After enjoying another massive breakfast at the hotel, we relaxed in our room for a bit watching Scrubs with Svenska subtitles. We packed our bags – seems to get easier every time – and headed back to the trusty T-bana. We rode to T-Centralen once again (it had been the point of many of our line changes), this time following the signs to the Central Train Station. Scott bought us some snacks and we boarded the train which departed exactly on schedule at 12:21pm. Thankfully, our seats were facing forward.
We headed south out of Stockholm and I was a little sad to see it go. We did get to see the Ericsson Globe as we rode out of town, though, which was wild. The Globe is the largest spherical building in the world, and what's extra crazy about it is that there is a Great Glass Wonkavator that ascends the building ON THE OUTSIDE, giving you an ass-puckering panorama of the city. Part of me wishes we'd had time to do it, but then the rational side of me remembers that I'm not the largest fan of heights.
It didn't take very long before we were in the countryside, since Europe doesn't really have suburbs in the American sense. What a picturesque nation Sweden is: the barn-red and mustard-yellow farms, lush, green pastures, dense pine forests, crystal blue lakes and rivers. It was all going by too quickly to photograph effectively, but I did manage to snap a few. The whole trip, but this day in particular, has had me thinking about how hollow American life is. I'll keep the soapboxing to a minimum; suffice to say I spent most of the ride in quiet contemplation, but far from sad or angsty. It was mostly about how to simplify and improve our lives—a noble aspiration, wouldn't you say?
The scenery was nice – like Maine at first, very rocky and dotted with pines, then easing into rolling hills and leafy trees. We went through several small towns, all full of cute little cottages with cute little gardens. While riding through the picturesque countryside, my thoughts wandered. First I thought about People-to-People back in ’98 and the almost-romance I had. Looking back, I really only remember snapshots of that adrenaline-filled-heart-pounding-near-breathlessness of a few choice moments, especially the night cruise on the Seine. I think we may have held hands, or maybe linked arms, or maybe just stood very close. I remember feeling an electricity and anticipation. What I don’t remember is what we talked about, who he was as a person, or even really what he looked like, apart from that one photo of us with Suzy at the top of the Eiffel Tower – I remember the photo more than the moment it captured.It felt odd to think about this while sitting next to my new husband, but the reality is that those memories, those experiences, got me to where I could meet him and find this life. I often wonder who I would’ve been if different things had happened: if I had a boyfriend in high school…if I hadn’t had the car accident soon after P-to-P…if I hadn’t gained the weight…if I hadn’t gone to Hollins…the list just goes on. But these thoughts are usually based on the mistaken assumption that my life would be better now for taking those different turns. What I realized today on the train was that I wouldn’t trade what I have now for anything. The future I have with Scott is the “happy ending” I always thought my life would’ve had if I’d done things differently. Turns out I made all the right choices and ended up here, with the love of my life, on our honeymoon!
And now for the second great fail of the trip: we had lunch on the train, or rather Liz had lunch on the train while I dined on failure. The train had a bistro car, so about halfway through the trip, I went forward to investigate. I got Liz some köttbullar and found a lasagna for myself. It's tough to read the ingredients list when they're all in Swedish and, although I should have, I didn't ask the attendant for help. Yeah, meat sauce aplenty. At least the Coca-Cola was safe.
To our great surprise, our train seemed to go only as far as Malmö, so we unexpectedly had to change trains there. I did have a brief moment of panic, not knowing whether or not our tickets would transfer or whether we would have seats together. To borrow from Henry Rollins, this one seemed to be “The People's Train”: side seating, no luggage space and, like the earlier train, it was “The Cranky Baby Express.” We weren't on it for long, thankfully, as we crossed Øresund and, in a matter of minutes, we were in København Central, only blocks away from our hotel. Interestingly, no passport control or customs that we could see. I'm figuring that because the countries are mostly part of the EU, there are agreements in place for land and sea transports.
It could hardly have been easier to find our hotel, but our room was another story. Three corridors took us around the inner atrium, and then we were finally “home.” When we reached the room, I discovered that three days of boat and rail travel, coupled with the use of my prescription sunglasses, had completely wrecked my equilibrium and I was SURE that the hotel was moving. I tried laying down to reset the sensors, but the springy bed wasn't helping. I boosted my allergy meds to try and calm things down and got a shower, which renewed my spirits a bit.It was getting to be about dinner time, so we set off with only one thing in mind: SUSHI. About a block down Vesterbrogade, we found a revolving sushi buffet. Score! Everything was fantastic and I even tried kimchi for the first time—interesting, but in a good way. I got brave and had a couple slices of crab roll with roe on the outside. It was a little spendy at 159 DKK each ($1 USD ~ 6 DKK), but I definitely think we got our money's worth. I think we've both had our fill of today, so it's bed soon. Tomorrow will be fairly light because most of the attractions seem to be closed on Mondays. We may just wander a bit to see what there is to see.
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