Eye have Issues

I was informed today that a certain cousin David calls this the Blah-Blah-Blah Blog.  Fortunately for you, I have no witty comeback to that (besides "Blah blah blah your face" but that's just lame). 

4 January:

While putting in my contacts, I noticed that my left contact looked slightly unusual.  The reasoning for not throwing it away included not having any spare contacts and the reasoning for putting in my eye involved not wanting to wear glasses on the train.  Keep this slightly silly decision in mind because it comes into play later.

There were more people at breakfast that morning because it was later in the day.  My train didn't leave until 10am or so, so I ate around 9:00/9:30am.  Then I went back, packed up everything and made sure nothing was left behind, and left for the train station right under my hostel room, so it wasn't too much of a hastle getting there.  The train came, I boarded, and we were off.

Had the small two-seat thinger to myself the first leg.  When switching at Oslo, I ate Burger King for lunch.  Only notable thing there was the ketchup container I got turned out to be barbeque sauce.  Which isn't bad on fries, I just wanted honest to goodness ketchup.

Hopped on the train to Stockholm then.  I was actually going forwards this time.  While pondering what to do for the next few hours, the conductor came by for the ticket.  She had to be the most cheerful person on the planet.  Greeted me a perky "Hej hej!", stamped my Eurail pass, then asked where I was going.  When I said Stockholm, she pulled out her timetable and told me which stop to get off at to transfer trains and which train I had to catch.  I've never had a conductor ask for my destination before, and I thought that was really nice.  That gave me high hopes for Swedish customer service. 

Took pictures of scenery and just sat and listened to some music on a dying iPod.  Attempted a sudoku puzzle, but I started to get dizzy so I stopped doing that.  The sun set and it was dark when we pulled into Karlstad.

The train to Stockholm required you to book a seat on the train first, so that's what I did in the ticket office.  Once finished, I figured I'd better get something to eat, so I bought a wrap and Vitamin Water at the convenience store next to the station.  Put it in my bag to save for later because it wasn't time for dinner just yet.

Shared a four-seat compartment with a mother and her two sons.  The boys took turns on their PSP and did that before I took an hour-long nap on the train.  When I woke up, they were finishing a boxed lunch meal with their ears in headphones connected to their mom's phone, which I guess plays music.  Always something in an electronic device.  Perhaps these guys are easily bored?  But they were quite lively when I was around, always talking and doing something.  One of the kids started dancing and he would look at me from time to time, so I danced a little with him and that got a laugh.  I remember him saying something to me in Swedish, so I asked "Do you speak English?" and he reacted with a surprised look like "Wait, you don't speak Swedish?  What is this???"  It reminded me of the drunk Czech guy way back in Bath.

At the station, I saw the family meet up with a woman I assumed was the mother's sister.  In a genius move, I slung my duffel over my head so I carried both my backpack and duffel on my shoulders, which was easier given that mobility increased and I can stop switching hands.  I didn't have a map to the hostel, but I did memorize directions given on the Internet.  I was looking for Vasagatan that would eventually change to Uppslandgatan where the City Backpackers Hostel is located.  Managed to find the right road, but went the wrong way.  I knew it was the wrong way because I came to a series of bridges and water.  That wasn't in the directions.  So I walked back and went the other way on the road.  Just my luck to go the wrong way, you know?

But I found the hostel and checked in.  My room was occupied by three other Chinese girls.  I assume they were Chinese, at least, because they sure didn't speak Japanese.  Anyway, I spent the time to myself for two reasons.  One, I had to get laundry done, but that was easy enough.  Two, I took out my contacts.

Remember how I put in that one dry, odd-shaped contact?  Well, when I took it out, my eye went berserk.  It was really hard to open it and it felt like it had gone completely dry.  It was so weird.  Really hurt to keep it open too.  I spent the better part of asking for laundry and doing laundry wondering what was going on.  Then I thought, maybe if I put in contact solution to moisten it, it would help?  And it did when I got the stuff in.  When I went to switch over the laundry, I moistened a tissue and put that over my eye.  As I waited for my clothes to dry, I dropped some of that water into my eye to see if it'll help.  My eye felt better after getting wet, but I was still worried.

An hour after I put in my clothes to dry, I went to check on them and they were still really wet.  I wondered what was going on, I don't have time for this nonsense, it's midnight and I'm dog tired.  So I put them back in the dryer, hoped no one stole my clothes (it's a pretty big hostel with lots of people despite wintertime in Stockholm), and went to bed.