Say It With Me (aka The One About the Migraine and Plastic Bags on a Train)
I spent the final day of my fiftieth year (today, for the uninitiated) sick on a train. Like literally sick on a train. Let's just say thank goodness for Swedish OCD and a commitment to keeping things clean. Yes, I realize the little white plastic bags are for trash.......and not what I used it for. How's that for an opening? It just goes to show you that even on vacation amid the meticulous planning and high hopes, shit happens. In this case, a migraine happened.
I truly thought the worst thing that would happen to day would be a cancelled train. I arrived suitably to early the train station in Copenhagen all ready for my journey to Sweden. One train, no transfers. Stow the luggage and just sit back and enjoy the 5+ hour ride across the Oresund and the Swedish countryside. If I was looking forward to anything this vacation, that train ride was it. But the big board sad "Cancelled" and something about catching the train in Malmo, across the bridge in Sweden (If you've watched the TV series, "The Bridge", same bridge...just hopefully without the dead people). Well, fuck. What to do? I figured "Go to Malmo" was going to be the answer. A very nice information lady confirmed. Hop any train to Malmo and figure it out there. Okey-dokey. Good thing I was early (For all of you that bemoan my near pathological dedication to being on time, go ahead and suck it). I was able get to Malmo in plenty of time to catch my original train (That apparently couldn't be bothered to come all the way to Copenhagen to get me as planned) and eat what I hoped would be a hangover curing early lunch at Burger King.
Turns out, the headache I woke up with and assumed was the result of too much of a few too many good things (Headlining that list - German beer, Danish beer, a couple varieties of wine and 10k run) and not enough of at least one other really good thing (Hindsight - which veritably SCREAMED at me this morning when my alarm went off - said that I should have hydrated better...and with water) was in fact a migraine. Midway through the train ride, I couldn't feel my hands (A telltale sign that I was well past the point of no return) and began fighting back waves of nausea. Good times. With about forty-five minutes to go, I made use of the handy-dandy white trash bags the train provides to encourage cleanliness (Thanks, SJ!).
I'm not writing this to gross you out. The point I'm attempting to make is that things don't always have to work out the way we want them to for things to work out. This vacation has been a bit of a cluster since the jump. I had no more left for the airport when the flight delay notifications started arriving. My flight from Austin arrived so late that I had to sprint through the Houston airport (I was indeed thankful that I was traveling light with just my Cotopaxi Allpa35). BUT! I made my flight and arrived in Amsterdam right on schedule. Today I woke up with a headache that only got worse as the day went on AND I had to deal with a cancelled train. BUT! I made it to Stockholm. Sure, I slept away the afternoon trying to shake the headache and had to settle for a moonlit walk through Sodermalm, rather than what I had planned. I had also hoped to have something better for dinner but my migraines always require McDonald's in the recovery phase. There were two within walking distance. I consider that lucky.
As with life in general, I choose to see the good, the positive, the upside. I could be sitting here writing bemoaning the headache that still lingers and the touch of dizziness that plagues me whenever I look up from this screen. I could be muttering "What the Hell else can go wrong?" under my breath. I have a lot of vacation left to go and truly anything could happen - the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful. So far, I've had some challenges. However, I'm learning that I'm resilient and flexible. I can and will deal with whatever comes my way,
And let's be brutally f***ing honest for a brief moment -
I'm in Stockholm!!!!!!
There are worse places to have a migraine. Trust me.
Yeah, I don't know if I'll be recovered enough to run the half marathon I've had planned as part of my 50th birthday celebration tomorrow. That's a bit disappointing, but it's not devastating. I'll run as far as my body lets me and then get on with celebrating my day. In Stockholm.
I feel like that bares repeating - IN STOCKHOLM. As in, "I'm in Stockholm." My favorite city in the world. My favorite place to be. The place where I feel strangely at home, even though I've spent a sum total of maybe fourteen days here. The place where I planned to start the second half of my life (50 down, 50 to go). The place where I am right now. Right. Now.
I won't remember the headache or the cancelled train. I will remember the dream that came true the moment me and my tied up plastic bag stepped off the train at Stockholm Central Station. Seventeen months ago, I said I'd be back. I made that happen. No one else. Me. That is what brings tears to my eyes as I sit writing this in the lobby of my hotel (Coffee shops close egregiously early here...at least the ones I know of). My head hurts and I probably should head down to my room (Yes, I have a windowless room in the basement. Seems to be a trend in Stockholm for me). Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is my birthday. Tomorrow I begin the next fifty. Ok, everyone, say it with me. Where am I?
In Stockholm!!!!!
I truly thought the worst thing that would happen to day would be a cancelled train. I arrived suitably to early the train station in Copenhagen all ready for my journey to Sweden. One train, no transfers. Stow the luggage and just sit back and enjoy the 5+ hour ride across the Oresund and the Swedish countryside. If I was looking forward to anything this vacation, that train ride was it. But the big board sad "Cancelled" and something about catching the train in Malmo, across the bridge in Sweden (If you've watched the TV series, "The Bridge", same bridge...just hopefully without the dead people). Well, fuck. What to do? I figured "Go to Malmo" was going to be the answer. A very nice information lady confirmed. Hop any train to Malmo and figure it out there. Okey-dokey. Good thing I was early (For all of you that bemoan my near pathological dedication to being on time, go ahead and suck it). I was able get to Malmo in plenty of time to catch my original train (That apparently couldn't be bothered to come all the way to Copenhagen to get me as planned) and eat what I hoped would be a hangover curing early lunch at Burger King.
Turns out, the headache I woke up with and assumed was the result of too much of a few too many good things (Headlining that list - German beer, Danish beer, a couple varieties of wine and 10k run) and not enough of at least one other really good thing (Hindsight - which veritably SCREAMED at me this morning when my alarm went off - said that I should have hydrated better...and with water) was in fact a migraine. Midway through the train ride, I couldn't feel my hands (A telltale sign that I was well past the point of no return) and began fighting back waves of nausea. Good times. With about forty-five minutes to go, I made use of the handy-dandy white trash bags the train provides to encourage cleanliness (Thanks, SJ!).
I'm not writing this to gross you out. The point I'm attempting to make is that things don't always have to work out the way we want them to for things to work out. This vacation has been a bit of a cluster since the jump. I had no more left for the airport when the flight delay notifications started arriving. My flight from Austin arrived so late that I had to sprint through the Houston airport (I was indeed thankful that I was traveling light with just my Cotopaxi Allpa35). BUT! I made my flight and arrived in Amsterdam right on schedule. Today I woke up with a headache that only got worse as the day went on AND I had to deal with a cancelled train. BUT! I made it to Stockholm. Sure, I slept away the afternoon trying to shake the headache and had to settle for a moonlit walk through Sodermalm, rather than what I had planned. I had also hoped to have something better for dinner but my migraines always require McDonald's in the recovery phase. There were two within walking distance. I consider that lucky.
As with life in general, I choose to see the good, the positive, the upside. I could be sitting here writing bemoaning the headache that still lingers and the touch of dizziness that plagues me whenever I look up from this screen. I could be muttering "What the Hell else can go wrong?" under my breath. I have a lot of vacation left to go and truly anything could happen - the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful. So far, I've had some challenges. However, I'm learning that I'm resilient and flexible. I can and will deal with whatever comes my way,
And let's be brutally f***ing honest for a brief moment -
I'm in Stockholm!!!!!!
There are worse places to have a migraine. Trust me.
Yeah, I don't know if I'll be recovered enough to run the half marathon I've had planned as part of my 50th birthday celebration tomorrow. That's a bit disappointing, but it's not devastating. I'll run as far as my body lets me and then get on with celebrating my day. In Stockholm.
I feel like that bares repeating - IN STOCKHOLM. As in, "I'm in Stockholm." My favorite city in the world. My favorite place to be. The place where I feel strangely at home, even though I've spent a sum total of maybe fourteen days here. The place where I planned to start the second half of my life (50 down, 50 to go). The place where I am right now. Right. Now.
I won't remember the headache or the cancelled train. I will remember the dream that came true the moment me and my tied up plastic bag stepped off the train at Stockholm Central Station. Seventeen months ago, I said I'd be back. I made that happen. No one else. Me. That is what brings tears to my eyes as I sit writing this in the lobby of my hotel (Coffee shops close egregiously early here...at least the ones I know of). My head hurts and I probably should head down to my room (Yes, I have a windowless room in the basement. Seems to be a trend in Stockholm for me). Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is my birthday. Tomorrow I begin the next fifty. Ok, everyone, say it with me. Where am I?
In Stockholm!!!!!
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