Sweden: Day 0

[astra_nomer]

Sun Sep 5 02:30:38 EDT 2010

I'm writing this over "breakfast" at Heathrow Airport. Although defining
meals as breakfast/lunch/dinner seems kind of futile when you are traveling
across multiple time zones. I thought about having sushi for breakfast,
but thought better of it and went for a good old fashioned hot English
breakfast. But with coffee instead of tea. Mmmmmmm.

Did you know that Heathrow has a curfew that doesn't allow planes to land
until after 6am? We got in early and had to sit in a holding pattern for
a bit.

The plane ride was fine for the most part, although I continue to be unable
to sleep on planes. I dozed off for a couple of hours at best. I have
had moderate success with medicating with booze to help me sleep, but
they aggravate the dehydration I already experience, so I'm avoiding that.
I remain convinced that airplane seats are designed to be maximally
uncomfortable. Really, whose back is comfortable curved like that anyway?

The next leg of my journey will take me to Gothenborg (or perhaps Göteborg),
Sweden. This is the first time I am traveling to a foreign country as
an adult without any working knowledge of the language. I don't even know
how to say, "do you speak English?" in Swedish. Heck, I don't even do a
good Swedish chef impression, nor have any møøse bytten my sister.

I have a good three hours to kill here. Let's hope my laptop bettery
holds out, because while I brought the US-to-European power adapter,
I failed to bring the one for Britain.

Comments

[rifmeister.livejournal.com]

Fortunately for you, I think nearly everyone in Sweden speaks excellent English.

[tla]

Aw man, pity we missed each other so narrowly. I was having breakfast at Heathrow yesterday morning...

(And yes I have been bitten by that 'no landing before 6am' thing before.)

[tla]

Oh wait I see the timestamp now, and that we were there at the same time! Damn again.

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Maybe I ought to have sprung for internet at the airport after all.

I'll be flying back through Frankfurt on Friday...

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Jumping in at the deep end. Göteborg is the hardest-to-pronounce place name I've encountered in two trips to Sweden.

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

Hi from across the bridge! (well, not directly... you'd have to be in Malmo for that)

I enjoyed taking the tour of the reconstructed East India Trading Company ship in Gothenburg (that was 90% of the tourism I did... our meeting was right next to the boat, and I think I had only a couple additional free hours, which I spent walking about the pedestrian district)

*yawn* I also think airplane seats are more uncomfortable than they used to be. I was much better at sleeping in them 10 years ago... (or maybe I've changed). Red eyes are hard.

-Marcus

[mareserinitatis.livejournal.com]

Does dramamine knock you out?

I can't sleep on planes, either. The best thing I did on a trip to Hawaii was to fly into SF, take a day there, and then finish the trip the next day. I don't handle traveling well at all.

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

Dramamine does knock me out, and probably would have helped when I got really nauseated during our descent. I was going to mourn that I hadn't brought any, but then found some squirreled away in my backpack. Score! Thanks for the idea!