Blog of Matthijs van Vuuren

2009, time for the annual MattLAN party. I invited friends to drop by yesterday for the MattLAN 5 party, the first one was held in 2005. Usually I try to organize a bunch of events to keep everybody entertained but sometimes it is a little too much to execute.
This year around we had the following events planned but not all were executed, so we will have some extra's for MattLAN 6.



- Videogames (XBOX, Wii, Genesis, PC)
- Squash, everybody was too tired supposely
- Pool & Jacuzzi, same story as above
- How to make sushi, which was a success
- How to make pizza, which was somewhat of a success hehe
- Smashing of the old office fax, we forgot the slashhammer to break it so garanteed next time.

We finally had 4 Wii wheels for Mario Kart Wii which was awesome.
Also Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles was quite amazing.

My buddies had a Muay-Thai fight coming up yesterday and I decided to go out and see it. The fight was in Kitchener which is around a 45 minute drive West of Mississauga (Toronto/GTA). Unfortunately there was a massive rainstorm outside so I had some doubts but upon arrival it was worth the drive.

The fight was held at Elements Nightclub which was downtown Kitchener. It was a pain to find parking due to the fight. Once inside I bumped into my friends and friends I hadn't seen in years.



Kombat Arts had a great night with all their fighters winning the matches.
Lee & Julian put up quite the show. Some great punches were thrown throughout the evening.

Click here for the Kombat Arts video

After the Air Canada Chaos, I figured it would be best to stick to my initial planned schedule in order to not waste anymore vacation time. The plan was to go to the biggest nightclub in Rotterdam. My sister visits this place regularly and insisted me to come. I decided to sleep for a few hours before we rolled out. My sister, brother, his girlfriend and myself bounced at 10 PM but did not reach the club until 12AM due to fact that we kept forgetting things, it was a 40 minute drive and missed the off-ramp.



There was a massive line-up outside the club and it was freezing, I always feel bad for the girls wearing skirts. Once inside the party could commence.



The "Hollywood Music Hall" as it's called is an awesome nightclub. It has about 7 rooms with each different music. They even have a Hardstyle room which I truly miss in Canada. It was hilarious when we saw some of my brother's friends in the Hardstyle room which are from the same suburb as us (IJmuiden). One of them was the main DJ. Gotta love these rare occasions.



The club closed at 7AM but we weren't able to keep that up so we bounced around 4PM and cruised back home with "Guus Meeuwis" singing in the background. Kudos to my brother Hugo for being the BOB (the designated driver).



What is funny to mention to anyone that is new to Holland; try the black liquorish. Holland has the best and biggest varierty of black liquorish in the world. Try the "autodrop", "venco" or "matthijs" drop haha.

I am writing this Blog after having dealt with my biggest travel disaster yet, just after Christmas.
It all started when I got to the Toronto Pearson Airport, Canada and encountered a massive lineup all around the check-in counter, the lineup was at least a 1 hour wait. Unfortunately I was 10 minutes late for my plane. I just was not aware that Air Canada closes the check-in counter 1 hour before takeoff. So I was redirected to a ticket rebooking counter. After hearing that I wasn't able to catch my flight my heart fell through my shoes. I was stranded and could not go home to see my parents in Amsterdam.

I pulled myself together and prayed to obtain another possible way home. After waiting in line at the ticket rebooking counter a nice lady helped my out to get to Europe. She told me all the flights were oversold and full to the teeth my next possibility was to bounce 3 days later. I could not believe what I was hearing, this was literally a disaster so she made me a deal to put me on standby for $200 extra (which brought the total of my ticket to $1400 CAD). With fresh hope I returned back to the check-in counter were the line-up extended all around the check-in booth. I have never seen such a massive line-up at an airport and I have traveled quite a lot in the past 10 years. It must have been the fact that I was traveling on Christmas day, an mistake I will never make again...



After waiting in line I finally got processed but did not get a seat assigned. Standby basically means that you get a seat option in case a legit passenger cancels or doesn't show up. Once I got to the Gate and waited 4 hours for the next flight to Frankfurt (connecting to Amsterdam) I realized that I wasn't the only one with a Standby pass. At least 15 other persons had the same yellow sticker on their ticket. I pushed my way through towards the Gate Counter were there was only 1 girl in front of me. So after boarding (4 hours later) a stewardess came running out of the gate and told the guy handling the standby tickets that there was only 1 seat left. I mean seriously 1 f**king seat and 15 people on standby. Thus the girl first in line was able to obtain it.

Next, the gentleman behind the desk told us to go to rebooking booth again. Now I finally understood that EVERYTHING at the airport is first come first serve, you have to be a real dick if you want to get things done at airports. So after hearing that I ran like crazy to the rebooking counter. It was sad because there were complete families with children in the same boat as I. At the counter a lady walked up to me and had a good excuse to cut in line but after that instance I realized that this would be the last time that I will let people cut in line at the airport (especially at the airport). After waiting 30 minutes they rebooked my flight, this time through London, UK and I finally got a seat assigned instead of the stupid standby ticket. I overheard a conversation behind the counter that there were only 9 seats left thus leaving 6 people stranded at Pearson unfortunately, but once again first come first serve.

The London flight was going to leave 4 hours later thus totaling my waiting time to 8 hours.
Happily I called my sister in Amsterdam to confirm that I was finally coming home but I told her that I also had a bad feeling about all this, it just seemed to good to be true but she told me not to worry. After waiting 8 hours,.... 9 hours I started to wonder; "what could be wrong now?!"
People were getting moody and wanted to know what was taking so long. Lots of people had been waiting the entire day at Pearson. At 2AM a lady announced that the London flight was CANCELED. Are you serious, why wait 5 hours to announce a cancellation, things weren't looking up for me. So figuring first come first serve I rushed to the gate counter were people were yelling, swearing and even crying. I obtained a taxi ticket to and from my house. I was told that the plane was leaving at 9:30AM so I could get at least a few hours of sleep at home. This really sucked because I had to check out of the airport again find my baggage in a sea of chaos downstairs (see video footage) and after able to only sleep 1 hour I returned back to the Airport early to avoid any more set backs.

Back in line at the check-in counter I overheard rumors about the cancellation last night which made me draw the following conclusions:

Rumor 1: Bad weather
- It did not snow nor was the weather bad, it was a perfectly clear night.

Rumor 2: Technical Difficulties
- I only noticed 1 ground member working on the airplane so if there really was a problem they would have ordered more people to fix it I would think...

Rumor 3: Entire crew called in sick
- This rumor seemed a little out of the park but became very believable once people told me only 1 cabin member showed up and was asking were the rest of the crew was. After waiting by himself for a while the individual left the premises. Also due to Christmas the backup crew was probably already taken and nobody was available to fly our asses to the UK.

After check-in and obtaining a ticket I prayed that this was gonna go without a flaw.
And yes only 17 hours later I was in the air towards the homeland. Next to me in the plane sat a nice girl from the UK who was studying Zoology at the University of Mexico City she told she was waiting at Toronto Pearson Airport for 27 hours so I had nothing to complain about.



Once we got to London and exited the airplane only 1 individual was processing the entire passenger load of the plane. I mean SERIOUSLY Air Canada what were you thinking. She gave us Hotel tickets because no planes were allowed to fly out of Heathrow after 9PM due to noise complains.



As the only passenger group we walked through Heathrow, everything was closed, this was definitely a unique experience. Once we grabbed our bags we waited near the exit. Nobody told us what needed to happen next. So I ran outside and noticed 2 busses which would take us to the hotel. I ran back inside and tried to get everybody to the busses as soon as possible so we could at least get some decent sleep. The bus brought us to the Novotel Hotel where I got a very nice hotel room, unfortunatly not long enough to enjoy it. We also received a letter from Air Canada apologizing for all the problems at Toronto Pearson and a $100 discount on our next flight.

UPDATE: A month after the disaster I received another incentive in the amount of $400, once again apologizing for all the inconvenience. Which totals my next travel budget to $500, not bad :)

The following morning I hopped on the bus and caught my plane to Amsterdam without any delays. This was definitely an experience but I would not wish it upon anybody.



I was so happy when I went through the gate and noticed my entire family waiting for me.
They made a wish come true by bringing 2 buns with fresh raw haring & onions. A typical dutch traditional snack which made me forget about all the annoying incidents that had happened.

Total travel time: 35 hours

Labels: aircanada airplane chaos delays heathrow pearson

Looks like today will be a beautiful day, the delightful sun shined right into my face after opening the hotel blinds this morning. I could not wait to go to the Miami Seaquarium which was one of my main objectives for this trip. Got all my gear together and I left for the front desk of the Clay Hotel. After I confirmed with the clerk I had to wait on the side walk for the bus to pick me up which supposedly would take me to the Seaquarium.

Surprisingly I was the only person going to the Seaquarium, since my hotel arranges all kinds of trips within Miami there were more people waiting to hop on some bus for another Miami adventure.



After waiting at least 30 minutes after pickup time I started to wonder where to bus was. Luckily the people that booked the City Tour could drop me off at the Seaquarium... because I was the only one I guess the must have canceled the bus ride without informing me.

Unfortunately I had to stick through at least half the City Tour before they dropped me off, this sucked since I already saw the City Tour 2 days earlier. Once the bus got to Little Havana another waited for me to bring me to the Seaquarium as a curtosy from the touring company.
Quite fun getting a private bus ride to the Seaquarium I can say.

Once at the Seaquarium I was presented the options to pay $40 for the park or $240 to get the exclusive package which allows you to swim with a dolphin. Luckily the girl at the cashier recommended me a timeslot where not many people signed up for the dolphins. This was great so it wouldn't be packed once I got there.

The Miami Seaquarium was a great experience. I don't think it can compare to the Orlando Seaworld though. After seeing the Dolphin show (where they flimed "Flipper" the TV series) I moved on to the crocodiles & the Killer Whale show. It was funny to see that still people sit on the front rows when they know they will get wet as hell. So eventually the whale aired out of the water and splashed the entire front rows and people started to complain about wet cell phones and wallets etc. LOL. I mean c'mon.



After the Killer Whale show I progressed to the Dolphin Harbor. It was finally going to happen, I waited a long time to swim with dolphins so you must understand my excitement.

I reported to the lobby where I had to wait and met up with a very nice family from Santiago, Chile. These folks were on a vacation and also purchased the VIP package for the Dolphin Harbor... that must have cost a pretty penny for 4 adults.

An instructor waited for us and showed us a DVD explaining all the rules regarding swimming with dolphins. After the presentation the instructor brought us to the pool and we got dolphin instructors assigned. My luck reached its high when they separated me from the Chilean family and brought out a dolphin all to myself. The instructor explained that it was the low-season in November for Miami because usually they handle 5 to 10 people per dolphin.
So now I got to enjoy the full 30 minutes with the dolphin alone which also allowed me to do some more random tricks.



It was quite funny when the dolphin took a piss right in front of me, maybe that is the dolphin way of greeting a human being...lol. Also cool to mention is that I got my own person photographer who worked for the Seaquarium this was great so I could have someone else record video on my own camera at the same time.



Dolphins are very humble creatures. At one point I was up-side-down in the water moving my feet above water while the dolphin was flapping with its tail fin at the same time. The dolphin also took me from one side of the pool to the other side and back while I held his dorsal fin. After the show we entered a quality dressing room with some great showers. After getting dressed I rushed to the photo desk to collect the pictures that were taken only to hear I had to pay another $60 for the CD, pricey but than again I won't be doing this every day.

It stayed a bit too long at the harbor which caused the bus driver to be a little aggravated (once I got to the exit) since he still had to pickup the entire City Tour group but in the end all was well.

The experience was definitely another milestone in my life.

The moment had finally come, after months of planning I was finally going to Orlando, Florida to see the Space Shuttle Launch STS-126 at the Kennedy Space Center.



I had to drive from Toronto to Buffalo to catch my plane to Orlando. Many Canadians travel through Buffalo because domestic USA flights are very cheap.
My flight was at 10AM but at 6AM I was still at home packing my suitcase. Once packed I realized I forgot something so I tried to open it up but that failed, I freaked out since I had to drive to Buffalo. What happened was that the combination lock had failed so there was no way to open up the suitcase. This would be quite embarrassing if you go through customs and they ask you to open up your suitcase and you wouldn't able to. So I basically took a screwdriver with my on the entire trip to pop the combination lock every time I had to grab something. This just goes to show how badly suitcases are secured, you can pop them without a problem with a screwdriver!

Once I hopped on the road towards Buffalo the vacation feeling was getting to me. Ocean, Sea & Delightful Beers. I got in quite some problems at the USA border. The people from the customs office were not going to let me enter the United States because my Work VISA for Canada was a year old and I wouldn't be able to enter Canada after that so the USA would be stuck with me, as the gentleman described...??...how stupid am I, to take the wrong Work VISA, so I ensured him that I was a legit worker and my name should be valid in the Canadian Customs database.

So after some debating he was going to do me a favor and call the Canadian Customs who, thank god, confirmed my status in Canada. Yes, now my trip could continue, luckily I did not loose to much so I was able to make my airplane without any further delays. At Buffalo I parked had the 'long-term' parking area where they only charge you $8 per day, not bad.



After a smooth plane ride we landed in Orlando, beautiful airport by the way. I rushed over to the AVIS rental desks to pickup the car I reserved for the drive from Orlando to Cape Canaveral which was like 45 minutes away. The car I reserved was unfortunately gone but instead they gave me a better car for the same rate! An amazing feeling; cruisin' in the smokey hot weather with a brand new Pontiac G6 while listening to the local radio talk shows, I almost felt like a true American.



I was able to see the Kennedy Assembly building from the highway once I reached Merrit Island. That building must be gigantic. Checked into my hotel which was pretty decent and treated myself on a nice cold beer. The weather was so nice and warm. Being in a foreign country in an unknown city all by myself, the feeling is memorizing, I could compare it to my first visits of Toronto and Tokyo. At night I took the car and started cruisin' Cape Canaveral for some sightseeing where I ended up at a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner on the North Atlantic Avenue. I met some great people at the teriyaki grill, some people had family going into space the next day and another person was working for Boeing and had to make sure the shuttle launch pad was clean & secured. After this great dinner and experience exchange I ended up at some local bars & pubs.

I woke up early the next day because I had to be at the Kennedy Space Center at a fixed time, they probably wanted to prevent heavy traffic, since thousands of people will be going to the center. It was packed at the Space Center Visitor Complex, which is basically a small theme park that has everything related to Space. A rocket-park, a space shuttle, a presentation of all the old control room, and a bus tour of the space center which took me to other facilities on the base.



The first facility was the Moon Rocket facility, I didn't realize that the moon rocket was as tall as 2 space shuttles and as heavy as 7 Boeing 747's, that is just ridiculous. Outside there was a tribune where you could observe the space shuttle ready for take-off in the far distance. I called my mother who lives in Holland from this spot to keep her up-to-date on the latest launch developments. After buying some souvenirs the bus took us to the ISS assembly plant where they have a few of the ISS modules for observation for the visitors. The modules showcased what a toilet and a shower look like aboard the ISS. There was also a small viewing area at the assembly base where I saw an entire Japanese section from the JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) where it seemed like they were putting another module together.




Back at the main Visitor Complex there was an entire field prepared for the space shuttle launch. I got myself a nice seat right in the middle where I also came across some dutch tourists who came all the way down for the launch. A few astronauts climbed the stage and started entertaining the crowd with space stories before the countdown. 7:50 PM it was time for the countdown. This was a magical moment, I could see everybody waiting for the blastoff. The astronauts were counting down out loud and once the last check was completed the Space Shuttle STS-126 took off towards the ISS. It was dark so all we could see was a bright star being shot into the air. With lots of noise we heard the shuttle followed by a smokey trail. My face felt warm from watching the burning star go through the atmosphere.





Everybody was enlightened, this was definitely an unique experience. After the show everybody ran back to the parking lot to leave as soon as possible since there was only 1 highway connecting the space center but...


I noticed the astronauts walking off stage heading towards their cabin. I thought; "maybe I could take a picture with one of them", so I followed them and knocked on the window, they let me in where we talked a bit about space and where one of the astronauts gave me his autograph, this was pretty cool it is not everyday you get to talk to two astronauts. The astronaut's name in the picture is Jon A. McBride, he was one of the crew members on the STS-41G space flight.

Labels: buffalo, cape canaveral, ISS, kennedy space center, orlando, sts-126