The Itinerary
Doug was in Eindhoven since October 28th and I met him here (Eindhoven) on November 8th. Today we head to Dublin, Ireland until Tuesday, then jet off to Rome through Friday and then circle back to Amsterdam Friday and fly out Sunday morning back to the states.
Given my horrible memory and the thoughts that maybe some would be interested in what we were up to, I decided to write a little about each of our stops and the fun things that we did.
Getting to Europe (Specifically Eindhoven)
Since Doug was here for work, I was tasked with the adventure of getting to Eindhoven on my own. I will admit that there were some anxieties about it and there might have been a little breakdown the night before I left. Thinking about traveling across the world alone was just a little overwhelming for a moment. I took a couple deep breaths and received some what seemed like well timed text messages from Doug and was able to get to sleep and feel a bit more excited about the idea.
It was surprisingly easy. Breezed through check-in, security and was on the plane, was lucky enough to be sat next to a decent smelling, sized individual (always a plus on the plane, especially for a 9+ hour flight). The flight went well, I didn't sleep as well as I had hoped (the doctor who prescribed me the anti-anxiety/sleeping medication, might have over exaggerated the effectiveness of her product)., but it was fine. Things I noted about international flights...they feed you a lot, give you free beer and wine (which you aren't supposed to have with the medication as it will enhance the effects, given I was feeling no effects, I decided to not be too concerned with this) and there are fabulous movies/tv options (except there is no off button for the screens, so that gets a little annoying when you are trying to sleep).
Landed in Amsterdam, made it through customs...which was a non-event and then it was off to the train. Luckily my friendly plane mate saw me trying to figure out the ticketing machine for the train and helped me out. I hoped on the train (right under the airport) and was off to Eindhoven (which is an hour and a half away). This is where either jet lag, the fact that I had been up forever or maybe those pills were finally kicking in and I started to get really sleepy. Concerned that I would sleep through my stop and didn't want to miss anything, I struggled to stay up. Made it to the stop, navigated through the center to our hotel and the first thing I did in Europe once settled was of course...SLEEP. Doug was going to be at work for a bit, so I had some time.
In Eindhoven...now what...
A few hours I woke up (shocked that I had slept so long) to house keeping knocking on the door. Having one of those quick panics where you forget where you are, I stumbled up to catch them before they enter the room and I am pleasantly surprised that they are actually a handsome stash rocking man that I like to call Panda (aka Doug). So nice to finally see him. We went back to his office and I got the tour of Paro, met some great people and got to see Martijn, who came and visited RPI a few months ago. The operations were similar to RPI, but on a smaller scale and a few more processes were automated.
After that, we headed out to the center...
