Journey to Uppsala (May 14/15)

After months of being too busy to think much about it, what with UW classes, California weddings, daughter's engagement, a poorly timed lung infection jeopardizing our departure date, etc etc, we finally left Seattle for Sweden on Thursday.  We were in a mild state of astonishment that it was finally and actually happening.

Our nine-hour flight to Amsterdam (Airbus A330) was uneventful. Well, except for the medical emergency. It is not clear exactly what happened, but somewhere over Hudson Bay a request came over the PA system for someone with medical training.  A while later I made a visit to the lavatory and saw a woman sitting in the kitchen area with several people clustered around her, including a woman who clearly was a nurse. The woman seemed OK and I heard nothing else about it. We also watched a movie (Black or White starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer) to pass the time.

When we reached Amsterdam, we congratulated each other on not being all that exhausted. However, after making our way through passport control and figuring out how to get to the gate for the connecting flight to Stockholm, we realized that we were more fatigued than we thought.

Our nearly two-hour flight to Stockholm (737-800 - a touch of home!) was also uneventful. Well, except for the second in-flight medical emergency of the journey. This time it was the guy sitting beside me in the aisle seat. His English was not very good, so it was difficult for the flight attendants (all Dutch apparently) to understand, but it seemed the left half of his face had gone numb. Again the call went out for a doctor or nurse, and again someone with medical training showed up. We saw him later at baggage claim though, so apparently he was OK.

Arriving in Stockholm, we realized we were definitely near the end of our respective ropes having been more or less awake for over 18 hours. Understanding simple instructions such as how to find the train to Uppsala in the next terminal was difficult.  Luckily, the people at the information desk were patient and friendly as was the lady who explained how to use our tickets to get to the train. It all seems so simple today - not yesterday though.

The train to Uppsala was smooth, fast, and very quiet. It was an impressive example of a well-run public transportation system that I wish we could find a way to emulate at home. We arrived at the station in Uppsala after only 18 minutes and were greeted by our friends, Dan and Charlotte, who had arrived two weeks ago. We were pretty much mental basket cases by then, and it was nice to have people to guide us to the office where we got keys and supplies, and then to our apartment.  They had even done a little shopping for us so we would have some food to get us going in the morning! We tried to stay awake until a reasonable time, but ended up passing out at about 6:00PM local time, after 26 hours of nominal consciousness.

Woke up this morning after a mere 12 hours of sleep and are getting ready to go shopping and exploring. Here is what our room looks like:

And this is the view out of our window:

Time to go exploring!