Notes from Sweden

A lot of small irritations getting here…

Check-in at Arlanda was unusually quick, but it was followed by the longest security line I have ever seen there.

Extremely early, needed breakfast, but the line at the cafe was very long, due to a cashier who hadn’t really mastered the job.

The flight was fine, but then SAS left some people’s baggage behind in Stockholm, and we had to wait on the transfer bus for an hour while they worked out that it wasn’t on the airplane and our poor fellow travelers then waited in the line to fill out a report.

Our apartment is simple, but nice, no problems there. At the adjoining hotel pool, the number of sun umbrellas is rather limited. Seems like lots of people want them (obviously sone people want to be in the sun all day, but lots of others want some protection), so one wonders why there aren’t more? Turns out you have to pay for them by the day, but this information is rather hidden.

One wonders why on the Earth swimming in the pool ends at 1800?

…And the enjoyment of a cappuccino by the pool in the evening is severely distracted by a “show” in which five energetic people dance as the soundtrack of “Grease” is blaring out of loudspeakers. The posters advertising the event make it look like they are performing a whole musical, but all they are really doing is singing along with the album, and dancing around. Not sure why this is supposed to entertain anyone other than themselves, but it sure is irritating…

All these are minor niggles. The Old City of Poreč, going back to Roman times, is nice, a bit like Capri, but without the Beverly Hills feeling there. Our first dinner, a mixture of seefood and pasta, was very nice. Lots of Italian influences here, which makes sense since this peninsula of Istria belonged to the Venetian Republic for centuries, and later to Italy between the two World Wars. Lots of Italian tourists, and the people here seem to understand Italian a lot more than English.

(Who would have thought that Croatian kezboards have z and y reversed? And if only this hotel computer had a USB port, I could upload photos…)