Conclusions on Day 1 (or Kock Catering)

So, after I closed my laptop and boarded my flight to Gothenborg everything took a positive turn. The 4 Hours of flight were easy and devoid of that baby crying I've failed to mention thus far but has plagued me on all my flights until this one.

I got off the plane, got to my luggage in 3 minutes (no passport checks AND my luggage was first on the conveyor). Got out and realized I've missed the last direct bus to Jonkoping by 20 minutes (which means I wouldn't have been able to get it anyway). So I decided to take a bus to Gothenburg's Nils Ericson Terminal (The Central Bus/Train station) and see what I could manage from there. The fare cost 80SEK and ride took around 20 minutes or so.

As soon as I stepped into the Nils Ericson Terminal all dwarfs cut loose. I couldn't find the place to buy the correct ticket and the over-helpful lady at the other bus-company counter was under-useful. I almost paniced when I saw that the soonest means of transportaion to Jonkoping was a train at 23:00 so I've decided to just wander around and see what's up.

After a few minutes, in the far reaches of the Terminal, I found a direct bus to Jonkoping leaving in 20:10 (which was an hour from then). Everyone kept telling me that tickets have to be bought in advance, so I started looking for a source of said tickets, but none were to be found. I ended up asking a someone who ended up not being a local anyway. Although she wasn't much help in the ticket department, she watched over my bags as I ran amok between the different counters trying to figure out how to get those tickets.

Things I've learned in the process:

1) Her name was Stephany.

2) Stephany is from Germany.

3) Stephany's mother lives in Sweden.

4) Stephany's a part time MBA student and part time empolyee of a juice factory.

5) She did not know what CouchSurfing was.

6) She does not have a facebook and thus I'll never see her again.

7) Turks in Sweden can't pronounce the word "cow". (When I asked what meat the donner was made of they just kept "Kaw"ing at me...)

8) Their donner looks NOTHING like Shawarma (but tastes good nonetheless).

9) Sweden has a much higher percentage of freaky-clothes-wearing teenagers.

10) Every square in Gothenburg holds some kind of performance.

11) TICKETS CAN BE BOUGHT ON THE GOD DAMN BUS!

Anyway, I got on the bus to jonkpoing, found out that buses have outlets to recharge laptops, pulugged mine in and started typing this post. The Kock Catering part came from the first van I saw out of the window that caught my attention. AND the battaries on my camera ran out the moment I switched it on :(. Now it's time for me to enjoy the view until I reach Jonkoping and meet with Johan Forsblom and his wife Sara.

PART 2:

I've reached Jonkoping and met Johan and Sara (Aww, what a cute couple :P). The drive to their house took about 40 minutes (To a village suburb thing called Eksjo, which translates to OakLake). So we got there, had a quick bite (all these guys eat here is ham with cheese, crazy swedes :P), got my laptop connected to the wifi and set me to sleep.

By the time I'm writing this, it's already the end of day 2, which was CRAZY! So I'll probably write / upload that post sometime tomorrow noon.

And Remember,

The Shuk is in all of us! (expect for the Eladim)

Nathan Dortman

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Evidence:

Exhibit a:

The Bed I Sleep On ( + Johan's drum set, keyboard AND electric piano)

Everything has gone dwarf! (or how I ended up in Larnaca)

It was all going according to plan. Well, maybe except the fact that I woke up way too early (which means I would be tired earlier) but that's managable. Other than that, everything is going according to plan. Well ... so packing took almost 3 hours and I still managed to forget a few small things, but nothing important. So you could pretty much say that most of the things were going according to plan.

I arrived at the airport at 4am sharp, took 10 minutes to pass the security checks (no time) and got in line for the check-in. And that's when things started to going accoring to some other plan I wasn't aware of.

The flight was overbooked, so I could either wait for people to miss the flight. At first I though it would be an easy choice but then the lady at the counter said it would be very unlikely... So why the hell do they overbook flights?! eh? ... anyway, she said that I could voulenteer for some crazy ass connection flights and in exchange I'd get 200$ or a free ticket to any location within 5 hours of flight (Awesome!), so I did (for the free tickets).

"Well", I thought, "Just a minor set back". And I've waited an extra hour and caught the plane to Larnaca, Cyprus. Now, I should mention that when the 7th lady of the 4th counter gave me my boarding passes, she said something about me needing to hurry when I get to Larnaca. Let's call that today's understatement.

The plane landed at 8:20 and the plane started boarding at 8:25. Which would be fine in theory [But like Yahtzee said: Theory is a trecherous thing that can at any moment disintegrate like a biscuit raft.] but then I saw the line, IT WAS HUGE. So there I am, stading in line, 20 minutes past boarding time and these two Jordanian (Or Syrian) dude decide to torture me. They starting laughing a lot, pointing in my direction, saying the word "Yahud" and "Israel" and every once in a while make a suddent movement towards me. I mean, if you want to grab the railing that's fine, go ahead, but why the hell do you have to do it with a clenched fist flying in the direction of my abdomen only to change direction in the very last moment and chuckle? Damn sadists. (At this point I should probably mention that ALL of the poeple in that line were either Jordanian or Syrian, so that didn't really calm me down).

Anyway, 30 minutes after the boarding time, at about the time when normal places start having last calls, a lady runs into the lobby and shouts: "BRUSSELS? BRUSSELS?". Assuming she's not lost her dog (or god damned mind) I raised my hand, along with a couple other guys stading way outside the line, and she quickly gathered us together and sent us forward screaming something about how the plane is waiting for us. WELL OF COURSE THE FUCKING PLANE IS WAITING FOR US! Nobody gave a shit that we were stuck in line and nobody came to take care of us.

Also, during all the commotion I caught some land stewardess telling one of the other Brussels connection that some conveyer belt was malfunctioning and therefore the luggage might be 2 hours late to arrive at Brussels. Now, I would go ahead that since I have a 3 hour wait for my connection and Burssels this should be a problem. But I think I've learned enough about plans and theories to calm myself down ...

In the end, I made that plane with the pilot giving me an evil eye as I board it (last). So now I'm sitting here in the Brussels airport, 1 hours befopre my next plane take me to Gothenburg. Writing this post in Notepad (becuase the WiFi here isn't free :/ ). I'll upload it as soon as I hit free wifi.

Time to go eat something that will help rid me of the awful taste of a Cyprus Air Breakfast.

Assaf, when you said that my first post should be titled "Everything has gone dwarf" I thought (and even hoped) it wouldn't be as easy as this ...

The Shuk Is Strong With Him,

Nathan

Preparation - 25 Hours Left (And introduction)

Hey,

I'm going to keep this short (because I'm lazy).

In 25 hours I'm going to board the plane which will take me (eventually) to Gothenburg, Sweden (Via Brussles, which appears to be the center of Europe).

I'm writing this blog because I both want to practice my writing and it's going to be easier than emailing (ever so slightly).

Not much more I care to write about now, so here are some (not so) random lists:

Countries I'm going to visit on my trip:

• Sweden (Aug 14th - Aug 26th & Sep 14th - ???)
• USA - California and Seattle (Aug 26th - Sep 14th)
• (Maybe) Canada (During USA)
• (Probably) Finland (after Sep 14th)
• (Maybe) Norway (after Sep 14th)
• (Probably) Germany (after Sep 14th)
• (Inveitably) Belgium (Many many connections)
• Holland (around Oct 10th to Oct14th)

Things I expect to do during the trip:

• Major Shuk
• The rest is secondary ...

Things I've not yet done:

• Cancel my upcoming surgery.
• Get foreign currency.
• Pack my bag.
• Make sure I haven't forgotten anything.

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That's it for the first post :P

Link to my CouchSurfing Page: http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/relvox/

Best regards,

Will try to keep this updated.

Nathan Dortman