Stockholm: First Trip of 2010

Having started as a joke on Jan's facebook status 2 months ago, the Sundsvall summer semester of 2008 quickly organized a trip to Stockholm for a big reunion, in memory of the big reunion of Amsterdam last June. The meetings in Lille and Brescia in between I sadly did not join. So, it was about time.

I took Friday of and traveled to Eindhoven where (thanks to open borders) the cheapest and easiest accessable plane to Stockholm departured. I traveled with Marlies who actually had a farther distance to the airport than me. Although I always claim "Never Ryanair...", I also always add "... again". The service is crappy, the airports are somewhere far away from the city where the claim to be and the cheap price are not worth the time and effort you have to invest. But actually, Eindhoven is pretty easy to reach. Only Skavsta is a bit off from Stockholm. Around 8 (and an endless felt walk) Marlies and me found the Tapas bar where we met the others for dinner. Later, the group split up. Some went back to the hostel, but most of us went on to some bars. In the end we were 5 die hards who had to find their way home through the cold.

The next morning started with Fika (coffee break). Since everybody of us has already been to Stockholm for several times, we split up in groups. While the girls mostly went shopping, I joined another Fika-group with Luca, Marlis and Tom. We made some sightseeing and took another Fika. When the others reunited for iceskating, I left for another Fika with Sandra and Soléne, who have been with me in Sundsvall in my first winter semester in Sundsvall 2006. So summerizing, I spent the day pretty much with drinking coffee and eating too many cookies. Pretty relaxing, though.

The Erasmuses met again in the hostel and we went out to a kebab store, which was a little bit more advanced, than I'd have expected, since they actually had a nice room to sit down. Afterwards we headed to one of the bars where I had been the night before. Since the dancefloor had not opened, yet, we turned and went in to the city (where I realized that we walked way too far a wrong way the night before when getting back to the hostel). On our way in to the city center we came across a fancy night club. Most of us were tired searching for another club, we paid the entrance and stayed there. For the first hour we were kept apard from the normal party people. While we already conquered dancefloors and bars, normal guests were gathered in a different part of the club. After a while, they were allowed to join us and then it was a huge party. With paparzzis, crazy Swedish party animals and Erasmus dancing group in the centre of everything. It was so much fun that it actually felt like whole night partying, but somehow when Tom and I left at half past 2, we were the last ones of our group.
Such a party night had an impact of the group's energy the next morning, of course. While some already left before everybody got up, most of us regrouped for a last Fika where one after another left for his bus, train or plane. I flew back from Arlanda to Cologne, since schedules and train connections were more comfortable. In the end, I did not even spent 48 hours in Sweden, but it was absolutely worth it. Relaxing Fikas, best party nights and meeting the people were more than worth every effort. This erasmus semester is by far the most active one and despite that most of them started working and live far away from each other, it just fits.  Nobody has extra wishes and despite the size of the group, decisions (like where to go, what to do) are made quite flexible and in common agreement. And the next meeting is already initialized. Either in Berlin or in Florence. Or somewhere totally different.