From a delay in Paris, to a walk around the city, I begin to experience life in Stockholm as a foreigner.
Day 0-1: Friday and Saturday
I left the house in Austin on Friday morning around 11am to board three different flights to get to Stockholm. In Detroit, the flight was delayed by two hours because of something like a firmware update for the plane’s system. No one knew this, not even the crew or pilots, which caused me to miss my connection from Paris to Stockholm. Our plane landed just as my next scheduled flight was doing the final boarding call. I spent a good five hours waiting to board my next flight from CDG to ARN. If I had a bit more time I would have taken a taxi into the city, but with the typical nature of air travel and wanting to limit exposure to people en mass, I chose to wait at the gate. The oddest thing happened during my time waiting. Several EU citizens would approach me and start talking to me in their native tongue. I had to sit there with this stupid expression on my face and say “I don’t know”, in typical American fashion. It surprised me how many people mistook me for a resident, but it also felt very satisfying knowing that I somehow fit in.
My flight from Paris was possibly one of the scariest flights I had ever been on; the take off was bumpy, the air ride was turbulent, and the landing was god-awful. Did you know that a plane could hydroplane? Because I didn’t until that moment. And as the plane was docking into the terminal, it was like the captain overshot his intended stop and had to do a hard brake, reminding everyone why wearing seat belts until the light is off is a very important safety measure. To add insult to injury, one of my bags with all my prepared items was lost in transit. I received notice today that it had been found and will be delivered to me soon, but what a crazy experience all around.
My hired driver found me and helped me load all my luggage into his vehicle, and off we went from Arlanda to the island of Kungsholmen, where my apartment is located. Side note that was mentioned to me by a coworker that I didn’t even realize: I am actually living on King’s Isle. Crazy!
I met with the woman who has been helping me with her relocation services and she gave me a run down of the building, showed me where the attic space is, and how to schedule myself for using the laundry facilities in the basement.
At this point, I’ve been awake for more than 25 hours. I am tired and an absolute wreck. I couldn’t think straight and had a difficult time trying to figure out the next steps in reporting my lost luggage and inserting a prepaid sim card into my phone. All I really wanted was to take a shower and climb into a bed of fresh linens, but the bag that was lost had all my important toiletries and new sheets. All the shops within the area were closed by the time I arrived and had to stay in the mucky feeling of travel-worn uncomfortableness. I tried to stay up as late as I could to start working on acclimating the time difference, but I fell asleep around 22:00 hours.
Within hours I was snapped out of my sleep by the sounds of ABBA sing alongs from the pub down the street, and heard some random drunk people throwing bottles around in a jovial way, while screaming about something I couldn’t understand. I had a troubled sleep until around 5am, when I snapped wide awake and couldn’t go back to sleep for another few hours. I finally fell into a deep sleep around 7am and didn’t wake up until a short time after noon the next day.
Day 2: Sunday
By this point, you’ve probably heard about how Sweden did not take part in a country-wide lockdown. Instead, those who have office jobs have been asked to work from home until at least the beginning of the new year, continue practicing good hygiene, and use a practical 2 meters for social distancing. Knowing this, I was still apprehensive about what life would be like in Stockholm with the Coronavirus situation. Living in the US, I became conditioned to be paranoid: paranoid about touching things, going out in public, being around people, and generally leaving the house. I hadn’t really left my house much other than few times to meet with my family and run to grab some curbside orders.
Life in Stockholm is very different, as you will see in my below pictures. It’s like returning to the old world before Coronavirus crippled our livelihoods and sent us all into an unprecedented tailspin. People here, including the elderly, continue their daily routines. Children are riding the metro to and from school, adults are still going to pubs, and the shops are still running and selling items. It’s wild and completely foreign to me right now.
Anyway, that leads me to my second day and finding groceries, and replacement toiletries so I could take a proper shower. Armed with my mask and a freshly installed UK-based International prepaid sim card, I set out the first adventure in my new neighborhood. There are literally 3 grocers within a 3 block radius of my building, and even better, a MAX Burger. Noticing the social distancing behavior many Swedes used, I didn’t feel nearly as apprehensive about having to go into local shops as I was before leaving my apartment.
With a fully stocked fridge, a shower, and full belly thanks to MAX Burger, I felt a lot better about my surroundings. I came back to the apartment and starting prepping for my first day at work on a normal schedule.
Day 3: Monday
I was able to log into work and join the team for a few meetings. Around 13:00 I had to set out to go to the tax office to file for a personnummer, which is basically the Swedish equivalent of a Social Security Number. Without a personnummer, you basically don’t exist. You can’t even buy alcohol without one; did you know that Sweden’s retail alcohol experience is very similar to that of Utah and a handful of other US states? You can only buy alcohol with an ABV content higher than 3.25% from a state-run liquor store, in which you will need to give them your personnummer in order to complete your purchase. Oddly enough, this has been one of the aspects of living in Sweden that I was absolutely dreading. Ever since March, I’ve had my fair share of imbibing and I’ve gotten used to having a few beers each night. Well, I haven’t had a drink since I left the Austin airport, and I think I’m doing okay!
Anyway, I decided to walk the distance from my apartment to the tax office to get a bit more familiar with the new city that I am going to be living in. It was a very pleasant walk that was peppered with an array of interesting architecture, people, and waterways. I returned to my apartment by way of the metro, and finished out the rest of my work day. The sun still hadn’t set so I decided on taking the opportunity to go on another excursion to the park near my place. I saw men pushing prams, children skateboarding, adults jogging and doing group exercises (while maintaining the 2 meter distance), and had the chance to really enjoy my scenery. I am still very much in the honeymoon phase of my journey within Stockholm.
Oh, and by the way, yesterday’s temperature was in the mid 60s (Fahrenheit) and today it was in the mid 50s. Winter will be here soon, and even though I packed a plethora of warm clothing, I don’t think I’ll be fully prepared for it until it hits.
There are an assortment of other quality of life changes that I’m still adjusting to; back in the states if I needed something within a few days I could either order it from Target or Amazon, but that is not an option here. I’m in dire need of a new desk and office chair, and still need some way to make a proper cup of coffee. I think in time I’ll acclimate to these changes, but for now these are the biggest pain points I’m feeling.
Now for some pictures! Please enjoy some of the images I snapped during my walk in the park!
Valerie Kromas 