Reason #1,057 that I hate cab drivers

As I was driving today, I got in the right lane of Wacker to make a right turn onto Madison. Anyway, there was a long line of cars waiting to turn right. As is typical, there is always some schmuck (usually a cab) that tries to drive all the way up in the left lane until the intersection and then cut off the first person in the right lane and turn right in front of them. Today, as I was getting close to the front of the right lane, of course, some schmucky cab driver tried to cut me off... he nearly hit my car! My car is old and I do not care if it gets a little dinged up, so I never stop for these ya-hoos anyway. If they want to do that to someone who drives a brand new BMW, then they might have a chance of making the turn. The funniest part is that a car behind me must have let him in eventually and he caught up with me on the street... he drove up right next to me, slowed down and gave me the dirtiest look ever. I looked at him and started laughing... dude, you almost HIT ME with your ILLEGAL turn and you give ME a dirty look?!?!? Wow.

Mission accomplished... barely

So, I had a mission that I was going to get those stupid Skybridge parking garage people to rent me a spot. I had been dealing with this guy named Todd who did not respond to my emails, phone calls, in person visit... not exactly a model employee. I found out that the parking company didn't think he was all that awesome either, because he got the boot.

Anwyay, the other day, I stopped in and asked the guy that works the cashier booth who I should call about parking... I got a brand new name (Joni) and phone number. I started thinking... here we go again.

I called her this morning and I was shocked... she actually answered her phone! She told me I could come in and sign up for monthly parking around 10:30am this morning. I jumped on it and left work for an early lunch to do just that.

Things seemed to be going along swimmingly until I tried to actually use the new sensor card to get into the garage. It did not work. Of course, why would it?!?

So, I went back to the garage office and Joni was gone. She had left to go grab lunch. I figured she'd be back in a few minutes, so I waited. A half hour later, still no Joni. I called and left her a message that the sensor card wasn't working, but she hadn't gotten back to me. (Btw, she knew I was going to try it out immediately because I told her so. She told me to give her a few minutes. I wasn't taking any chances - good thing I did that!) I decided to park my car back on the street. Big surprise... no spots on the street. Someone had snagged mine before I was even out of it 2 seconds. So, I had to go back to the garage and take a ticket to get in. I thought I'd stop off at the office on my way back down to the street.

Luckily, she was in there and a manager was there now, too. He was able to get my sensor card working (she had entered something wrong in the computer), but they couldn't figure out a good way for me to check that the sensor card was working without driving my car out of the garage and back in. So, I did that.

After all this crap (and lots of wasted time), there wasn't even a proper parking spot left in the garage. People had double parked and what not. I ended up parking right next to a wall where I had to shimmy my way out without rubbing up against my dirty car or the dirty wall... all while wearing white pants. Awesome.

And as icing on the cake, my cab driver on the way back to the office was a complete jerk. I told him I wanted to go to Wacker & Monroe. When we got a couple blocks from Wacker, I asked him to make a left on Wacker and I would get out on the right hand side. He got mad at me and told me that if I had wanted to go to 71 South Wacker (the actual street address), I should have just said that in the first place and not just Wacker & Monroe. Huh? I asked him why it mattered? He wouldn't have taken a different route, so why does he care? He said that there is a big difference between the two. Again, huh?!?! Lots of people give the street corners and not the exact address. Whatever. There goes your tip, dude.

All I can say is that I'm happy I finally have a parking spot.

I made it... to Amsterdam!

This morning, I took the train from Rotterdam to Amsterdam so that I could meet up with the apartment rental agency and get the keys to my new place. Of course, that's easier said than done. Apparently, the train I was going to take that was supposed to leave from track 9 at 7:59am got moved to track 14. Considering I do not know Dutch and couldn't understand any of the announcements at the train station, I stayed on track 9 waiting... and waiting... and waiting, but no train. Finally, I lugged all of my bags back down the stairs to the terminal area and found out that the train had already left from a different track. Oops. I found the next train that was going to Amsterdam and took that one. It was not an Intercity train (the fast ones). It was a Stop Train which means it makes a lot of stops and takes much longer to get to Amsterdam. Great... I was supposed to meet the rental agency guy at 10am. The train was due to arrive in Amsterdam at 9:37am. Just enough time to grab a cab at the train station and make it to the apartment.

Again, grabbing a cab... much easier said than done. As I'm sure this happens in many cities, cab drivers are crooks! He saw me coming with all my luggage and my American face and told me it would be 15 Euros for the trip. I was running late and said fine, knowing that I would have just walked it if not for the luggage. It's literally less than a mile away. Well, he gets to about a block away and stops the car and says, here you go... just cross the bridge, it's across the canal. I know it's not and tell him so. He tells me that this is where he is dropping me off. Nice. Well, I don't have anything but a 10 and a 20 Euro bill at this point... I give him the 20 Euros and he writes me a receipt for 20 Euros. I say... um, this is supposed to be 15 Euros which is already way too much for a less than 5 minute drive and I want my change. He reminds me that the 15 Euros doesn't include the tip. Right, like I'm going to tip him 5 Euros... you don't tip that much in the Netherlands anywhere (especially not when you know you are being ripped off to start with!). I told him I wasn't tipping him and that he needed to give me a new receipt and find me some change. Or I would give him the 10 Euro bill I had in my wallet and he'd have to just take that. Amazingly, at this point he found a 5 Euro bill to give me the change. Funny how that worked.

Anyway, after that little encounter, I had to walk through some sand and dirt with my suitcase because the sidewalk was being reconstructed. I then had to walk under a guy on a ladder cleaning windows, which worried me that I would knock the ladder with my huge red suitcase and fling the guy onto the ground. I finally made it to my new place! I was so glad to be there.

Marc from the rental agency met me and took me through the apartment and showed me how to work everything. The place is very nice - 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, nice size living room/kitchen. The second bedroom is super small... but great for visitors (hint hint) The location is great. It's right at the end of the Red Light District and close to where I stayed last year when I was here. So, I'm very familiar with the area and how to get around.

Here are a a few pictures I took. If you click on them, you will see a larger version of the picture.

Here's a view from the living room window:
The stairs are really steep (typical of Dutch apartments, I guess). Luckily, I had help carrying my suitcase up... thank God for chivalry!

Here's where I'll be sleeping for the next few months:

Here's a shot of the kitchen and dining area:

Here's a pic of the living room:

I went to the train station today and picked up a monthly metro pass and a discount card for riding the Holland trains. I'm all set! Now, I just need to hit the grocery store and stock up on some great Dutch foods! : )