My plane: British Airways, with Calgary in the backgroundOn Saturday the 31st of May I was on the cusp of a great adventure to film Sweden's brown bears. I was nervous, terrified and emotional, as is clear from my previous posts, at the challenges of getting through customs with all my weird equipment, finding my location in Sweden and correctly placing the tracking collar on the bear, as well as the prospects of going home again and seeing Stuart and my aunt who is having cancer treatment.
But in general, everything has gone better than I hoped. Keith kindly took me to the airport and made sure I made it through safely. The flight to London went well and the plane landed so smoothly I was sure that we were flying just above the surface until the moment the plane actually stopped.
Calgary from Calgary International Airport.
Calgary from Calgary International Airport.
a prairie sky from the airport.From London onwards the trip was a little less pleasant. I nearly missed my flight to Sweden as I didn't have a watch. Fortunately the flight was delayed for technical reasons so I made it in time. I arrived in Stockholm at 8pm very tired. Besides standing in the wrong cue for passport control, and lugging a very heavy suitcase all around the airport to find customs who took no interest in my gear, the trains out of Stockholm were canceled due to an accident. I had no idea what to do as I had only planned to take the train. I didn't think to bring a guide book for Sweden or an English-Swedish dictionary. I wandered around very confused and my suitcase, which weighed 23 kg and a backpack which felt extremely heavy too, were literally weighing me down. I couldn't even figure out how to use the telephone.
Eventually after much wondering around I discovered that I could catch a bus to my night's destination, Uppsala, 1 hour north of Stockholm. In fact this was by far the easiest option, even easier than the train as I had planned. On the way however, we nearly had an accident which could easily have killed us! Half in a stupor I was lurched into consciousness as the bus swerved and slammed on the breaks. We hit a deer. :( I commend the driver for nearly killing us to try miss it. It was very compassionate of him. (Truthfully, I mean that sincerely).
Eventually I arrived in Uppsala just after 11pm. I was told that my hotel was a short walk away from the bus stop - it won't be necessary to take a cab. However, this may be true if you have very portable light luggage, which was completely the opposite of my case. "600m", if it really is that, turned into a grueling 30 minute walk in the near darkness down a horrible street with the scary feeling that I might not be heading in the right direction. My hands were aching from my horrible suitcase and I thought the wheels might break off. (I'll remind you that my suitcase was heavy from equipment - not luxuries!). Eventually, the sign of heaven, Hotel Uppsala appeared. I was given the key card to my room but vexingly found that the elevator didn't work so instead of asking for help, I stubbornly hoisted this, by now 30 ton rock, up a whole flight of stairs. I broke out in a sweat and my heart was pounding. When I reached room I found that I couldn't open the door. This small fact sent me into tears! This is the straw that broke the camel's back. I stumbled down the stairs to the receptionist and just managed to wipe away my tears before asking him to solve my problem. Which he promptly did! Something was wrong with the key card and now that it was fixed, I found that the elevator worked too!
Unfortunately sleep wasn't that easy to get as I was jetlagged, confused and it wasn't really dark for long. But more about the later. I must go up to the bear park to continue filming.
Eventually after much wondering around I discovered that I could catch a bus to my night's destination, Uppsala, 1 hour north of Stockholm. In fact this was by far the easiest option, even easier than the train as I had planned. On the way however, we nearly had an accident which could easily have killed us! Half in a stupor I was lurched into consciousness as the bus swerved and slammed on the breaks. We hit a deer. :( I commend the driver for nearly killing us to try miss it. It was very compassionate of him. (Truthfully, I mean that sincerely).
Eventually I arrived in Uppsala just after 11pm. I was told that my hotel was a short walk away from the bus stop - it won't be necessary to take a cab. However, this may be true if you have very portable light luggage, which was completely the opposite of my case. "600m", if it really is that, turned into a grueling 30 minute walk in the near darkness down a horrible street with the scary feeling that I might not be heading in the right direction. My hands were aching from my horrible suitcase and I thought the wheels might break off. (I'll remind you that my suitcase was heavy from equipment - not luxuries!). Eventually, the sign of heaven, Hotel Uppsala appeared. I was given the key card to my room but vexingly found that the elevator didn't work so instead of asking for help, I stubbornly hoisted this, by now 30 ton rock, up a whole flight of stairs. I broke out in a sweat and my heart was pounding. When I reached room I found that I couldn't open the door. This small fact sent me into tears! This is the straw that broke the camel's back. I stumbled down the stairs to the receptionist and just managed to wipe away my tears before asking him to solve my problem. Which he promptly did! Something was wrong with the key card and now that it was fixed, I found that the elevator worked too!
Unfortunately sleep wasn't that easy to get as I was jetlagged, confused and it wasn't really dark for long. But more about the later. I must go up to the bear park to continue filming.
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