The Airline That Answers Emails
Around 7:30 we were at the check-in desks at Stockholm Arlanda. When it was our turn to drop off our luggage, the woman at the desk announced that Rafał’s ticket was invalid and he would not be flying.
The evening before, we had taken the last flight out of Kraków. We reached Arlanda after midnight. There was no point looking for a place to sleep, so we rolled out our sleeping mats under a potted palm and stayed at the airport. It may not have been the best rest, but at least we could stretch our legs.
In the morning we had only a few steps to the baggage drop. It soon turned out that this accidental logistical bonus was going to be very useful.
I had bought the tickets back in June. We had confirmations and boarding passes. Even so, at the baggage drop Rafał’s ticket showed up red. The check-in agent, a woman with Filipino features, spent twenty minutes trying to get someone on the phone. Nobody picked up.
I tried to reach the populAir helpline too. I heard a few words in Swedish and the call dropped. The helpline opens at 8 a.m. It was 7:50.
In desperation I emailed populAir support: we are at baggage drop and the system does not recognize the ticket. I put “URGENT” in the subject line. Imagine my surprise when I got a reply two minutes later. It said something like “it works on our end,” meaning everything looked fine in their system. A few emails later they assured me that everything would now surely be fine in the airport system as well.
At 8:00 we went back to the desk. This time a green outline appeared around Rafał’s name and we could drop our luggage. Half an hour remained until check-in closed.
The luggage was checked in, but a long walk to the neighboring terminal still lay ahead. We made it.
Two Got Off, One Got On
We reached Gällivare on a small plane with a stopover halfway. At a mini airport in the middle of a meadow, two passengers got off and one got on.
Originally we were going to take a bus straight from the airport to Ritsem. The plan changed when, a few days earlier, the ferry operator informed us that, because of the earlier dusk, evening sailings were cancelled. Well, in Poland winter surprises the road crews, and in Sweden the shorter day surprises the ferry operator. We decided to spend the night in a tent on a small beach in Gällivare, take the bus to Ritsem in the morning and cross the lake on the afternoon ferry. This arrangement also gave us time to buy gas for the stove.
Instead of the Tent
When we landed in Gällivare it was raining, and the forecast promised heavy rain for the rest of the day and all night. We did not fancy getting soaked before we even reached Sarek National Park. On Google Maps I found a campsite offering rooms that were cheap (by Swedish standards). The town was eight kilometers away. No airport buses. A taxi for 600 kronor was out of the question, so we set off on foot. After two kilometers a French tourist responded to our waving and gave us a lift to town.
We got a tiny double room. The trip for stove gas turned out to be very fruitful. We came back with several unplanned finds. Rafał spotted a bottle of Heineken in the roadside bushes (full!). A bit farther on, on a lawn in front of some building, we found mushrooms, among them fine birch boletes. Sautéed with onion in garlic butter, they livened up our dinner and, the next morning, our scrambled eggs too.
Along the route
Day 1 in photographs. Select an image to enlarge it.
