August 2009

Arrival:

My first week in Sweden has been amazing; I stayed up all night so I never missed my flight, which left at 9:10am from Prestwick. Tommy came to pick me up in the car and we drove along the M8 with the rain blasting the windshield at 70 miles an hour, although our average speed was probably more like 90mph, ha! We were listening to the new Kerrang Album so it was quite a good journey.

When we got to Prestwick Airport, we were looking for a bathroom but we couldn’t see where they were so we went over to the bureau exchange place to change all the British money I had on me at that time which was about £40. Then I went to check my bag’s in and I had to put them on the scale’s but the woman at the desk said ”that will be £300 excess baggage” I was in absolute shock so I decided to take my bag’s out of the queue and start wearing some of my clothes in the suitcases. I ended up wearing three t-shirt’s, one jumper, one jacket and I put toothpaste in all my pocket’s to lighten the bag’s, but this wasn’t going to make much of a difference so I asked Tommy to take some of my stuff to his car, if he wasn’t there I don’t know what I would have done… and he eventually found the bathroom. 

As I had to tear open my nice M& suit case to put my excess clothes in, I looked across the check-in floor to see a guy who was doing the same. Alan was from Napier University and he was on his way to study at Jonkoping International Business School with me, however he neglected to read Ryanairs weight allowance which is £15 per kilo, which is ridiculously low.
So he ended putting a bundle of clothes laying next to the check-in desk and I paid £120.00 to get what I had left through check-in. 

Once we were on the plane I was relaxed and looking forward to my first flight with Alan. When we took off I was still getting used to the change in pressure so I decided to sleep for about half an hour. It was a really short flight and we touched down some time earlier than predicted. We collected our bags from this really small cabin in Gothenburg and I finally managed to use the toilet because I don’t like using the ones on planes.

Once we were about to set foot on Swedish soil for the first time, I told Alan that I had booked a taxi in advance to pick me up so we jumped in that and went to the central station to catch our coach to take us the final leg of the journey to Jonkoping. We met a nice girl in the station called Suzanne from Germany at the coach station. She was lost but she said she was going to Jonkoping too so I showed her how to get a ticket for Swedbus and she came with us for the journey.

The bus was the most boring part of the trip, 3hrs with a slow Swedish bus driver. I tried to sleep but I still excited and a little nervous about getting to Jonkoping and seeing my new apartment. When we got off the bus there was a guy from the University there to pick us up and take us to the University student house to collect our keys for the house. I was told I was living in Tenhult, a little town 12 kilometres from Jonkoping. I wasn’t too happy about that but we actually have a shorter time to University than some other people who live in Grashagen and Raslatt  because I had to catch a train which took around 13 minutes.

Apartment Arrival

Once I arrived at the apartment,  I put my bags in my room and took my laptop out to go on the internet then a little while later I heard some people coming up the stairs and that is when I met my dear friends, Olivia, Patrick, Yu Rahn, Plaumen and we all ate some pizza with Transporters 2 on the laptop in the common room.

A6 Shopping Centre

Once I got settled in me and Patrick went for a walk around Jonkoping and we had heard there was a shopping mall near town so we asked someone how to get there, it was called the A6 shopping centre so when we arrived I bought a new mobile because my British wasn't able call from Sweden so I paid about 900 kroner after talking to the shop assistant for a while about the cheapest one they had. It’s quite a good phone and it has a camera on it so that came in handy when I felt like taking random pictures.

One day that I will never forget was when me, Patrick and Sam decided to try and rent a boat on lake Vattern while the Sun was still out and before classes started so we went down to the lake to enquire about renting a boat for the day, however we never had any experience operating one and we were more concerned with getting food & drink supplies at Coop-Konsum in town. After we paid a deposit each and Sam gave his I.D we received the keys for the engine so we started walking around the shore looking for the number referred for our boat and after being disappointed after misunderstanding what boat was ours a few times we eventually found a small wooden boat with lots of water at the back and a massive Volvo engine at the back which ended up being ours so we jumped in to try and start the engine. After almost 30 minutes, our methods weren’t working so I went to the desk where we rented the boat from and told the Woman that we were having no luck in starting it to which she said, keep trying otherwise she’ll ask the owner to come down and help.      
 
                                           September 2009

Beginning of 1st Semester at Jonkoping International Business School:

Classes began in late August so I was happy I was going to see what it would be like and to get settled in to my routine for the next 5 1/2 months. The first class I had was Marketing Management and the other one was Entrepreneurship & Business Planning. They were interesting subjects as we had to start our own business for Entrepreneurship in a group, but we were debating for weeks about what sort of business we would like to start up then we eventually settled on starting a book exchange business. We never spent any of the 200 Kroner that the tutor gave us to get started with our business. Our group made a profit of 1,000 Kroner so we are going to spend it on a day out for something to eat and so we can see each other again before we start our new classes later in October.

Euro-trip part 1: Copenhagen, Denmark

Me, Patrick & Sam travelled down to Copenhagen, Denmark for a two-day weekend, we got there at 8am on Swedbus during the Saturday and the streets were a mess from all the partying the night before. We walked around for hours looking for our hostel; later realising we were less than one mile from it where we began. It gave us a lot of time to check out the sights, when we did find out hostel we dumped our luggage and went out to McDonald's for a bite to eat before going to sleep. We spent the morning walking around on Sunday. We were going to get some bikes but the ones the person gave us were pretty rubbish and our bus came in less than two hours so we decided to leave it and go for another walk around the city instead.

We went on a train ride around the city’s streets, which was fun to pass the time, and we went to the museum in the city square, which had many Olympics medals, torches etc. We got the bus back and it was another five-hour journey but it felt like it took days. It was dark when we got back to Jonkoping so Patrick and I went to see when our next train was to Tenhult and Sam left because he had an Oral exam the next morning.

During most of the time in September, I was studying or doing group work as the time schedule was short for each course. One day we were upstairs about to watch a movie and Olivia and I were looking at the world map and I said I had some pins in my room so when everyone was upstairs we put our name on the world map with our country on it. It was amazing to see how many countries were living in the same apartment. Patrick decided to move to Hawaii, ha-ha after seeing all the Snow here. I hope all our pins are still there...

Barbecue @ Tenhult Lake

We had a Barbecue at Tenhult Lake with everyone; we bought some beers and meat and got it prepared. It began to rain so we weren’t there for long so we went down another day and had a bonfire with marshmallows and I jumped in the lake with Alex & Philip but then I fell when I was running because my foot got stuck in the mud which made Patrick laugh. I was cold so Olivia gave me her blanket and I stood around the fire in my boxers to stay warm, then it was starting to get dark around 9pm so we begun walking home.

Travel Issues

I got a new travel pass sent to the apartment because my other one wasn’t working in the machine and it wasn’t scanning so the inductor gave me a ticket to use until my new pass came, then the company called me when I was in my bed to say they had sent my new card out. I had to use a scrappy piece of paper in the meantime to get on the train, which caught the attention of a few inspectors but I wasn’t going to pay everyday for a new ticket when I paid for a monthly pass already.

October 2009

October is finally here, the leaves have started falling off the trees, and there was some Snow. I went for a jog with Alex & Philip this morning & we sat on top of the hill looking at the spectacular scenery. It’s the night before Alex & Philip went to Italy, so Olivia got many nice pictures. Since Academia is finished, there is not much to do apart from watch movie’s upstairs or go to ICA for some food and to get out the room. The sunset looks nice in the horizon when Patrick and I are walking there.

Time goes fast, its the 15th October so far, but I still remember the beginning of October, I think I just got used to a daily routine of cooking pasta, which I’ve been eating for dinner with Patrick for the last two months. I was in Olivia’s room last night getting some movies that she had on her laptop, which was nice of her… I think we are big movie buffs.

Boating on Lake Tenhult

Patrick and I decided it was a good idea to rent a boat on Lake Tenhult from Coop-Konsum. We rowed it to the end of the lake; it was a rainy/windy day, which made it harder to row so we docked on the beach and decided we would leave it there because we never wanted to capsize, as the oars were quite heavy. The woman was not too happy when she was calling the owner of the boat to pick up the boat and to take it back to the pad-lock.
We saw Olivia in the store buying some food, and she knew as soon as we said boat that something had happened, she waited for us to leave then we told her what happened, another disastrous experience with boats.

International Association: Host Family

I got my host family on the 20Th October so I will be meeting them in the HLK building at 6pm. I also received an email from a Swedish school in Jonkoping where we will go and discuss English with students and they will speak to us about Swedish traditions and culture, it is an upper secondary school. I never ended up going because the principle kept changing the dates, but we both had busy schedules.

Planning Euro-trip part 2: Oslo

Patrick and I have also decided that we are going to go to Oslo in November as we have a lot of free time and we do not want to get bored sitting around in Tenhult. Exams are finished now so were having a pizza tonight, woo! We are watching ‘’Let the right one in’’ with Olivia and Patrick tonight too. (17Th November)

I had to change one of my modules because I never wanted to do a big oral exam; I’m doing Strategy & Technology with Patrick now. I bought the 13Th ticket for the Halloween getaway with horses & kayaking and I bought the 1st ticket for paintball, which will be good as I have experience and my own gun. OOHRA!

Ryanair changed the time of my flight home so I need to wait an extra 50 minutes at the airport; at least I have no chance of missing it now.

Food has started to go missing so everyone’s on edge with their shelves. Luckily nothings been taken from mine but we all have our suspects, because it always seems to disappear at night.  Olivia is making me a nice dinner tonight because I felt bad about her mince going missing so I decided to replace it to get one over on the thief and plus we have a lot of food left in the fridge. (18Th October).




Host Family Meeting

I went to my first Strategy & Technology lecture today and it was more interesting than I expected it to be. Then I went to meet my Swedish family with Tobias, I stood around for a while wondering what was going on before they started getting everyone organised and giving us name tags then I sat down and chatted about hockey and Swedish traditions. I have a host sister, Steph and she is from Canada and seems nice, she works in JKP hospital. I am going for lunch on the 1st November in Huskvarna with Steph to visit my family, Larsen & Kristina & there daughters at their house.

We went to Lea’s birthday in Sir Simon's and I had 2 pints then got the 10:10 train back home to make a lot of pasta, watched American dad and South Park, and rested, (20Th October).

The next few days were boring, we just went to ICA maxi for some food and I bought a massive washing machine powder because I was sick of using powder from the house fund when people were hiding it all the time. (21st October) I also bought food, baked potatoes etc… and Pouya said I made them the Turkish way, which I never knew.  Patrick left today until Saturday to go back to England for a few days so I bought a cake and I am going to make that soon, if Tri helps me.

Beginning of Semester 2:

It is the second semester and I have started classes, they seem to be going fine so far, I’m in a group with Tobias and a girl from Switzerland who seems nice. The sun was out today, which was the first time since Patrick left (27Th October). I do not have any classes tomorrow so I’m going to have a nice lie in as I was up at 8am today.

International Association:  Halloween Getaway 30Th - 31st

I woke up at 9am to make sure I never slept in, I went for a shower, and packed all my stuff in my laptop bag. We went to Systembologat for some beers, so I bought five bottles and sat in the student house with Alex & Olivia & Tasha then we had a fika. The coach came to take us to the house and when we got there. We were split up into different groups but we were divided up from Olivia & Alex’s group so we had to stand in the cold until a car with some more people came so we can go Kayaking.

I think I was a little too competitive here, Patrick was getting soaked because I was treating it like a race, even though everyone else was just taking it easy enjoying the view. At one point we though we had lost everyone, haha!

We were taught how to ride the horses and saw Olivia and Alex going around the pen on them. Then we started walking towards the kayaking building and got two wooden oars. Then we got a kayak and put it in the water, it was really calm and nice, and we were rowing with the current so we were going quite fast. I was treating it as a race so I was rowing for miles until the end but the whole group thought we got lost. I could see everyone in their boats asking other people where we were meant to go. I splashed Patrick’s jeans when I was rowing to overtake many other people. We were crashing into the trees a few times too. We rowed for 1.5 hrs then had a break on the shore, bread & cheese & a little coffee then the groups swapped and we went on the horses. I got a horse called, Marmarik and he kept eating the grass when I was trying to get him to go down the hill… I wish I had the black horse.

We set off up the path towards the house; it was nice going through the woods all in a line. There were four tutors with us telling us what to do though too. Someone from the other group fell of their horse twice. We started trotting fast as the woman said that Icelandic horses are the only type that can do this sort of run and once they have been taken out of Iceland they cannot return. I felt like I was about to fall off near the end as the horse was running for quite far. When we tied up our horses, we started walking towards the house. About 1 .5 miles from the stables but we got a lift off the guy in the van as we jumped in first. Then when we got back to the house we were sitting down, relaxing and had some dinner.

The groups went up separately for dinner; as there were many people, we had Mexican food & juice then everyone sat down to watch the Blair witch project. Then we went to be changed for the Halloween party, so Patrick and I woke our clothes backwards as we never had a costume. We came down and started drinking our beers. Then I saw that there was a sauna so I went in and sat with Patrick for a little while. Ten came out and we played a drinking game where you need to down a small amount of beer and flip the cup over on the table. Our team came 2ND because a girl with huge plastic nails kept dropping the cup, which was frustrating.

We all began to dance and chill then we went out for a BBQ and Bonfire & Marshmallows. I got drunk before bed when I went at 3am, and was talking to Brooke & Kym about Scottish slang... Canadians have filthy minds, ha-ha! Everyone woke up at 9:30am for breakfast, there was toast, cornflakes & juice but Patrick and I stayed in our room and talked as 10am was too early. We waited for the coach to come at 12pm but when he did get here, he was stuck in the mud because he was trying to turn the coach around on the wet muddy grass. We eventually got on the coach and started to drive home, and it was a sunny day. Then we came home and put all my clothes in the wash and had a shower then fell asleep for one hour. Then Patrick and me went to get a pizza, and sat upstairs watching ‘’Employee of the Month’’ and Family Guy then The Simpson's.

November 2009

It has started snowing today and I am going to the shops later for some food and ingredients for the chocolate cake I am going to make with Tri tonight. I have started my Strategy & Technology report on Volvo B today too.  (4Th November).

We went to Academia with Patrick, Aleksandra, Vytautas, and Yu-Rahn & I met some nice people.  We were sitting upstairs and these Swedish people came over to sit with us and I met Frida, she was really interested in Scotland so I told her all about our great nation then I went downstairs to dance with everyone and saw Alan so we were talking about the Erasmus grant as we hadn’t received his either. Vytataus and I asked the DJ to put some Tiesto on but he said he would put it on at 2:30am; we all left at like 1:30 so it was a waste of time.

 I came home in the taxi and slept but an Iranian guy gave us a lift for 200 Sek and I tried to go back in because I thought I left something and he drove away with me still hanging out the car, I was really drunk and still had to walk down the wet, muddy path to the house.
I have been feeling ill the last few days, but I have my comfortable bed and many TV shows on my laptop and I have cleaned my room. (10Th November)

It was snowing again today and I feel a lot better too. I went to International Day and saw Alex & Olivia’s table, and Tasha took my picture for the yearbook. I went for a haircut for 160 Sek because I never wanted to go back to Tenhult so I went to pay my rent too. I went to meet Aleksandra to do the assignment but I was too ill to work so Vytautas showed me where the health centre was but they were having a meeting so I just left it. I went to buy some beers for Academia tonight, which will be great. I went into University to do an assignment and went to the cinema to see ‘’2012’’ with Patrick then we went to
McDonald's and it started snowing, then we came home and booked our journey to Oslo & a three star hotel with a balcony. We went to A6 today (20Th November) and bought a new charger for my laptop, taking it back though for my 500 Sek. Adrian arrived today so were having a Welcome party for him tonight.  I bought a basket for Kelly’s birthday as it’s easier than picking out lots of sweets from the pick n’ mix. I took the camera to get fixed, as I need it for Kiruna and it was a sunny day. I was going to get the Swine flu jab but it was at the hospital, between Monday and Thursday. I have finally finished the Volvo report & sent it to Tobias. (23rd November)

Rosenberg’s called asking for 1000 kroner to put a new lens into the camera so I’m going in tomorrow to get it back and try to get my 600 kroner back.

I went to Roseburg’s and was told a guy stole my camera so they gave me my 600 kroner back & are going to let me borrow a camera & we went to A6 today to take back my charger and got my money back then went for a McDonald's and came home on the bus, (26Th November)

I was sceptical about my camera being stolen so I went to the police station to tell them about it and hopefully they will see what is going on. They are going to look into it for me and hopefully get me a replacement camera or money instead. (27Th November)

I have been staying in the last few days and I did my PowerPoint presentation for Volvo then watched some TV & Fast & Furious. (8Th December) I wrote 1.5 pages in one hour for State & Democratisation and went to pay my rent.

I got money from Farrah for our business, decided to get Alex her money too, and went over to give it to her the next day because we were both busy and couldn’t meet the group for the outing we had planned. (9Th December).

I bought a box to send home to lighten my suitcases so I just put in some t-shirts and some books. I went to the last night at Academia as they were closing because everyone had exams coming up, (9Th December).I got really drunk and lost my credit card in Academia and stayed at Raslatt in some random guy’s room with Olivia, Patrick & Adrian and then we got the 5am bus home the next day, felt really rough…

(11th December) I was just studying all day; it was a normal Tenhult day. I have been studying the last few days but today I went for a fika with Grete for about two hours in Johan’s in town, it was nice and relaxing then I came home and studied and watched ‘’Drag me to hell’’ with Patrick. I had my last exam today (16Th December) it went ok, then I came home and slept as I was up all night revising for it. I packed my bags because I had a room inspection where they only came in for like 30 seconds, left again, and ticked my name off the list.

Euro-trip part 2: Oslo, Norway

I stayed up until 3am (14Th – 15Th) because I never wanted to miss the bus at 7am with Patrick so went to sleep for 2 and a half hours then woke up and got the bus to the station in the dark. Waited for out coach to come and slept until we got to Gothenburg and I bought a zoo magazine to read on the way to Oslo. When we got to Oslo, we walked around for a while, took some pictures, and tried to find our hotel, which was just outside the city centre behind the royal palace in the rich area of town. We checked in and dropped out things off and I went for a shower then we went out to walk around town and came home at like 7pm because it was raining and getting dark. We had been there for 5hrs. We watched TV for a while then went to sleep at like 10pm then bar downstairs were blasting their music at like 11:30 so we woke up and watch rain man which was really good. Then at 12:30 it finished so we went to sleep at 1am and woke up for breakfast at 10am, which was nice, bacon, scrambled eggs, caviar, OJ, apple juice, bread, ham, cereal, etc. I had 2 plates of breakfast then we went to get ready to check out. Then we went to the big park with all the nude statues in all sort of position, which was interesting. We stayed there until 1pm then headed down to town and went for a McDonald's as it was raining a lot so we waited to dry off… there was a few Norwegian girls sitting next to us looking at the corner of their eyes which was funny.

We went to the Opera house where we walked on the roof and took some pictures and headed to the central station after this, as there was not much to do inside apart from visit the gift shop and play with the taps, which were movement sensitive so we put them all on. I bought a juice and a Norwegian sweet from the store and waited for the bus to come and it came 15 minutes early but we had to get on a different coach as the other one was going directly to Malmo. I slept most of the way back home too and when we got to Gothenburg, we went for a burger king and there was this hot girl with a short skirt sitting directly in front of me. We went to catch the coach after this then when we got to Jonkoping there was no trains or buses as it was Sunday and 10:30 so we called Vytautas to get us a taxi, which cost 250 Kroner, then I had a shower and went to sleep.

                                                      December 2009

Euro-trip part 3: Kiruna – 200 km inside the, Arctic Circle

We booked flight to Kiruna today (18Th November) on Norwegian Airlines and chose our own seat on the window seat both ways. We are going to Stockholm at 1:25am then have to catch flight at around 10:25am from Arlanda. We also booked a four star hotel for 3 nights, 2ND December – 5Th December. We are going to organise what we are doing today for our trips, 28Th November. Organised what were going to do in Kiruna today 1st December, climbing up a mountain & going on ski mobiles through the wilderness. Packed bag & taking my charger for phone this time. We are leaving at 11:25pm to get the bus to Jonkoping to catch our coach to Stockholm. We got to the bus station and waited around for the coach to come and slept most of the way to Stockholm & got the airport bus almost straight away as soon as we got to the terminal this took about 1hr to get to the airport. We had a while to wait so we had something to eat and went to the bathroom & checked in for our flight but she never needed our printed ticket, just our passport.

We waited in the departures lounge for about one and a half hours and took many pictures of the planes and the scenery. Then we boarded the plane, which had a red tip and all white at the back. We took off and the flight only took one and a half hours so we were taking pictures as we were coming in to land. Then when we landed, we went to find a taxi to take us to the hotel, 350 Sek. We got to the hotel and checked in and asked where the Internet was etc… then went to our room and had a shower and checked out our room then went around town for a walk and had a pizza for dinner, Britannia and made sure our booking was ok for the tours. We went to the ice hotel on the coach, which took about one hour in the dark and took a few pictures. It was not finished so we stayed in the reception and read a book about the ice hotel and went for a 900-metre walk/jog to find the museum. We ended up at the end of the road at a church and a row of houses so we came back and made sure we knew where the bus stop was on the way back.

We went back to the hotel and watched TV for a bit and went to the gym for a work out then went to bed. We were walking around town, looking in shops etc… to waste some time, and had lunch. When we got back, we got ready to go on the tour and went to the shop to get ready. The tour guide was standing outside and came in to take us downstairs to get our clothes. There was a girl and a guy from the Netherlands and Germany who were also going on the tour. Once we were ready, we went to the minibus and drove for about 30 minutes to the lake where we were going to be snowmobiling. We waited for the person to start the mobiles and to get the food from the cabin so we played with the dog with the woman. Then when he came back he showed us how to operate the machines. Then we headed off into the cold, darkness of Kiruna. We drove for about 20 kilometres to the cabin at the end of the lake and had some reindeer meat with potatoes, which was nice, and some red juice and a cake with cream and we talked about the northern lights etc.

We went to the snowmobiles again once we were warmed up and drove back to the minibus, I went 54 kilometres once and was going really close & fast behind the German girl. Then we drove up through the trees to show the woman where the snowmobiles were kept as she was new and I was behind Patrick then I see him going fast to the left into the bushes and he stops then drives again and almost hits a tree. I came in behind him to make sure he was ok then wave the woman to come and make sure everything was ok. Then the guy came back and put us back on track then we drove back again and went to the minibus and parked our snowmobiles next to each other again. When we got back to the store, we changed clothes again and went to our hotel and watched TV for a while then went to sleep as we had to be awake at 8am for the 9am tour in the morning.

We woke up at 8:45 so had to rush downstairs to find the guide, Andréa’s. Patrick went upstairs to brush his teeth so I was speaking to Andréa’s for a while then we drove in the minibus for about 1hr to the wilderness and saw lots of moose along the side of the road so we stopped to take pictures and to watch them. Then when we got to the cabin we got changed into warmer clothes and Patrick went for a drive with Andréa’s to make sure he was fine with the driving. I jumped on the back of Andreas snowmobile and we drove to a cabin on the side of the lake and had a fika and tea then we went to the lake. Andréa’s drilled three holes into the lake so we could go ice fishing and when we are coming back to the cabin Andréa’s tells us to run to keep warm, which worked for the first 5 minutes. We never caught anything but it was interesting. The scenery was amazing and it was quiet. Quite literally, we were the only people for about 50 miles.

We drove around the lake again and went up this little hill to get off the deep snow and Patrick almost hits a small tree and almost flips over as he is going a little fast, but he was ok. This was the BEST moment by far; I couldn’t stop laughing, because the guy that was teaching us said that I looked like I would be the one speeding. It was just the look on his face when I asked him ”are you alright?” It was off the route because the leader was showing one of his staff a short as he was training her so we went through the woods which was very tight, trees on both sides, uneven path, – 25 degrees & going 35 kilometres per hour.

We drove to the cabin for some lunch, which was reindeer meat, vegetables, pita bread and a bottle of Fanta and Patrick bought a necklace for his mum. Then we had a quiz on what types of animals that part was from. I had an epic failure in this quiz so Patrick won and got a lucky stick, which looks nice. I brought the ice machinery into the cabin and we go back to the snowmobiles again and drive back to the minibus, which took a while, my hands, and toes were cold. We get to the cabin and change again and I forget my gloves. Then we drive back to Kiruna and Andreas puts a Christmas CD on with one song from Mariah Carey then he drives us back to the hotel and ask him for his email address as he was taking pictures of us all when we were driving to the highest mountain range in Sweden.

We got back at 3pm and had a shower then had a Madrid pizza – chicken, kebab meat, and onion. Then we came back and went to the bar for a pint as the club cost 60 kroner and it was full of people in suits and old people. Then we go upstairs and watch TV all night then go downstairs to check out and have some breakfast quickly before our taxi came and head to the airport we waited for about 1.5 hrs then boarded the plane at night then 1hr later it was daylight again. When we took off the plane had to be DE-iced as the frost was gathering on the plane. We got the airport bus again to the terminal, and had a chapatti bread sandwich and Pepsi then got on the coach to Jonkoping and slept most of the way back. There was this nice blond woman sitting at the back of the coach, considering going back to talk to her as we still had a while to go and I had played out my music, think she was going to Copenhagen. as we got off in JKPG. We  got off the coach and saw Yu Rahn getting off the coach directly next to us. I bought a jumper and a shot glass for Alex’s birthday and a cup from the Arctic Circle once we got back from the tour with Andréa’s.

Schedule for Kiruna

Wednesday 2ND December
11:28pm bus Tenhult to Jonkoping Resec
1:45am Jonkoping Resec – 6:20am Stockholm
Arlanda Express to the Airport
10:40 – 12:15 Kiruna
To Scandic Ferrum Kiruna hotel
Ice hotel

Thursday 3rd December
Northern light tour

Friday 4Th December
High area mountain tour

Saturday 5Th December
Taxi or bus to Kiruna airport
7:30am – 9:05 Stockholm Arlanda Airport
11:25am – 3:30pm Jonkoping Resec
4:01 train to Tenhult


Links: http://www.kirunaguidetur.com/english/norrsken.html


Coach Line: 832 

From 01:45 Jönköping Resectrum  - To:  06:20 Stockholm City term


Outbound Flight: 2 Dec 2009

10:40am Stockholm-Arlanda - 12:15pm Kiruna



Return Flight:

5Th Dec 2009

07:30 am Kiruna - 09:05am Stockholm- Arlanda

Coach Line:832

From: 11:25 Stockholm City terminal  - 15:30 Jönköping Resectrum




                                           Scotland – Going Home

Jonkoping Resec – Nykoping bus station

Monday 21st December, 12:35 – 15:45

Taxi at bus station: Cost 120 Kroner approx!

Your new flight details are as follows:

Going out: Scotland From Stockholm (Skavsta) (NYO) to Edinburgh (EDI)

Mon, 21/12/2009 Flight 6635 Depart NYO at 1940 and arrive EDI at 2050 –

My flight was delayed for 5.10hrs late due to an Oslo blackout so we were diverted to Copenhagen but our course was being debated for about 2 hours and to make it worse there was kids crying non-stop. I eventually made it back into Edinburgh but Alan disappeared. I had no money to get a taxi home as it was 1am and I never saw any buses. My phone never worked in Scotland and my suitcase went missing. I was running about the airport for ages trying to speak to staff to find out where it was. I eventually came across a really nice woman who worked at the airport who was going to help me and let me use one of their phones to call someone to pick me up then all of a sudden I hear ‘’Darren’’ and turn around and see Gogs and Tommo walking towards me and asking why my flight was delayed. They saved me that night, then they made me laugh when we went down to get the car out the car park and Tommo tries to do a fast one and get the car out for free instead of paying the fee. It never worked but it made me laugh. We got home after a little stop off at Tommos house and I was hoping my mum was awake because I never had the key to get in the house. I came in and looked at my room, it was in such a mess but I was too tired because I had been travelling for 14.5 hours so I went to sleep on my new bed and dealt with it in the morning.