The one where I give a new meaning to the term “short trip” ;)

My first trip 2012 was supposed to be a short trip to Sweden to visit a friend and do some sightseeing in Stockholm (above all I wanted to see the museum of modern art). After having came back from Vietnam I’ve had so much work that I could really use a break, even if only for two days.

I took a day off – Friday, so I could enjoy the whole weekend away. I went to the airport, was there really early - like 2 hours before departure and thus, I didn’t check in, but did some shopping, went for coffee, had a cigarette, read a newspaper. Then at 12.35 I decided to finally proceed to the check in counter. To my great surprise I couldn’t find the flight on the display. I went to the information office, asking for the flight at 2p.m. The lady checked the timetable and then said with a smile "well, there is no flight at 2, there is one, correction, was one at 12.45"...

And unfortunately, it wasn’t delayed. It took off without me. It was my fault. I mixed up the hours :/

Not to lose my return flight and my planned mini-break I tried to find a reasonably priced ticket for the same day. Unfortunately, I didn’t succeed. But then the lady at the tourist office at the airport found a cheap flight for Saturday. It was really low-priced. The only thing was that the plane was leaving at... 4.20 P.M. Saturday. My flight back was early in the afternoon on Sunday.

And now a small riddle. What do you think did I do? Skipped it as it was pointless to go for not even 24 hours to another country?

;)

Well, for the first time I went to another country to basically have a dinner and fly back. Which is actually kind of cool, I find.

On the plane I met a Swedish guy who told me an interesting story. Well, in the late 60’s he had a ticket to a Jimi Hendrix concert in Stockholm. He was a big fan of Jimi. Day before the show he was feeling a bit sick, so he decided not to go thinking he would have plenty of other occasions to see other Hendrix shows. Needless to mention, he never got to see his idol. He's been regreting it his whole life. And he was one of the biggest Hendrix fans I’ve ever met (he had on his iPad the whole discography of Jimi).

What do we learn from the story? Never miss out on something you care for.