Hoofddorp

Welcome one, welcome all, back to Mount Olympus!

And so day two commences. I am writing this halfway through the day in an attempt to battle the endless late nights that usually come with writing the blog… (author’s note: she finished it the next morning)

Alright so, today I woke up at some point and I had a blinding pain in my neck, couldn’t move it without pain. Ouch. And then I went back to sleep and woke up again, pain free. In any case, a decidedly un-excellent wake up.

Breakfast consisted of hot chocolate, sadly without cornflakes, and during this time dad commended his own genius ( he correctly told me that “once more until the breach” was from Henry the Vth, Shakespeare, and then decided to name one of his blogs a pun on this (look out for it) which annoyingly, I had planned on doing. You had better credit me, dad).

My sisters and I discussed wether it would be better to have a son or daughter as a first child (a son) and the pros and cons of having twins, before dad told us to take care of the dishes, to which I answered, in my best Italian mafia accent, “I’ll take care of them,” and pretended to shoot them.

The fact that my sisters laughed at this, I believe, is an insight to our fatigued state (midnight Dorito feasts are never good plans before early wake ups).

Anyway.

We then packed up our stuff, had some discussions which I have been forbidden from writing about for the general public, all I can say is Lily has weird opinions, and then, after a brief shouting match (again, sadly redacted), and left!

As we descended the stairs, Olivia somehow carrying a suitcase down the five floors as I had nothing in my hands, she joyously exclaimed, “We’re going to Germany!”

Yeah.

Let’s chalk it up to the mental stress of carrying a heavy bag down five flights of stairs.

In case anyone missed the memo, we are going to Amsterdam (in the Netherlands), to see a Stray Kids concert (one of Tate’s favourites)!!!

We managed to get to the bus on time, Allegra made some jokes about how she was taller than all of us (a sad truth) and then we were at the RER station. Some signs pointed to a ticket office, which, apparently, is taquilla in Spanish. So, naturally, I made a hilarious joke: “can I have tequila instead of a ticket”, and everyone laughed (including dad, so I am elite now I don’t know what to tell you 🤷‍♀️).

Sadly I could not have a tequila, however I was already drunk off power afforded to me when I made my father laugh, so I made my peace with it.

We had a hard time buying tickets due to Paris’ ridiculous ticket system (fun fact: Paris’ metro system is the most complicated in the world, worse than London or New York) but managed to make it onto our platform with a minute to spare.

On that train, first we played a quick game called “guess the song in my head for 5€”. I’m sure that you could never guess what the game consists of. Basically I give each sister one chance to guess the song in my head for 5€ if they ever get it. Since beginning this game a few weeks ago, they have yet to win.

After that game, I updated my sisters on the 100th to 90th most popular ao3 ships, and then we realised, to our annoyance, that yesterday we forgot to mention that Lily is the son dad never had (her love for f1), I am the gay son he never had (theatre kid), Allegra id the ginger he never wanted (self explanatory) and Tate is the one he got right.

We got off the train and Lily, Tate and I took the escalator up, and Mum, Dad and Leg shook their heads with *so much* disappointment.

We were quite scared. It was rather menacing

But it was no matter, since we got into the station and had to wait a while, so we decided to get food.

And we went to Paul’s and the guy behind the counter was rather good looking. Allegra’s exact words were “smash the chef”, and we all stared at him for about ten minutes as we ordered. He totally must have seen us at one point, but such is life.

We then carried this lunch onto our train, sat down, and it took off!

Into the sky, and we were never seen again.

Sadly I am joking, we will see you guys again, worry not. But while I was on this train I ate a frankly astounding amount of olives, so I was happy. Lily watched F1 and I watched Iron Man 2, so at one point we were both watching men in racecar (a palindrome!) s.

We also glimpsed the Atomium as we passed through belgium! That was fun!

But I did pause Iron Man 2 which I have seen many a time, and watched f1 either Lily. It was the 2021 final race, and honestly, I was so hooked, and Lewis Hamilton, my favourite (I wonder why) didn’t win, Max Verstappen (nepo baby) did, because it was rigged. I watched it, and it was rigged. Seriously. The greatest tragedy of Lily’s life.

We then discussed it with dad after, and it shows that you can know a man for 17 years and never know he follows f1 closely. Crazy.

We made it to Amsterdam!! Yayyyy!!

There are some weird people in Amsterdam. Lily was prejudiced because Max Verstappen is dutch. But I love the language it’s so funny and cute honestly. Our train stop is called hoofddorp which, like, I find hilarious. And the word for exit is uitgang, to which dad said, let’s go uit, gang! And it was quite funny.

We made it to our Novotel (our Tovonel, as Lily calls it), fit in six in one revolving door section like weirdos, then had some trouble with our rooms but ultimately it was ok!

Once there, we had showers, did makeup (which can take longer than one may think if, like Lily, you are drawing twenty tiny stars on your face), and then we went straight back out! On the train, we were forced to stand due to a big amount of people, and this train was not built to have people standing. Luckily my whole family managed to find a place to sit together after one atop, but I, for reasons unknown, must have been deemed the least favourite since I still had no seat.

At least I slayed.

Once we arrived, it was mental, big amounts of people, and Lily had an idea. “Let’s get Tate a light stick”, she whispers through technology. I quickly agree. You see, a light stick is a specific K pop concert thing, you get one and it bluetooth connects to someone working at the stadium, and everyone’s light up in synchronicity. A true K pop fan is always armed with their light stick. It has been Tate’s dream for months.

And so, against Mum and Dad’s wishes, Lily and I did a click and collect for efficiency, headed off under the guise of finding a toilet,,,, and then surprised Tate with it as we stood in the queue.

You can imagine Mum’s disdain for us as human beings.

You can imagine how Tate thought of us as gods.

But then, the queue starts racing forwards, and after one photo, we’re in! We make our way up the stairs, to our seats… and here comes the annoyance.

Okay imagine this. You are two friends at a concert. Two girls come up to you, ask if you wouldn’t mind moving forward five rows (a better view) so that they can enjoy it with their sisters. Ticketmaster chaos forced us apart like the hands of fate. Do you, A) say “of course, thanks for the better seats, have fun with your sisters,” or B) be a meanie and say “no”.

Like???

I feel like I would say yes. They weren’t with anyone else, it was sooo strange. So Lily and I sat five rows away from Allegra and Olivia. Throwing dirty looks at the two girls next to us.

Also, some dude lost one airpod and I felt so bad for him.

But then, the hands of fate I mentioned earlier (Chekhov’s gun) ? They used their magic, and four seats behind me and Lily had been abandoned, so we called the twins up, climbed over our seats, and the four of us were together once more!

Yayyy

The concert was not bad, I myself knew few of the songs and few of the members, really, but Tate screamed so loud at every song that it was allll worth it. I filmed a lot.

After the concert was over, some girls in front of us said “have you guys lost this airpod?” And honestly I was so relieved for that poor dude, and I was like excuse me! Who was it that lost an airpod?” And his head popped out of the crowd and he was soo happy I was just like wow, weight off my shoulders.

We left the concert and joined mum and dad, who had, lets say, had a few (mum sent a sappy message to the wrong group), and we all got up and formed a dance circle, Dad’s moves were absolutely hilarious, ours were on point, a good time was had by all, and then we went home.

Trains were funny, because we got sent in the wrong direction, then dad went to ask for help from a lady, got all the way up to her, was about to tap her on the shoulder when he realised -get this- that she was *not* in fact, someone who works here, and just a woman in a yellow jacket. He had to full on walk of shame and embarrassment back to us, it was the peak of hilarity, comedians everywhere have either given up or are frantically making skits about it, I 10/10 recommend.

We made it to the right station, as our train pulled away. Yay us.

So we waited til 00:11, I updated my sisters on the next ten most popular ao3 ships, and then dramatically sang “Aaron Burr, sir”, and then our train arrived, and we made it to the airport, we ran over to the next platform, luckily the train was pulling away, but stopped so we could get on? How nice!

And then we made it. Home sweet home.

Novotel sweet tovonel.

And then we realised we lacked makeup remover, and so I literally scrubbed a layer of skin off my lips trying to get my lipstick off, and ouch, that hurt. They’re all cracked now.

Mum and dad were straight asleep, I hear them snoring from the other room.

And there you have it, lads! A too detailed account of our day!

And so this is where we pause our trek up Mount Olympus, folks.
Debate of the day: were we acting privileged by asking people to move seats, or were they just mean?
Bye family!!!Lue lisää