About three hours. That’s how long I have to wait until I catch my flight to Helsinki and then to Stockholm. I have a lot of time to kill since I woke up at 2:30am in Spokane this Sunday, caught an Uber to the airport, caught my connecting flight to Pheonix and then landed in Chicago about 3 1/2 hours ago. There’s plenty of time to prepare this website, read and finish a local crime novella, try to write the local crime novella I’ve been working too long on, and anxiously worry on whether my parents who flew from Boise to Chicago with less than an hour to get to another building and TSA check to catch the same flights I am on can make it. Deep breath.

Since it’ll take an entire evening to fly over the Atlantic, and because I don’t sleep well on planes, I suspect day 1 in Stockholm will be a recovery day at our reserved apartment where we’ll be staying.

I’m traveling light, with only 5 days’ worth of clothes, a laptop, a pair of running shoes, and a hiking daypack, which I all managed to stuff into a backpack and a small suitcase. My Uber driver remarked that my luggage was particularly light for a 1-month journey, which I admit is true, but the goal is also to stay within a budget and hopefully Europe delivers with its vaunted mass transportation which I’ve bought a city pass for Stockholm recently to make the most of the 3 days we’ll have in what I’ve read is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

As is my plan with several European cities I visit on this trip, I plan on running in them, and if I’m feeling up to it, perhaps I’ll venture a run after checking into the apartment after departing the airport and arriving in Södermalm where our rental apartment is loated. Södermalm is an Island so circumnavigating it could be a worth a try, since it’s 10 to 11.5 kilometers. Not quite what my usual Sunday 10 mile run is in Spokane — shout out to those in that Spokane run club — but after a long flight, one shouldn’t be too picky.