Sweden, Day 1: Stockholm - Söderhamn

There is really not much to say, partly because the first day in Sweden was so short: my flight didn't touch down on the Arlanda runway until 5:40 pm & we weren't on the road, heading past Stockholm, until almost an hour later. And partly because I was so tired (less than an hour's sleep in the past 30 hours) that I was simply unaware. Ronny, our Swedish host, was there with Pauline (my colleague who had arrived a few hours earlier) and the 3 of us hussled north along the freeway towards Söderhamn. It was windy, wet & cold & shortly before Gävle it started to snow! We made a very short pit stop in Gävle, which was made memorable for me in 2 ways: 1) we watched a woman at the gas station who was bottle-feeding a very small (collie-sized) horse, & 2) another woman, who had been speaking to me in rapid Swedish, understood me when I told her "Jag talar inte svenska" (I don't speak Swedish). But no doubt she would have figured that out no matter what I said.

My host family is just wonderful.

[photos for this blog are here.]