BootsnAll Travel Network



Josh and Jenny’s European Adventure 2009 – Day 11 Stockholm, Sweden to Sugiez, Switzerland

We woke up at 930AM, a little earlier than we normally do. That was probably my fault as is usual for me on a travel day. I get a little excited/nervous and just want to make sure everything is good before we need to head to the airport. We went down for our final buffet breakfast of the trip. It was delightful as usual.

After making sure all the little things were packed, Jenny and I relaxed for the next two hours until we had to check out at 12PM. Once we were checked out, we waited another half hour to take the Arlanda Express train right to the airport. This train conveniently left from the station 15 seconds from the front door of the hotel. Even better was that on Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays there is a special deal for the train; 2 rides for 250 SEK. Normally each ticket is 220 SEK, so here you are getting a real bargain. Jenny and I were very fortunate to have been leaving on a Sunday, and while I can’t say I planned it to be this way, we will take all the discounts we can get in this extremely expensive city.

The Arlanda Express takes 20 minutes to get from Stockholm City to Arlanda Airport. This is by far the quickest and best way to get to the airport. Now normally it is definitely a lot more expensive, but I think that even if we hadn’t gotten the deal for the 2 tickets, Jenny and I would still have taken this particular express train to the airport. The train makes two stops. The first stop is at terminals 2, 3, 4. The second stop is at terminal 5 which was our terminal. Once out of the train we had to walk a little bit to get to the checkin counters upstairs. Once we got to the SAS checkin counters, Jenny went to checkin online. I wasn’t able to check in online as I hadn’t bought my ticket directly from SAS but rather from Orbitz as I had found a great deal on this site and didn’t bother checking SAS to see if the price would be the same.

So for the next thirty minutes I waited and waited and waited on line until I was finally able to check my stuff in. My bag was well under the maximum free limit of 20 kilograms and I was even able to snag an aisle seat for this 2 hour and 25 minute journey to Geneva, Switzerland. After finally checking in, Jenny and I went through security and then towards the gates. This is where we would say goodbye. My gate was in one part of the terminal and hers was in a completely different part. I walked her close to her gate, we hugged and said goodbye. We had a really great time together. We didn’t fight at all, had plenty of laughs, and saw a lot along the way. This trip definitely brought us even closer than we already are. I hope to travel with her again sometime soon to a different part of the world. She has become a solid traveler, someone you can trust and someone who is very aware of her surroundings (thanks to the thieves of Barcelona). But these are all qualities I look for in a travel companion and it is safe to say that Jenny has all of them!

After saying goodbye to Jenny, I attempted to pick up some food for the flight. We hadn’t gotten any before we got to the airport and this would definitely come back to bite my in the butt. I first got a roast beef sandwich for during the actual flight. I then got a slice of pizza and a soda. The slice would end up being cold in the middle, but I didn’t feel like fighting with the girl behind the counter, so I just ate the warm parts and sucked it up. Then since I wasn’t full from the slice I got a wrap and a pastry from the cafeteria type store further down in the terminal. All in all I had probably spent close to 30 USD or more! I was sad to leave Jenny but not that sad to leave Scandinavia. This part of Europe was a fortune and even though I had heard that it was, I really couldn’t be sure until I had come for myself. But from now on I can definitely tell people how expensive it really is and I hope that my blog will help people realize it too in the future.

When I finally got to the gate there were not many people waiting. I think there were maybe 30 people on my flight. This meant I was able to score an entire row for myself! Who needs first or business class when you can get an entire row in economy for a small fraction of the price! During the flight I watched some movies on my iphone, attempted the cross-word puzzle in the International Herald Tribune, which is by far my favorite international newspaper.
Before I knew it we were starting our decent into Geneva. Once we arrived, I gathered my bags, went into the arrivals terminal and tried to find a payphone. After asking someone where the nearest payphone I was able to locate it and had to call Linda so she could tell me what train to take and where the train would be taking me. It took me several attempts to even make the phone call as I had forgotten that I needed to add a 0 to the beginning of her phone number. But after calling her the right way, she finally picked up the second time. She told me to take the 1836 train to Fribourg and she would pick me up from there.

I then had to schlep my stuff down the long corridor of the arrivals terminal to where the railway station was. Lucky for me it was only down this corridor and wasn’t apart of another terminal. Unfortunately this wasn’t my time. I was then having trouble buying the train ticket. The system is a little strange and complicated so instead of staying at the ticket machine wasting all of my time, I went to the ticket booth to order it from a real person and not some machine. I had fifteen minutes to buy my ticket and get down to track 1 but this random guy was just talking and talking to the person in the ticket booth. I slowly watched as every minute ticked off my watch. It was driving me through the roof. Finally I made some jeering comment under my breath but loud enough for the person to hear it (even though he was speaking French and probably didn’t speak English). He turned to me and said that he didn’t see me standing behind him and apologized for not moving along quicker (all in French of course). I took a big sigh of relief and then went to the ticket booth. The lady greeted me in French which is usual in Geneva (one of the French speaking parts of Switzerland). I told her I needed one 2nd class ticket to Fribourg. 41 Swiss Francs later (man the trains here are so expensive), I had gotten my ticket to Fribourg and all with a few minutes to spare.

I briskly walked down to track 1 and got on the train. The train would make several stops but at 803PM I finally arrived in Fribourg. As I was walking down the corridor to leave the station, Linda was standing there waiting for me. We greeted briefly and headed to her car. Linda was a little tired as she had just returned from New York today. I thought she was returning the day before which would have given her at least some time to rest but that was not the case and she had forgotten that even if she left New York on Saturday that with the time difference she wouldn’t arrive until Sunday morning. But she was hanging in there for me, the trooper that she is and I was very grateful for that.

To catch up on the past few months (I hadn’t seen her since January), we stopped in Murten for a drink. Murten is a cool little town where the center of the town and its shops are located inside the walls of a castle. After a few drinks, two of her friends came by to say hello. We didn’t stay too late as we were both tired but it was nice to meet some of her friend from home. One of the girls worked in the bar we went too and the other girl Linda had known for a very long time as she used to live right around the corner from her in Sugiez.

So after a very long day I was finally in the comforts of Linda’s home. Once at home I basically passed out within minutes of laying down. I was happy to be back in Sugiez, Switzerland.



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