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I made it just in time for the last boarding call of my flight, as I only got to the airport an hour early, and security pulled me aside to grill me (pun intended) about a can of sloppy joe that I am bringing one of my hosts. I only slept 3 hours of my redeye flight from New York City to Stockholm, Sweden. My nerves were frayed with excitement, anxiety, and intrigue.
I arrived in Stockholm on Tuesday morning at 11:00. I went to an information booth at the airport where I bought a shuttle ticket from the airport to Centralstation and obtained exact instructions on where to pick up said shuttle. I then went to exchange my money at the airport. When asked what type of currency I wanted, I wasn't entirely sure what to say. I knew that Swedish money is called Kronas, and its abbreviated SEK. Tired and flustered, I said "I'd like SEKs, please."
"You'd like sex?" The attendant asked as I blushed bright red, then she laughed. "We say SEK, not SEKs," she explained, "there's no S at the end. Or say 'crowns,' that's what we call it."
I took the shuttle to Centralstation, which is a 10 minute walk from the hostel. Armed only with a paper map and ~50lb backpack (I can only use my phone with wifi, so I couldn't google map directions), I walked to hostel. I got only mildly lost, and found the place within 20 minutes.
At this point it was 12 noon and I was ready to pass out from exhaustion, but enough people warned me how hard that would make it to adjust to the time difference. Instead I edited and posted my NYC blog entry, wrote to my family, and made some of the hostel's unlimited 'free' (included in cost) pasta for dinner with a packet of chicken stock I had brought along. No one I saw at the hostel that first night said hello, and I worried about how lonely I might be over the course of my journey if things continued that way. I made my bed, took a shower, put my valuables in the provided locker, and finally laid down at 6:30pm.
I knew as the only one ready to sleep in an 8 bed dorm, people would be coming in and out for a while and I wanted uninterrupted slumber, so I took a quarter of a sleeping pill my dear friend Josh gave me, and within minutes it felt like my eyelids had gained 10lbs each. I slept straight through 6:30am, at which point I got up to use the bathroom, then knocked right back out until 1pm. I awoke feeling refreshed and ready to enjoy the city.
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