Tucson - Denver - Reykjavik - Arlanda

When the alarm rang and it was time to get out of bed I almost flew up. I was so homesick and longed for my own bed. Our transfer from White Stallion Ranch to Tucson Int’l Airport left at 6 am just after sunrise.

The flight from Tucson to Denver took 2 hours. At Denver Int’l Airport we had to kill some time before the flight via Reykjavik to Stockholm - Arlanda. When the flight finally taxed out of the gate at Denver Int’l Airport it was delayed by 30 minutes. But suddenly the airplane drove back to the gate. Great! Now what? Is something wrong with the airplane? After a while the flight attendants announced in the speaker that they had shut down the entire airport. OMG! Is it a bomb threat? I thought for myself. But no, it was just bad weather just outside Denver. Thank God! So, when we finally got permission to taxi to the runway, we were 2 hours delayed. Perfect! … or NOT. We had a connecting flight in Reykjavik and now we would miss it! But when we asked the flight attendant about what we could do we got a positive answer. All the other connection flights (from the same flight company) on Iceland would wait for our flight! Now that’s service! Thumbs up! Now I could relax knowing that I would get home to Sweden according to plans, although delayed. So, after 7 hours and 20 minutes we landed on Iceland and we literally had to run to the next flight towards Stockholm Arlanda. Now we only had 3 hours left! But it was a challenge itself since the entire body was itching and you almost couldn’t sit still. So, after totally 12 hours and 10 minutes of flight time we were finally back home in Sweden. I must say though I had no problems adapting to the Swedish time zone again. We managed to book flights so the time change went smoothly. My fellow traveler though had a hard time adjusting back to Swedish time again.

But one thing you never can take away from the American people is their friendliness. That's why I like traveling to America. They are kind, helpful and chatty unlike us Swedish people. Here in Sweden we are almost afraid of starting a conversation with completely strange people or being forced to sit down on a seat next to an unknown person on the bus. So, we could really learn from them.