01:30 finally get to bed after chasing straggling partygoers out of my home and having on last panicked double-check of the packing.

05:20 make it to the station a matter of seconds late for the train and have one hour to wait for the next one. That arrives with 1:30 to go before the train so I hope they don’t leave without me. Use this opportunity to begin my journal. Too scared I will miss my train to grab any kip. Realised I have entered the extortion zone as the only opportunity to pick up batteries or water will be the train or the airport.

Began to fine-tune itinerary on the train then made fsck up #2 bydrawing out my whole budget at the bureau de change so my wallet won’t even fold. Ho hum at least I won’t have to stress about finding banks :-) transferred the bulk to my moneybelt, and left 1 day’s budget in wallet plus another day’s budget to cover ’start up’ costs.

09:20 woo hoo! beat the last call to the plane - just! I have a habit of hanging around land-side of passport and security, so by the time the gate number is published on the screens I’ve only just got enough time to get to the gate. To cap it off nicely, I tried to get Lotta a bottle of booze in the duty free but had to put it back and queue again having not yet figured out the whole pink/green colour coding thing yet.

10:00 hee hee, the cabin crew announcement sounds like pingu!

12:55 (forren time) spotted 8 volvos while on the shuttle bus between the plane and the terminal.

The language is surprisingly easy to read - kind of like dutch with the German taken out (and spelt differently… well I only said *kinda*) for instance, “do you speak english” in Dutch is “spreek je engels?” and in swedish is “talar du engelska” - the german sprechen < -> spreek whereas the dutch for languages is “talen”. Of course listening is much tougher. I have yet to pick out any word besides “wellkom” and “hej”

Caught the airport express for 80% of day 0’s budget, urk. Spotted first strapping Swedish lass. Not blonde but definitely counts.

14:49 the weather is HOT! I have only 5 tshirts and will be handwashing in a hostel somewhere so to try to avoid getting too sweaty I took off my shirt and wandered in my white t-shirt into mcburger’s where I promptly dropped a ketchuppy chip down my front. I guess this is as much as can be expected given the 4am start…

18:09 afternoon went better, except my sketched plan for the first 5 days was blown out of the water: though my guidebook says different, the G�ta Kanal is already shut for the winter and in any case it would cost double my entire budget for the trip! On my way to meet Lotta now, at least I managed *that*

22:28 had a great evening with Lotta. She’s quite incredible: successful in her job, good looking, well dressed, scuba dives, runs 10-16 km every other day, sings in a band, has a fiendish talent for planning and on top of it all is sincere. To consummate my inferiority complex I realise I have run out of cash as I pay for our drinks - 2 small bottles of pear cider served over ice: UKP5.50 - and I leave it to her to cover the meal. I have been told that in theory I can choose anything but in practice I must have ribs. We munch and exchange musings on our love lives as the cruise boats splish past or honk in the harbour and the fresh & warm sea air lends a mediterranean ambience.

SCORE TALLY, DAY 0
volvos: 28
pigtails: 37 (19 plaited)
nokia ringtones: 41
ice hockey players: 3
meatballs: 0
m��se: 0
vikings: 1 sans helm, 4 helms in lotta’s lounge