Stockholm subway and tram network

This is a map of the Stockholm subway and tramway network. The red, green, and blue lines are subway lines.

The public transportation in Stockholm is actually quite good. If you stay for a month, the one month free pass is also pretty cheap, considering the huge area you can visit. If you are in Stockholm for only a few days, it is pretty expensive, though.

The trains are surprisingly non-punctual (in Sweden, being on time is considered very important and being late is rude, so you might expect trains and buses to be on time but they are very often not) and in winter the public transportation companies are always surprised that there is snow and the whole system usually breaks down. But apart from that it works quite well. There is service throughout the night too, which is nice (in Japan the only option after midnight is taxis).

Two man monorail?

Outside Heathrow airport there was a monorail with very very small things moving on it. It looked like you could fit two to four people inside.

Going to Oxford

Last week I went to Oxford to present our research. On my flight there was a group of over 50 young women all wearing black suits. I wonder where they were going?

On my last business trip to Europe, I had time for some sightseeing and then ended up meeting two girls who not only were from Sapporo but who actually work at my university. That was a huge coincidence, and I was not expecting any such coincidences this time. 30 minutes after I entered Britain, I got on a bus from Heathrow Airport to Oxford, and two guys I know were sitting in the bus and said: "Ah, Jonas? You're going to Oxford too?"

They were going to the same research meeting as I was, though, so it was not that strange to run into them in a foreign country.

Everyone can get married

In a train I rode there was a notice talking about making "people that cannot get married" into "zero". Sounds like a difficult task.

Trying to get to Versailles

A closed station

I went to Paris to attend a conference, but since the conference schedule was not revealed until long after I had booked my plane tickets, I turned out to have one day in Paris with nothing going on at the conference that I was allowed to participate in.

Since I had not been to Versailles, I figured it might be worth a visit. I read online that you really should be there very early or you will have to stand in line for hours just to get in, especially during the tourist peak season (which is now).

Sights along the way

Since I had severe jet-lag and kept waking up extremely early in the morning (afternoon time in Japan), that would not be a problem, I thought. I walked to the train station close to my hotel where I had got off the evening before when coming for the airport. The hotel was conveniently located close to a station that had both the line that goes to the airport and the line that goes to Versailles. From the day after I arrived until about a month later, it turned out that this station was going to be closed, though.

I figured it could not be that far to the next station and started walking in that direction. I was wrong, and it was actually a long walk. Once I got there, there was a similar notice stating that this station too was closed from today and a few weeks on... So I walked to the next station down the line, and ended up walking for more than an hour (and I walk pretty fast, haha).

Another closed station

The weather forecast had shown that Paris might be only 16 degrees (Celsius) during the nights, so I had brought only trousers, no shorts (I have too much work stuff in my bag to fit much clothing during work trips), but it turned out to be well over 30 degrees every single day and super hot during the nights too. I was almost dead from melting in the heat when I reached the station where a train finally would take me to Versailles. I passed a lot of famous sights and got to see a lot of Paris scenery on my way, though.

A station that was not closed!