The Incident

Feel free to skip this post- it's just me bitching about a travel snafu.  But it may prove useful if you are thinking of bike touring Sweden!

Perhaps I should begin with the Incident That Shall Not Be Spoken of Again.  Okay, so trains in Sweden are mainly run through a state-owned enterprise called Statens Jarnvagar, or SJ.  Obviously, we American have a gag reflex when it comes to state-run monopolies, since they can be bloated, inefficient, and unresponsive to public pressure.  I didn't want to believe that, and for the most part I didn't have to, since, well, the trains pretty much run on time.

But they also have really stupid rules about bikes.  Unlike public transport in Norway and Denmark, where bikes can be taken on with just an extra fee (which is relatively affordable), SJ requires you to carry the bike as luggage- that is, broken down so it's more compact and can be stowed more easily.  The bus companies have the same rule, though it's more understandable considering a bus has a lot less space than a train.  This is a pain, but I have the tools and the knowledge to break the bikes down in about 30 minutes so that's that.  But it turns out it's not only SJ has weird rules- the commuter rail, run by another state agency, also has odd rules, like not allowing bikes to board or exit at particular stations, but otherwise you can roll them on and off no problem.  All of this is super-confusing, and of course everything is in Swedish and it's not even slightly intuitive, because most of the time you are in bike paradise zipping along on special bike lanes, etc. and then all of a sudden you are hit with this dumb, time-consuming roadblock.

And now here I am eating up lots of blog-space whining about it.  Why?  Well, the combination of these dumb, inconsistent rules affected us thusly.  I, as I had been encouraged to do, had purchased my train tickets to Oslo ahead of time.  We should have had plenty of time to cross on the ferry, catch the commuter rail back to Stockholm, break down the bikes in the station, and grab the long-distance train to Oslo.   But it turns out you can't get off the commuter train with a bike at the Central station- even though we needed to just go 50 feet down a platform and up an elevator.  Nope, we got pounced on by several employees, bundled back on the train, went back a stop, out a station that had 3 slooowww elevators that had space for only 1 bike at a time, then we had to figure out how to navigate back to the station, get the bikes broken down, and long story long, we missed the train!

No big whoop, says I, exasperated as I was, I was smart and bought the refundable tickets!  Nope!  Not what that means.  You miss the train, you eat the tickets- and they are NOT free!  Injustice!  Tyranny!  Inconvenience!  As the comic character Cathy might say "AAAACCCKKK!"

Also that was the last train of the day.  Infuriated but now steely in resolve, we bought tickets for the night bus to Olso, which left later and at least were pretty cheap (again, relatively).  As night bus rides go (say, compared to Vietnam, where you pile all the luggage in the aisle, the bus honks constantly, is partially filled with chickens, and is missing several parts one might think important to being a bus, like mirrors or peices of the floor) it was fine, but it was a groggy honeymoon couple that arrived in Oslo.

But hey, it was a gorgeous day, we got some breakfast, and all was soon back on track.  On to the next entry!