Sweden Day 1

Starting from where my brother dropped me off at Logan things were a bit odd. Entering the terminal I found that the Icelandair check in booths were not yet open and had to wait for about an hour before that opened. Fortunately I was quick enough to get to forth in line. From there I went through security and entered the terminal without issue but the flight from Boston to Reykjavik was delayed by about 50 minutes. They had it posted at about half an hour late but it turned out to be much later. Apparently there were weather issues in the morning in Reykjavik that delayed all flights in and out during the day. I managed to get the last bar seat at Houlihan’s and had a bacon cheeseburger and about 4 Sam Adam’s Octoberfest. The bartender remembered me from May. I must have stayed there a long time then too…

We boarded relatively easy and my flights were both aisle seats ahead of the wings, pretty far forward actually. I was happy with that. I did manage to doze, sort of, during the first flight which was about 4 and a half hours. When we got to Reykjavik I found that they had snow all over, thus the cause of the delays. I was supposed to have a 1 hour and 50 minute layover there but it turns out my plane was on last call boarding and waiting for my flight to come in. So I basically rescreened through security and then got right on the second plane. This flight was 2 hours 20 minutes and had a tad bit of turbulence but was ok. I watched Walk The Line because that was what they were showing. Pretty much took up the majority of the flight. We landed in Stockholm Arlanda at about 1:55pm, ten minutes later than we were supposed to land. I hoped out. There was no customs. Got right to the Arlanda Express train and rode straight to Stockholm Central. There I took probably about 30 minutes to figure out my walking map to get to the hotel. It was almost all uphill after I figured it out. I will be glad it is downhill on the way home. I think the walk took another 20 minutes once I figured out the lay of the land. I checked in.

The room is a ok sized but the bed and bathroom are tiny. The shower has no curtain or door and is right on the same floor as the rest of the bathroom so water everywhere basically. After getting myself sort of situated I tested out the shower and at least the water heated up quick and was a good temperature. The location is a bit off the main path but very near central Stockholm so I should hopefully have quiet sleep and not huge amounts of walking distance to the main stuff. After the shower I headed out into the town to try to figure out the train information for my hopeful trip on Sunday and get Dinner.

I retraced my steps back to Stockholm Central Station and felt pretty good about what I had already learned about where I was going. However I had to find the SJ ticket office so I could plan my trip for Sunday. In doing so I figured out that Stockholm Central is sort of spread in a bunch of different places that may be connected somehow but do not appear to be as far as I can tell. It took my probably about 30 minutes of search but I did find where the SJ ticket office is. I spoke to customer service who pointed me to just go to the booths to get my pass validated and try to reserve seats for what I wished to do on Sunday. The woman wasn’t sure where I was trying to go by name (mainly because I am sure I butchered the pronunciations: Bohus, Kangalv, Goteborg) but with the use of a map I was able to explain it. I have acquired rail and bus tickets to the area of Kangalv in western Sweden. Assuming everything works out I will let you know about it on Sunday.

After getting this sorted out I decided to wander a bit more just to get myself acquainted with the area and think I did an OK job at that. I found what appeared to be the main shopping area and walked around for an hour and change. When it got to reasonably past 5pm I searched for a restaurant (restaurang) and chose a bar/restaurant that appeared to be part of a hotel. I had roasted lamb with gratin of root vegetables and a couple other sides. I tried Spendrup beer as well and decided it’s OK, if not the best beer I’ve ever tried. That was Spendrup Export (which is supposed to have a reasonable alcohol content. The meal was sort of pricey but I had seen cheaper places and opted for a hopefully good meal for my first night here. I followed that up with a Crème Brule with compote of blueberries and raspberries and a cup of coffee. The dessert was very good though for some odd reason the brule reminded me of Coco Puffs from way back when I was a kid, when they used to be really sugar coated. Sad but true. In any event I decided on one more beer to kill some more time then I marched out and tried to sort out my position to the hotel. I backtracked further than I needed to but I was actually accurate as to where I was and was happy for that (for those who really know me they know I am not the best navigator in the world). In any event I came back to the room to relax and kill a bit more time before going to sleep not too unreasonably early.

Pictures for day 1 can be found here. Sorry there aren't too many today.