The day began early, specially after a week of picking up the habit of watching Star Trek episodes until 4am. I didn’t feel tired, though, as the excitement was too strong. My suitcase was already packed, so after showering and doing a quick check of basics (ID, cellphone, money, Erasmus forms), off we went by car to Santiago.
Looks like I misread the overweight fees (and the things in my case), because I had to pay an extra 60 euros just for the flight to London. I didn’t have any choice as I was already taking just the bare necessities (no worries or strifes included).
The flight was delayed half an hour, so I felt lucky for picking the day with a five hour margin to the next one. The first inconvenience was when they told us there was no more cabin space, so they would be putting our bags in the cargo bay. I feared for my laptop, but I didn’t want to carry it in my hands for two hours. I figured it would be safe and crossed my fingers (spoiler alert: it was). I slept a bit during the trip and arrived at a sunny London.
After recovering my things, I had five hours to kill. I considered buying something for lunch, but my hands were already busy carrying stuff so I decided to wait until after check-in. I found a comfy place resting against a column, in front of the screens. I built a fort out of my cases, Criminy-style, and spent the following 90 minutes staring at the people passing by. Luckily airports have a seemingly endless supply of cute chicks.
The pound-euro exchange rate seems to be haywire in RyanAir’s computers because I had to pay 60 pounds again for overweight. But I was happy to finally be free of the big bulk. The security control lady cheered me up when she congratulated me with an unexpected “nice shoes, by the way”. Now I know I’m not the only who thinks yellow is a great color for footwear.
As in the Edinburgh trip we had already been at Stansted, I raced towards the Starbucks to indulge myself in a Frappuccino and a cinnamon bun (ha! If only I knew how much cinnamon was waiting for me at this cold swedish land…). It was all very yummy and my stomach stopped roaring.
After that, I thought about Star Trekking a bit, but I finally remembered how much I liked UK’s FHM last time I bought it (specially compared to the spanish one), and went to the kiosk. I found it in the “Men’s lifestyle” section and took a peek. It was awfully uninterested and felt betrayed. Just as I was about to leave, my eyes caught something familiar: Wired! Great! That, I wasn’t prepared for. Looks like there’s a new UK version or something. I bought it and took a seat to read it.
But I couldn’t. My tiredness kicked in and I feared for my flight. Reading was impossible (spoiler alert: and up until now, I haven’t yet read the magazine!). I put a bit of Daft Punk in my earphones (later changed to Metallica as it’s not as repetitive) and managed to be awake until I was on the plane, even after another half an hour of delay.
Although I had told Fernando my flight was going to be late and they could leave and not wait, it wasn’t, at the end, and they (him and Carlos) were waiting for me at the terminal. We took the only bus in all of the world which can only be paid with a credit card (and it doesn’t support Visa Electron – luckily I had bought the ticket the previous day) and arrived at Göteborg finally.
At Centralstationen we waited for Ramón and Juan. They guided us to the bus stop, which we took a bit ilegally, and we entered Ostkupan for the first time. I remember thinking: “I’m going to see those elevators a great deal of times this year”.
My room is nice, although the walls were a bit empty (and I still think they are). Juan told me they were going out to “party all night”. It was 12am and I knew I couldn’t stand eight more hours awake, so I bid them farewell. Later I would learn that “all night” means until 3am here in the north. I passed my hand on the table, saw no dust, and decided to unpack. Protip: Pass your hand over ALL THE TABLE, not just the zone where people put things. You’ll avoid thinking your room is clean when it’s actually a fucking cesspool of dirt. This also applies to shelves and floor.
My room was a bit more warming now with things on it. Tomorrow I would have to buy sheets; for now, I engulfed myself in the bare duvet and slept like a child in a perhaps too soft mattress.
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