At long last, I’m here! But for a minor hiccup with my luggage getting delayed out of Frankfurt which meant I was without most of my warm clothes for a day and a half, the journey itself was pleasant. Some of the sights out of the airplane window were simply amazing and I clicked them as best as I could with my new camera, the Panasonic SZ1. On reaching Stockholm, nor only did I have to deal with my ‘missing’ luggage but also the fact that I could not use wifi at the airport as one of the steps for being access was receiving an sms: I didn’t have a functional Sim.

Attempts to call my colleague from the pay phone went in vain as the machine prompts were all in Swedish and the printed instructions in English were far from sufficient. Despite my having a Kroner credit card, I didn’t know how to realize it and nobody could help me either. A kind Samaritan actually gave me two five Kroner coins, but told me he didn’t know the phone system himself. He was a non-native so he couldn’t translate the instructions. I dropped in both the coins (10 sek was the minimum) and dialed my colleague’s number, only to get an automated response which seemed to indicate an error of some kind. The machine also ate up the two coins which my kind benefactor had provided me, and that meant I’d arrive in Linköping without having given my colleague proper intimation.

Ruing my luck, I got on to the train at Arlanda central station. On board the train however, my luck took a turn for the better. I greeted my co-passenger and requested him to inform me when the train reached Linköping. He reassured me that it was the last station. We got talking about a lot of things which included customs and cultures of Sweden and India. He was also kind enough to allow me to use his mobile internet and that allowed me to at long last call my colleague and inform him that I was well on the way to the station. Daniel Nordmark, thanks ever so much, for both the interesting conversation, and the internet! On reaching the station, I was much relieved to see Torgny Faxén, of NSC, at the station, waiting for me! Thus started my times in Sweden! More to follow! Stay tuned!