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The day I went to Kaukenhof was definitely an interesting one. Just figuring out how to get tickets was an adventure in itself. After going to the tourist information office near the Central Station to buy a combo ticket for transportation and entrance to the gardens, taking a number, and realizing there were a couple of hundred people ahead of me, I decided I should just go into the train station to ask someone how to get there. I didn’t have time to wait in line for hours. I needed to go see some tulips!!

At the train station, a very nice man (love the Dutch!) handed me a slip of paper with directions. I took a look at it, looked at it pretty hard, and thought, “I don’t think this is how you are supposed to get there.” Trusting that the person who works there probably knows better than some stupid American traveler, I went to investigate the situation. I went to one of those handy ticket machines, put in all the info, and realized it was going to be more expensive to go this way than it had been to buy the combo ticket at the tourist office.

Back to the tourist office I go. Fortunately I had saved my number so I was about 50 people closer. 2 hours later I get to the counter and it takes about 3 and a half minutes to get my business done. This is where it got confusing. There are two ways to get there: 1. either take a bus from uptown Amsterdam to the airport and then transfer to another bus or 2. take the train to the airport and transfer to a bus. I had purchased only bus tickets and after looking at where I needed to get on bus numero uno, realized it was going to be another hour before I would even be on the road because I was on the wrong side of town. And I was directly across from the train station. What. The. Fuck.

Figuring it was probably the same bus that you transfer to, I decided to try my luck and jump on a train to the airport since they come every few minutes. Fortunately, luck was on my side and it worked out. This is when I realized the tourist office was just overcharging for having the convenience of buying the tickets together. Silly tourist office.

So I finally arrive. And it starts raining. And then it starts pouring. And I don’t have an umbrella. Why would I have an umbrella in a country where it rains every day? I decide to go get some french fries because I can smell the grease and it smells delicious and hopefully the rain will stop by the time I’m done stuffing my face. Well, everyone else had the same idea to get some fries to get out of the rain and there are people everywhere. I finally get to the front of the line and order my fries with ketchup since you have to order your condiment of choice with your fries and then they charge you for it. No stealing 800 packets of the stuff so you can avoid buying the organic stuff at the grocery store because why would you buy normal ketchup when there is ORGANIC ketchup?

The woman hands me my fries and what is on it? None of the red salty goodness to be found. They are covered in disgusting, discharge colored mayonnaise. I immediately hand them back to her and say that I had asked for ketchup. She gives me a scowl and instead of just fixing my fries since there are about 200 people behind me that would gladly take my untouched nasty mayo fries since apparently Europeans have different taste buds and think that mayonnaise on fries is delicious, has the cashier look up what she had just charged me for and then proceeds to tell me that I ordered mayo. Can I make an observation here? No, really, it’s a good one. WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANYONE ORDER SOMETHING THAT DISGUSTS THEM????? I know that SHE doesn’t know that I hate that crap, but why would I say anything at all if that is in fact what I had wanted?

This, in turn, made me have a flashback to the Think Pink party where the customer service left something to be desired (read: bitch with a clipboard at the door). It’s been a cliché for years: the customer is always right. But it’s true! The customer IS always right. Even if they are wrong, think about the impact that a disgruntled client can have on your business. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool there is whether it be good or bad.

I’m happy to say that within a half hour the rain pretty much stopped and within another hour the sun had come out. This created basically perfect conditions to photograph the flowers in: petals dripping with rainwater and sunlight making them sparkle. The rest of the afternoon was phenomenal. And I’ve come to the conclusion that there is something out there in the universe that likes to fuck with me from time to time.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 8:12 am and is filed under Annoyances, Nonsense, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.