48 Hours in Amsterdam

Short  long-distance trips is really exciting.. I go to the two extremes when it comes to travel planning. I either plan my trip a head, say 6 months in advance, or plan it instantly.  People always think that spending the weekends in long distance trip is a waste of time, money, and efforts! After experiencing the total joy and pleasure  of traveling in the weekends I totally disagree with them. I've spent some weekend trips to Barcelona, London, Lisbon, Moscow, Paris, and finally Amsterdam. It feels like teleportation. You don't even feel the time passing during your trip. You can do many things at this small period of time. (shopping, Tours, Dinning, etc..). You just get lucky if you find a good route for your flight. How? Your first choice is to choose direct flight. If the direct flight gonna cost you some of your weekend time, then go for the other option (transit), but most importantly you choose a flight at midnight. So you make sure you reach there by morning, not to waste an entire day. When I choose weekend trip I only choose the countries where the maximum flight duration is 6 hours. Flying at midnight and reaching there by 6 AM or so. It's like being here one day and the next day you wakeup finding yourself entirely in another place, and vice versa. one day sleeping in your bed and the other day say in island bungalow, or in a room in the 30th floor! Sometimes you have this feeling as though you were dreaming! 

The previous weekend, I was sitting in front of my laptop. It was 8 PM when I've decided to spend the weekend in Amsterdam! I was talking with my friend on the phone. and I was like what about traveling to Amsterdam this weekend? Especially for the Xmas Market at this time of a year? She was like hmmm if you can book for an early flight I wouldn't really mind, and yeah the xmas market that'll be fun. The nearest flight was a direct one via KLM scheduled 1:45 AM. I booked the flight just 6 hours before the departure time and checked in directly after the booking! I know it sounds crazy, but it wasn't a crazy decision after all. The good thing that I have all my travel stuff ready. I don't have to search for my stuff, like travel kits, gadgets, bath kit  chargers, cross bag, backpack, cam, travel wallet etc.. I've them all in a standby mood. Normally I don't use my day to day stuff when traveling, I've my own travel things kept altogether in one place. I just had to put some winter clothes in my suitcase. by 9:30 PM I was all set. I then made the hotel booking, which took me 15 minutes to do so. By 11 PM we left the house heading to the airport.

 Everything went so smooth, and we reached Amsterdam at 6:30 AM. It was dark when we reached there and cold about 2 degrees. Took the train from the airport to Amsterdam Central station, and it was a walking distance from the station to the hotel. 

We were lucky to be able to check in early in the morning. kept our luggage in the room at the hotel. and went out to have our breakfast.

After the breakfast we went walking around. The Xmas Market was close by, but everything was closed at the early hours of the morning. We kept walking toward Dam Square and from there to my favorite shop Sabon. 

Walking toward my all time favorite Shop Sabon "Available only in few countries"

 Dam Square - Were the Christmas Tree located

Walking through the canals

 Outdoor Grill!

Cheese Burger from my favorite restaurant "FEBO" serving fresh burgers in a automated vending machine. It's not like the other refrigirated burger vending machine. It's served directly from the kitchen to the vending machine. You just have to insert the exact coins (Normally it costs only 2.4 Euros), and grab your burger.

Christmas Market during Sunset

 Xmas Market

 Xmas Market during the night

Dam Square at night

I love traveling to Europe during Christmas time, you'll find a wonderful and cool stuff out there! We spent lovely 48 hours in Amsterdam. 

Solving Instagram Hashtags Problem

I've been searching through the little humble web, searching via google for the Hashtags Problem on Instagram. and Yet couldn't solve the problem.  But today I was able to figure it out!

Now I guess most of you are having the same problem, or let's  say having the same cause for this bothering problem!

The answer is as simple as this: You most probably are using the same instagram account on two devices, say an iPhone & iPad, or iPhone & other iPhone etc… !

If this is the case? Then, you should delete the instagram app at one of those least used device when it comes to posting through your instagram account.

After deleting the app. Go to your instagram options, and under preferences, click on the Share Settings, from there click on your Facebook account where your Facebook name appears next to it.

After that, under Account click on  Unlink.  It'll ask you "Are You sure?" click on "Yes, I'm Sure".

When you are done unlinking your Facebook account. Click again on Facebook under the share settings and click on YES.

Now you'll be able to see all your tags! Enjoy.

X-CITE Don't Expect Amazon !

A friend of mine was very frustrated that she asked me to post about her experience with her online order from X-CITE

She wrote:

"I've ordered the Blueair Sense - Powder Blue yesterday along with 3 other appliance as a set of gift for a dear friend.   Today, I've called the customer service to check when they'll deliver my order. Guess What?! They told sorry we are out of the Blueair sense,  we don't have it anymore! also we are out of one another items as well, we no longer have them anymore.

 I was like.. How come it did not show up  during my purchase and adding the item that it was sold out in your website?!!  Well her answer was: Because it was for the display that's why it was showing. I did not really know whether to laugh or to shout! What A shame!


 What is really really annoying is that when I asked for a refund, they told me it takes 3 weeks for the money to be refunded to your account!

Customer Service: Ma'am we tried to call you yesterday! isn't your number 600 ..
I said:  What! it isn't !! Then she repeated again your number  600.. bla bla bla..
OMG It was the product number that they were trying to call!!!!!!!!!!! 

 I then said: Does it really make any difference if I answered your call yesterday? Would the money take less than 3 weeks instead? No ma'am it still need to take 3 weeks to be processed.

P.S. X-CITE RUINED MY BIRTHDAY GIFT!! I SHOULDN'T HAVE READ THE UNREALISTIC REVIEWS IN THEIR WEBSITE."    

Western Digital Nomad Rugged Case

Three years ago I've got the 500 GB WD external Hard Drive from the State and it was working perfectly during the past two years and a half. Six months ago my external Hard Drive fell down when i was picking up the charger along the way from the drawer! When i've connected it nothing was detected and thus it was most probably damaged and I was really disappointed. Although physically the hard drive itself was in a very good condition, it has not broken up, not even scratched!  Two months ago when I was in the state at best buy checking their WD external drivers,  I saw this durable case "WD Nomad Rugged"and remembered the reason as to what damaged my ED. I then decided to get a new 1 TB WD external Hard Drive,  along with the Nomad Rugged Case. 

The Nomad Rugged case being designed to offer additional protection for most "My Passport" portable hard drives and shield them from drops as hight as 7 feet, and protect them from spills, moisture, and dust.  Also it comes with a convenient opening for the USB cable and thus you don't have to take the drive out of the case to use it.

Now the only thing I've to do since I am using Mac, is to format My Western Digital External Hard Drive with fat32 via Windows!   Which I've explained already in one of my previous posts.

KFH Online Application

KFH Online App for iPhone/iPod/iPad/Galaxy  IOS/Android  an authentic travel pal for your financial transaction,  and it'll make your life really simple with the advanced technology.

All what you need, is to have an iPhone/iPad/Galaxy with 3G prepaid mobile service or wifi and voila! Life is much easier with this little app. For instance you can report your credit card  or ATM card or both with one click if it gets Stolen or Lost!  

Real life example: 7 days ago my wallet got stolen in Paris from my bag in a very creative way and it took them 5 minutes to do so and another 2 minutes for me to discover! out of the blues.. The minute I've discovered that my wallet was theft, I tried to calm my self down. took a deep breath and sat on the bench in front of the eiffel tower. Clicked on the KFH online icon on my iPhone. It took me less than a minute to report  stolen both my ATM Card & Credit Card. and it works the minute I've clicked! This was a relief for me since I don't need to go through the calling process, waiting for the bank representative to answer my phone call, and  then start  the speech thingy (name, cards numbers and  bla bla bla.. ) at this point they gonna surly use my cards! 

Other than that. You can instantly add a payee into your account by simply filling in their names and account number, without the need to call the bank and verify the information. after like 10 to 20 minutes you'll find them there! 

You can also do all the basic things like: Transfer funds between your accounts, and to your payee accounts,  telex transfer, third party transfer, settle utility bills, keep track of your credit card transactions, and settle credit cards dues. 

If you have Online Trading Account with KFH you can also transfer funds right away.

Thank you KFH for the great Apps. Life just got easier. KFH ONline iTunes Store