As I sit here in my dark hotel room, as my mum is sleeping a long day away, I wanted to reflect on the first twenty four hours of our journey. The flights we had were hardly unbearable, almost pleasant actually.  Winnipeg to Toronto was the portion of the flight that I had taken countless times before, no surprises there. However once we were on the plane out of Toronto my nerves started up, thinking about possibilities and the things that could go sideways really quick. Missing our connection, losing or forgetting something or trying to remember how to communicate with people again when you cannot speak the same language. Lack of incident on the whole series of flights made me think that, just maybe, nothing would go wrong.

Fast forward a short while and we step off of the train in Uppsala. While walking to our hotel, a church, yes a large religious building, decided to jump out at me and slash the arm of my leather jacket. So that bit about nothing going wrong, right out the window. On the plus side I was immediately directed to a tailor one block away and they will have it fixed by the morning. Silver linings and all that.

Getting situated at the hotel we are at was uncomplicated and the location itself could not be better. We are very centralized, the train station is one block over and there are plenty of bars and eateries within a short stroll across the street. Which brings me to this….

My first beer in Sweden and likely not the last. I’m attempting to only drink local beers and local craft brews while in Europe. It tends to be cheaper and gives you a taste of the area.

The amount of green landscape and vegetation in the area (even for being in the downtown district) is astonishing coming from where I live.

This section of street was only three minutes from our hotel and was right next to a river that ran between two other streets. Now yes, there are
many places in the world that have green areas and rivers. My amazement was how green the people are here. Most are in great shape, bicycles are the preferred mode of transportation and the streets were a lot cleaner than I am used to. In fact to stress how important cycling is to these folks I will illustrate with the following:

These massive bike racks and rows of bikes were everywhere we went. Some seemed like they charged you parking fees akin to that of a car but much cheaper. Others at the train station, pictured above, were free.

So far the first day has surprised, shocked and pleased me greatly. The differences between the environmental concerns of Sweden and home are like black and white. Their transportation systems are incredibly efficient and reliable. Food, drink, transportation costs (train tickets and bus fares), all appear to be far more costly than they are at home. I came into this country knowing that things were a bit pricier so it was not a huge shock to me, but I can see how visiting here for a week can rack up costs pretty quickly.

Tomorrow we are heading out to Gamla Uppsala which is the old town just north of here. We will be visiting some viking burial mounds and seeing the countryside for the day. Afterwards, a short trip to Stockholm to visit with a friend of mine and have dinner with her family.