Globetrötter (That's a play on words, promise) :D

So, let me summarize yesterday's ordeal, hopefully in less time than it took us.
We were picked up at home by our kind friend +Dmitry Sklyarenko at 18:00, and we weren't sure whether we would be going anywhere after we got to the airport.
Kathryn had read online that the US grounded all planes to Turkey, so we assumed we would be stuck at the airport. Of course they knew nothing when we called the information desk at the airport, and Turkish Airlines phones were down.
To our surprise, the plane left, as scheduled, and the only thing that was unusual was that they had an extra check by a TSA agent at the gate.
The service on the flight was a lot better than usual. We got both dinner and breakfast, and their entertainment system had tons of movies to choose from, some as new as the Jungle Book (which was a little disappointing to be honest).
Even though the service was very nice, the plane got a little old after 11 hours, so we were glad when that leg was over.


When we arrived in Istanbul we had to get off the plane on the tarmac and take a 10 minute bus ride to the terminal. I can only assume that this is due to the bombing. The terminal was very crowded, and somewhat chaotic.
I did find something that every layover should have on hand - Lays chips! (that was a terrible pun, I do admit, but I'm sure it won't be the last one, so you better brace yourselves)
It did make for good quiz-material though. What flavor is Baharat? 5 points for the first person with the correct answer, 3 for the second and 1 for the third. Also, if you have tried them, you get an extra 5 bonus points. No need to send proof, we're all witnesses here :D

From Istanbul it was only a 3 hour plane ride to Sweden, the plane was much more basic, but much roomier. I assume they had to take whatever planes they had on hand to be able to catch up on the passengers that had gotten stuck due to the bombs. There were a few Swedes that had had to spend the night before getting on this flight. The plane ended up being about half full (or half empty.... which one would make me a pessimist?) so the guy that was sitting next to us moved over to sit in an empty row giving us more room to lounge. :)
We were a little nervous when we landed about 10 minutes late, since we had a train-ticket booked with little time to spare, but thanks to the super-organized Swedes we got off the plane, through customs and luggage pickup in about 15 minutes (inappropriate national pride, I know, but I'm working on it... and there are a lot of things that are backwards here as well, I won't lie :D)
Well, that ended the airborne part of our travel, now we had to hit the rails. Dad booked the tickets for us since it would have cost us about $50 extra to book them ourselves.
Well, there was a downside to that. When we were standing by our seats telling the train hostess that there were people in them, she told us our tickets were for the next day. I guess dad was thinking about the day we arrived, and not the actual day we got on the train...I should have checked, but I'm a trusting person by nature. The train was packed, so there were no seats for us.
We spent some time in the restaurant wagon, but of course they had to close for the night (the people working there were stuck on the train with us, so don't ask me why)
We found a seat for Kathryn, but I spent an hour or so standing. Good thing I got training standing while cart-witnessing.
When we arrived in Härnösand we were spent, 24 hours after leaving home... sometimes I'm not sure if saving money is worth what you go through for it... :)
We enjoyed some Filmjölk with blueberries and raspberries and then we crashed.

After waking up we had some amazing freshly made buns for brunch together with my aunt and her son.
Since we didn't have anything planned for the day, we just went for a walk with my mom. We had spent way too much time sitting down (or standing up) over the past day, so it felt good.
The weather felt lovely, mid 60s and no humidity. It's a nice break from the 90s in Atlanta.
We picked up a bunch of stuff that it's been way to long since I ate, and then we went home and enjoyed mom's lasagna.

 We strengthened our Russian connection by taking apart a Matryoshka doll. Not those tiny, amateur ones that some people favor, but the real deal.
My parents picked this up at a circus in St. Petersburg 20 years ago, but the big doll is still a pain to pull apart.
Sorry for the long post today, but it was a long day, if you're still with me, just post a comment, and you will get a freebie bonus point. :)

Caaaaaaaandy

So, what's the first thing you do after spending an eternity in the air? Get  some Swedish candy of course... we still have a long train ride ahead, and I'll post more when we get to my parents... at least you know we made it. 😊

So, there is a blog, again... and we're going to Sweden, again.... if you're still interested, go ahead and follow. There will be plenty of food related posts, but i won't promise anything new and exciting. Of course, it's pretty exciting (in a scary way...) to hear the airport where we're going to be going for our layover got bombed the day before we got there. We're in Dima's back seat right now on our way to the airport. When we get there we will find out if we're flying and how we're flying... It'll be interesting to find out.
For those competitive ones, there will be a quiz going on again. Stay tuned for more!