Since I'm already in Europe, it seems like a natural thing that I would want to visit the half of my family who also lives in Europe. I mean, just about all the countries in Europe are so close together that you can travel between them in only a few hours. Right?
A couple months or so ago, Milja and I decided that we would go to Sweden for a few days before Christmas. We booked our tickets with Ryan Air, a cheap flight company that flies between big cities in Europe. The only downside to our 35 euro a piece tickets were that we had to pay an extra seventy euros for the luggage and that we had to fly from Eindhoven airport to Skavsta airport. This meant that first we had to take a train for an hour and a half to get to Eindhoven and then once we got to Sweden we had to take a bus for an hour and a half to get to Stockholm. But, we figured that it was worth it, because in the end it was still a lot cheaper than flying with one of the major flight companies.
Trains really aren't that expensive, and they go really fast, so getting to Eindhoven wasn't really a problem. Until, half an hour into our train ride, they made an announcement that the train rails to one of the most central train stations in the Netherlands was broken. This basically made it impossible to get to Eindhoven with the train.
Right away after they said this Milja looks at me and goes, "We might not get there. Are you going to cry?" I sat there (not crying) well Milja called a million different people and talked to all the other people on the train trying to figure out what we were going to do. For some reason we had to take a train first from Amsterdam to another train station. On the way to this station we met a younger couple who was also going to Sweden on our same flight, and we decided to all take a taxi together to Eindhoven. At the next train station we found a taxi driver who thought he could get us to Eindhoven in time for our 3:30 flight. Of course, I really had to go to the bathroom. So while everyone else waited in the taxi, I ran back into the train station. But, I didn't have the fifty cents it took to go to the bathroom, so I ran back to the taxi, put on a brave face, and decided I would just have to hold it.
We had a pretty good taxi driver. He drove super fast (you don't want to know), and dodged most of the traffic jams. Everything was going well, and we were starting to think that we might actually make the flight. After about 45 minutes in the taxi, though, I was really suffering from the brave decision I'd made earlier. The taxi driver helped me out. "I have to go to the bathroom too," he said, and within five minutes we were pulled over. I sprinted into the gas station and sprinted back out, and we were on our way again. By this time it was starting to seem like we were definitely going to make the flight. We had plenty of time and we were still gaining extra. Then we got to Eindhoven.
After the first wrong turn it was still okay, we had enough time. Even after the second turn it was still all right. After the third wrong turn I was starting to get a little bit of a nervous feeling in my stomach again. After the fourth wrong turn, and realizing that the GPS just wasn't going to work, Milja suggested that we ask someone the way. We had one lucky moment, and the first person we asked actually knew the way there. When we finally got there the taxi driver parked illegally and we all ran out of the car and into the airport. Luckily the gate wasn't closed yet, and we made it in, we even had to wait in line for a little while before we got on the plane. There weren't any major incidents on the plane, just a minor moment when a woman had an asthma attack and they had to call for a doctor, but it seemed like she was okay in the end. When we went to pay for our tickets for the bus to Stockholm, Milja's credit card wouldn't work, and we didn't have any Swedish kroner's yet, but we paid the younger couple that we'd travelled with back in Euros and they bought us a bus ticket. Then we got on the bus and saw that that Milja's blackberry needed a pincode to turn back on, which she had never used before. And what a surprise, so did my cell phone. Eventually I remembered the pincode to my cell phone and managed to turn it on and send text messages to everyone asking for help with Milja's pincode. We managed to call my grandma and grandpa though, so that they could come get us.
When we finally got to Stockholm from the bus they were right there waiting for us. We went home with them in the car and ate keish for dinner. Their house smelled just like Sweden always smells, and there was snow all over the ground outside. And, I got to sleep in the same bed I always sleep in there.
More to come...
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