When everything goes wrong
We had plans to spend all day Wednesday in Stockholm, sight see, wander around, and then have dinner at a well rated restaurant where I had made a reservation ages ago.
Carter booked us onto the Swebus to Stockholm. We take the #2 Flogsta bus to Uppsala centre, then board the bus for the 1 hour journey to Stockholm. Once we get into Stockholm, we walk along the water, towards the pier where we plan to buy tickets to a hop-on-hop-off cruise that would take us to all the major tourist stops. Suddenly, I notice Carter frantically searching his pockets and rummaging around in his bag, looking for something.
“What are you looking for?” I ask.
“My keys…”, he replies.
Oh…shit. We stop walking, he empties out his bag and thoroughly searches all pockets. No keys. Shit.
“What keys were on the key ring?”, I ask.
“To my dorm room, the garbage disposal room, and the bike lock”, he replies.
Okay, so we’re in a bit of a pickle. Without the keys we have no place to stay.
Where could he have lost the keys?
The original plan for the day was to check out the Vasa Museum on Djurgarden first. We decide to head there and find a cafe to sit and sort things out.
At Josephina’s, a nice outdoor cafe with tons of patio seating, we grab a couple of sandwiches and use my iPhone to Google some phone numbers. We try the local bus company, operating the #2 Flogsta bus and also the Swebus company which took us into Stockholm from Uppsala. No luck. Instead, they keep giving us more numbers to call. The bus company says they turn any keys into the police office for their safekeeping. So we call the police office. No luck.
Meanwhile, the clouds have gathered and it’s starting to rain. Fantastic!
Not getting anywhere with locating the keys, we decide to call the dorm housing company to get a set of spare keys. According to their website, the office is open today from 13:00 – 16:00. Swedish office hours for you. Although it’s past 13:00, no one answers the phone. This is worse than trying to get thing done, even in Italy! After all these calls, Carter runs out of credits on his phone. From bad to worse. This is just not our day.
The rain gets heavier…we are getting splashed on, sitting outside. This is a beautiful cafe and I can imagine on a bright sunny day, it would be filled with the beautiful people of Stockholm. Instead, it’s cold and the grey skies match my dreary mood.
Luckily I have my iphone and after a few failed attempts we manage to dial the office again and eventually reach someone at the housing office and yes they have a spare key!! Unfortunately they close at 4pm and it’s already 2pm. It’s going to take us at least 2 hours to get back to Uppsala so we get going right away.
I’m annoyed that we have to head back, without really doing any of the things on our agenda, and most of all, I’m sad to have to give up the reservations to Mat Baren. We make it back at quarter past 4 and the lady at the office has kindly stayed late for us. So we’re not homeless for the night, but today is officially at MASSIVE FAIL!
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Thursday, after another day of endless phone calls, we hit jackpot. Someone has turned in keys to Swebus!! At 5pm, we meet a random Max at the Swebus bus stop and he hands Carter the keys. Thank our lucky stars!! I’m amazed we found the keys, and just in time to avoid the 1200 SEK fine Carter would have had to pay.
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Stockholm is a lovely city. Days are incredibly long at the moment, but temperatures are still cold. Some photo highlights are below.
