Arrival and Adjustment to Stockholm

At Stockholm Arlanda Airport, we were able to catch up with Bernd to ride the train into Stockholm, then share a taxi to the conference venue, which is actually quite a ways outside Stockholm. First impression: Stockholm is expensive! The train trip was only about 20 minutes but cost 130SEK (Swedish Kronor), or about $20. Then the taxi was about 30 minutes and 800SEK ($125). Apparently Stockholm has the highest tax rate in Europe (which probably gives it the dubious title of highest taxes in the world overall) at north of 60% when you include income tax, sales tax, etc. The sales tax alone is 25%! When we got to our hotel, the Sanga Saby, the first strange things that I noticed was when I was given a room key that was a blank white piece of plastic on both sides (no swiping – the door can sense your key is near) and the goofy way that they make the beds by folding the sides of the sheets and comforter under themselves rather than under the mattress or letting them hang at the sides.

Our Room!

I also checked out the fitness center, which is pretty limited in terms of workout equipment, but has a nice sauna and a sweet hot tub with water right at the surface of the lake water.

Lakeside Spa!

We read for a while in the sun before catching up with Bernd for dinner. Tommy and I both had Char and asparagus, which was delicious and similar in flavor to salmon, though it was served in epically small portions.

Thanks for putting me on a diet, Europe. Later in the evening, I got a workout in. The entire building must be kept at 85 degrees. At first I thought someone left the door to the sauna open. I’ve never sweat so much in my life. It wasn’t just a lack of air conditioning…it hadn’t been a very warm day. Regardless, it was nice to have some semblance of a fitness center as I likely won’t see many during the rest of my travels. After my workout and some reading, I was about to go to bed when I realized that it was just a few minutes until midnight. I noticed how light it still was (since we’re so far north and just a week from the summer solstice) and decided to walk back down to the lake to capture it.

You easily could have walked around without any lights…plus, the sun would be coming up in just 3 and a half hours! Pretty neat, although I can’t imagine dealing with the opposite during the winter time.