Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Day 8 - Keukenhof

don't let this darkness fool you
all lights turned off can be turned on
...
oh dear, don't be discouraged
Call Your Mom - Noah Kahan

That song, it's to encourage you in whatever darkness you're in, but me and my depressed self see it more like all lights turned on can be turned off *sigh* I had a lot of anxiety before the trip, shits in life, and they were so eager to welcome me back. If there's a light in me that's turned on during the trip, well they're promptly switched off when I landed. People may come back rejuvenated after a vacation, but I was super dark. I couldn't find it in me to be around people :( As I was preparing my journey back, I was fully aware of all the real life shits that I had waiting for me. There was anxiety about having to go back to them, but somehow I mustered myself and put them aside, because there's one last thing to do. Typical of my trips in Europe, I squeezed in Keukenhof. This time I chose to go inside the garden instead of cycling around. So brace yourself now with a post filled with flowers.

It was smooth sailing leaving Bergen. I got to the airport with time to spare. I remember the funeral of Pope Francis was happening - really wished I could have watched it in full. Anyways, no issue as well arriving in Schiphol airport. I proceeded to find the bus to Keukenhof. They changed the bus location again and I did get confused. I made one round walking in circle but then somehow I spotted the sign and another sign and another sign - wow the bus stop now is pretty far. When I got to the bus stop, there's a notice that the ticket for Keukenhof that day was fully sold out so the counter there was closed. I, of course, had booked online. There was a bus waiting and so I got on straightaway. There's a Chinese girl who was asking something to the driver, but she didn't seem to get her answer. I asked her if she needed help. She's Chinese, but been living in Spain, and she didn't speak very good english. It seemed she didn't have the bus ticket, but the bus was moving and so I told her to just sit down. I'm not sure why the staff outside didn't really check her before. I'm also not sure how she's going to get back, but no one did really check the bus ticket booking when I left Keukenhof. It's weird. Anyways, her friend was already there in the garden. We arrived and went to the locker room. Well she went to meet her friend waiting by the entrance to pass her the key to a locker that her friend had already gotten earlier. I was in a pinch though, all the lockers were filled. The ones which weren't didn't have keys on them :( When the Chinese girl came back, she asked if I would like to put my things in their locker, but it's not possible because we would be leaving at different times. I told her it's okay really and to go enjoy her day. I was still stumped though, what to do. It's not like I had a lot of things, but it'd be great if my backpack was less heavy. I tried my luck and went to the space where they store luggages and told the staff if they could take my small things. They said sure, so that was great. They plastered sticker on my pouch and give me the receipt. I was glad that's settled.

Keukenhof was crowded that day, not comfortable crowded. That was the most crowded Keukenhof I've ever been. I'm not sure if it's because it's Saturday afternoon or because it's King's Day. Keukenhof itself didn't have any special thing for King's Day as far as I could see. There were some people dressed up in orange for it. I decided to be really systematic this time around and followed the map closely. First stop was the Oranje Nassau pavillion and then I went to the other pavillions, Willem-Alexander and Beatrix. In crowded Willem-Alexander, I felt like that time in Chelsea Flower Show, but even then I had to admit it's worse in Chelsea Flower Show, because even with the big crowd there's still space to manuever in Keukenhof.

At one point when I was walking around outside I heard an American lady saying something like, it's not like I needed to go now, but we better be walking towards the exit :D Yeah, the crowd was really not pleasing. My mind also went to my first time in Keukenhof, somehow I remember it as being quiet. I also remember being cold that first time because I was kinda under-dressed for that visit and it was kinda a cloudy day. This time around it was actually a great beautiful day with the sun and blue sky. I also made it to the windmill, but I didn't get in because there were way too many people.

With the pavillions done and the windmill seen, I walked around the rest of the garden. Had strawberry ice-cream and spicy chicken sandwich which was not spicy; it was good on account that I was hungry. You know something that I newly discovered? The Keukenhof organ, De Adriaen, it's been there forever, I had pictures of it from my first visit, but it was only this time that I saw its behind and it's really really interesting to see the mechanism and the music book (for lack of a better term) that they feed into the organ.

When I reached the Dandelion fountain, well I pretty much had covered everything. I did look for the tap fountain that I saw back in 2017 but I couldn't find it, I don't know if it's a one-time thing. So then I just walked around and around a bit more.

It's always great visiting Keukenhof even with the crowd. Actually it was getting better late in the afternoon as people were starting to leave. I didn't really want to leave because you know ... life, but I must. I thought of how amazing it was being able to be there again. It's still something that's quite unbelievable to me that I've had the chances to go places and visit Keukenhof for a few times now. There's also the realization that this might be the last one. I don't know if I'll ever get there again or anywhere. Okay, let's keep this post positive and beautiful before I go into a rant on the troubles of applying for a visa as an Indonesian. For even more pictures from Keukenhof (the most I have ever uploaded from the garden or of any place), see this. It's actually not all just flowers, the trees and greeneries were great too.

I decided to leave earlier because I wasn't sure about the bus situation and I also remembered that airport security check tend to be long in this part of the world, but it turned out the bus queue was not crowded and I was able to get on the bus which was waiting. The airport security check and immigration line were okay too. The immigration officer in Schiphol who handled me was chatty - okay dude, good thing you and the guy next to you were kinda cute :D My priority in Schiphol was of course getting stroopwafel - gosh how I miss them. The usual, I got three packs for myself and unfortunately I had finished them all :( I also got big bars of Tony's Chocolonely, I've grown to love them very much. Then it's the wait to be boarded. Then the long flight back which was pretty bumpy, but thank God we're all good and arrived safely. I didn't get up once again, even to pee - I'm sure this is not good. The reason why I tried this was because last year the girls who were sitting next to me in the flight from Frankfurt to Singapore also didn't get up once. So in my mind, I thought this could be done. It can be done, but again I don't think this is good to do on a 12-hour plus flight, but on the other hand you don't want to be caught standing or in the lavatory during sudden scary turbulence - so I don't know man. On other note, Airfrance and KLM breakfast meal for economy class now are like sandwich wrap which I don't hate, really. I don't know how long this been going on. Though it's not on the level of McDonald's Egg McMuffin but it's really better than the breakfast of the old days where the eggs looked weird, so I take this anytime. Okay I think I have written all through all these long posts. At the end, I really have to thank God almighty. He really takes me places and my wonder on how we could do all these never ceases.

:) eKa @ 8:40:00 PM •