Happy New Year of Last Year!

In Netherlands, we booked a hotel in Katwijk. It is located at the coastal area and I seriously have no idea why we opted for a seaside resort in the midst of peak winter.

Reached our hotel quite late because of the delay earlier (read Trial and Error). Stomachs were growling and we have to reach Amsterdam early coz tonite is the night where everyone will be heading to the same place welcoming 2010. So we just checked-in, tossed our luggage inside the room, prayed and rushed our way to Amsterdam.

Amongst us, 3 were living in Germany, one in Paris and I'm the one from Russia. Yes, R-U-S-S-I-A. The place where they have cruel winter with no mercy and I've been living there for half a decade already. Yet still, compared to the rest I have the lowest threshold level to cold. I'm the one shivering like nobody cares and I swear I look like as if I came from Sahara.

Shivering even inside a building

After dinner we headed straight to the Dam square. We decided not to patrol around Amsterdam as all of us had been here before. Plus the crowd was like an endless ocean.

It was pretty the same old same old style & tradition like elsewhere - countdown from 10 to 1, when the clock strikes 12 midnight everyone shouts Happy New Year, hugs thrown to each other (even to strangers), bottle caps flung out of nowhere, massive fireworks brightened the sky.

Everyone was welcoming 2010!!

What was different is instead of Happy New Year, they wrote it in Dutch - GELUKKIG NIEUW JAAR.

We couldnt stay for long coz this Lady from Sahara was turning cyanotic, so we decided to just go back home. Just to make things worse, when we turned behind Afiq was missing! So Adhwa had to split finding for the missing kid & Hamal escorted us to the car which was parked like 30minutes walking distance from where we are now...

The moment I entered the car, that was the last thing I can remember. The next thing I knew was, were back in Katwijk.

...................................................................................

The next morning, we got ready & checked out early just to take a walk at the beach. I at first planned to stay inside the car, coz I can't stand the horrible cold freezing every bone I have, but turned out it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The sandy beach was so serene and breathtaking, it made me forget about the cold...

We took more pictures at the beach than during New year's celebration!

Next Destination : Cologne, Germany (just for a plate of yummy beriyani)