Found: Snuff is missing in Stockholm

Translated from above...

MISSING

Snuff has been missing since Wednesday, August 31st.

He started the evening together with a friend, Rolf, at the Green Hunter. They drank quite a number of shots. Rolf got very wasted and started to get a little out of control. Among other things, he grabbed a woman's breast. All of this is according to other guests. Snuff left Rolf there and took a taxi to the central city. During the entire ride he loudly sang Danny Saucedo's song "In the Club". The taxi driver felt that the situation was festive, but also intimidating. At 11:55pm he was dropped off at Stureplan. All this according to Taxi Kurir. Shortly afterwords he was seen together with a powerfully built man with a Yugoslavian appearance in the bar at Scandic Anglais. They laughed loudly several times. All this according to the bar employees. At 1:46am Snuff called me. I got the feeling that he was happy but at the same time scared. I heard screeching tires in the background. Afterward the call was disconnected. Since then I haven't heard or seen Snuff. His mobile phone is turned off.


Last Friday was the start of the quarter for gymnastics. I had hoped that he would have turned up then. He loves gymnastics. Rhythmic gymnastics. But unfortunately he didn't come.
Snuff is social and very talkative. Except that he suffers from mythomania, that is he is a compulsive liar. He is absolute no threat to other people. At the time that he disappeared Snuff didn't have any clothes on.


If you've seen Snuff, talked with him, know the powerfully built Yugoslavian, or have any other clues please contact me at snuffspappa@hotmail.com or contact the the police.


All tips are of interest! Reward!

#What's it like in a Lounge: SAS Business Lounge at Stockholm Arlanda

While I am SeattleFlyerGuy, I also tend to fly out of Stockholm quite a bit and have spent some time in the SAS Business Lounge there (some of it not by choice due to delays).

Make your own drinks at the bar

Only in Scandinavia: Moose Sausage

Pre-Flight Munchies

iMacs for surfing the web, plus free wifi

Drinks from coffee to beer and back to mineral water

Stereotypical Scandinavian Design: Wood, Bright, and IKEA-esque (but comfy) seats

International and Swedish Magazines are on the shelf to the left

Flight Report: Challenging Copenhagen Connection Complications

Flying back from Sweden gave me a chance to experience something new: A fully missed connection with no later flights to my final destination. In the past, a delay has meant a couple of extra hours and maybe a rebooking to a red eye, but this time around the flight I missed was the last one of the day and the flight that was delayed by three hours was the last one out of Copenhagen to the US. In other words, I’m not getting home today. Here's what happened...

The first plane of the day

The day started out well enough: One of my friends gave me aride to the airport in exchange for a Starbucks mug with “Stockholm” on it, andthe first flight of the day was a quick hop to Copenhagen: A true bread andbutter flight on a trusty 737. It was a wet start from Stockholm and we werequickly on top of a steady blanket of clouds which would be the scenery for theflight. On the approach the cloud cover gave way and revealed a bit of thecountryside of southern Sweden, and the landing itself was in some pretty gustycross winds. Once on the ground and in the airport, this is where the funstarted…

After the break, the full story, lessons learned, and another example of a Kosher meal in flight, this time on SAS.

Leaving Stockholm. The yellow is from the deicing chemicals.

More clouds...

Skåne, The south of Sweden

Over Östersund, about to land in Copenhagen

Denmark!

"I bet that's my next plane..."

Immediately on arrival my next flight, SK943 was delayed,but only by 20 minutes. That’s nothing to worry about, especially since I had agood two hour layover in ORD. I parked myself in the lounge and started towait, but the number slowly crawled higher: 1600, 1630, 1700, 1800, and finally1830.  At 1700, I was already searchingout alternative routing but there was no way to get back to Seattle without anovernight somewhere. It was going to be what it was going to be, and the onlything I could do was to wait for SAS to fix their airbus and get us in the air.

This is one of the perks of being a frequent flyer and the last time I'll be in a lounge for awhile..

"Yup. That's my plane. Still here."

At 1830, the plane pushed back and we were on our way. The flight was pretty packed with Scandinavians and Americans coming home, and since it was dark outside there wasn’t much I could actually take pictures of. The view from the air was actually quite amazing once we got over the ocean: Away from civilization there is still a sky full of stars. I have always hoped for northern lights on flights like this, but never caught them from the plane.

Inside, there wasn’t much to see. The earphones and the adapter provided are remarkably poorly thought out: Most people have headphones with a standard jack that need to somehow fit in the two prong headphone socket, but SAS provides to pronged headphones and an adapter to fit the headphones into a standard socket. It’s all backwards, literally. Dinner was Swedish meatballs and a side salad, except this time I my kosher meal was on board. Basque style chicken and rice, plus apple sauce, saltines, chips, and a cookie. Not bad at all. It looked much more appetizing than the alternative.

Kosher Meal: SK943 out of Copenhagen, "Basque Chicken"

…but the real contrast was between the regular light meal and the kosher light meal. The standard option was bread and cheese, plus a “Smakis” juice box. That’s not bad, but the alternative was a “Norwegian” salmon salad, plus the same sides as before (sans chips). At the very least, going with kosher meals is far more interesting. So far I haven’t had the same dish twice when ordering them!

Light Kosher Meal: SK943 out of Copenhagen, Norwegian Salmon Salad (Tastes better than it looks)

Chicago.

Not how I imagined I would spend my night

We touched down in ORD just in time to see my plane leave. Literally. We arrived at 2030, which would have put the 2015 flight to Seattle on the tarmac and I wouldn’t be surprised if the United flight that taxied past us was that exact flight. After clearing customs, I met up with some of the other passengers that would be stuck overnight as well. There was a voucher waiting for us for a hotel, plus $20 for dinner and $10 for breakfast. My plan was to try something new at the bar with the dinner certificate since we just ate on the plane, but unfortunately, I found out later that the voucher doesn’t cover alcoholic drinks so I skipped that idea. I also found at that breakfast started at 7am, but I needed to be at the airport then so the $10 would go unused as well.

Lessons learned:

• If you're in this type of situation and will be delayed overnight, ask for a hotel voucher and food vouchers.
• Food vouchers can't be used for alcohol. Be sure to ask what is covered before ordering anything.
• Be aware of when restaurants close: Vouchers are worthless if there's no where to spend them. If it looks like you will be delayed and it's getting late, ask for the vouchers well before the restaurants close. In my case, the main restaurant at the hotel was already shutdown for the night, but there was still a bar menu.
• Be sure to set your alarm and that your alarm is set to the right time zone.

In the morning, it was off again and back into an airbus.For a moment, it looked like they might be looking for volunteers, but it wasjust another completely full plane, this time an airbus A320. 

The flight was quick a few interesting views from the wing, but overall I was just happy to be back in Seattle! That's another trip down and gives me a few days to rest before my next to Las Vegas! I'll be there for Christmas this year just for fun.

Graduation Day and Diplomutdelning på Stadshuset

This was the reason that I flew out to Stockholm. Graduation day, which took place in the same hall as the Nobel prize fest, followed up a reception in the Gold Hall. Since I just got back, I don't have any of the pictures that others took, but these give an overview of where it was and why I wanted to attend. They only hold the event twice a year, so this was the one that I was invited to after graduating in October.

The ceremony takes place in Stockholm City Hall, which is a masterpiece of a building. Until now, I've only been here as part of a tour, but it's quite a different experience to actually be there for an event.

Flight Report: To Sweden for My Graduation

I officially graduated from KTH in October. The degree is inmy hands and unless I end up coming back for a conference or some other reason,I have done everything that I need to do at KTH. My main interaction with myschool from here on out will be to look up towards the campus when I switch toRoslagsbanan, the suburban train that serves Northeastern Stockholm. Beforethat, though, I have my graduation. In some ways, this is a bittersweetgraduation. The policies at KTH are such that in order to attend the graduationceremony in June, you have to have your degree issued by the end of April. For“normal” students, their defense would be in May and for those that defend inearly summer, they are invited to the event in December.

The event itself is worth attending: It’s in the Blue Hall of Stockholm City Hall, which is a fantastic building and where the Nobel dinners are held every year. Despite its name, the hall itself is actually red from the bricks used. The story is that the architect originally planned to paint the hall with blue paint, but changed his mind on seeing the space. It is beautiful and it’s also open to the public, if you visit Stockholm. The Stockholm City Hall tour will take you through all the spaces and are offered in a variety of languages. That said, there is something disappointing about being asked to wait six months to celebrate an accomplishment and knowing that I wouldn’t be able to attend the celebration in the summer was part of the reason that I decided to expand my thesis and defend in September. No one celebrates something six months stale. It’s not even appropriate for a belated card. At that point, you might was well resign yourself to congratulating the person for their next accomplishment on time and feign ignorance. Basically, who has ever heard of a super bowl party in August? Or who has actually, seriously, celebrated Christmas in July?

After the break, three flight reports, some pictures of the in-flight meal, and some comments on suburban roads, plus pictures from the whole trip, including another shot of Mount Rainier.

Both of my flights this time were full, but no luck onvolunteering for a bump and no luck for upgrades either. The first flight toWashington DC was a smooth flight, with a great view of Mt. Rainier. After webroke through the clouds all of the sister mountains in Washington were visiblealong the horizon. It was quite a sight and I was on the right side of theplane this time around. The 757 only had main screen entertainment, which wasFriends and The Simpsons, and because it’s domestic there only food forpurchase.

Over the Midwest: Roads look like a circuit board laid out on the snow.

On arriving in the Washington DC area, we started ourapproach to IAD. There are three airports that serve Washington DC and Dullesis one of the ones further out. I could see the Washington Monument from theplane, but otherwise it was endless suburbs …which can actually be veryfascinating. In the rural areas here, horses seem to be the big thing while asyou get closer you start seeing different typologies of suburbs emerge. Themain thing I look for is type of housing and network connectivity, which isabout the road network. In areas with higher network connectivity, you arebetter connected with your surrounding community. There are less dead-ends andthere are more ways in and out of the area. Many people like it like thatbecause it gives them a sense of security and reduces the traffic on theirstreets, but it also means more time driving and having fewer neighbors withina 10 minute walk.

These pictures below illustrate density as we get closer to the airport, as well as differences in income. In the second picture, consider the impact of the road network: If you lived in houses on opposite sides of one of the golf courses to visit your neighbor who is less than two blocks (as the crow flies) is now about a half mile away. For another example, compare these two neighbors to these two. Both houses are equidistant physically, but the way the neighborhood is designed causes the first set to be further away in real travel time (Of course, kids will always punch holes in fences for shortcuts).

It must be very nice.

A different type of neighborhood: Prefabricated mobile homes nearest to the Airport. Airport noise causes lower land prices, which can enable neighborhoods like this even in high demand areas. 

On the ground in IAD, in the United Club.

Once on the ground, I got my first taste of IAD. It seemedrather antiquated and I think there is a distinct lack of maps in theterminals. I never saw a map and never knew if my gate was 5 minutes or 15minutes away. Some airports that are sprawled this time in other placesactually give you that information from any given map. It’s very helpful formaking the most of a short layover. The main terminal building did look likeit’s an architectural icon, but I didn’t get a chance to see it.

Baltimore!

My next flight was to Frankfurt and it was anothercompletely full flight. I was hoping to get bumped to the Lufthansa flightleaving 40 minutes after, but it wasn’t going to happen. It was on a 777, whichwas a little on the older side. My seatmate on this flight was a Frenchgentleman working with NGOs to provide malaria tents and water filtration toless developed communities. The biggest frustration though was that my Koshermeal wasn’t there when meal time came around, and instead of something interestingand delicious (last time there was a tuna rillette as a side dish), it was pastamush. That was kind of a let-down. For me, it’s not that big of an issuebecause I order Kosher because I prefer it over mush, but if I was an observantJew I’d be hungry right now and that really is a problem. The system foraccommodating special dietary needs should be beyond consistent.

It tastes as good as it looks. Yuck.

It's about as exciting as it looks.

On the ground at FRA

Breakfast on board was a strawberry pastry thing and yogurt.Shortly afterward, we hit Frankfurt and I am starting to crash. The senatorlounge here in Frankfurt is very nice and actually offers real food incontinental style: Fresh bread with spreads and veggies, plus fresh yogurt andjuices. To give you a comparison, in Washington DC the United Club had cheese,crackers, and shortbread cookie, plus some fruit. It’s a huge difference.

German ginger bread cookies!

The final flight of the day was from Frankfurt to Stockholm.An Lufthansa A320 was the plane and I only remember half of it because I almostinstantly fell asleep when we started climbing. Food might have been served,but I was out cold. The only thing really notable was the seats: Lufthansa hasa newer style of seat that is paper thing. It’s not entirely uncomfortable butit is less padded than the older economy seats. Because they’re so thin, itfeels like there is more room, but in reality the seats are closer together.

A380 on the ground at FRA. That's a very tall tail. 

Take off from FRA

It's colder here in Stockholm.

The Stockholm Air Control Tower.

Finally, I arrive in Stockholm. In two days, I’ll be at cityhall for the graduation ceremony and then three days after that I’ll be back inSeattle.