Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Seriously?

P. called me at about 4pm yesterday to tell me that there were many delays due to flooding. It’s been raining for weeks, and I guess yesterday’s rain put the “water over the bridge.” All trains starting in Gothenburg and heading south were canceled. Plus, basically all roads in the city of Mölndal were shut down due to flooding. Guess which city I work in? Here’s a hint, it starts with an “M” and ends in “ölndal.” Mölndal is about 10 minutes south of Gothenburg, and by the way, I live about 10 minutes north of Gothenburg on the island of Hissingen. I decided to skip the freeway (E6) and take the highway instead (155), which is sort of a back road. It involves taking a bridge (see picture) over the river instead of the tunnel (which is the E6 goes through), the traffic can get really backed-up around the tunnel, so I didn’t want to chance it. Once I got out of Mölndal the traffic wasn’t too bad, I made it home in about 35 minutes (it normally takes about 20.)

This morning I was pretty sure that the E6 would be really backed-up, so I decided to take the 155 again. Everything went smoothly until a few kilometers after the bridge. Things started to slow down…and then stop. I took me about 2 hours to drive a distance that normally takes about 5 minutes. I drove in 1st gear for several kilometers going about 5 kilometers per hour instead of 90 km/h. Eventually my left leg started quivering as I struggled to hold down the clutch in my tractor-like, German mini-car (Opal) that I got from the workshop where I let my Saab yesterday.…finally I saw the giant glass buildings and factories that make up my company in the distance. Of course it was at about this point that I realized that the road was completely closed in front of me, and that we were being forced to exit the freeway and take back roads. What a morning. I left the apartment at 7:30 and made it to work at about 10am. Seriously.

Now I’m sitting here wondering how the heck I’m going to get home…

I’m also thinking about my honeymoon. I think we’ve narrowed down to two places. One that is all inclusive and looks like a really good deal. I’ve always wanted to go there but I’m not sure if it’s the ideal honeymoon location. The other isn’t all inclusive and it will cost more, but it look much more like paradise. It seems that in Sweden you are supposed to keep your honeymoon location a secret, so I won’t be giving out any info just yet. But here’s a hint: the two honeymoon locations that we are considering are on two separate continents. I neither live on, nor come from, either of those two continents.

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