may not always be the best or fastest way around ;) but it is MY way around
After deciding to go to Stockholm tonight, I went through Hell trying to find out how to buy a ticket.
Literally.
Look! 😂
It turns out there are none to be had.
You can see the train on the timetables but you can’t buy tickets.
Argh.
(And the AirBnB place I was looking at next to the station is taken too. Double Argh.)
I have a decision to make.
I’m on a train on the way south to Trondheim. From there I need to get a train to Oslo and one to Stockholm.
I get in to Trondheim at around half past 10 tonight.
By then, I need to decide whether to
A) power through to Oslo and then Stockholm so I’m back with my bike tomorrow (and before the family it’s staying with thinks I’ve abandoned it).
Or
B) stay the night in Trondheim so I’ve slept and am more awake to rush around the city tomorrow on the way to the station to catch the train to Oslo
and either
i) power through to Stockholm
ii) stay the night in Oslo before heading to Stockholm.
I’m super tired, I could use a bed and a lot of sleep.
..But..
..I’m back in the south. It’s going to be dark(ish) soon so I won’t have to feel ‘guilty’ for not looking at everything (= I can sleep in the train)
I have enough food for a day or so. And I could be in Stockholm before the shops shut tomorrow..
The ‘economical’ approach would probably be to say I’m spending all this money on trains, and travelling all these kms, who knows when (if ever) I might be back, so I might as well stop and see something while I’m here. It adds a couple of nights and a couple of hundred Euro to the pile, but that probably won’t count for much in the grand scheme of things..
On the other hand..
It’s the end of June already. I have 3 months left, 4 if I extend, and I haven’t started cycling yet. 🤭 I used 2 weeks getting myself ready to leave and another 2 getting to North Cape and back. I need to be in Berlin for a couple of days at the end of July and will hang a trip to Edinburgh and York onto one end of that. That’s going to eat another couple of weeks, leaving me with around 10 (or 14) weeks to cycle >2000 km of Swedish coast and catch trains through Finnland including getting back home and getting myself ready/adjusted for ‘Alltag’. And I don’t want to have to rush/stress about time the way I did last summer..
My brain’s frazzled. I’ve been racing round the country for 2 weeks and most of that time I was ‘busy’ looking at and trying to absorb beautiful and amazing landscapes. I haven’t taken any time to catch up to where I am. I’m still ‘processing’ what I’ve seen and done, I still have stories buzzing around my head that I want to write down. I haven’t done more than thought about sorting my pictures out. At some point, the buffer is full and I’m going to explode (or prove H’s joke right 🙈). I could use a couple of days to charge my batteries (by sleeping a lot) and emptying my head so there’s more room for new things.
Realistically, even if I was fully awake, I’m not going to see much of either Trondheim or Oslo by racing through them in a day each. Making an effort to come back to see them in their own right would likely do them more justice..
I’m currently not even doing the lakes justice.. It seems there’s a limit to my enthusiasm 🙈 like in that song: the blonde beauties become dull dutiful pickles. I’m not quite at the pickle point, but there’s definitely a sense of ‘ooh! Another pretty lake’ rather than ‘wow! That’s amazing!’
Writing this ^ has decided the question for me..
I’ll book the trains for tonight and tomorrow, and try to survive being awake or sleeping on the train, so I can spend a day or two vegging on the far side of Stockholm. Somewhere ‘nice’ (and probably mostly people-free) where I can lie in my hammock and write and think and sleep..
The SD card in the phone is full.
That should be fine, I have a stash of new empty cards.
So far so organised.
What I don’t have, at least not with me, is the spikey thing I need to get the SD slot out of my phone to swap the damn things over 😔
I’m pretty sure I looked at one while I was packing (at home).
I don’t remember where (or even if) I packed it..
And the view from the train is pretty and it’s even partially sunny.
(The ‘proper’ camera’s lens is covered in fingerprints (previous owner) and tissue fluff (me)* 🤭😥. H says I should go to a camera shop and let them clean it so I don’t scratch the protective coating, which is all well and good, and theoretically very helpful advice… I just haven’t been past a huge number of camera shops recently 😅)
I really don’t want to spend the journey looking at my phone, sorting and deleting old photos and missing what I want to take new photos of.
Argh.
* Pro tip: don’t carry your camera in your pocket 🙂
I haven’t figured out how to carry it instead yet. I have limited shoulders and hands…
Just crossed the arctic circle.. almost got a good picture of the Thing too 🙈🙃
Featuring shopping, admiring flowers, going 5/6 of the way around the roundabout, finding out that the app doesn’t sell tickets it just tells you about them (and then laughs at you when your storage is too full for another app), playing with the ticket machine and finding out, after getting yourself and all your luggage onto the train, that you’re in a room the size of a matchbox with a door that only pretends to open into the carriage, leaving you with less than a minute to get yourself and all your luggage back out and into the next carriage…..all while holding your ticket in your teeth and trying not to lose it….
…phew!
The people who thought I must work for the church (!!!) Had said the door was locked..
..but…
..by the time I’d finished putting the tent away and wanted to to see the Cathedral it was open.
🙂
Look at this:
If this isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the best thing you’ve ever seen in a church, you’ve obviously never slept in a churchyard.x
Isn’t it beautiful?
There’s even a light shining in the distance 😅
Pure awesome 😜
(Yes, the pictures were taken afterwards. Priorities people :))
Isn’t it perfect? The floor was even clean enough for me not to mind putting my luggage down 🙂
And it was the first toilet I’ve ever seen where the water comes out in two waves from the sides. I didn’t want to take a picture of it flushing, and flushing it again for a photo seemed a little excessive, but it was cool 🙂
The actual cathedral was cool too 🙂
Usually when I walk into churches I first notice the windows..
..in this case the windows are pretty dull and I got caught up in the tapestry rugs first.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a church with rugs on the walls before.
And I didn’t notice the weird lights until sorting this post out.. 🤦♀️
I like the kids area too, right at the front of the church.
I wanted to sleep in the church (like in Lund) but it’s closed.
Steps? No. Too cold without a sleeping bag, probably too dirty for my sleeping bag (and sleeping on steps looks bad for the church.. maybe? 🙈)
Tent?
Faff, but sleep……
Tent.
No mat.
Just sleep.
Goodnight world.
There was a tiny bit of a push to go to the museum while we were here. It was mentioned in yesterday’s events ahead talk and they made an announcement before we landed (“..if you want to go to the museum, it would be a good idea to buy tickets now so you don’t waste time queueing later..”)
The museum sounds great; ‘they’ have restored an old boat and there’s a lot of ‘Historical Things’ (thanks Andreas :)) – information about the company and its founder and suchlike.
And yet..
It was 22,50€ and we docked for an hour or so, which works out at 45 minutes on land.. so by the time you allow for getting there and back, it seemed to be a bad deal.
I like looking at things without rushing.
The outside was good too, and someone had decorated the landing centre with posters and info.
And there’s going to be a talk on the history in a bit..
“The boat is about to go under a bridge across a narrow part of the fjorde.. the expedition busses will go over the bridge as we go under it. Can you stand at the front of the ship and wave a Norwegian flag for them?”
Um.. I guess? Sure! (It’s not like I have anything better to do, I wanted to watch us go through the canal anyway..)
I fought my way against the wind to the front deck and joined a ‘crowd’ of bemused people who were fighting the wind to stay on the front deck.
Then we received our flags..
..and waved them at each other and at the busses and at the world in general while the boat and the busses honked their respective horns (and the locals presumably hid).
And then we handed the flags back and went inside again.
And that was the end of another bizarre favour.
I have been asked to do some bizarre things in my ~35 years on this planet, but this, this standing on a fancy cruise ship as an unkempt day passenger in strong wind and rain, waving a foreign flag at a couple of tour busses has to be close to the top…
Part of me is going to really miss it being this light at 11pm.
25°, sunshine, blue sky, light breeze, deckchair..
What more could I ask for?
Now to go and pay..
They had 2 front and 2 rear bags, plus a tent across the rear bags. And frame bags. And bottle racks.
Something(s) jumped out of the water 🙂
I didn’t get any pictures.. just memories 🙂 Getting the camera out or unlocking the phone screen takes too long 🙈
🙂
The old baskets squeaked on the pannier rack. I have no idea if the new ones will – I have just installed anti-squeak tubing 😉
I bought a couple of metres of dark grey aquarium hose pipe and slit it lengthwise with a pair of scissors.
Then I cut it to lengths that fit on the thicker metal bars on the top and side of the rack, cutting out little half circles to make them lie flat past the thinner bars.
Later: I begged some miniature cable ties off my neighbour and tied one around each piece of tubing (not pictured). They stayed on pretty well on their own, but I don’t expect them to stand up to a month of mistreatment without attempted mutiny.
The letters contained a screen protector and a case with bumper corners for my phone.
After Nachhilfe.. Talking to the kid’s mother about various things, I ask if she has any experience of travelling by train in or through the baltic countries. She didn’t personally, but..
“My husband does. He’s the best person to ask.. He’s a train expert.. Let’s ask him” <calls husband>
Kid’s Mother: “Jess wants to know the best way to get to Tallinn by train” <expectant look>
<husband looks at me>
KM: “I told her you were the best person to ask”
<husband looks at me>
KM: “she wants to take her bike.. There’s bound to be a connection, right?”
<husband looks at me>
KM: <nudges husband slightly impatiently>
Husband: Take the ferry.
***
This seems to be the best solution.
the Jess(e)way around 