My adventure has officially begun now! This is the first blog post from here in Sweden. The weather has been gorgeous! I should probably begin though, by talking about my trip here! And also show you a picture of my luggage, which is packed to the maximum with everything I could need... except I forgot to pack a hairbrush, and I also did not have room for Maccaroni and Cheese. (They don't have it here)
I got to the airport around 9:00, and got myself and my luggage checked in, and said my final goodbye to my mother, and was off to greet security. This is where I learned that I probably over dressed. I wore a long sleeve shirt, with a hoodie, and a coat. On the bottom, sweatpants, AND shorts. That was a big mistake. I was WAY overdressed, and extremely warm. So after shucking most of that off to get through security my bags go through the machine, and they decide they want to test it for something... apparently the coffee and other drinks I brought might have had chemicals in them. They had to rub my bag down, and test it to make sure that there wasn't any. After all that, I had to try to shove my laptop back in the bag, which was already packed to its limits... and then move on to the gate. I didn't realize just how big the airport is, until I had to haul myself and my two carry-on bags, which if the airline would have had a weight limit for carry-on bags, would NOT have passed, all the way to the end of the gates, to gate D2. Where I finally sat down. After a few moments, I had gotten up to ask if there was a way if the gate person could tell if I had a window seat or not. She could, but she instead told me that there was actually an earlier flight, to my first destination, and put me on that one! So I was excited, because I would be leaving an hour earlier, and would get an extra hour in Newark to relax... or so I thought. After boarding the plane, which she warned was small... I realized just how small it was... My carry-on bag... and yes I did have two bags to begin with, this plane was so small they had to gate check one of them... didn't fit under the seat. After I realized that, I announced, in what I thought was a quiet voice "Well this isn't good." Apparently my quiet voice wasn't so quiet, because I was then greeted by looks from the planes other passengers, which all happened to be business men. They all stared at me and gave me a look that said "Are you sure you should be on this flight?" Now, to talk more about how small this plane was! I could barely fit in the seat, my knees were shoved up against the seat in front of me, and the armrests were assaulting my sides. Before the plane was ready to take off, the lady at from the gate desk came on the plane to find me. Apparently my bag which, I forgot to mention, was missing when I got on the plane, was found. But they found not only my bag, but 5 other peoples bags that should have been on that plane, that were checked in 2 hours before flight time, and somehow still had not made it to the plane. My bag did actually make it on that flight, thank goodness. So finally after all that, we leave the gate! We then spent the next hour sitting on the tarmac, with no explanation as to why, other than we were told we couldn't leave yet. So finally, my earlier flight, left at about the same time as my original flight was intended to. and with that I was OFFICIALLY off.
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This would be the luggage that wouldn't fit as a carry-on, in its final position before takeoff.
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| This was shortly after take-off, when you could see nothing but clouds! It was pretty. |
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| This was a bit later in the flight, the picture doesn't do this scene justice, it was beautiful! |
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| This was during landing in Newark. I'm not exactly sure what those things are, I just thought they were interesting. |
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These were some houses/apartments in Newark.
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After landing in Newark, I was very overwhelmed, there were SO many people, all of whom were talking, and looking, and waiting for their flights. the airport was humongous compared to Detroit! Once I got off the plane, I asked someone where I had to go, and was greeted with the knowledge that I had to take a train to my terminal, and that I would have to go through security for a second time! So I walked around for a moment and tried to find the train. I finally found it, and got on. I met a nice guy from Orlando, who showed me where I needed to go next. I got to the ticket counter, and had to try to dig out my passport from the mess of stuff that I was trying to lug around. I may pay the fee to get a second bag checked next time, because this was just difficult. Once through security it was not a very long walk to my gate. At the gate I realized that I had three hours until boarding started, so I took that opportunity to call lots of people before I left! After making some calls, I heard an older couple behind me, speaking what I thought was probably Swedish. I mustered up some courage and went to talk to them, because sitting by myself was getting boring. I was kind of glad they were up to talking! They told me all about the city of Malmö and Sweden as a country, and we found out that I would only be a few blocks away from them! At about 4:30 we began boarding! the plane was HUGE! I had never been on a plane that big.
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This plane fit about 250 people on it. Although it wasn't nearly full on this trip!
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There were surprisingly a lot of empty seats. I even had the luxury of having one of them be right next to me! It was lovely! I had a place to put my things, and spread out a bit as well when I got tired. This flight was definitely LONG to say the least! It was 7 hours. I managed to watch 2 movies, most of the way through. and then got bored with that, and decided to just watch the sky, and the image that showed where we were over the ocean. I actually found that more interesting than the movies. I just thought it was the coolest thing to be able to see where we were, how fast we were going, and what time it was in Copenhagen. It just got me more and more excited! When we finally landed, we were 25 minutes ahead of schedule, but we wound up being only about 10 minutes, because the gate had not been ready for us yet. Once off the plane, I just followed the signs, it was cool, because there was like a little art museum, on your way to passport control... although I didn't stop to take pictures, because I was in a hurry. My bags were heavy, and I was tired and hungry. I didn't eat on the plane, I ate some of the munchies that I had gotten as a Christmas present from Drake and Santa, some cheese and crackers, and some chocolate cake, but the food wasn't very appetizing. I was already feeling a bit nauseous, and the food was some sort of fish mush, with potatoes and green beans, and a salad with cold fish on it. I was not really ready to try fish. I promise that I will try some though during my trip, I just was not ready for it on the plane. It didn't even smell very appetizing. I had the yogurt out of the mini breakfast they served, I did not eat the little sandwich though, that was just meat and lettuce, there was not even cheese on it, or maybe it was hidden. I don't know. I didn't take a close enough look. I just knew that the sandwich was cold, and I can not eat cold meat! In my opinion that is just gross. Enough about that though. I got to passport control, and walked to the lane that was open to everyone, because they had two lanes, well four really, but two were open to everyone, and two were for residents of the EU. I guess you could say it was more like little stations. but yeah, I was not in line for all that long, maybe 10 minutes, and I got up to the window and handed my passport, and was asked where I was going. When I replied "Sweden" the guy at the window laughed and asked me jokingly why in the world I would want to go there. I laughed a bit and then said "I have a friend who lives there" and then was told to have a nice trip, and walked right through. After a bit of a walk, I got to the baggage claim, which was not a very large area, and waited for my luggage. I was excited to find that the luggage carts were free to use! I quickly grabbed one and waited to see if I had good luck or bad luck. I waited and waited for about 10 minutes, and finally saw my bag! I was delighted. I grabbed it and ran to customs! I was just so ready to get going and get on a train! I was exhausted and wanted to be done travelling! So as I was waiting for 5 minutes to get through customs I was asked what I had to declare, I told them I didn't know what needed to be declared and what did not! They told me food, and some other items which I forget now, but I told them what I had as far as food went (which was just the munchies, and coffee, and tea, and hot chocolate that I gave to Anton's family as their Christmas gifts! and they said to just go through that I had nothing to declare. So finally, after a long day of travelling, I saw a familiar face! Anton was there waiting for me! It was so nice to see someone I knew! I had felt so overwhelmed hearing only Danish/Swedish all day for almost an entire day! Even the captain of the plane spoke mostly in Danish or Swedish, I couldn't tell which, and at least one of the flight attendants spoke Swedish. Once they realized that I was not from Denmark, or Sweden, The flight attendants spoke English at me, but it took them a while! So that was the first leg of my trip!
I figure I should end this here for now, because this is quite a lot for one post. Overall though the trip was great! I made it safely, so I can't complain! I will post about my first train experience, and one thing that really surprised me about Sweden next time!
