Sweden Day One

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June 7th 2007

Published: June 7th 2007

Ingela and Stockholm

After landing in Madrid, we had to go through customs and security again. Stockholm was our final destination and we seriously had just gotten off an FAA security approved flight so I was a bit confused as to why we had to go through security a second time, but “European Amanda/ Chill Amanda” was going with the flow. Ok, well I may have been a security risk. Before we left, Michelle got us these insane looking camp-inspired silverware sets that were heavy and bulky. When we got our food they gave us small, metal silverware, and I, being related to Mormor, said that we should send back the Swiss Army Jujitzu knife/spoon/corkscrew/fork/nail file set and just use the little guys. (I mean I have a serious issue with using a spoon that has an attachment for filing one’s finger nails.) I kidnapped our silverware after dinner, and was pumped that my huge ass bag would be a half a pound lighter. Then we got to security. Darn it. I had to ditch the silverware. Getting detained for being a terrorist was most certainly not worth my Iberian Airlines silverware. After security we had to go through Customs which was our first of what would be many, many lines. We got our first stamps in our passports! (for this trip at least)

We got on our second plane from Madrid to Stockholm. Again I could not sleep, but this time it was because my knees were practically to my chest and I’m only 5'4". I can’t even imagine how someone like Matt would be able to sit on the plane. It reminded me of 100 Noyes except I’m pretty sure I could fall asleep during CHEM 101 lectures.

We got off the plane and were greeted by huge photos and voice recordings of famous Swedes welcoming us to Stockholm. I’m not sure who any of them were, but it was pretty cute. We got our huge bags and walked through customs. There were no security officers, passport stampers, or even people pretending to care that we were there. Michelle and I were very sad we did not get an entrance stamp. Ingela said she would pick us up from the airport and would be waiting at our gate. We looked around and couldn’t find here. Now, I’d never met Ingela and I only recall seeing photos of her from when she lived with my grandparents 25 years ago, so I wasn’t helping much. I kept saying, "Is that her?" Eventually we called her and she was waiting at another terminal. We drove to the University of Stockholm with her and hung out while she had class. We didn’t have much to do since we were waiting for the 11:55 train to Ostersund. We played cards in what would be the Quad. Michelle and I, looking for the bathroom, ended up getting trapped in this hallway where if we opened any of the doors without a passcard we would set off every alarm. We just waited for someone to let us out, and acknowledged that this was not a good sign to start our trip trapped in a hallway.

After Ingela’s class we took the metro into the city. The metro looked like the trams you'd find in Disney World. Not like Mickey Mouse and Cinderella, I mean that you can tell someone pays a lot of money to keep everything looking perfect. The cars were new, clean and many of the metro stops had artistic elements to them. I hesitate to say it was the nicest metro I've ever been on, but I’m glad the Swedes pay their taxes and build nice metros and I’m allowed to benefit from it. Michelle said that we should go to the train station to get our Eurorail passes validated and get reservations for our 11:55 train to Ostersund. Ingela and I said that we were starving so we bullied Michelle into getting food first. We went to this place called Jensen’s Bofhus (that o should be an o with a line through it, you know, like the symbol for no solution). Michelle and Ingela got kabobs and I got grilled chicken, round potatoes, and grilled root vegetables. Wow! It was sooooo good. The sauce they gave us was this paprika sauce, and if I could eat that with everything I’m pretty sure I would. We also got this stuff called tatsiki, which reminded me of gyro sauce, not better than the sauce at Niro’s though. 😊

Throughout the dinner Inglea told us stories about when she lived with my grandparents. Most of them were harmless but she made us swear that we wouldn’t tell anyone. It’s so adorable that at 40 years old, she’s still worried that Mormor and Papa will be upset with her. We walked around the city and she showed us some places where the "gangs hang out." I’m would never deny my fairly "country" roots, but seriously, it looked less dangerous than alley between Clybourn and Hometown Pantry. That’s just Sweden for you. It’s so clean and perfect. She took us to this place called the Sky Bar, which is the top floor of a hotel. You can see the whole city from up there! We walked back to the train station to find that it was closed. Ingela and I laughed because it was our fault that we didn't get the reservations before we got dinner. It all worked out because we didn’t need reservations with our Eurorail passes.

We took the night train to Ostersund. At this point I hadn't gotten more than 2 hours of sleep in more than 30 hours. I learned from my first experience with a night train that it's almost impossible to get comfortable, especially when there are small, crying children in the seat next to you.

Michelle’s bonus points: 1, cucumber stuff

Stockholm to Ostersund

Ingela and Stockholm

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