You can view all of my pictures from this trip either on facebook here.

Or alternatively you can download them all from here

Wednesday morning I got up early expecting to have to check out by 10am, appears no one really checks and I could have easily stayed in bed for an extra hour or so. I found out Jamie had actually managed to make it back to the hostel tonight and had actually had quite a fun night! Anyway by the time we were all sorted and we’d grabbed some food it was time for me to head on home. Jamie had to catch a later flight which involved an overnight wait in Düsseldorf airport. My flight was going back to Amsterdam before catching another flight on to Manchester. However before I went back to the airport I gave one final check to our snow/rock man in the nearby park. Someone had cruelly decapitated it!

The flight to Amsterdam went with out any problems, and I got myself to the Manchester flight gate easily. Then they proceeded to run security checks at the gate for everyone on the flight, this meant it took us a good 45 minutes to get everyone through the gate. Apparently the plane wasnt ready until about 10 minutes before everyone got through either. Then the plane had to be de-iced, we were running a good half hour late by this time. But we took off anyhow. About 30 minutes into the flight my ears start popping as though we’re changing altitude. A few moments later the pilot says Manchester Airport is closed due to a snow storm, as is Birmingham, East Midlands etc and that we’re heading back to Amsterdam.

We get back to Amsterdam and the airport is pretty much closed, as in there are no staff around generally. We’re given vouchers to stay at a hotel overnight and told to come back at 7am to get yourself booked on a flight. I considered staying in the airport bar and just waiting for the morning there, but I ended up going back to the hotel. I got checked into my room, threw my bag down and hit the bar straight away. 6 beers later and chatting to various other people in the bar from Manchester, as well as a random Aussie who turned up, I’m rushing around to go back to the airport. The first shuttle bus was at 4.30am and I had decided to just grab that and get there as early as possible to get myself booked onto a flight. I had heard that others had phoned up already and got themselves onto flights. After a short wait the KLM desk opened at 5.30am, I was booked onto a 1pm flight to Bradford-Leeds apparently. A load of other people were on an earlier flight. I was shattered, I grabbed some breakfast with a voucher they had given me and then went through security and closed my eyes inside the airport for a few hours. I’d met a couple of other people there and they were on the 9am flight to Bradford.

It turns out that their flight had actually been diverted to Liverpool as Bradford was closed, and our flight was cancelled but they didnt tell us until 15 minutes before it was due to be boarding. Cue some confusion and panic whilst they figure out what to do and the possibility of spending Christmas in Amsterdam was looming rather large. They flight company come back 10 minutes later and tell us all that we’re going to get put on a flight to Heathrow and there will then be ground transport upto Bradford. I explain that there are some of us who should be going to Manchester, as that’s where we were originally going, but the flight attendant doesn’t really understand what I’m asking.

Anyway we all queue up to get tickets, and it’s taking a bit of time. Then this one, slightly drunk and very rude man just jumps the entire queue, and then when he gets to the desk starts mouthing off to the attendants who are just trying to sort everything out as best as they can. I politely ask him to calm down and get his ticket so we can all go through. He squares upto me and asks me if I want to take it outside. A little shocked at just how much of a complete wanker this guy is, I just tell him to go get his ticket so we can all get home as quick as possible, this doesnt seem to sink into the idiot though. Anyway, he eventually goes back just as two security guards appear. I go grab my ticket from a desk away from where he’s getting his, and make my way upstairs to clarify how to get home after I get off in London. I’m assured there will be some way for some of us to get to Manchester.

Boarding for the Heathrow flight takes it’s time but we eventually get on. I’m right on the back row and as I get there the idiot from above is sat next to my seat, I’m thinking this just can’t be. Turns out he was sat on the wrong side, couldn’t even read his ticket. So he’s still on the same row as me, just opposite side of the plane. The plane takes off and there’s a very friendly South African woman sat next to me who makes the whole flight a lot easier and we have a good laugh. At the same time the guy on the opposite side continues to be rude to the flight staff. When they refuse to give him a second beer he squares upto the attendant and has a very rude conversation with him, swearing at him repeatedly. Eventually he sits down.

We arrive in Heathrow and of course the police board the plane and take him away. I approached one of the attendants and explain what happened back in the Amsterdam, they ask me to tell this to the Police. It was explained that due to it being on foreign soil nothing would in reality happen, however they take my details and I say I’d be happy to give a statement should they ever need me too.

Putting all this behind me I head on down to baggage collection, where of course my bag isn’t there. I file a missing report, and then it takes the KLM representative almost half an hour to sort out our transport home. The majority of people just went to Leeds/Bradford on two buses, and there was only 4 of us going to Manchester. They basically put on a taxi who drove rather fast and got us back to Manchester Airport in 3 hours. I eventually got home at 10pm on Christmas Eve. A cool 23 hours after I was meant too. But I was just very pleased to have got home safe and for Christmas. I still haven’t got my luggage back and several attempts to get through on the phone have failed. Some people reckoned that the luggage was going to be sent to Manchester Airport on a Christmas Morning flight. Hopefully I’ll get it back, it doesn’t have anything particularly valuable in there, just some very nice T-Shirts that I bought whilst travelling in the past and mean quite a lot to me, as well as everyone’s Christmas presents.

So before we had even left Manchester I had got us booked onto this Viking Sauna Tour. The basic premise is the hostel runs a tour which takes a bunch of us out to this private sauna out in the countryside. Here we get into a 80c+ Sauna and then when it gets too hot run outside and get into a freezing cold lake, then out again and back into the Sauna…. Crazy eh?

The day started early and despite a relatively early night – 2am, I felt rather rough. We met up at 10am in the reception and headed out. We were greeted by a quite beautiful dawn in Stockholm with the lighting quite stunning. However it was really rather cold – and I was shivering already! It was the standing around waiting for buses that was killing me, if we had been moving all the time I think I’d have been okay. We eventually get to where we were going, and were greeted by a 15 to 20 minute walk through the countryside. It was amazingly beautiful here. The way the snow glistened in the low sunlight, it was almost worth the trip for that alone in truth.

Once we arrived at the Sauna, we ate lunch outside whilst the Sauna started to warmup. Jamie had found his shoes woefully inadequate for the weather and his feet were freezing so he just headed on inside, and then managed to fall onto the hot pipe in the Sauna, luckily he only slightly burned his hand, having very nearly going face first into it! Soon enough we all headed in to the Sauna anyhow, I could manage the heat quite okay at first, but as the temperature crept up I found it quite difficult to breath – as I have difficulties breathing through my mouth, i.e. I have to basically think about it all the time to do it! Other people got up the guts to go into the water. The lake had originally been frozen over and we have to hack a hole in the water to get in! As some may know I can’t actually swim. Well I can about 5m, but I wasn’t very confident if I slipped in ice cold water I’d be able to get out again! So I was understandably nervous about getting in the water! However I did eventually pluck up the courage to get in. We had to climb down this tiny little ladder and it was really slippy, and I didn’t dare put my head under. To be honest it wasn’t too bad the first time. I did quickly run back into the Sauna though – and grabbed my beer, which I had been told I couldn’t have until I’d been in the water! Wrong way round if you ask me, I might have gone in quicker if I’d had that first! I went in one more time, but I had been struggling with the heat of the sauna and hadn’t spent quite so long in there this time and it was really really cold this time, I didn’t get very far in before I went back inside. I struggled to stay in the Sauna after that, having to put a towel over my head in the end so that it’d keep the temperature down a little close to my face. Doing that I could stay in quite a bit longer.

At the end the temperature in the Sauna hit a lofty 95c, outside it was apparently as low as -10c at times, and the water was 1 or 2c at best! I don’t think we could have asked for a bigger range in temperatures! We headed back to the hostel after this, even by 2.30pm it was getting really dark outside.

Once we got back to the hostel, I was a little boring and just spent the rest of the evening chatting to a few people in the hostel with a few drinks. The place didn’t quite have the same atmosphere as the nights before, and there was visibly less people about. I should have probably gone out with the others when they headed out at about 11pm, however I was absolutely shattered so just enjoyed my last few beers in the hostel instead.

The next two days were spent partying in the hostel for the most part rather than going out after spending a small fortune on alcohol in bars. Sunday I went and did some grocery shopping with the intention of making Curry in the hostel that evening, but that didn’t materialise. After I got back I met an Aussie girl called Angela, a Mexican chap called Pablo and the Brazilian guys who I’d only met drunk before! We headed on down towards Djurgarden with the intention of seeing some Winter Solstice festival thing that was on that weekend. Jamie came along too despite feeling rather rough after last nights antics!

It took us quite a while to get there, but we had a good chat on the way. I managed to get us there in the end, despite everyone thinking we were lost, to be fair it was quite a walk! We eventually found the required ferry. However Pablo pressed the wrong button and ordered the wrong ferry. Yeah they have ‘order a ferry’ service here. The guy looked a bit miffed when no one got on! We eventually got on the right ferry and headed over to Djurgarden and to this festival thing only to find the place was closing! Rather annoying. So we just caught the ferry back to old town and got dinner at the first place we saw in the end! The brazilians decided they didn’t fancy dinner and left us to it, leaving Me, Jamie, Angela and Pablo. It was a bit pricey, but I did get the biggest burger I’ve seen, must have been nearly 1 pound of meat! Was quite a struggle to eat actually, but I got there in the end!

We headed back to the hostel next, but had to drink rather crap beer as the liquor store was closed, and other places only sell 3.5% beer, which is well, pretty much water! We played a bunch of card games and our group expanded quickly. Starting off with cheat, then heading onto Uno and then Kings. Half way through we went out to get more beer after running out. On the way back we decided to build a snowman. However the snow in Stockholm is really light and fluffy and just doesn’t stick together. So we had to basically make a rather small rock snowman!

It was all a good laugh, then around midnight on a Sunday night a bunch of people decided they wanted to go out! A little late I thought, and unsure if anywhere would actually be open, I headed out anyway. There was pretty much the same group as earlier going out plus a few others including Patrick (German), oh and Jamie stayed in feeling bad from last night. As you may have noticed, we kind of just knew people from their nationality! First we walked past some random bar which was open, so I asked if we could go in. The guy was a bit wierd with me, said it was a private Turkish function and we’d need to pay 150 kronas (just under £15). We nearly went in, but I decided that we shouldn’t. It looked a bit crap tbh, and people there would only be like what are you doing here? And the guy had been quite rude tbh.

We walked on further and eventually found a place that someone at the hostel had pointed out too us. We ended up splitting 3 bottles of wine between us and it was all good fun. We sat outside with big huge heaters about. Made a fun difference! Angela called over a couple of Swedish girls who ended leading us over town in the hope of takeaway food, only for the place to be closed, annoying! It was bitterly cold that night, and we had quite a walk back. After eventually finding a kebab shop still open we made it back.

Monday was spent buying Christmas presents for the family. However my baggage was lost, so I can’t go into much detail about that, as people still haven’t received them! What we did do though today was cook the curry we were going to have yesterday and then goto the Liquor store and buy sufficient beer!

More card playing was had then, however we basically had no-one we knew from the night before! Angela and Pablo had both left to get to go elsewhere, and there wasn’t really anyone else about who we recognized. That was quite a familiar thing in the hostel really. We eventually managed to get a decent sized group joined by a few German chaps (one called Phillip) and American girl Melissa, and a German and Austrian couple (Mara and Christof) – who I’d actually met in the TV Room a couple of nights earlier. The names I remember are squarely dependent on adding them on Facebook! Unfortunately we had no Uno cards tonight so it was just Cheat we really played. Although we did try and play chase the mystery card, but it was decided it was too quiet a game and stifled conversation!

Eventually we found our game completely taken over by a bunch of rowdy French travellers! It’s amazing how much noise we make, we had actually moved into another room cause they were so loud!

During this time Jamie found some other american girls (Amy & Sarah) who were going on the Sauna trip with us tomorrow. He felt they rather picked on him after moving the chair from underneath him as he was sitting down. I’d say that’s rather amusing! Eventually we called it a night, with an early start for the Sauna trip the next day. Early meaning 2am of course.

Old Town was pretty cool and the streets were really rather narrow. Then we took the ferry over to Djurgarden which was a bit wierd. There was a Theme Park there which was closed during the winter, and at times the place was pretty much silent. Next we hit the VasaMuset. This is a Museum which contains an old wartime ship which sank in the waterway around Stockholm in the 1600s and was raised in the 1960s. It was pretty impressive really, helped by the fact we managed to get in for under £5 thanks to Student Discount!

Next we headed over too the Biology Museum which Jamie wanted to see (with out really knowing anything about it). It was terrible, basically just a bunch of stuffed birds in a few rooms. How they make money I don’t know. Gullible tourists like us I guess.

We walked back towards the main city centre area next. Jamie kinda gave us a bad name, by throwing a snow ball at a signpost, thinking it’d just part and not make much noise. However he had picked up quite an icy snowball, which made a huge noise and gave us some dodgy looks from the locals!

We found our way to a pub and had a pint there before heading onto get some food at a restaurant. It was a reasonably priced Italian which was maybe perhaps not such great quality. Especially as I got my Lasagne with in 10 minutes :/ Microwave Job then I guess! We then got a little confused with the bill – It said 25% on it, we thought that meant tip. The waiter gave us a funny look when taking the cash, so we gave him a little extra cash later after checking the Swedish dictionary for every word on the bill and finding out it meant tax!

We headed on back to the hostel where we had a few drinks and talked to a bunch of people, there was a couple of Aussie Guys, the Brazilian chaps from last night were about and some German Girls, who were making Bangers and Mash for dinner! The hostel was pretty good for socialising. Probably better than any of the ones I stayed in North America this summer.

I ended up heading on out with the German Girls and another German Guy to a bar. Jamie was meant to come along too, but he disappeared. I thought nothing much of it, just presuming that he’d fend for himself… Anyway we get to a bar, then I get about 3 phone calls from Jamie trying to find his way to this bar, even passing the phone to the taxi driver. He never makes it here. Whilst at the bar, I managed to chat to some random Swedish chap whilst waiting in the queue for the loos. About what I really can’t remember, but I ended up adding him on facebook. We headed back to the hostel fairly soon in truth, the others were really tired!

Once I got back, I ended up chatting to a load of people back in the hostel. I really can’t remember exactly who they were, mostly the Brazilian chaps again. We got shifted into the TV room in the end due to making too much noise. It was about 2am or so I think. A load of people joined us, and I even drunkenly attempted to play ping pong in there, but really failed rather badly. Plus the table was really tiny!

Eventually I called it a night, only to recieve a phone call from Jamie at 5am. I ignore the first two, but on the third attempt I thought I better answer. He’s lost and in a taxi and wants to know how to get back to the hostel! Myself being half asleep can’t remember the name of the hostel or the address! So I just tell them to take him to the trainstation, where it’s a straight walk back to the hostel, hangup and think nothing more of it. I get worken up the next morning by Jamie, he’d only just got back. The taxi driver had taken him the wrong place, and he’d spent a shit load of money on them. He had ended up spending the night on some random Swedish blokes couch! Crazy.

Friday 18th December was quite a long day. First I had my final lecture for the year at University in the morning, and then I headed over to Manchester Airport to head off to Stockholm once that was done. Manchester had got me into the mood for Stockholm by greeting me with some snow that morning!

The flight managed to take off fine, and a short flight later I was in Amsterdam. I had to get a connecting flight from here to Stockholm, however the flight was running a little late, and in the end it was a good half hour late before we took off. In the end this flight went off with out any real trouble, other than for some reason making me feel really tired!

I arrived in Stockholm just after 11pm and managed to meet up with Jamie at the bar at the airport. He decided he fancied this trip about a month or so after I had booked it. His flight had arrived direct from Manchester about an hour earlier than mine, and had headed straight to the bar. He was a little miffed that the airport bar stopped serving alcohol at 11pm!

We made ourselves to the impressive Arlanda Express Train, this was running at some 200kph despite the snowy conditions and was really smooth! Doubt we’d be able to sort something like that out in England. Then despite nearly walking in the wrong direction we made ourway quickly to the hostel. I was loving the snow, and it wasnt slippy at all, they clearly treat the stuff properly here, unlike in the UK where you risk killing yourself!

We had some trouble getting into the hostel however! The chap who was meant to be on the desk had taken off to help someone out, it wasn’t until someone else went in did we get into the warm! We eventually got all sorted out, and confirmed ourselves onto the Tuesday Sauna trip. I had originally not intended to go out that night, but after a strong JD & Coke (I brought 1 of 3l I still had that I brought back from the USA this summer) Jamie managed to change my mind.

We headed out and just started asking random strangers where was decent to go. In the end we just walked around for quite a while rather unsure of where to go. There was a lot of clubs which Jamie quite fancied, but I put my foot down, going in there sober would be a big mistake! We eventually found a bar still open at 2am! We went in and had a few drinks there – it was very pricey though! By now it was about 3am so we tried to head back to the hostel, only for me to get slightly confused and find ourselves going back a different direction. On the way Jamie managed to do the splits and fall flat on his arse, I found this hilarious! We ended up asking some drunken Swedish chaps to point us in the right direction. Which they did well, and Jamie then proceeded to flukely find a short cut which lead us right back to the door of the hostel! Good times. Some random chatting to people in the hostel then followed before calling it a night at 4am!

One problem, we had already paid for breakfast which finished at 11am, so we had to be up reasonably early for that the next morning!