Arrival in Sweden

The trip over to Gallivare, pronounced "Yollivairi", was one of the longer ones I've undertaken. 36 hours from leaving Brisbane to arriving in Kiruna, then a 90 minute drive (on the wrong side of the road, in the rain) to Gallivare. Fatigue is only starting to hit me now, but I wanted to get these notes down before I fall asleep. It's 18:27, local time... must be about 03:27, back home.

It's the little things that jar you from your expectations when travelling, I find. I walked into the men's bathroom in Stockholm. The urinals there were odd. Unlike the wall-mounted bowls I'm used to, these were pedestal-mounted bowls, facing straight up. Odd. There was also a fold-down tray for changing a baby's nappy... in Australia there's a separate "parents room" for that... either that or it gets relegated to the women's bathroom (cringe-worthy in this day and age).

The flight over Sweden from Stockholm to Kiruna was clouded. We quickly ascended into and above the clouds, and only got to see the ground again upon descent. That was a shame, as I was looking forward to getting an idea of the lay of the land as I flew from one end of the country to the other, but maybe I'll get to see it on the return flight.

As I descended from the clouds, the first impression I had was of landing in Russia. The land around Moscow is very similar to the land near Kiruna. Arriving at the same time of the year also added to the effect... the land is a froth of green pines and golden deciduous trees. It's quite spectacular, but a bit monotonous in how constant the colours are.

The next thing to strike me, as we got lower, was the red wooden buildings with doors and windows outlined in white paint. The first thought I had was of Canadian and American farm buildings. I wonder if the similarities are due to Swedish settlers? Perhaps a topic for research.

Very tired now. I only had one caffeinated coffee on the flight, as I was approaching London, as I wanted to be alert for that. London was a pain... there were huge queues due to the security checks. It's not that they were being thorough or doing more checks, they were just taking a long time to process each person... that or they were horribly understaffed. Possibly a combination of the two... a go-slow in protest to the understaffing? Whatever the cause, it took a long time. But I got through, and with my baggage, so I can't complain too much. I was only in England a couple of hours, after all.

I wandered around Gallivare airport until I found the car rental booth, all of the companies squeezed into one booth with 3 guys sitting with huge grins at everyone walking by. I got my keys and headed out to the car park.

The car was cold when I got in it. It was also missing a steering wheel, a brake and an accelerator. There was the automatic gearstick though. What's the steering wheel doing on the passenger's side? Oh, right.

Climate control made sure the temperature wasn't a problem. It was raining though, just a light sprinkle but the roads were soaked, often with pools of water sitting on them. I started to drive, very carefully. Then someone was travelling 20 kilometres per hour below the (70) speed limit, so after a time I overtook them, and as I did so I noticed the speed limit change and the speed camera. Oops. There seemed to be about 4 or 5 zones where they drop the speed limit by 40 kilometres per hour, have a speed camera, then put the speed limit back up. A truly effective means of controlling speed or a revenue generating device? I reserve judgement at this point.

The water is everywhere. Every flat piece of ground seems to have a pond in it. I don't know if it's just the rain when I arrived or if it's always like that. But coming from a drought-ridden city to this is quite a contrast.

Driving on the right (wrong) side of the road hasn't proven as difficult as I thought it would be. I'm instinctively giving way to the left on roundabouts, and as long as I stay focused I'm not turning into the wrong lanes. I expect I'll always feel a bit nervous and pay extra attention to traffic when I'm on the right side of the road, but the months in Texas seem to have not gone completely as I thought they had. It's coming back to me, and I'm not nervous when driving.

Except for those mooses. Sneaky things, I haven't seen one yet, but I fully expect that at the moment when I least expect it, one will jump out from behind a tree to headbutt my car. I'm keeping an eye out for him.

I've managed to locate a supermarket and get some toothpaste and shampoo... the hotel doesn't supply them, which took me by surprise. I just had dinner at the hotel's restaurant/pub: Reindeer Steak, with some kind of berry compote (is that the right word for it?) and potato cakes. Tasted nice, much like venison perhaps... or almost like well-cooked kangaroo steak.

That's all I can write for today. No huge adventures yet, nor too many oddities of Swedish culture. Once I'm not so tired I'll be more observant of them perhaps.