Giant Update of How the Move Went
The word for this move more than any other is “Exhaustion”.
This morning, our 5th morning in Sweden, is the first real chance I’ve had to even think about communicating with the outside world. (So anyone hoping to hear more directly from us in the past… week, sorry.) Edit: Now 7th morning. It’s taken me two days to get this update assembled.
Before we even left, we had already been working very hard to be ready to go for two weeks. As we got into the final relocation week, there were dozens of tiny errands that had to be tackled in the final two business days.
Monday (14th) was an awful day of trying to track down shipments that were supposed to arrive on Friday. Giant ball of stress, as they included things that can’t be shipped overseas, so they *had* to be in our suitcases or we basically couldn’t have them, which include medical supplies. Two months of careful planning and shipment arranging were fried because the USPS route person went “huh, a weird name that doesn’t usually get mail there. I’ll go ahead and write ‘return to sender’ on this package for them”. Peeved, freaked out and stressed are barely skimming that surface.
The apartment we were moving into, a sublet scenario, our friend was awesome enough to leave on all the utilities, knowing that since we don’t have personnummers, the closet USA equivalent being the Social Security number, we can’t get signed up for utilities yet. This is very kind of him, since he’s already moved to Stockholm. Unfortunately, the plan on his side (which was to have cleaners come clean the apartment) didn’t work out, as he had a local friend with keys who could let cleaners in – but that friend was out of the country the week we’re moving in. We figured, that’s not great, but doable. Not the first move we’d have to do some cleaning on day 1 and we don’t have stuff anyway. (Feel the foreshadowing wash over you.)
Monday night was awful, so hot and humid, we couldn’t sleep.
Tuesday, we staggered through the day’s lengthy to-do list and some very tough goodbye’s. Tuesday evening, spent in Boston with friends to be closer to the airport, had some unexpected challenges (another blog post for another time – super short form is that my wife wouldn’t have a copy of the credit card that she is the primary account holder of, the only way we can spend money in Sweden – only I would) and tiring stresses, as well. Just for fun, Chrissy and I couldn’t sleep Tuesday night since we were anxious about the next day.
Wednesday morning started with some more tough goodbye’s. We had to finalize the suitcase packing, some more last day to-do’s, and also manage to squeak in some last minute grocery shopping to buy supplies for the travel days to fit in the carry-on. That was barely do-able with how poorly we had slept for two days.
Wednesday afternoon, we boarded the first leg of Icelandair. Incelandair has a lot more classes of tickets than many other international airlines, and it relates to how much you want in service on board. We had bought the “just give us a seat, damnit” class, so part of the above grocery run was to make sure we had food to eat for dinner. The first leg was pretty easy, about a 5 hour flight. Compared to 7 to 8 hours to fly to Frankfurt, not too shabby. The kiddo dealt mostly fine with the flight, and we all had dinner on this part of the flight. We planned to sleep on leg #2.
The flight took a bit shorter than scheduled, so we hung out in the airport in Iceland for a couple of hours instead of just one, taxing our ability to stay awake. Eventually, after a shoddily run boarding process, we were on flight two, and started to prep to sleep the next several hours. The captain chimed in as part of getting ready to fly that with the tailwind, our flight was going to be just over two hours, not the 4 we thought it might be. Ruh-roh. The boyo and I passed out quickly, Chrissy did not.
The flight to arrive around 6 am in Gothenburg was otherwise uneventful. Once we got there, evidently the baggage truck broke down or something, so the whole plane of folks got to wait an extra half hour for our checked bags.
Charmingly, during that extended waiting period, I got to discover the fine folks at Verizon screwed up my global data plan, so my phone was refusing to connect to the local network, meaning I couldn’t call anyone, email anyone, nothing.
Thankfully, this time around we planned better about what would happen when we got off the plane. We had booked a hotel room two blocks from our new flat for the first night, knowing we hadn’t been able to line up a furniture shipment from Ikea on day 1. Managing our suitcases through the next parts was a bit daunting. I had my backpack (~40 lbs), the two large rolling suitcases (about 64 pounds and 73 pounds), while Chrissy and Selwyn had the smaller backpacks and rolling suitcases. We took the shuttle bus to the center of the city from the airport (with free wifi on board, I emailed the hotel to plead for an early check-in - sadly, not possible until 4 pm). From there, we hopped on a bus to our apartment. To non-Swedes, this would sound like a nightmare, but public busses in Gothenburg are designed to handle a few strollers each without aisle blocking, so it was really easy to do (despite the cobblestone and lifting suitcases into the bus). The 600 m walk to the apartment from the bus stop felt a fair bit longer than we would have liked.
The original gameplan for day 1 (Thursday) was drop our luggage off, run straight to Ikea, and make use of their delivery service. The options here (I don’t know how Ikea in the US works, so can’t compare) are:
Buy online, they’ll deliver (which is what we wanted to do, but their online version was out of stock of many things) within the following several days
Go into the store, collect everything you want, and bring it to the delivery department. If done buying everything by 2 pm, they could deliver same day to our address
Go into the store and pay for them to pick everything and deliver it the next day.
As a side note to the story, soon to be relevant, there are two Ikeas near Gothenburg. One is about a 20 minute drive north of the city (30-45 minutes from us via bus) and one is south of the city about a 10-15 minute drive (about 45-70 minutes via train and bus).
Like I was saying, our original plan was to go to Ikea, drop off a printout of the barest essentials (mattresses, pots, plates, cups, cutlery, teacups, sheets, a couple towels), have them pick & deliver on Day 2.
However, since we couldn’t even use the public transit app on my phone to find our way around, the new game plan was to drop off my suitcases, run down to my office (which is about 30-40 minutes south of the new apartment) to collect my work phone, then go from there. We got to the flat… and, man when he said not cleaned, he meant it. There were dying plants, empty bottles, flat boxes, and so much dust/dirt on the floor. It would seriously be an all-day cleaning project.
Suitcases were dropped off, and we all wandered back to the bus stop to do what will be my work commute. Once there, I found my phone and got my computer connected to start sorting out our newest challenges. After contacting him through Facebook chat, Johan was kind enough to chase down and pay for cleaning people to come Friday morning, which is a miracle, really – summertime is NOT when you want to be needing ‘speedy help’ here. Even had the bonus of being English speaking, which some places were definitely not (“English? That lady barely spoke Swedish” about one place.) Only key item being that they would not remove garbage, so I needed to clear out anything trash.
My very helpful boss rang me up from Denmark (vacation season, so he was away and nice enough to stay in touch throughout all this). We filled him in on the highlights and he called one of the few folks in the office, arranged for us to be dropped off at Ikea so we didn’t have to trek out to one.
At this point, it was a wonder any of us could see straight. The child was… kid-floppy. We gladly accepted the offer and piled into Ola’s car. We chatted about Ikea and found we were being dropped off at the southern one, which makes geographical sense, but there was a resigned sense of ‘of well, I guess we’ll figure out how to get home later’.
We thankfully didn’t have to wade into the Ikea labyrinth itself, though we did have to go through a few staff to get to do what we were looking to do. A helpful clerk on the floor helpfully keyed in all the things we needed and scheduled the delivery for the next afternoon. Sadly, a couple things were just… out. Like pillows.
The long (feeling) kilometer walk from the Ikea to the train station was extra fun, since Selwyn had hit the collapse point and needed to be carried. Conscious, but barely. Thankfully, the trains here are not very confusing, so we waited and hopped on the first train to Göteborg. Kiddo passed out pretty fast. A short couple of stops later and we were at Centralstation. Selwyn roused enough to want to walk with us through the station to the tram stop for the bus to our neighborhood. Once on the bus, he passed back out. At this point, the only semi-rational though keeping me going was that if we just all lay around unconscious in the hotel lobby, they might take pity on us (or be embarrassed enough by us) to let us check in despite being about 2 pm.
Another aside: Our crates, about 5.5 m3 and 2,000 lbs (907kg) had been shipped in late June. (It was through a private connection, so I can’t help anyone else wondering how we did it.) However, Friday before we left (July 11), I found out from the receiving company that the Customs documentation HAS to be the signed original, not a scan. And our crates were due to arrive the 17th of July, so I HAD to get copies to the import folks by Friday the 18th or storage fees would start to accrue (reasonable amount and policy). So, it was vital that sometime on the 18th, I had to take a 1 hour each way tram-bus trek to their office to drop off these documents.
Because we had no idea how on earth we were going deal with:
Letting the cleaners in at 8
Getting the one set of keys we had back from the cleaners when they would finish
Being there between 12 and 4 for an Ikea delivery
Check out of the hotel by 11 am
And manage all the above with only one working credit card, one set of keys, and one Swedish cell phone
We decided as we sat there in the hotel lobby to book a second night. I asked to do that, and they could accommodate us (a small miracle, there was a HUGE international event going on – the hotel was lousy with American teens here for the football matches), but not with a bed for Selwyn, just 2 adults. We said it’s fine, and they changed our room, knocked a fair bit off the room price, and as a result, we could have the new room right away. {Insert hallelujah choral sound}
We went straight up and collapsed for four hours (with an alarm). We hadn’t really eaten since the plane, so dinner was vital. After fetching all the suitcases from the apartment (weeeeee), we ate dinner in the way-too-posh hotel restaurant – it was amazing, but we couldn’t eat about 25-50% of the meals because of the preceding events. The shaking with exhaustion died down a little.
After dinner, Chrissy and Selwyn went to go to bed for the night (about 11 pm local). I went over to the apartment to try to get rid of the trash and recycling (glass and plastic bottles). Johan kindly walked me through what I had to do to find the trash room, only issue being that because the trash room makes noise, it closed at 11. I trekked back to the hotel and set an early AM alarm, then collapsed.
Getting up before 7, I dragged my sorry self over to the apartment, cleared out the trash I could not the night prior, and walked the recycling. The recycling here is a large communal set of bins by the bus stop, about 600m away (~1/3 a mile).
At 8, the cleaners arrived and got started. It ended up, for the 3 room apartment, taking 3 cleaners four hours. While they were doing that, Chrissy and I sorted that she and Selwyn should wait at the apartment for Ikea so I could do the paperwork run for the crates. About the same time, the cleaners were wrapping up, Chrissy went to meet our friend Jens at the ferry. While I was heading over to collect the keys, I got the call from Ikea’s delivery folks. They were showing up shortly with everything. They ended up pulling up right as the cleaners left. Explaining what was on the docket to Jens, he called up a friend who had access to a car to arrange for me to go drop off the paperwork, shaving two hours off that to-do, making for an hour round trip.
Extra fun: Receiving company could only be paid by wire, which would take a couple days from North America, so I had to rope my boss into solving that one for me, including the logistics of delivery and crate removal. (They were only doing the receiving as a courtesy, they don’t normally do household goods.)
Once I was back at the hotel, we went wandering the river shore and picked a fish place to get some fish & chips for dinner around 4. Yum. Fall down into bed by about 6:30.
I rolled out of bed around 7, went to go empty a couple of the suitcases at the new flat into the wall cabinets so we’d have one large rolling suitcase empty to pack up the hotel room back into. Once back over to hotel, we had some breakfast and tried to plan the day. First tea in days. It would have been glorious, but it was Lipton. Lipton is never glorious. A quick pack, a long checkout (everyone was checking out), and a slow roll over to the apartment later, the day could get in motion.
We needed a bunch of things – household supplies, grocery, and the vital router to get internet rolling. (The connection was live, but we needed wifi to get the kiddo’s tablet streaming – a key to sanity.) There is a fairly large shopping area about 20-25 minutes away via bus called Backaplan. We were not prepared (I had forgotten) for how large the shopping area was, so it was of course the far buildings we need to walk to. ½ a mile isn’t bad when you’re rested and don’t have a 6 year old.
First stop was Siba, which is a bit like Best Buy. Snagged both the water kettle and router we needed, despite their site saying they were out of stock in that location. Hard to say it that’s a systemic issue or just ‘summer’.
Second stop was Rusta, which is a variety of home goods. We got a small set of cleaning things, foot stool for the kiddo, but an array of things we wanted, they did not have. Partly I wanted Chrissy familiar with what they DO have, so that was fine.
Third stop was Jysk, which is a mix of furniture and textiles, like pillows and sheets, our need. Pillows here are all the really thin, super squishy variety, plus much smaller and nearly square. This also gave Chrissy a chance to see some of the options in the shop.
By this point, we were starting to keel over again. Only, we still had first run grocery shopping to do. There is a giant Coop in that plaza, but we were laden down with the many things from Rusta that we can’t remember any more. Off to home, to drop things off.
Two stops in the other direction, there is another good sized Coop. There was a lot of odds and ends that made it stressful (much of it being a tired 6 year old), including the challenge of just things not being quite grouped in the same sort of layouts and aisles. It’s amazing how homogenous US grocery stores are and how much you don’t think about it until confronted by something ‘other’. The language barrier is a challenge with labels, but Chrissy had developed a pretty solid vocabulary for home supplies. Three bags of groceries, trudged home.
Sunday was planned to be a rest day before Crate Monday and Tax Office Tuesday. Only, there were issues. The water kettle was broken. Two of the four towels from Ikea were impractically small. We needed to meet up with Johan’s friend to pick up the other set of keys. Back to Backaplan was the new plan.
Aside: At this point, I need to admit that in my US life, I was HIGHLY sedentary. Work from home, only leaving the house for errands and social engagements. Based on a new app on my work phone, I am now clocking in several miles of carrying things a day.
Our “it will do” bed solution is just a pair of firm mattresses on the floor, which combined with the no couches or chairs, means we’re spending a lot of time sitting or lying on hard surfaces. So, physically, we’re all beaten up.
I took the kiddo to Siba and snag the second keys, and sent Chrissy to browse Rusta without a “helpful” kid. Many more useful things acquired. We took the time and effort to go to the Coop there in a search for more odds and ends (ice cubes being vital for heat waves, even Swedish heat waves).
These sound like simple sum ups, but really, can take several hours. They feel like days within days given the tired.
Got the notice email that the crates would arrive between 1300 and 1500. We hit a moment of panic at 11 remembering that the tops were screwed down for safety, and frankly, I could not reach the top to unscrew them without a taller ladder. I zoomed over to Rusta to acquire that and a power screwdriver, but thanks to some more banking shenanigans, the card was declined and I had to trek home to call the bank to battle with that. I called around to see if I could arrange for tools, but limited people in town in July, so no luck. Around 1530, I emailed the receiving shop to let them know the crates hadn’t arrived yet. Arrival time a bit past 1600. Jens had come by, and we felt bad because we figured we’d be done with unloading before he got there. Instead, he jumped in to assist, and we powered through bringing all 900 kilo’s of stuff up to the 4th floor. (Yay elevator)
Bear in mind, people who are all excited to see things – we got rid of all of our furniture. We are still working on replacing almost all of it. Photos right now are Cardboard Box Kingdom.
Tax Office (Skatteverket) morning. Finally, a day without a dire emergency so we can do the last step in applying for our personnumers. No idea if it is always like this, but we walked in, a greeter took into about what we needed, handed us forms. Took about 15 minutes to fill out the 4 pages for each grown-up. A woman came over to check over our paperwork for completeness and any issues. A few minutes later, we were called over (by queue number) to a window. Lots of photocopies later, we were done. Probably about 25 minutes all told. In theory, we may hear back within the next couple of weeks. The sooner the better!
I popped down to my office in the afternoon for a while to get setup with some of the starting things, such as the computer, alarm, keys, etc, even though I don’t start for a couple of weeks. The commute won’t be too bad. When it gets cold, I’ll definitely want some good gear, though.
It’s after 1am local (end of day Wednesday), and that mostly catches us up on events so far. It’s been crazy, it’s going to stay hard for a while, as we have much to do to acquire so much stuff (a couch would be spiffy).
But, it’s been amazing too. There’s been a lot to love, and Selwyn is taking everything in stride, which helps. Adjusting will hopefully start to happen, since we’re finally ‘done’ with moving – now it’s all about building our lives here.
