Traveling from Bali to Stockholm

Hey! Travel has sparked my old passion for writing and I’ve started making little notes throughout the day. So today, I’ve compiled all my notes over the past 40 hours. It’s different, but hopefully you like it. :)

Made it to Stockholm.

My mind is whirling. Do you ever get so excited and happy that you sort of want to puke? That’s about where I’m at right now. It hit me again on the plane – I’m really doing this and I’m absolutely capable of making it all happen. Mind. Blown. I’ve been alive all this time, of course, but it feels like I’m levelling up right now. There is no end date to this, nowhere I really have to be, no assurances that I’ll actually make it all the way through to the spring months on my own. It’s freeing and a little terrifying. Still, the scarier the leap, the more exhilarating it is to finally take it.

The flights themselves were incredible. I’ll admit I was dreading them a bit – it took a bit over 20 hours to get to the Stockholm airport, not including the travel time from Ubud to Denpasar. I had a 5 hour layover in Bangkok. All this just one month after the long-haul series of flights from Toronto to Hong Kong to Bali. Whew. My carbon footprint is downright embarrassing this year. I’m seeing about returning to North America by sea. All that said, I breezed through the flights without much pain or discomfort.

On the leg to Bangkok, we flew over Mount Batur, an active volcano.

I’m pretty sure I saw the cliffs of Nusa Penida, though there’s no way to confirm it, and another volcano towered through the pink clouds in the distance. Not much later, we flew over an incredible thunderstorm in the dark. It spewed thick grey clouds and shattered the sea below with a hundred strikes of lightning. I was practically glued to the window.

We touched down in Bangkok at around 8pm, and I spent the next four hours wandering around a near-empty airport, eating pad Thai, sipping a Thai tea, and listening to the audio interpretation of Neil Gehman’s Neverwhere, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and a few other greats. Good times. But I was getting sleepy. By the time I boarded the 11 hour redeye to Stockholm, I hardly needed the half a sleeping pill I’d packed, but I took it anyway. Boom. Out like a light. I actually slept a straight 7 hours, deeply enough to dream. Win!

Now I’m sitting in the Stockholm airport, taking a quick breather and reassessing my surroundings. The airport smells like cheese – at first I thought it was a travel funk, but nope, it’s the airport. The air outside is quite cold and it’s raining. I have neither jacket or umbrella… this could be interesting. I’m now wearing pretty much all of my clothing and look ridiculous. Part of today’s mission is to go on a shopping spree and fix up my wardrobe deficiencies. Warm shoes, an umbrella, a coat, and some leggings are in my future. After that, we’ll see what happens! Wish me luck.

It’s funny. One minute, I’m idly scribbling down destinations and details with multicoloured pens in my tattered notebook – the next, I’m in Stockholm and the windowpane of the bus is ice cold against my fingertips and my paper dreams have come sharply to life. It always feels like there’s no transition between those afternoon duvet dreams and the rumble of a liftoff.

Stockholm is freezing.

I am wearing all of my clothes at the same time, and somehow my bones are still cold. It’s not snowing, it’s raining, and my socks are wet. Still, I feel stupidly happy.

Found my hostel – it’s quite nice.

I checked in long enough to lock up my stuff and feel warmth come back into my fingers, and then I faced the elements again and stomped my way to the train station. Bought a 72 hour underground pass (costs the same as 5 trips – no brainer) and made my way to the biggest thrift store in Stockholm. It was laughably small in comparison the ones back home, but I found a jacket for $20 and a truly crap pair of closed-toed shoes. Might have to upgrade the shoes.

This city is unbelievable. Fall is in full swing, and Stockholm is bathed in an orange glow. Imagine the coziest scene you can, and triple it. I feel like I want to curl up in a coffee shop with a cup of hot apple cider and sleep for a dozen years, but my feet have other ideas. I walked 10km today, apparently, and there’s still so much I want to see. Heading to bed now. I was just having the most interesting conversation with a guy from Syria I met in the hostel group space – turns out he’s also one of my roommates. Weird coincidence.

Good morning.

Said guy left me a nice note this morning, which gave me a little ego boost. Ha! I headed out by 7:30. The city was still dark, lit with glowing lanterns and bright streetlights. I picked up a banana and chocolate croissant and wandered through the metro, getting out on the other side of the river. I walked up a hill to the most perfect view of the city, where I sat alone and ate my breakfast in sweet silence.

This city reminds me of Paris in some ways, but it’s better.

It’s just as historic and beautiful, but it’s quiet. The streets are relaxed and local, tourists are few and far between, there are no dogs chasing me, and there are so many small markets and cafes and shops. I’m in love.

I finished my breakfast and walked through the old town, completely entranced, until my feet got sore and it was time to head back to the hostel to check out. Tonight I try Couchsurfing for the first time – hopefully it works out. I am a little worried that the host might crap out on me at the last minute. But if so, I know a good hostel. ;)