Scandinavia Trip: First day in Sweden

[cjsmith]

*** Sun Sept 22:

Unfortunately I got very little sleep. Every ten minutes, the woman behind me would yank on my seat back. I was just about ready to commit murder when the cabin crew served breakfast, mercifully distracting me. At one point I tried to figure out, based on my watch (San Francisco time) and the overhead display (time remaining in the flight), whether it was dark outside the aircraft. I was very drugged. It took me a long time to decide on an answer. At least I got it right. Yes, it was dark outside.

Schiphol Airport is pronounced Sky-pole or possibly Skip-ole. I've been saying it wrong for twenty years. We got our passports stamped, quickly went through a doorway marked "nothing to declare", walked past a rental Internet connection place (dang! coulda made a LiveJournal entry) and made our next flight. I didn't see any flower vending machines. Disappointed.

The two-hour flight to Stockholm seemed short. I slept a bit.

Upon arriving, we claimed our bags. Rob discovered his had been opened. We expected that; all checked bags are searched. Rob changed a little bit of money, and we again walked through a doorway marked "nothing to declare". No passport stamp, even! Darn.

Got the rental car. Thank goodness EVERYone here seems to speak English. We have a silver Saab station wagon. The ignition key goes in the low center console, where a gear shift should be. The mirrors are convex and in fact they have a seam -- they become more convex toward the outer edge. Rob swears this car has no blind spot. The car also has double sun-visors, so the driver or passenger can block the forward AND side windows at once. American cars should do some of these cool things. We were at once dismayed and relieved to see that most of the controls in the car are labeled in English.

We set off for Arne and Birgit's house. Speed limits seem slow here, and most intersections have rotaries. Road markings, especially lane markings, are a bit confusing, and we really wish we had a guide to international road signs. I have unfortunately forgotten my Swedish/English dictionary at home. With map in hand, and with a few words of advice from the car rental clerk, it was easy to find the right town and the right street. However, at that point we were stumped. We found house number 94 but it contained a guy who did not speak English and who thought Birgit lived next door. Er, hm. We asked two passing bicyclists. They thought maybe the other side of the street? Well, eventually we found our mistake: there are two identical townhome complexes, one of which had the 94 we found and the other of which had Arne and Birgit in the other number 94. Boy were we glad to see Arne answer the door in a bright pink NACC shirt.

We chatted for a little while. Arne was an amazing host, bringing out a pile of brochures and several maps and a road atlas and two thick Swedish/English/English/Swedish dictionaries, all of which he happily lent us. He happened to mention that a lot of these brochures were picked up yesterday. Clearly he wanted us to feel welcome and be prepared!

We were surprised by the smallness and coziness of their home. The entryway opens onto a hallway ahead, a kitchen to the right, and stairs on the left-hand side of the hallway. At the end of the hall is the living room, past a small half bath. Upstairs are two bedrooms, each not much bigger than the bed(s), and a full bath -- with shower, no room for a tub. That's it!

We then went for food. Rob set off for McDonald's with Birgit as guide, and I went with Arne to a pizza place. It was refreshing to go off on foot and just carry everything home. On the way, I asked Arne about some birds I had seen all around. They're about the size of crows, but bright white on the sides with a black back. Arne told me the Swedish word for magpies. I always thought magpies were smaller... We finally got our prizes back home. Arne and Birgit shared a pizza, and I was surprised that I ate an entire one all by myself. I suppose it was thin and I really hadn't eaten much in the last forty hours or so.

We laid maps and books out on the kitchen table to plan the rest of our trip, but I was so tired that I just kept putting my head down on my arms. I didn't even rouse much when Rob noticed some stuff was missing from his luggage. He'd had various audio connector cables and the Hilton preamp in a plastic bag along with some vitamins. The vitamins were present, but the plastic bag and the cables were gone. Obviously this was going to be a serious problem for calling. With Arne's help, he telephoned two local callers, then got a plan for purchasing some of the cables. I was hazy on most of this. I had begun cramping and was very tired. Eventually I went to sleep, long before Rob did. He offered me melatonin and a sleeping pill, which I took. Or maybe it was just melatonin.