As with most departures, I had been second-guessing my
packing decisions all day, on one hand worried that I had packed too much; on
the other that I was missing something important. The flight wasn’t to leave
until 7:07pm, but as with all international flights, it is always a good idea
to get there early, and with evening rush-hour traffic to deal with, we had to
budget extra driving time.
Dad came home early from work so he could drive me to the
airport. Mom had to go to a faculty meeting to prepare for the upcoming
semester at North Hennepin. Even though Mom couldn’t be there, I cooked a final
farewell lunch of stuffed Portobello mushrooms and filled up before leaving the
house. My parents and I got to the airport by 4:30, and our timing was perfect
because just as I approached the check-in counter, I ran into both Nicole and
Kristin, my travelling partners.
We ran through security and made it to our gate with about
two hours to spare. We went to French Meadow Café to pass the time and talked
while Nicole ate her dinner. It hadn’t really hit me that I was actually going
to Rome, but excitement started to build as we talked about our plans, the
places we were staying, and the things we would see.
As we finally took off on our short flight to Chicago,
Kristin and I waved a final farewell to the brightly lit city of Minneapolis
below, twinkling in the darkness like stars in the sky. The flight was short
and sweet with only the slightest bit of turbulence on the descent. We managed
to arrive in Chicago a good fifteen minutes early, giving us time to navigate
the Chicago airport. We had been told that we needed to use the train to get to
our terminal, but as none of the monitors seemed to have our flight listed, it
wasn’t clear which terminal that was. Eventually, we discovered that Terminal 5
was designated for all international flights, so a short train-ride, and
another run through security later, we found ourselves before the gate just as
business class was beginning to board.
We were momentarily struck by terror when all three of our
names were called up to the front desk. Horrifying scenarios of being kicked
off the flight and forced to stay overnight raced through my mind. What
happened instead was that our seats had been changed. Our seats had been moved
to row 5, but we didn’t realize until we entered the plane that we hadn’t just
been moved a few rows forward, we had been moved to first class!
It must have been blatantly obvious to all the other first
class passengers that it was our first time experiencing such luxury, because
it was all we could do not to jump up and down and squeal in giddy excitement.
Here is a list of all the fantastic wonders of the first class world:
·
Overnight bags with: socks, toothbrush,
toothpaste,
·
Remote-controlled TVs
·
Chairs that recline all the way back into a
lying position
·
Plenty of foot and head room
·
Coat hangers
·
Complementary champagne, juice, water, wine,
liquor, cocktails, tea, coffee, etc…
·
Amazing food: a three course meal consisting of:
o
Course 1: fresh salad (without iceberg lettuce),
warm bread rolls, smoked duck with a fig and quinoa salad, and lingonberry jam
o
Course 2: salmon with risotto, sautéed spinach
and tomatoes
o
Dessert: cheese plate (with stilton!), fresh
fruit, almond fig tart, or Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
I don’t usually sleep on planes, but I got a solid four
hours or so after that amazing meal, and was woken to do it all again with breakfast:
fresh bread rolls, muesli and yogurt, fruit, ham, genoa salami, Jarlsberg
cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers. The orange juice was fantastic!
I was almost reluctant to get off the plane, except for the
fact that we were safely in Copenhagen and had arrived a full 45 minutes early!
Waiting for baggage took a little while, but going through customs was easy. We
hopped on a train from the airport to Hyllie station for 88,00 crowns (about
$13.00). The first thing I noticed upon
exiting the train was the modernist architecture. Through the windows on either
side was water as far as the eye can see. I had a strong desire to jump in the
water and go for a swim except for the fact that it would have been freezing. Even
in the mist and the rain, the view was gorgeous. Nicole said we passed the Turning
Torso building by Calatrava. Calatrava is one of my favorite architects, so I
was really excited, but I couldn’t see it through the mist—darn!
Hyllie station turned out to be a fairly new development
with lots of construction work along the borders. The buildings were very
colorful, modern, sleek, and (in my opinion) attractive. From there, we took a
taxi through the country to Nicole’s grandmother’s house in Skӓne, Sweden. By
this time, it was beginning to rain pretty heavily, so we were lucky that the
taxi driver noticed us. The terrain we passed on the drive actually reminded me
a lot of Minnesota. Some trees, some hills, lots of grass, but the farm houses
were definitely Scandinavian by design.
When we pulled up to Nicole’s grandmother (Liz’s) house, I
couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. The house is surrounded by fields of
grass and tall, deep forests. The structure itself is very typical of Swedish
architecture with reinforced concrete construction, red brick, and terra cotta
shingles. The inside is even more spectacular. All the walls are filled with
gorgeous paintings, many of which were done by Nicole’s relatives. One
painting, “The Rape of Europa” spans the entire wall and looks like it belongs
in a museum. Nicole grew up in this house, and I can’t help but be a little
jealous. There’s so much space to roam around, so much peace and quiet, so many
beautiful Swedish antiques and artwork.
 |
| The Rape of Europa |
 |
| Kissen, the cat |
 |
| Prinzessentorte |
For dinner, Liz made us a delicious meal of Swedish
meatballs called Köttbullar with
steamed potatoes, sweet cucumber salad, lettuce and tomato salad, and Lingon berries.
For dessert we had Prinzessentorte,
or “Princess Cake” with marzipan, cream, and raspberry jam layers. Everything
was amazing, and it was even more satisfying considering the fact that we were
extremely tired and hungry.
In order to overcome jetlag, we agreed we would stay up
until at least 22:00. To pass the time, we played cards and watched Swedish
news. I love listening to the Swedish language. I thought that knowing German
would help me understand Swedish—some words and phrases are very similar—but overall,
I can’t really understand it at all. Maybe someday I will learn Swedish, but I
need to conquer Italian first.
No comments:
Post a Comment