Trip to Sweden and Norway - Day 1

The flight was fascinating. We weren’t supposed to lift our window shade … the Steward would just come and lower it unceremoniously without saying a word if you did raise it. Still, we did get a chance to see that we flew over the very watery/flat area of Canada… no person’s land. We flew over Greenland and Iceland… And it never really got dark, just dusky the whole way.

We couldn’t sleep much – Elias couldn’t get very comfortable. Lauren finally laid down his blanket and pillow on the floor in front of our seats. It was cramped, but he did pass out rather quickly. The only problem was his feet were sticking out into the aisle. I tried to sleep but between being excited, uncomfortable and anxious about his feet being stepped on, Lauren couldn’t. She finally took a whole Dramamine and passed out for about 2 hours on and off.

Just around the time they served breakfast it was BRIGHT light out – full on daytime, which would make sense since it was about noon local time. When did that happen?

We landed at Copenhagen airport shortly after 13:00 local time. There weren’t many signs (like 1) as to where to go to passport control and baggage claim. Basically we looked pretty stupid not knowing what to do. We couldn’t even figure out what gate to go to because our flight hadn’t been assigned yet. We asked. They pointed at the direction to passport control, and we got through that line in less than 10 minutes (they have signs that say how many minutes from a certain point, just like Disneyland.)  Elias flirted with the woman in the passport control booth, she looked over the passports, stamped them and smiled constantly at Elias.

My mom said that kids are just revered in Scandinavia – mostly in Sweden. This was just the beginning.

We walked to what we thought would be the gate at the end of the D concourse, but it was too early. We turned back and hung out at the C concourse, which had some really interesting shops including a chocolate place. They also have a great kids play area that Elias ignored and went straight for the Xbox and Nintendo displays instead. We couldn’t get him off the game machines.

He hadn’t eaten much at all on the airplane, and still wasn’t hungry at the airport. His cold was getting worse.

We got back to the gate and checked in with plenty of time to spare. Elias wound up playing with a cute couple and their 2 cute boys… he shared his cars, they shared their “Swedish Elks” (dolls). They had been traveling from Vienna. At one point the dad changed the little one’s (approx 18 months) diaper, and he started to run away with his pants around his ankles. Lauren looked and giggled, and he immediately pulled up the pants sans diapers. I thought this was odd. We later found out that Swedish people let their young kids run around naked all the time, but they knew we were American. Likely they thought she was uncomfortable with the child’s nakedness, but it was furthest from the truth. She just thought it was odd that they were pulling up the pants without diapers – like maybe they were out of diapers. Turns out they weren’t, they put on one a few minutes later.

We got on the little Folker aircraft, and flew from Copenhagen to Jonskopping (sp?, but pronounced Young-shopping). The countryside is beautiful, VERY green and lush like Seattle, but flat like Michigan. Lauren wanted to look, but she had taken another whole Dramamine (my mom said the flights are very bumpy), and I just passed out – even before the plane took off. She woke up from time to time glanced out the window and then passed out again.

 The family got off the plane at Jonskopping, so we said our goodbyes. A few other people left as well, and no one else got on. Less than 10 minutes later we were in the air again.

 We arrived unceremoniously at Karlstad airport and my first thought was that my parents were staying in the Ann Arbor of Sweden. Flat, tiny little airport, with pine trees instead of deciduous. Absolutely beautiful though. As we were walking to the terminal, we heard my dad’s whistle and saw them beyond the fence waving.

 We went inside, gathered our bags and went out the door. No customs check. No nothing. We just were in the arms of my parents.

 Anders car is a red VW van. We put everything into the car and dad drove into the city passed the “largest mall in Sweden” – looks no larger than Northgate at best. We drove passed the small downtown to their house, which is a small, three story townhouse in the Herrhagen district on the east side of town.

After settling in and having a snack that included delicious cheeses and caviar, we walked downtown to look around. It was around 5pm, and most everything was closed, but we got a feel for the walk and the lay of the land. As we were coming home my mom mentioned that there was music that would be playing down by the canal… we could hear some stuff going on later that evening.

On the way back we stopped at the small grocery to pick up some soy milk (Tofusomething-or-other) and other necessities.

Dinner was just some more cheese, caviar, and this cool stuff called Rissi Frutti (Rice and fruit). We love it. Too bad we can’t get it in the states. Elias still didn’t eat, but he thoroughly enjoyed playing in Samuel’s (our host’s son’s) room.

We all showered to get the travel grime off of ourselves, then headed to bed. Elias went to sleep around 9pm local time – Ruben and Lauren went to sleep around 11. At 12:30 am my mom brought him downstairs – he was WIDE awake. Ruben took care of it.