Research trip: Sweden and U.S. 2

It took a very long time, but people are now able to leave the country, and I got off the ground about 9pm Sydney time for a 14.5 hour flight to Dubai.  I managed to get some alright sleep on the plane.  I arrived in Dubai and had organised to got a special lounge.  It turned out to be a rip off really.  While there was hot breakfast there, by body said no to that, so there were stale bakery products and an automatic coffee machine coffee to eat.  Lesson learnt.

The next leg of the flight was 6.5 hours to Stockholm.  It seems like a perilous route was the only thing possible.  The in flight screens kept predicting we were going to fly straight over the South East of Ukraine where there are some war like activities going on.  Bit of a worry that. 

Instead we weaved out way between war zones from Dubai to Stockholm.  All in all a good flight. 

The train from the Airport is really handing, and as this pic shows, super fast. Yep, 187 Km/h!!

On arrival in Stockholm I got first things first and of course got a coffee and muffin from "Waynes" How Aussie! Nice muffin with runny chocolate inside.

Then it was a 700m walk to my hotel which is on a big square where they have a flower and fruit market.  Lovely view from my window.

The next important thing to do is go for a run.  It was about 10 degrees, but a beautiful place to run. 

After all that time on the planes in the same clothes and then a run, it was definitely time for a shower and a change of clothes.  The only difficulty was getting the hot water to work.  It took about 5 minutes of standing under a cold Nordic waterfall before I worked out the hot water situation.

After that it was an early meatball dinner and a couple of sights before an early bed time. And the sights, yes, that is the last of the snow ready to melt down.  It is not yellow snow, but still not all that nice.

Looking forward to a good night sleep and a full and rich day tomorrow.