26 hours

*Yawn*
Bit tired, but well entertained on the nearly 9 hour flight. I was seated above the left engine which provided a constant vibration. This didn’t help me to catch sleep so I’m feeling a bit tired. Luckily these days a great alternative to sleep is in place, the in-flight entertainment system.

With a selection of a few different movies I killed the time and arrived safely in The Netherlands. Upon arrival my dad and the Uncles were waiting for me.
I was very happy seeing them again and after a cup of coffee we headed towards a city called Leiden. In Leiden we would meet up with a few close relatives and friends for dinner. Here I could share my stories and have a pre-celebration of my 22nd birthday which would take place the next day. I had a good rest that night.

AUG 24

This day will be remembered as “The chill rush to China celebration!”
What an exciting day indeed, trust me I've had quite some memories about my birthdays, but this one I will not forget for any time soon.

Let’s start with the chill part, 10:00 nice breakfast with my uncle, eggs and juice, no rush. With my bags almost packed everything seemed to be going quite smooth. Frank (same year aeronautical student) arrived who would join me and my uncle for the ride to the city of Antwerp in Belgium. From Antwerpen we would take at 16:30 the Thalys (high speed train) to Schiphol Amsterdam. The drive would approximately take around an hour or so according to my uncle.
With our bags all packed we drove off at 14:45. After a 45 minute drive (15:30) we approached the Belgium boarder and decided to have a small snack at a road restaurant. We had a late brunch and were quite hungry and it would only take 15 more minutes to Antwerpen or so we thought...

After the small break we turned on the GPS system and the display showed 40 minutes with an arrival time of 16:25!!
We jumped in the car and my uncle started speeding (140 km/87 miles and hour) while I tried to keep my calm and just focus on what had to be done the moment we arrived at the station. Frank was just chilling in the back, hoping it would all turn out well. Arrival at Antwerpen 20 minutes left, we still had to drive through the city. We ran in to construction work ended up on the bus track and did something which are probably not allowed. We were about a block from the station away with no option to get any closer. 10 minutes left Frank suggested we should stop and just run to the station, I quickly checked the GPS and it seems at that exact moment we were only one long street away from the Station. My uncle pulled the car over, Frank and I got out grabbed all our bags and started running. Around 6~7 kilogram on my back and a 20 kilogram in the hand. I cursed myself for wearing flip flops at this point.
As fast as we could we got to the station with 7 minutes left until train departure. I saw a ticket window and kindly asked some girls to let us pass, by the look on our faces and with the bags in hand they understood the situation and stepped aside.
Sadly for us it was the wrong ticket window! Thalys tickets were sold at the entrance of the station. We rushed to the entrance of the station where Stefan (same year aeronautical student) was waiting on us with his Thalys ticket already in hand and pointed us to the ticket window. He already went ahead towards the railroad. Stefan's aunt was waiting for us in line on our arrival she was next in line.
Thank god she stood there because the line was very long and we could not waste another minute! 5 minutes left, we put some pressure on the employee to start printing some tickets, he said we were lucky my other uncle, who I have to point out as one of the most excellent travel agents, already registered our names for the Thalys. This made the ticket printing an easy job and it was done in a few minutes. After the printing he told us we are very lucky because the train had a delay of 5 minutes! So it would leave at 16:35. Which gave us 4 minutes to run to the correct railroad. Problem was we still had to run 5 stores underground with bags and all. With our tickets in hands we weren't about to give up and with a few crazy quick sprints down the escalators we managed to get to the right platform, where Stefan was waiting for us with good news. We made it!

YES!
What a relieve, my heart was pounding like mad and my legs were shaking, but the news that we actually made it brought great joy.
The train arrived, we said goodbye to Stefan's family and boarded the train.
Which took us within an hour to Schiphol Airport.

At Schiphol I first found my dad waiting for me. He brought a present and a card with Chinese characters written on it. The present was a small book with Dutch-Chinese translations this could help me during my stay in China. Later on Frank's family and my uncles arrived. We all had diner together.

It was time for Frank, Stefan and me to head towards the gate. Up on arrival at the gate I noticed the increasing amount of Chinese people there was no place to sit so we stood around waiting until boarding would start. Calls were made for parents with infants and disabled people. During that time all the Chinese seemed to wake up and got in one big line. As soon as the doors opened for normal boarding they just marched in.
I was stunned!
I told Stefan and Frank to wait getting in line until everyone else has passed. Our tickets had our seat numbers printed on them so there was no use joining the madness I just witnessed. I would like to remind you that a mere 26 hours ago I got of a Delta flight from the US where boarding is done in sections. Starting with the passengers at the back slowly moving to the front of the plane. Which makes boarding efficient and pleasant.
So what I witnessed just now was a bit shocking and strange. It was like people were afraid the plane might be full if they didn't hurry up. Walking through the plane it was a bit of chaos, people all over the plane were still putting their stuff up and a few people were walking back and forward through the isles.

Our seats were all the way in the back at last row. I got to my seat and found a Chinese woman sitting in my seat. She moved back to her own seat which was located 3 row to the front. I'm not sure what she was hoping for. Once I settled down I noticed the space was a bit limited but enough to remain comfortable during the flight.
20:55 The plane took off, destination Beijing (Peking)!
Estimated flight time: 10 hours and 20 minutes