Travel day!
August 20, 2022
The day is finally here – travel day! Sleep deprivation aside, I’m feeling quite good. Travel thus far has been excellent – it took me only 45 minutes to go from my house to the gate which was a pleasant surprise. Fingers crossed that my good fortune this morning will continue throughout the remainder of my journey.
I’m going to have several hours of sitting in airports today, 3 in MSP and ~5 during my layover at JFK, which I’m hoping will be rather relaxing all things considered. I’ve got ample content to entertain myself with – 3 seasons of game of thrones, all the Lord of the Rings extended editions, as well as Dune on my kindle which I’ve been meaning to read for months.
I return to you settled into my room in Stockholm! Travel went perfectly except for a 30 minute delay when leaving JFK, which was acceptable because we were compensated by an absolutely stunning sunset (unfortunately not pictured). My terminal had painfully little in the way of affordable meals, but I found myself getting a fairly inexpensive “Meat-lovers Stromboli” which was surprisingly filling. The hours in the airport went slowly, but I was able to talk with my roommate for the first time as well as finding a group of fellow DIS students on my flight so I wasn’t alone. Yay friends!
Dinner on the flight to Stockholm consisted of incredibly hot ravioli and an interesting deconstructed Mediterranean-style salad which was surprisingly good. As I drifted in and out of consciousness, I suddenly found our plane soaring over the incredible mountains of western Norway, which I attempted to photograph from 38,000 feet.
Feeble attempt at photographing the incredible mountains/fjords in far-western Norway.
As the “minutes remaining” slowly continued to tick down on the seat-back display, I was growing with excitement. After so many hours of travel, the reality that I was soon to arrive at my new home in Sweden suddenly became very real. We were greeted to a calming drizzle upon landing, which felt appropriate given my prior perceptions of what weather in Stockholm is typically like in late-summer. I had the most pleasant and straightforward customs experience ever as my passport was processed, and suddenly found myself standing outside baggage claim being greeted by a very large sign saying something along the lines of “Välkommen to DIS!”, which indeed made me feel like a traveler on the TV sitcoms who are greeted by a large sign upon arrival. Exactly what I had hoped for.
I was provided with some much needed sustenance in the form of a delicious bit of sandwich and was then swept into a cab and driven to my apartment building, where I am writing this post now!
Stay tuned for another post about my first impressions of the city and all that happened on my first day in Stockholm, and until then, tack för att du läser (thanks for reading)!