Travel Troubles...A Learning Experience

I made it into Sweden on January 3, just as planned. Although, there were a number of moments when I needed to step back, take a deep breath, and remember that everything was going to be okay. The flight from Madison to Chicago was very small and left a little late in order to de-ice the plane. Once it landed in Chicago, we waited on the runway for almost an hour due to snow and delays. After a little layover in Chicago my plane was suppose to leave at 3:30. Well it didn't leave until 7:00 PM. There were a few delays with weather but we were told that they were attempting to fix our plane, which they were unsuccessful at, so they found us a new plane.

Eight and a half hours in a plane wasn't too bad, the toughest part is the crazy time change of plus 7 hours. Since the flight was late leaving, I missed my connecting flight to Copenhagen from Dusseldorf, Germany. For our inconvenience, we were given food vouchers for airport food. Naturally, I ate a Pretzel, Apfel Kucken(Apple Pie), and a German Bier. After learning about these foods in German class it was awesome to finally eat them. Instead of sitting in the airport, my travel buddy, Jonathan, and myself went into the city of Dusseldorf to see some sights. We weren't there very long but were able to see some neat things, like the Rhine River!

Once we finally arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark it was raining quite a bit. We exchanged some money for Danish Kroner and Swedish Kroner and attempted to find our way to our hostel for the night called Copenhagen Downtown. We jumped on a train and made our way to the general area. Well let's just say we got extremely lost. We asked directions multiple times and it turned out those people were giving us the wrong directions. After lugging all of our luggage through the capital of Denmark for about an hour, we finally found our hostel. Our room was on the the fifth floor and the elevator was so small that only two people could fit in it. I feared we would get stuck inside! We made it and slept good that night since we were both exhausted.

The next morning we explored Copenhagen for two hours before we had to checkout and head to the train station. The city is very cool with some cobblestone streets, monuments, a palace, and lots of history. I can tell my adventures through Europe will all be very interesting and fun. A little advice for navigating trains in Europe, just ask. Many people are willing to help and most speak English. Once we discovered what train to get on and where to go, it was smooth sailing from there. The Swedish landscape is beautiful and I saw many farms. Although we ran into many troubles with our travels, I made it through it and discovered to just relax and remember than everything is going to work out.