Amazingly, I made it home to Virginia yesterday. With many travelers still stuck, I was very fortunate.
Monday 4/19/2010
On Monday I did my last run through the paths and trails behind KTH. I caught up to another guy who was running at a pretty good clip. We ran together for a bit, but then it was time for me to turn around.
The rest of the day was spent in a classroom at KTH set up by the faculty for those at the conference who were stuck. In the room, I got some work done and checked the forecasts for the ash cloud. The cloud had left Scandinavia for the time being, allowing Monday’s Stockholm – Chicago flight to leave, the same flight I was scheduled to take Tuesday. Another guy I knew from the conference had stopped by and said his mom was able to leave that afternoon on an Icelandair flight to New York. I took those two things as a good sign, but I was still skeptical that we would be able to leave.
Throughout the conference and the following days, I was quite impressed with the KTH campus. The lecture halls were very nice with stadium-style seating. Smaller classrooms provided large desks with plenty of workspace. With 8,000 undergraduates and 7,000 graduate students, it accounts for nearly a third of Sweden’s university-level education. It was quite larger than William and Mary, with many large lecture halls we used for the conference sessions, as well as large hi-rise style buildings. Still, it was condensed into a space much smaller than many U.S. universities of its size. I have no doubt that the excellent facilities were made possible in part due to generous government funding.
That night, my adviser and I ate at a Thai place down the street from the hotel. When we returned, we packed everything up and noticed on the airline website that we were supposed to report to the airport by 7AM for check in. Since it appeared that web check in was disabled, the airline probably wanted everyone at the airport early to check everyone in with plenty of time.
Tuesday 4/20/2010
On Tuesday I awoke at 5:30AM and miraculously discovered that Stockholm Arlanda was open and that our flight was still scheduled to leave. I emailed Sarah back home that we were heading to the airport and she hadn’t even gone to sleep yet since it wasn’t even midnight. My adviser and I left the hotel by 6AM.
The sun woke me up nearly every morning during the trip and we gained at least 30 minutes of daylight in the time I was in Stockholm. There were automatic awnings that would cover the hotel room window in the afternoons and I realized that their purpose was to block the midnight sun during the summer months. On the day we left, the sun woke me up at 5AM and the night before, it was twilight well after 8PM.
Another interesting note is that everyone in Stockholm seemed to follow the same schedule. When we left for the airport yesterday at 6AM, there was barely anyone out on the streets. However, during the conference the week before, when I would go out to run at 7AM, the streets were packed with commuters. On the weekends, the city and KTH were deserted. Even the university library was closed on the weekends and nearly empty after 6PM.
We made our way to the subway and then to the high speed airport train, which got us to the airport just before 7AM. The international terminal had rows of check in counters, all but two were deserted: our flight and a Continental flight. A TV crew was interviewing a few sparse passengers about the crisis. Fortunately, unlike the massive Continental check-in line, our line was much shorter. Apparently, many booked on our flight were Swedes who decided to stay home.
After being issued boarding passes, we hung out in the deserted gate area. My adviser and I talked to a guy sitting next to us who worked for a company that produces industrial-grade robots and sensors.
Amazingly, we got on the plane and it left within 30 minutes of its scheduled departure time. There were plenty of open seats and I was able to get a nice window seat with nobody sitting next to me. There was plenty of legroom again, which made the 9 hour flight bearable. The pilot announced that we passed over 100km from the volcano, but nobody could see anything out the window. We passed over Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador, all of which consisted of rock, snow, and ice. We passed over so much snow and rock, it made me realize how much of the world is probably uninhabitable and how fortunate I am to live somewhere relatively warm.
Though we left late, we arrived in Chicago only a few minutes after our scheduled landing time. We had less than an hour and a half for our connection to Norfolk. I rushed through immigration and customs and got on the train to the main United terminal since I had no boarding pass for the next flight. Once in the main terminal, I tried to check in using an automated kiosk, which told me to see an agent. After several minutes in line and little time left before the flight departed, I got to see agent. The agents were interested to hear firsthand what it was like in Europe and Scandinavia. When I got my boarding pass, I realized it was at a gate at a faraway concourse and ran with my bags for what seemed like a mile and a half to one of the last gates in the terminal. With the clock ticking down, I raced around people in the jammed terminal passing gate after gate until I finally got to the Norfolk flight.
Oddly, when I got to the gate, my adviser was already there. He had told me to go ahead after leaving the Stockholm flight because immigration might be slow. Apparently, there was another check-in desk for United in the arrival hall for the international terminal, which would have sped things up for me. Regardless, we both made the Norfolk flight, and by yesterday evening, I was home.
Sarah came to pick me up and on the way home I realized how nice the weather was: warm sun and leaves on the trees with green everywhere. On the national news, there was coverage of people stuck in airports in Europe and in the United States, but more flights were running.
Overall, it was a good trip. The conference went very well and I saw many good presentations relevant to my field. I met a lot of new people from everywhere, and I saw a lot of Stockholm. I really liked Stockholm — except for the cold, I could see myself living there, which is saying a lot since I don’t really want to live in a city. The excellent infrastructure with subways, high-speed trains, fast and cheap internet, separated bike lanes, and large parks made Stockholm very appealing. The people were very friendly and accommodating to visitors.
The getting stuck part was frustrating, but as evidenced by the news, it could have been much worse. There are many others who are still stranded, but hopefully everyone will be back where they want to be soon. I think a few things happened that really saved the day: 1) not booking any connecting flights in Europe, 2) using Skype to call the U.S. airline reservation number immediately after hearing the news about the volcano to get a new flight, 3) sticking to the rebooked flight and not attempting to take a train or bus to another airport in Europe, and 4) getting lucky with the ash cloud in Scandinavia. Skype was a real help since we had no working mobile phone and international calls were cheap.
As my adviser and I discussed, this trip is one we’ll remember for quite some time.
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