The Trip Back

Ladies and gentlemen, today we have a passenger that is allergic to peanuts, so please do not eat or open any package that contains peanuts... the stewardess announces. I wonder how many will actually respect that, but then again I wonder how many actually eat peanuts on a national flight. They don't serve peanuts on national flights... as far as I know...

Moments later a teenage girl is crying, saying I'm sorry mom but I have to get out... and pushing her way towards the front of the plane. The mom goes after her. We wait. They're speaking in the front of the plane, through the door. I'm not sure if the mom is back or not a while later... or the girl, though they'd been sitting just a few seats ahead of me. Maybe she's a twin because there is a girl sitting there who looks incredibly similar. Soothing music plays in the background.

The captain eventually announces a family had to leave, and their baggage is taken off. The twin girl is still there. We tax off, but during the security information broadcast a man tries to stand up, and the stewardess interrupts her broadcast to get him to sit down. We stop at a defrosting station to defrost our wings too. Take off: 30 minutes behind schedule. Fortunately I have nowhere important to get this time, but it looks like we really won't be making that bus this time around...

And we didn't. We landed at the wrong terminal and caught another bus to the right terminal instead. 5 to 4. Counting down. People crawled off the plane ever so slowly via the back entrance. I was one of the first off. Claimed a good spot. Someone forgot a pillow seat, so they called it in before we drove away - an old man received it. Hope he was the right recipient. He looked embarrassed, so I assume he was.

A few minutes later one final trio leave the plane. Had they been asleep? Who knows. We finally pull out, drive through a late night mist, back stage, past more vehicles than you'd think an airport holds... and pull up to the terminal. Those who don't have any further flights to catch may leave through the blue door with a big 3 on it. Everyone else via 2 or 1. Down for the count. I go for threedom.

I meet my buddy at the airport, who's been wondering where I was the last fifteen minutes. Apparently two planes from the same place were set to arrive at the same time - and the other one made it before mine. We stop by McDonalds for a bite to eat before the next bus home... since it's an hour and a half until then. It's the last bus of the day.

Time flies and suddenly it's time to run! We abandon a card game with withered cards with which we weathered out the wait (along with dual milkshakes and a fish filet burger with too large gluten-free bread buns because that's all they had).

We catch the bus. It stops. We wait a while before the driver announces we need to change buses. The bus is broken.

Another bus parks behind us and we hustle over. It's cold, and soon cramped, and the driver drives like he's never driven a bus before, over curbs and edges and around close-cut corners... but we don't catch up on lost time and thus we miss the train. By three minutes. Fifteen minute delay with the bus.

So we sit in a waiting train playing cards, a few minutes past midnight in a muddling mist, just one station from home. Half past twelve I'm finally back in Bro, and after a brisk walk ready to unpack my bags and take a long night's sleep...though work awaits tomorrow.

Did I mention I had a couple hours to spare before the airport this time around? The bus at Töre was late as well, and I had some time to wait so I checked a nearby shop, and found some stuff past expiry date with reduced date that was unfortunately a bit too far past recovery.

We got a double-decker bus the second segment of the trip to Luleå. I sat on top with an Asian tourist couple in front of me. They hit 'Stop' at the wrong station - the first with Luleå in its name, but after a short conversation with the driver we went onward, and arrived late, but I had time to spare so that was OK!

I roamed the city looking for a good place to eat... and didn't find one. The one place that showed promise had closed. Time started getting short and alternatives got fewer, so I settled for something at the airport instead. Their shrimp salads were all gone, but a fresh fruit drink, a little Keso and a bag of popcorn I had in my bag made do. It was a big bag in a big bag. Time moved fast. I took a bunch of photos in the city. Not all that bad to have a few hours extra after all. Did you know they had snow? Check it out.