Stockholm to Portland, a Journey

TL;DR

I have season tickets, and have not been to a regular season game yet, but have been following remotely at ridiculous hours of the day due to being in Sweden. I'm headed home soon. If you don't want to read the whole back story, scroll down to the "So Why This Post?" heading.

Story Time!

In January, wanting to get more into the new MLS version of the Portland Timbers than I had been with any soccer/football team in the past, I decided to buy myself a season ticket in the Timbers Army section. I had only been to one Timbers game before, the Boca Juniors friendly the previous season. I had a great time there, and loved what the Timbers Army brought, so I decided to try to become part of it.

Fast forward a couple months. The season starts, but I watch the games from my home, being a bit too lazy to find a bar to watch them in. However, I did buy a ticket for the USOC play-in vs. Chivas. I stood with the Timbers Army for the first time, and had a great time! I was now completely and utterly hooked.

Another week passes, and now I am excitedly waiting for the home opener, and am even considering taking that day off from work, when I get some startling news. I was asked to go to Sweden for my job. For two months. Starting the Monday before the season opener. While was now completely in love with the Timbers, my job and career come first, because that's how I can afford to go to the Timbers games.

So now, the week of the home opener I was in a small town, called Ornskoldsvik (I can now pronounce it, and will gladly do so if you ask), in a small hotel room with pretty crappy hotel internet. I didn't have the bandwidth to stream the game from a questionably legal stream, so at game time, I followed #RCTID (I don't have a twitter account, so couldn't post to it), the commentary on ESPN, FSC, and various other sports sites, as well as on forums. Trying to get all of the information I possibly could about the goings on of the game. At 5AM. That's right, I was so excited about the game, I actually woke up for the 5AM kickoff, just to be able to follow the commentary. Later that day I caught the national anthem and tifo on youtube, and was completely speechless. I just didn't even know how to react to that. That evening, even though I was on crappy hotel internet, I started downloading a video capture of the game.

For the weekend, me and my coworker borrowed a 3G modem from the office, so we could skype home, and do other internet related tasks. I stayed up until 2AM Sunday night/Monday morning, just to watch the Dallas match. Even though I would need to wake up at 6:30 so I could get to the office the next day.

That monday, we moved into an apartment for the remainder of our time here, and now had good internet! From this point on, I ended up catching about half of the games live via streams, and caught about half of them afterwards via downloaded streams. Waking up at 5AM, even just once a week, is a bit much for me.

That brings us to the present, now the day of the DC United game. We now stand perfect at home after 5 games, and will hopefully extend that to 6 later today (well, tomorrow for me). I leave Ornskoldsvik on Wednesday, and will spend some time in Stockholm and Oslo before flying back to Portland.

So why this post?

I fly out from Stockholm Arlanda airport at about 10:00 AM local time (1:00 AM Portland time) on June 11th, the day of the Colorado home game. Back up the 30 minutes it will take to get to the airport via transit, the 1.5 hours of buffer/checkin time, and at least an hour of wake up/checkout/breakfast time, and that puts me at 7:00 AM (10:00 PM previous day in Portland). After the international flight, I have a good 4 hours of layover in Chicago before arrive at PDX at 6:30 PM local time, or one hour until game time. I have arranged for a friend to pick me up at the airport, and he will also hold onto my bags for me, as I am planning on going to the game. That's right, I am planning on making a 6000 mile journey, and to catch the Timbers game. All told, by the time I will end up getting home, it will probably be about 26 hours from the start of my day, until the end, and I can't think of a better way to be welcomed back to Portland, than by the loving chants of the Timbers Army.

When it comes down to the day, I will do my best to post the trials and tribulations of the journey in real time as I travel. I'll probably *gasp* actually sign up for a Twitter account to do so, even though I doubt I'd ever use it again afterwards. Wish me luck!

Sweden Pictures, etc.

As I am nearing the end of my time here in Sweden, I figure now is a good time to post links to where all of my pictures are:

General Sweden

Stockholm on 5/14

Geohashing Day 2011 in Berlin/Poland

Timelapse of the walk I made to the office here in Ornskoldsvik most every day while here for two months

Sweden!

For those that don't know, I'm headed off to Sweden for work, Örnsköldsvik to be exact. This isn't your typical well populated part of the country, so I'll be able to get a good feel of what life is like in the non-tourist parts of Sweden! I'll be gone until June 11th.

Car free month, the finale

So, today is the first day after the completion of the car free month. I still took the train in, because it is just so much less annoyance to walk over to the train stop and hop the train/bus into work. I only had a half day at work today, so walked back to the train stop, and headed home for lunch. After that, I drove out east, south of Gresham, to visit a hashpoint. On the way back, I stopped to get a new pair of shoes and some cleaning supplies.

The general synopsis of the car free month is this:

1. I like riding the train into work. It is a much less stressful way to get to and from work, even on my short commute.
2. I really don't like shopping via transit. It really sucks.
3. Geohashing, and sometimes sf0 tasking, really should be done with a car. Its just the nature of those activities that often a car is, if not required, then still very nice to have.
4. If I decide to buy a house/townhouse in the upcoming months, I want to keep myself relatively close to a train station, because transit into work is now my preferred way to get there.

From now on, I will probably drive into work once a week, so that I can go out to lunch, and so that I can go shopping on my way home from work.

Car free days 29 & 30

On the 29th day, I rode the train in (as usual), but had a company celebration for the completion of a project, so got a ride from a friend. On the way back, I drove his car back to his place, and rode the train from there.

The last day of the experiment was very typical, except that as I was walking out the door of the office, I saw the bus pulling up, so I ran up to catch it, and rode it home instead of walking.

Car free days 25 - 28

Day 25 was Thanksgiving. I spent the day lounging, cooking, eating, and sleeping, as one should on this day. I also completed my Thanksgiving day tasking.

Day 26 was black Friday. I went out on a geohashing expedition, but was unable to reach the point due to a steep, wet, muddy, and leaf covered incline. On the expedition, I did get some food, and a friend picked me up and dropped me off. However, the friend would have had to have driven right by my apartment to get to/from the hashpoint anyways. Other than that I read.

Day 27 I read through most of the day, took a bit of a nap, and was called to see if I wanted to head out to HUB (Hopworks Urban Brewery) for dinner and a couple of drinks. I agreed, and hopped on the train to a friend's who would drive me to where the first friend called from. We then sat around for a bit watching TV, and headed down to the brewpub, where I had a delicious sandwich chock full of Italian meats, and three beers. The beers were Velvet ESB (because it is awesome), Cask Abominable (because I wanted something new), and Dark Helmet (because of the name).

Day 28 was spent completely in my apartment, sleeping, reading, TVing and the like.

Car free day 24

Completely uneventful. Went to work on transit, came back home on transit (albiet a little earlier than normal). The most interesting thing done in the day was that I spent over 2 hours cooking and preparing food, of which none of it was consumed immediately. It is all sitting in the refrigerator, waiting to be reheated at around 2:30PM or so today. Foods prepared: black bean and jicama salad, red thai curry with chicken, and spicy shrimp.

Car free day 23

It was a cold morning, with temps down around 20F. There was a dusting of snow overnight, but the most significant hazard was that there was about 1/4 of an inch of ice coating all horizontal surfaces. This made the roads and sidewalks quite slick. So, after I hopped on the train to go to work, I was once again stuck waiting for over 30 minutes for the bus to show up, since it had chains again. I'm glad it did, but that's jumping ahead in the story.

While I was waiting for the bus, there were a couple other people waiting there with me. One started up a casual conversation with me, talking about how cold it is, when the bus should arrive, or if it was even running. Then he changed the topic to a brief mention of the incident between North and South Korea. These incidents have been happening on and off for decades, and while definitely not a good thing, I don't think its a sure sign that we're about to be dragged into a war. While that may happen, it doesn't seem too likely right now. Anyways, I was about to make a comment back, basically to that effect, when the "weirdo on the bus" rule took effect. One of the other people waiting for the bus started in on a rant about how the whole system is corrupt and will soon collapse. He would make comments like "we need to change our thinking" but when asked how you would change how people think, he'd just reiterate that we need to change.

Anyways, after 15 mintues or so of listening to this guy go on and on with his rant, the bus finally pulled up. Then, as we were headed into a left turn lane to (wait for it) turn left (shocking, I know), the bus started to fishtail and slide. That is quite the interesting feeling, and I'm sure the car which was sitting in the turn lane in front of the bus was quite scared at that point. The bus driver (who retires at the end of the month, and good for him!) deftly was able to get the bus to slide into the other lane, narrowly avoiding a collision with the car. The rest of the trip was uneventful.

In the evening, I once again walked, but I headed to New Seasons to pick up the last few ingredients I would need to be able to prepare my Thanksgiving feast. I was quite pleasantly surprised at the wide variety of produce and spices. Unfortunately, however, there was no eggplant, so I will resort to using potatoes in the curry to thicken it instead.

Cree free day 22

I went into work via transit yet again. I got to the bus stop at my normal time, but the bus was over 15 minutes late. All of the regulars at the stop were wondering why the bus was so late until it pulled up with chains on the rear tires. Given that it was just above freezing at that point, and was supposed to drop pretty quickly in the afternoon, that wasn't too much of a surprise. Once on the bus, we noticed that it is much louder with the chains on, and it kinda feels like your fillings will get shaken out of your teeth. After work, I walked to the station (the temps had held warmer longer than expected, and snow was not yet falling), and then rode home. I then gathered my shopping list for Thanksgiving dinner, and rode over to the grocery store. I was able to find most of the ingredients I was looking for (I'm just missing a few now), and when I walked back to the station, a couple of flakes were starting to fall.

Car free days 20 & 21

Saturday (day 20) passed without any car use. I walked out for a couple meals, and went downtown to Henry's 12th Street Tavern to celebrate the birthday of one of my friends. Sunday (day 21) was mostly spent inside, looking out at the weather, and also watching stuff on TV/computer. I did, however, drive down to the liquor store to buy some aquavit, which I need for sf0 tasking on Thanksgiving. I didn't know about this need until today, and the liquor store which I could realistically get to via transit didn't have any in stock, so I drove down, and stopped for food while I was out. Again, my weakness breaks a rule of the car free month, and I am disappointed in myself. Though, in general, I have been very good about keeping to most of the rules, and am quite happy that I made the decision to do this experiment.

Car free days 18 & 19

Day 18 was a typical trip into work. During lunch, however, I went with a couple co-workers down into Portland to the food carts for lunch, where I had a schnitzelwich. Then, after work, I rode the train over to a friend's house for movie night, where we watched Goldfinger, my first James Bond movie ever. I then proceeded to forget my laptop bag at his place. Then, day 19 rolled around, and I had the day off. I ended up breaking one of the rules and driving to Soba to get a delicious Beef Teriyaki bowl with friends, and stopped by my friend's house to pick up my bag.

Car free day 17

Nothing new, transit in, walk back, like usual, and mostly just another average day without using the car.

Car free day 16

Nothing much new for this day. I went to work, went home, and then went to the grocery store. Though the gal who bagged my copious amounts of beverages seemed genuinely surprised when I declined her offer to help me to my car with the bags because I had walked there.

Car free day 15

I had an early morning meeting, so I woke an hour early (at 6), took the train, and walked to the office. There I consumed tea and coffee to help keep me awake. At the end of the day, I walked to the bank, walgreens, and then to Orenco Station Grill, where I had dinner and a couple beers. Then I walked to the station and headed home. It was a lot of walking, especially on short sleep, but I had no issues with it. This whole experiment has been a whole lot easier than I initially thought it would be. It seems like something I could honestly do on most days.

Car free days 13 & 14

Another successful weekend. I still haven't taken my car out for a drive at all, so I really need to do that. I made some food in my apartment, but did get out some. Saturday night I rode the train down into Portland, and walked over towards the Cascade Brewing Barrel House, but started developing rather intense (though short duration) headaches, which were spaced anywhere between about 2 minutes apart to up to 15 minutes apart. This, plus the fact that the place was packed, convinced me to walk back to the train stop, and head back up here. After that, I fixed myself a small dinner, and watched some TV before calling it a night. Sunday was almost completely within the apartment, but I walked to a fast food joint for lunch, which ended up taking me about 1 mile. I need to remember to get into work for a 7AM meeting tomorrow, so I'll be getting up early.

Car free day 12

Another normal day into work, but then I headed out early with my fellow Boca site closure survivors to bid farewell, at a small town Oregon bar, to one of our kind, who had just been laid off. Out of the couple dozen former employees when the closure was announced, there were 4 of us left who had moved up to Oregon, and by the end of the year, there will be just two of us left. It was sad to see him go, but I am glad that it wasn't me. I'm sure we'll have another farewell in a little over a month when the next of us goes. Anyways, I got a ride up to the bar, and back to the office after our farewell was over. Tomorrow I plan to head down into Portland to visit Cascade Brewing's Barrel House for some beer drinking and general autumn/winter Portland activities.

Car free day 11

Day 11 started off like any normal transit riding day. After work, however, I was in a little bit of a rush, though, because movie night started at 6PM, so I had a lot of ground to cover. I quickly walked the 1+ mile to the train station, hopped on the train to my place. Then I hopped off, got to my place, changed, grabbed a 6-pack of beer (Full Sail's Wassail), and headed off to my friend's place. I made it there a few minutes late (thanks to the train running a few minutes late itself), but not very much so. We watched Unbreakable and Strange Brew, ate pizza, and drank various kinds of beer. Then I took the train back to my place. All in all, a really good night.

Car free day 10

Another normal day riding transit into work, then heading to the grocery store afterwards to get some more food and beer.

Car free day 9

Nothing much to say. Another cool, rainy November day on which I took transit.

Car free day 8

I have yet to drive my car around to get it exercise, I will probably get around to that tomorrow. Today I took transit in, because there was a good chance of rain, and it was supposed to be (and was) quite chilly, with a high only around 50F. The ride in was foggy, but mostly uneventful.

However, once I got into work, and opened my e-mail, I was presented with an interesting twist to the day. In my inbox was a request to interview a candidate for a position in our China development center, the interview beginning at 8PM, and running until 9PM or so. I rarely go the full length, but it is very likely that, including writing my evaluation of the candidate, I will run up against that 9PM barrier.

The actual end-time is unimportant. The important thing is that I needed to be in the office from 8-9PM, because there is no way I was going to put an hour-long international call on my personal cell phone. This means that I needed to go out and get dinner from the office, and return in time for the call, ruling out going home for food. Since there is no food nearby, I decided to walk over to Orenco Station, and buy some pre-made food from New Seasons. This means that I had to walk about 2.25 miles roundtrip to get myself dinner.

I then gave the interview, and realized that the buses do not run this late, meaning that I would have to walk the ~1 mile down to the station to catch the train, which luckily DOES run this late. While this, in and of itself, is not cause for complaining (a ceiling of 3.5 miles walking in one day, while much more than I usually do, is not all that much in the grand scheme of things), but I foolishly shaved (as in razor shaved) my head this past weekend, and didn't bring a hat today. This means that I got to walk this ~3.5 miles in <45F weather with a shaved head. Oh yeah, and it rained on my for about half of the walk. At least the train came shortly after I got to the station.