Refilling my love tank with friends in Amsterdam

D & K are my friends from forever and I’m lucky to have them on this side of the hemisphere. We might not live in the same city, but thanks to the freedom to travel within the EU, we can easily meet up somewhere, sometime.

The last time we met up was on a last-minute decision to join them in their holiday trip to Malaga for summer 2021. Since I had solo plans to travel for summer 2022, along with other trips within the year, I couldn’t meet them for another getaway this year. Hence, in yet another chapter of last-minute planning, I hopped on a Thalys train a weekend after coming home from the Philippines to join them in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam has long been an evasive destination. I used to dub thee the Neverlands because every planned trip to the lowlands up north seems to be cancelled for various reasons, notably for its notoriously expensive lodging.

We were this close to giving up on meeting up in Amsterdam for the same reason. But I told D that we should just go with it because we are in dire need of companionship. My love tank has been replenished thanks to my recent homecoming. However, it wouldn’t hurt to get some refill to save for a rainy day. It did hurt my wallet, but it can be healed with another month’s paycheck, and that’s a privilege we were very much aware of.

“Ang mahal ng friendship na ito.” (This friendship costs too much), we would kid. But is worth much more!

Suffice to say, the main purpose of finally going to Amsterdam after such a long wait was to catch up on each other’s lives. There was too much to say and to be said and shared, but most of our moments were filled with silence. I adored those accompanied silence. It felt the most comfortable. I felt heard and understood even between unuttered words.

In the interest of hitting two birds with one stone, in true Leni on the Road fashion, D & K gave me my free time to explore the city on my own via a free walking tour. Later we would meet over food. I love and miss meeting friends over food! Besides food, we lounged in a park under clear, sunny skies before our Heineken Experience Tour. Unfortunately for D & K, they would miss the canal tour that night.

The weekend went by so swiftly. D & K left to take their 9-hour train back to their Host city early Sunday morning, while I have the rest of the day ahead to ‘sail’ through the Dutch capital via the canal tour.

It was short but sweet, as cliché as it may sound. I always look forward to meeting these two. Oddly enough, we’ve never met neither in my nor their Host cities. It has always been abroad. Like we said: ang mahal naman ng friendship na ito. But for this, I’d pay any price.