Continued from Roadtrip: Flight From Australia.

I arrived in Stockholm and duly took up my position at the carousel of luggage. And I waited. And waited. The people who had caught the same plane as me had all gone and I was left alone. I wandered over to the luggage claims desk, looking rather bewildered about the whole experience of non-appearing luggage and asked about what may have happened. I was told that due to my arriving late for the connection there was a high probability that my bag didn’t make it and I should just await the next commuter flight to see if they put it on that (about 20 minutes later). So again I waited. And waited. And waiter. But again no dice, so after leaving my details and where I was staying over the next seven days I headed into Stockholm aboard the super fast train – the Arlanda Express.

I should mention that during my checkin process with QANTAS in Sydney, the manager had to be called to work out how to get my bags transferred from the Heathrow bound flight that I took to Bangkok and onto my Helsinki (and then Stockholm) bound Finnair flights. This didn’t leave me with much confidence that my luggage would actually turn up. After arriving at my hostel, and explaining that I’d arrived sans-luggage I grabbed a map of the city and headed out, noting where the local shops were in case my case didn’t turn up that day.

I headed out to wander around the waterfront and eventually arrive over at the Vasa Museum to check out the old tall ship that was pulled from the silt in the late twentieth century. The ship is amazing, making me wonder if the art director(s) for the Pirates of the Caribbean used it as a reference. Come 2pm, and after a much needed bowl of soup and large bottle of water, I found myself at near passout stage – having not slept for over 40 hours. I wandered, well meandered really, back through the streets of Stockholm to my hostel and grabbed a cup of hot chocolate before passing out – still without any luggage arriving.

Waking at around half seven I discovered a note on the door of the dorm I was sleeping in – my luggage had arrived – hooray! Really it was a relieving moment to know that I wouldn’t have to go and recover all that was in that suitcase in 24 hours so I could keep on traveling. Sleep that night proved my theory – that to recover fast from changes in time zones one needs to not sleep during air travel, and arrive at night so you can crash straight to sleep rather than waking up stupidly early as you go to bed too early.

After an absolutely awesome breakie at the hostel I spent the next morning wandering around Gamla Stan – the old part of Stockholm. This was a photographers heaven as I criss-crossed the small area with camera in hand, ignoring that my fingers were absolutely freezing. The warmth of the previous day, where I wandered around in t-shirt and jeans, had long since disappeared. During this wandering I bumped into a lovely young english couple having recently eloped to get married up in northern Sweden at the church made of ice. Travelling solo really does allow you to meet a wider and varied group of people than you ever will when around people you know.

Eventually my time was drawing to a close and I headed back to my hostel via the street markets, with their rich variety of flowers, fruit and vegetables. The nordic people really do love their flowers, and I was there at the perfect time with Spring blooms just beginning to make their mark.

Grabbing my bags I headed to the train and bid farewell to Stockholm, vowing to return one day when I have more time to take in a city that in a short time I’ve definitely acquired an affinity for.

More Flickr photos from Stockholm