Not that I didn't love love LOVE Norway, but I must confess: Sweden was my first choice of destinations when I was initially looking for study abroad programs. Norway was, however, a very close second, so I was no less excited when everything worked out for me to go there. But my desire to visit Sweden, particularly Stockholm, never faded, so I was really hoping to be able to make a side-trip over there sometime before I had to return to the U.S. I thought it was going to work out for me to go with some of my new friends for a weekend, but we ended up going on the cruise to Copenhagen instead. (I know, boo hoo, right?) Needless to say, although I was disappointed that my dreams of Stockholm would not be coming to fruition on that particular weekend, I jumped at the opportunity to cruise to Copenhagen with so many incredible people. But I did not give up on my dream of Stockholm. In fact, I had a pretty crazy idea. What if I could change my flight to leave from Stockholm instead of Oslo and leave Oslo 1 day earlier to spend 24 hours in Stockholm? It was crazy, but I thought it just might work...and it did! The folks at Iceland Air were nice enough to charge me a minimal fee and change my flight easily!
Fast forward to Saturday, July 23rd. The attacks on Oslo had happened just the day before, but I figured the airport would be one of the safest places. As crazy as it seemed and as nervous as I was at first, by that point I was SO excited about this trip. And spoiler alert: it did not disappoint!
I took a cab to Oslo Central Station (just to be safe, given the events of the previous day) and a train to the airport. It was recommended that travelers arrive at the airport very early due to extra security precautions, but ironically, I found that it was quicker than any experience I've had at an airport in America! However, Norwegian Air charged me an arm & a leg for every kilogram my luggage was over the limit...and my luggage was HEAVY. I'm ashamed to say how much it cost to get my month's worth of stuff on that tiny plane. At this point, I was incredibly excited but also somewhat depressed about the end of my Oslo experience. But to my wonderful surprise, while aimlessly wandering around the airport, I ran into Marcus & Madi, my Australian friends from my program! Hanging out with them for a few hours before our flights left made the transition from the end of one of the best months of my life to the beginning of a new adventure on my own much easier. After we lounged around the airport for about an hour, it was time for them to board their flight to Stavanger, so we had to part ways. Luckily, I had been stalking my other Australian friend, Lucas, who was also stalking me; thus, we ran into each other near my gate and hung out until it was time for me to board my flight. It's always nice to have a friendly face around at times like that, a proper send-off for my big solo adventure!
I arrived to sunny weather in Stockholm, and after fighting my way through a group of about 50 teenage Brazilian boys, I collected my bags and set off in search of the baggage storage area. Cue blood, sweat & tears. Minus the blood. But sweat and tears for real. I'd done my research beforehand and knew that the baggage storage area was on the first floor between terminals 4 & 5. However, it was not that simple. The elevators wouldn't go to the correct floors, the signs made no sense, the list went on. I went back to the same woman behind the information counter three times nearly in tears trying to find this place. Eventually, I made my way to the deserted grey dungeon underneath the airport. But the fun wasn't over yet! I still had to lift the suitcase that weighed more than all three of my young siblings combined (maybe a slight exaggeration...but not much!) into a locker over my head. It took a lot of psyching myself up and summoning all of my strength, but I got that sucker up there, and I felt like a superhuman version of myself afterwards!
I received a warm welcome from the royal family of Sweden.
Okay. No more sweat, no more tears, and still no blood. I was ready to truly embark on my adventure. To my great advantage, my wonderful boyfriend had given me a Frommer's guide to Scandinavia for Christmas in 2010 that contained all the information I could possibly need for getting from the airport to the metropolitan Stockholm area where my hostel (and let's be honest, pretty much everything else) is located. Not wanting to waste any time after the luggage storage debacle, I immediately purchased a one-way ticket on the Arlanda Express train to Stockholm City, where I got on a T-bana (subway) train to the stop near which I had purposely selected a hostel.
Half-mast for Norway. :(
View of the Swedish countryside from the Arlanda Express
Stockholm Central Station
When I was choosing a hostel, I purposely chose one that was close to a T-bana station to ensure that I could get where I wanted to go easily and was not doing too much walking by myself if I came back late at night, even though Stockholm is one of the safest cities in the world. It had some of the highest ratings & seemed perfect on paper/computer screen, but you never know with things like that until you see them. But Skanstulls Vandrarhem (try saying that 10 times fast) hostel was amazing! It was really close to the Skanstulls T stop, was even nicer inside than it appeared on the website, had a friendly reception staff and even more amenities than expected.
This has just been the journey...and my trip was all uphill from there! Stay tuned for my re-cap of the real adventure!
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