8:30 am, Wed 22nd Sept. Alarm goes off. Time to hit the road! As I've been packing the previous day, I wake up next to a pile of luggage and a list things that still need to be packed.

Before I go, I have to listen to the mandatory 15 minutes long lecture on personal safety from my grandmother. Stay safe. Don't walk around late at night. Keep your money and passport with you at all times. Thanks, grandma.

I decide to be a bit fancy, so I order a taxi to the train station. The taxi driver is in a good mood, so he chats with me about London and travelling. When I arrive at the train station, I'm a bit upset about the fact that I can't purchase the discounted train ticket to Graz because I'm not returning within 6 days. Stupid rules. So I pay the full fare, almost double on what I expected. I still have about 25 minutes to waste, so I take pictures of the train station and oldtimer. The sad thing is that they still use that train despite being all nasty (the smell, eww).

I chat with a nice Croatian fella on the train. He seems very impressed with the fact that I'm going to Sweden. I arrive in Graz at 11:30, with an hour and a half to waste before heading to the airport. The waiting game begins. I treat myself with McDonald's (such a good idea, as you'll see later on) and just hang around.

Airport. Despite being at the airport almost 2 hours prior to departure, the check-in is awfully long. I get the nice check-in clerk, because he did not charge me for overweight (my suitcase ended up being almost 17 kilos). The other clerk charged a Croatian woman for the same overweight.

After going through security (who screened my bag twice, oh, maybe they saw I have a bomb in there, huh?), I just hang around at the lobby, eavesdropping to conversations. You can't believe what people talk about, lol.

First annoying thing of the day. The plane is delayed. Uh-oh. I have that little plane to Stockholm at 18:35, remember? Ok, the plane finally takes off 40 minutes late at 15:40.

We arrive 40 minutes late to Stansted. If I was in the show ER, they would be screaming BP 200 over 120. I hate those long corridors on Stansted. I finally get to the baggage reclaim area.

Second annoying thing of the day. The damn suitcase is not showing up! The clock on the wall is showing well over 5pm when my suitcase FINALLY shows up. My BP is still over 200. I run to the other side of the hangar aka Stansted departure lounge and show up at the check-in desk gasping for air 10 min before closing. Whew.

Again, they are not charging me, yahoo! I get to the security area only to encounter probably the longest line I've ever seen! BP shoots up again. Surprisingly, the line is moving much faster than I'm expecting and I'm done at 6 pm. I'm already late for the "show up at gate" time but I try to make my way to the gate as quickly as possible.

Third annoying thing of the day. They messed up gate numbers! People over speakers are announcing to go to different gates "than previously advised". I finally manage to find my gate after BP pumping 5 minutes, thinking I'm way too late.

Fourth annoying thing of the day. The plane is ... you've guessed it ... delayed! Tired, dehydrated, in serious need to go to the bathroom I crash on the floor. After the line does not move an inch for ages, I head to WH Smith to get me water and a sandwich.

They finally get us into the plane at 7pm and since I'm one of the last people boarding, I get an aisle seat next to two Swedish guys. I think, better sitting there than with some snoring old man. Wrong! They ramble on and on and on in Swedish the entire 2 hours. I have enough before we even touch the Swedish ground.

But after the long and exhausting day of common travel nightmares, it's a smooth sailing. We get to the airport, when my suitcase pops up very quickly, I board the bus to Stockholm and speed away into the dark Swedish countryside.

As promised, we arrive in beautiful Stockholm at night 1.5 hours later. I already make my mind on the bus that I'm going to take a taxi to the hostel. Voila! We just get to the City Terminals when I see about 30 taxis waiting for us.

My taxi is a huge Volvo V60 with black leather seats and a nice Arabic taxi driver. He knows where Slovenia is and speaks perfect English. I love good Scandinavian education.

The hostel itself is not so bad. As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the reviews were mixed. The room has 12 beds and is located at the bottom of the ship. The ship itself is not too big and it's decorated in sort of early 19th century style. I get myself the next free bunk. I get a quick look trough the windows and see a spectacular view of the city on the opposite island.

Shortly after that I fall asleep ...