided that it was time to ask for help. I approached the closest person with luggage, who was a young lady (will call her Helper Sister from now on): "Do you know any other way to get to the airport?" She shook her head and said: "No." She looked worried.

More passengers became audible asking similar questions. Some started to move toward the front of the bus, and Helper Sister and I followed. Helper Sister started chatting with another lady in Dutch. Afterwards, she told me we would get off the bus and call a taxi.

Getting off the bus took some time, since the check-in/out system of the bus was disabled and people wanted to check-out before getting out. Eventually, people simply accepted that they would have to get out of the bus without checking out.

As soon as we got out, the tram in front of us started moving. The bus door was still open, so we got back in, and the bus started moving, but only to get stuck again in a short-while. 

At this point, I started thinking "They probably have another flight to Copenhagen in the evening. It is Saturday night, it shouldn't be difficult to find space in it. In the worst case, I'll stay one more night in Amsterdam." Helper Sister was on the phone talking to someone. The driver got off the bus to talk to some other drivers who were stuck in their cars behind us and came back with no news about what was going on.

Then, Helper Sister ended her phone call and told me: "I will leave and try something else, you can come with me." I replied: "OK."

It was ~17:15. We got off the bus. She mentioned something that I didn't fully get, but I remember hearing "I think it will be faster. But we need to walk." I said, "I am fine with walking." I blindly followed her as we alternated between fast walking and running. When we were at a spot where our side of the road was empty, meaning the cars could move, she started hitchhiking. It was the second time in my life I was hitchhiking. The first car we saw stopped. It was a mother and daughter in one of these small cars that requires the people in the front to exit the car in order for people to sit in the back. We did that at the side of the road and took our luggage on our lap. My luggage was a carry-on, but Helper Sister's wasn't.

Helper Sister told them directions in Dutch while in parallel explaining the situation. At least that is what I assume, as I can't really comprehend Dutch. We started to approach an Amsterdam Zuid sign, and I finally got the plan.

Where we got stuck in the bus was south of the city, which was closer to the Amsterdam Zuid station, where one can take a train to the airport. I don't know if hitchhiking was always part of the plan or if Helper Sister assumed we can walk/run to Amsterdam Zuid and improvised on the way.

We thanked the mother and daughter, they were lovely, made it to the 17:35 train, and were at the airport at 17:45. I was at my gate at 18:05 and ate a gevulde for dinner.

Helper Sister and I went our separate ways once at the airport since we were on different flights, but I thanked her a bunch before that. I don't know her name, she doesn't know mine either. The only thing I know about her is that she had a flight to Heraklion at 18:40 on that Saturday and she can speak Dutch. I don't know why she picked me from that bus full of passengers. Was it simply because I reached out to her for help? In any case, I am very grateful. I hope she had or have been having the time of her life in Heraklion.