Swedish Notes #6: On the challenges of intercity transport

Here is the true story of my attempts to arrange travel from Göteborg, Sweden, to Trento, Italy. I was in Göteborg; I wanted to visit friends in Trento. This is not so unusual. You, gentle reader, may find yourself in a similar situation one day.

Train travel seemed to be the obvious choice. Trains are nice, and you can walk around, and you can go to the food car, and eat something, and breathe in the smoke, or you can go back to your seat and relax, and try to sleep, and breathe in the smoke. Moreover, trains in Europe are plentiful and run on time. Every city in Sweden (as in all of Europe) has a train station located conveniently in the center of town. So one goes to the station in Göteborg. The lady there is very nice and helpful with schedules but absolutely unable to tell me the ticket prices, except that it will be (and I quote her exactly): “Expensive.” Maybe I could just buy a Eurail pass, how about that? She is again very kind and helpful. She even has a little piece of paper to consult this time. On the paper are all the prices. Unfortunately, she is unable to sell me the pass. A Eurail pass can only be bought in Stockholm or Kopenhamn (Copenhagen). But in Kopenhamn you don’t buy the pass at the train station (of course), but at some little office that’s only open from 9-5 on weekdays. (This fact implies, with mathematical certainty, that I will almost surely be traveling on a weekend.) After some difficulty, I obtain the phone number for the Denmark train company. But they can book me tickets only for travel starting in Denmark. They can book my tickets from Kopenhamn to Trento, and from Trento to Kopenhamn, and even from Kopenhamn to Göteborg. But, strangely, not from Göteborg to Kopenhamn. And on the first train there are only smoking seats remaining, and very few of those, so one must make a reservation. Otherwise, so the Denmark train lady assures me, there is no other way that a human could possibly travel to Trento. Ever. No other way. I must take this train or I will be stuck in Sweden the rest of my life, with no hope. (Not necessarily such a bad thing by the way. It's not like being stuck in Detroit.)

This kind of thing makes me crazy. Already I have a lot of "issues" with the whole planning thing, especially so when things start getting complicated. My natural reaction at this point is to curl up in a ball and cover myself with a blanket and begin to moan quietly and not leave my room for a couple of days. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), one: (a) becomes hungry, (b) has to go to the toilet.

So a week later I have still not bought any tickets, and in fact I have made no progress whatsoever. But now it is more complicated because now, I am no longer in Göteborg. I am now on the lovely Swedish island of fair Visingsö, in the middle of Lake Vattern. And if it was complicated to travel to Trento starting from Göteborg, you can imagine how so much more complicated it is starting from Visingsö, where, in addition to everything else, one must take a bicycle to the bike-rental to drop off the bike, then walk to the harbor, then take a ferry to the small town of Gränna, then take bus and train, just to get to Göteborg. And as there is no train or train station in Visingsö, I must reserve and purchase my bus and train tickets by telephone. And I must pick up the tickets at some tobacco shop in Gränna. (Here in Sweden you must buy your tickets in tobacco shops, but only certain tobacco shops.) But the really interesting part is that the bus departs at 9am sharp, but the Granna tobacco shop opens at 9am (sharp), so there is no way to pick up the ticket on time. But why must I book the ticket in the first place? Because part of the trip is by a reserve-only fast train. Have I mentioned that they cannot tell me the name of the tobacco shop in Gränna or its phone number or even where it is located? Fortunately, I am able to call the Gränna tourist information and they tell me everything. But I really don’t want to make a special trip to Gränna just to pick up the tickets the day before, while the shop is open. But luckily it turns out that there is a taxi driver who lives in Gränna but works in Visingsö who might be able to pick up the tickets for me.

Time passes . . . .

Some days later, early in the morning, walking to the harbor to find the ferry to Gränna, I met a girl from Belgium. She communicated in an enthusiastic, non-stop, dialect that seemed to be a mixture of Swedish, Dutch, English, Gallic, and Indo-European, with a little Klingon thrown in there. It was somehow perfectly understandable, which just goes to show.) She was 19 and on a little tour of Sweden for a few days.

Here's the funny thing -- She was travelling “without planning”. She didn't make reservations at hostels; she didn't check ferry schedules or bus or train schedules. And the result: on a beautiful summer morning, we both end up on the same dock, waiting fo the same ferry. She didn't even wear a watch. She just woke up that morning and walked over to the harbor.

It is 7:55am, and the first ferry of the morning is not scheduled to leave at 8:25am. But the ferry drivers just wave us aboard and drive us across.