Buses, Trains and Airplanes

We Packed last night and fit everything in 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks. Turns out we could have checked 2 bags, but Deb left a collapsed duffel bag in her suitcase so we can bring back the horn helmets, Absolut, and smoked fish on the trip back. We dropped Zorro off at the Daudon House of Canine Mayhem along with the gift certificate to Kinney Drugs for extra Valium. Thanks Jeff and Lisa, the Valium is for you, not the dog!! And remember, the pound is only a half hour away..

We then went to Williston and Seth (thanks Seth) drove us to the airport to catch the Greyhound bus to Boston (the air smells sweeter as I type this from all the jet fuel we did not burn). Turns out the bus was coming from Montreal so it was an hour late after the border gunfight incident (or some issue with suspect passengers, they seemed ok to me). So that started us off from Burlington late. The bus is actually cheap, comfortable, the WiFi works (not lightning speed but not bad), much quieter than a jet (certainly quieter than one of those Brasilia twin-prop vibrators I used to ride in), and it "usually" takes about 4 hours to get to Boston South Station. But not today. Today it took 5 and adding the 1 hour border time added, we got in 2 hours late. But we still had plenty of time to grab Jake, who patiently waited for us, took the train to Logan, checked our bags, and had time for a leisurely dinner at a nice place at the airport (not being cheeky here, it really was nice for an airport). Bid a fond fair well to the boy and the restaurant somehow got us into the security hot lane ahead of the line (still not sure how that worked), and we got to the gate (Iceland Air) in plenty of time.

So I guess I knew there was an airline called Iceland Air, and it makes sense because to go to Scandanavia you have to fly right over Iceland (we actually stopped there), and I knew those brutal Vikings had settled Iceland, and I should have put 2 and 2 together... The pillaging & plundering started as soon as we hit international airspace. A soda was $4.00. A "meal", which is a soda and Pringles was $10.00, and a "full spread" which was something blister wrapped (also with a soda) set you back 3 goats, a sheep or a small child. OK, a little exaggeration, only 1 goat. As you will see later, this was warmup for what we would discover in Scandanavia in general. Turns out Vikings set up the tax system in Scandanavia and as near as I can figure, if you can afford to fly to Scandanavia, you surely can afford to pay $4 for a soda. Actually, the airline was great, stewardesses and stewards were wonderful, and half the movies were in Icelandic with Swedish subtitles.

We landed in Iceland and I guess I expected grass or snow or grass sticking up through the snow but what you get when you land in Iceland at the Keflavik International Airport is something out of a sci-fi movie. It is really, really flat, there is nothing growing on the ground, and it looks like a planet surface with solidified melt-pots all over. The good news is it is never dark there this time of year. So other than that (and a $4 cup of coffee), it was fine. We only stayed there for an hour or so while they torched the mukluks and seal blubber out of the engines, and proceeded on to Stockholm, Sweden. We landed at 1pm Stockholm time (so minus 6 is 7am back home time (did I mention we slept maybe an hour on the plane..)) and headed off to find the car rental place. The awesome thing about Sweden is that everyone speaks really good English, everybody.

The car is awesome. It is tiny (like all cars here) and it is diesel so presumably we should get a jillion miles per gallon (or km per liter). I love driving really small cars. They feel like go-carts when you are mixing it up with the big rigs (actually the rigs here are not so big). We drove north to Uppsala where our hotel is and after getting lost a couple times, we found the place in the downtown. This will be home for 3 nights. We were kind of Zombieish by then so we took a short nap, then wandered around town to forage for food, then back to the hotel to dive into luxurious sleep. Other than some late night partiers below our window at 1:30am, we slept undisturbed. Tomorrow we go to Stockholm..

Sweden here we come

So Deb and I are going to Scandanavia for 2 1/2 weeks. Last year we had our 25th anniversary and we were so busy we didn't do much of anything to celebrate it. So we decided we have never been to Scandanavia and here we are. Deb loves planning trips and has worked hard all winter putting this together. We fly into Stockholm and get a car and then drive west over the next week to see what Sweden and Norway are all about. The pins on the map are the places we will stay sometimes for 1 night and sometimes for 3 nights. Since we burned the fuel to get over there we decided to add a few days in Denmark. We fly from Bergen to Roskilde at the end of the trip and see the sights there, then fly home. The flights are through Iceland Air and stop in Iceland on the way over (and back I presume) for an hour or so, so the only site seeing there will be the exotic Starbucks at the airport.

I am curious about the Scandinavian countries because statistically they have the highest quality of life in the world depending on which indices you want to look at. Denmark is always talked about having the happiest people in the world. The Gini Index which is an indicator of economic inequality in Sweden is talked about as being the lowest in the world, which means everyone makes about the same amount of money. The Economist Intelligence Unit's "Quality of Life" Index puts Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the top ten countries in the world.

So I am curious to go there and observe what makes these people so darn happy. I will have to write up a bunch of stuff I am bummed about to help compensate for the inevitable upbeat and perky people we will inevitably meet. That way when I find myself too happy, I can remind myself of why life really sucks. Maybe they make a drug that makes you more depressed, sort of an anti-Prozac kind of thing? This is going to be tricky..