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A nervous walk from home
The journey from my home town Gävle in Sweden to Birmingham went much smoother than I had expected. I have never travelled alone, other than on short trips within Sweden.
Before I left Gävle, I was very nervous, but that went away when I had to focus on trains and planes.
During my 20-minute walk from my apartment to the central station in Gävle, I felt the calmness building up inside of me. I kept repeating to myself, “I can do this”.
I came to Arlanda Airport over 2 hours before the departure time for my flight. I saw the queues for the security checks and felt I better go to the check-in counter and get my boarding pass. The problem was the check-in didn’t open until 2 hours before the departure time. Eurowings didn’t have self-check-in as I’m used to from other flights I have done in the past.
I came to the gate 5 minutes before it should open, but the flight was a bit delayed, and boarding wasn’t until 17.40.
I had plans to bring out my laptop and write a news article on SvenskaFans.com, where I write news about Walsall to Swedish football fans, but they didn’t have free wifi. They offered 1 Mbit/s for €6.90, but I wasn’t interested in forking out money.
No problem at the arrival
I arrived at Birmingham Airport at approximately 19.15. I got information that it could take time through security due to staff shortening, which also was the problem at the security checks in Stockholm. Maybe it’s a common thing at every airport nowadays. I was surprised when the airport was empty except for the 50 of us that just had arrived and a group of people from India. 10-15 minutes after arrival, I was ready to exit the airport and head to the train station.
The self-check security stations, or what it is called, where you scan your passport was brilliant instead of standing in line to have it manually checked at a desk.
I couldn’t figure out how to buy a train ticket, but I got help from a lovely lady at a ticket office. I’m used to buying a ticket with one click in an app on my phone, but I couldn’t find a similar approach here.
Got lost at New Street Station
I found the platform and the correct train that took me to Birmingham New Street Station. Somehow I managed to exit the station on the opposite side from where I had scouted on Google Maps at home.
I walked the wrong way and took a wrong turn, but somehow I finally was back where I started outside the station.
Birmingham welcomed me with rain. The extra laps in Birmingham weren’t ideal when it rained. I found the hotel, and it was pretty nice to remove the rain-soaked clothes. I felt proud that I managed to go from Gävle to Birmingham without any major hiccups.
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