Today is our third day in Sweden. Lifetimes of events have happened already but we were, unfortunately, unable to get our internet to work until just now. Let's rewind to Wednesday and recap all the crazy things that happened to us on our travels overseas.
Wednesday morning came very early after packing nearly all through the night. It's hard to pack your whole life into suitcases, especially when you're also trying to visit people you won't be seeing for a year. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7 pm, so we thought that would be more than enough time to fit in our last minute packing and lunch with our families. Boy, were we wrong! Ryan and his mom spent all afternoon in emergency phone calls with doctors, insurance companies, and pharmacies after they found out his diabetic supplies hadn't arrived in the mail. Luckily, that disaster was averted and lunch with both of our families at the Rainforest Cafe in the Mall of America was good, if not a little shortened.
We said our last goodbyes and boarded our first plane for a six hour flight to Iceland. We had the perfect seats. Ryan hates to be trapped so it worked out to our advantage that we had seats right across from each other, both in the aisle. Enter a young couple with two screaming babies... They politely asked Ryan in their broken English if he wouldn't mind switching seats to a row behind in a window seat so their family wouldn't have to be separated. Ryan, being too nice to say no, graciously agreed. I stepped in to offer to sit next to the window since I knew how much it would bother him. Seat change one, done. Enter another young couple. No babies, But the English was much, much worse. This young lady kindly asked Ryan if he wouldn't mind moving to two rows behind so that she could sit next to her boyfriend. This new seat, is of course, in the middle- the worst seat for Ryan. Seat change two, done. Luckily, the middle seat in the row I ended up in remained open and Ryan was able to move there after take off so we could sit together as well. I guess in the end everything worked out for the good of all involved, but we decided that on the next flight we wouldn't be so eager to accomodate.
On a side note... Ryan wanted me to say that Iceland really IS green. We landed in Iceland with little problems and very little sleep. (1.5 hours for me, 0 hours for Ryan) Since we were entering Europe, we were funneled into a security checkpoint. Long story short, Europeans are VERY bad at forming lines and waiting their turn. We were a litle nervous about making our next flight as we had a short layover. To add to the stress of the long line, Ryan was pulled aside in customs to have his carry-on bag gone through. Apparently, a suitcase full of insulin and needles catches the attentions of the security guards. Who would've guessed?! The guards were nice though and he had his doctors notes, so we were able to make it to the next plane with minutes to spare.
The flight from Iceland to Stockholm was just under three hours long. We had aisle seats across from each other again, but this time we were the ones that ended up switching because the whole row behind us was unoccupied. I was able to sleep a little more this time, and Ryan finally got an hour of rest after almost 24 hours of being awake.
Stockholm was NOT fun. That might be the understatement of the week. There was no indication of where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to do. To top it off, there were no information kiosks and all the departarting flight boards showed no flight leaving to Lulea. We searched around for somebody to help us for over half an hour before we finally found someone to point us in the right direction. Apparently, we were in the completely wrong terminal? Next, we found out that our baggage wouldn't automatically be transferred for us. We picked up our baggage, now totalling four suitcases, two carry-ons, and two personal bags. We began our two-mile trek to our terminal. Yes, it actually was two miles.
Reassured that our luggage was indeed heavy, we made it to the next checkpoint. This security guard was incredibly rude, telling us that apparently in Europe, carry-ons have a weight limit as well. Luckily, she wasn't in the mood for arguing with Ryan. Disaster averted, we grabbed some Pizza Hut with minutes to spare (again).
We finally made it to Lulea over 14 hours after leaving the U.S. It was almost 5 pm local time. All of our baggage made it unharmed, which I am thankful for because I can't even imagine how angry Ryan would've been after lugging over 200 pounds of my clothes and crap across Stockholm...
We met up with our ride and some other students bound for the university. Most had decided to just buy many of the essentials which we had decided to pack and some had lost their luggage in transit. We decided we were the most cost effective and prepared of the group. Since arriving at the university, so much more has happened. I will post more tomorrow about our adventures here in Europe so far.
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