Sverige: the land of beautiful people, candy, and barbeque accents

Only a crazy person would ever leave Cork by

 choice!

From the second I got off the bus from my archeology field trip I had approximately 2 hours before my Ryanair flight would leave from Cork International Airport! Sounds stressful, right? If Cork weren't the amazing place it is (with minimal traffic and even more minimal airport lines) then it would have been. However, 45 minutes after disembarking my bus I was sitting in the airport with six friends, eating Subway and waiting for the adventure to begin!

Traveling with Ryanair is an experience every person should have. I can promise that I will never fuss  about any airline ever again. From the moment I booked my flight I knew I was in for a wild ride because with Ryanair you are in charge of booking all of your own flights, unlike orbitz or anything else I'm used to that books you all the way through to your destination. When booking my flights to Sweden I was put on edge at the prospect of doing each myself in my room with temperamental Internet and with good reason. I started with my flight from Cork to London-Stansted. Phew, no problem. Then after entering my credit card info for my ticket from London to Skavsta, Stockholm the worst thing I could have ever seen popped up "You have been logged out. Please re-enter your password." Oh. my. gosh. What password? Did I just shoot 30 euro into cyberspace!? After five hits of the refresh button things seemed to straighten themselves out and my blood pressure returned to normal and my tickets officially paid for.

The next step in Ryanair's flight process is printing out your own boarding pass, if they have to do it it's a 5 euro fee. Then once you get into the boarding area you form one angry line waiting to get the best seats on the plane, which by the way don't have the little pockets on the back of the seats! AKA no Skymall magazine! Fortunately, the entire job of the flight attendants is to sell sell sell! From bottled water to smokeless cigarettes the advertisements barely ever stop on a Ryanair flight. Although I'm complaining about it, it's actually quite entertaining and they actually got me and my roommate Ruby to make a purchase. Because we were feeling lucky we bought a 2 euro scratch-it and we almost won a free tank of gas or something!

Crazy times staying entertained in London!

After a quick hour flight we had arrived in London and the first leg of our journey was done! Only 12 more hours before we'd be in Stockholm! The beauty of Ryanair is that we had a 9 hour layover in London Stansted with all of the other people crazy enough to refuse to pay 30 extra euros for a decent flight. The airport was bumping when we got there and we, being foolish new travelers, didn't immediately find an area of benches to make our beds. Instead we walked around, ate snacks, and people-watched a bachellorette party in an arcade. Around 12 we started feeling tired and tried to no avail to find a cozy bed and had to settle for the floor, which wasn't so bad except it got very cold around 3 am. It actually is kinda fun to sleep in the airport with all of the other loons and their backpacks, although next time I am definitely bringing warmer clothes!

At 4 we went through security and boarded our next flight to Skavsta, which is a tiny airport about 1.5 hours outside of Stockholm. I slept most of the way on both the flight and the bus ride, waking up just in time to see the drive into Stockholm. Sweden, from the small bit of time I spent there, is truly an incredible country full of beautiful people, places, and things to eat. There is just something about it that you instantly feel safe in this clean and elegant city. It also is very humbling to see such sophisticated people who are so well dressed and beautiful, who speak 2 languages fluently, but who are also extremely approachable and friendly. Stockholm is free of rubbish, crime, poor people, and diversity, which is probably its one drawback.

Excited to officially be in Sweden!

With my nose glued to the bus window during the drive into Stockholm from Skavsta I tried to take in all that I saw. My first thought? Hey, looks like Oregon! The best part of traveling is definitely comparing the places that I've seen and the way people are who hail from there (more on this later). For example, the aerial shot of Ireland is very telling of its personality: the fields are just sort of haphazardly fenced and each is filled with a million stinky cows. Translation: Irish are a little disorganized and there are more cows than people! Whereas the Swedish fields are perfectly lined up in orderly rectangles

The city itself is less linear because it's constructed on 14 islands where Lake Malaren meets the Baltic Sea (thanks, wikipedia!) Everywhere you look there are bridges and boats and modern buildings next to ancient ones. As soon as we got off the bus we wandered around hunting for the hostel where they were staying all while gawking at the models that walked by. Proof that Sweden is the best country ever is the cleanliness of the hostel! Who ever heard of a clean, comfortable hostel? No one.

The one flaw in Swedish taste: KraftOst aka flavored cheese in a tube!

After dropping off our bags we headed out to lunch at a cafe where I got an Italian sandwichy. Around 4 the small amount of energy I had from my restless night started to reach a very treacherous level border lining on cranky! After a quick coffee we decided to head home on the subway. Riding the subway in Sweden is a really amazing experience. First of all, it is clean (what?). Second at each stop the most beautiful person you have ever seen gets on. Boy or girl, old or young it doesn't really matter. They are all so beautiful, it's like the models from the billboards came alive and got on the train.

The Morning Benders even hipper than downtown Portland!

Once I had recovered after a nap and a delicious dinner we headed back into Stockholm to go to a concert at this supa hip club called the Debaser. The club was pretty neat consisting of two rooms with two bars playing two types of music. We saw this really hip American band called the Morning Benders and despite having never heard them we were probably the most enthusiastic members of the audience, the Swedish are so sophisticated and tend to be more reserved than us wild Americans.

The next day we woke up to ominous clouds in the sky, but we braved the weather and boarded the train into Stockholm. Once in Stockholm we walked through the touristy part of town but decided to get a more legitimate Swedish lunch so we got lasagna and quiche with coffee. When we were eating the weather finally delivered on its threat and it started down pouring. We stalled as long as possible in the restaurant but eventually we had no other choice. What were we going to do that would be both cheap and dry? Logically, we went to the aquarium that is located in the island we had explored the day before.

A cute Swedish child at the aquarium (thanks, google!)

The aquarium was crazy. The first room was a rain forest room (basically a warm version of the weather outside) complete with piranhas! The rest of the rooms focused on tropical coral reef type creatures with one room dedicated to Nordic aquatic life. We saw some pretty sweet creatures like a leopard shark, Nemo, Dorry, poisonous frogs, and seahorses! At the end of the aquarium was a really classy cafe (leave it to Sweden to have a fancy cafe in an aquarium) where we got fika and did some people watching. This cafe is the perfect example of the main differences between the United States, Ireland, and Sweden. Only in Sweden would you have a million blond people, adults and children alike, divulging in tasty treats using a knife and fork and not throwing temper tantrums!

Although we had somewhat warmed up in the aquarium, we were still soaking wet which put a damper on out spirits (I am so clever!) so we just headed home, bought a pizza kit, and went to warm up. While we were cooking dinner a Swedish student came into the kitchen and was just so Swedish. He looked like a very fashionable viking wearing all H&M clothes but in a very relaxed and effortless way, and was really humble when talking about how he is really talented and smart! Those Swedes are just too much.

Full of pizza we met some friends downtown and went to a couple bars. What a fun group, they are all Erasmus students from all over Europe and they are just nuts! The best part of traveling I've decided is meeting people from all over the world and talking to them about their lives only to realize how weird a lot of the things you do are! Meeting people different from yourself forces you to discover new things about who you are, why you are the way you are, and maybe how you want to be. I am so lucky I am able to travel.

Sunday was bittersweet with another 9 hour layover looming over my head. I didn't really spend much time in Stockholm that day, but in the few hours I was there it was packed full of people because it was election day. The journey home was rough with another night spent in the airport and a 9 am arrival on the first day of school! Literally I had time to put my backpack down, check my email, and change my clothes then it was off to school!