I'm going to
Umeå in less than 2 weeks. For anyone who wondered where the fuck that even is, it's in the North of Sweden.
Second most distant point (from where I am) I've been to within Europe after Dublin. And the only place other than Dublin that's over 2000 km away from me. Though I last flew to/ from London via Stansted and that probably passes the 2000 km mark, even if London doesn't.
Sometimes you gotta scratch that itch...
About a month and a half ago, Kreator were announced to headline the House of Metal festival held there. "
Norrland's Best Metal Festival" as they say on their website. Because that's the viking way, holding a metal festival in the North of Sweden during the cold time of the year. And of course
you have to be kookoo to go (if you're not a local).
Thing is, some of us are. Totally kookoo.
I've been kookoo enough to go see them in Greece during the hot time of the year. Why not in the North of Sweden too during the cold time of the year? Plus, at this point, the forecast says temperatures won't drop below -12°C during my stay, so it won't be
that cold. Just like in Greece it wasn't
that hot when I was there, not
as hot as it would get within the following weeks.
Plus, I wanted a Sweden show badly. Really badly. While I had tickets for or at least considered over a dozen of shows in Scandinavia for the past 4 years... I got to see exactly zero. My last show in Scandinavia was Alice in September 2019.
Kreator in particular... I missed seeing them in Sweden twice this year already. First on the tour because I couldn't afford the trip anymore and had to give up that show after hanging on to that ticket for over 3 years. Then at Gefle Metal Fest because the costs of traveling to Scandinavia were simply outrageous.
A 160€ Austrian Airlines direct flight from Vienna to Stockholm, cheapest I could find when I first checked, while it would have been by far my most expensive one ever, would have still been a bargain compared to this summer's prices.
The desire was there. The better circumstances (ahem, prices) were there. Could couple this with seeing Death Angel & Sacred Reich in Vienna on their Night of the Living Thrash tour right before and then with seeing Insomnium in Berlin afterwards.
Maybe I could even get lucky and see the Northern Lights if I go that far North anyway, even though auroral activity in November isn't usually great, plus November there is often cloudy and you need a clear sky to spot an aurora. A once in a lifetime.
But the fear was also there. Travel has been a mess. Flights cancelled or delayed. My best way of getting to Vienna is via a very long night train ride. During a time when Romania is finally starting to fix the rail infrastructure... after waiting until it started to fall apart (as in abnormal number of accidents/ derailments). So while I do hope train travel will get better here... it's currently even worse until it does get better.
And yet... I did it. No going back now.
I was even lucky enough to catch a price drop for that Austrian flight to Stockholm and ended up paying less than half for it. So while I'm frustrated for not catching the best moments when it comes to hotel prices because I just couldn't decide... I've saved more on this one flight than I've spent extra on all hotels.
Travel is indeed a mess though.
For the flight back from Stockholm to Berlin, I wanted something that wouldn't be super early because I'd be arriving early in the morning on a night train from Umeå and what if... ? There were just two direct flights that day, one from SAS and one from Eurowings, at about the same price. The SAS one slightly more expensive, but I was willing to play less than 5€ to avoid flying with a low cost airline after the WizzAir experience last year. Trouble was, the SAS flight was at 9:30 in the morning, while the Eurowings one was 4 hours later. I ended up going for the later flight, even if it was with a low cost airline.
Bad choice. Not too long after, Eurowings sent me an email notifying me that not only wasn't my flight direct anymore, it had gained a layover in Düsseldorf... but the departure had also moved at the same hour as the SAS flight. I ended up filing the refund form and booking the now more expensive SAS flight. My night train better not get stuck somewhere on the
long way to Arlanda or get delayed by over 4 hours...
There's rail infrastructure work happening... and not just in Romania. In Hungary too. In fact, for almost a month, there will be no more trains on the Budapest-Vienna segment. My train to Vienna now terminates in Budapest. The plan was to take a night train and sleep on the train. Now that option is no more. There's no direct bus anymore either. All options by land involve a close to midnight stop in Budapest and getting to Vienna at 3 in the morning. There goes sleeping during the night ride, when I'm going to have a long day afterwards. And then another day spent in airports and then a night on a night train...
Hm, what about flying? There's actually a decently priced Austrian flight on the morning of the Vienna show, but... I'd have to be at the airport at 4-something in the morning. Which means taking the airport bus from Unirii at 3-something in the morning. Which means taking a night bus at 3 the latest to get to Unirii. Except there's no night bus in between 1 and 3:20... And even if there was, that means I'd have to be awake at 2, so any chance of sleeping that night...gone to Hell. Arriving a day early in Vienna would increase the cost by some 200€, as flights are more expensive the day before, plus I'd have to pay another hotel night.
I ended up deciding for taking a bus to Budapest, staying there overnight (could have probably found a cheaper hotel, but it was still cheaper than Vienna, Berlin or Umeå and it was a short walk away from the bus station in a city I don't know, where I don't speak the language and where I'd be arriving late), taking another bus in the morning to Vienna.
Almost a year ago, as I was getting frustrated with flight booking problems as I was planning my trip to see Kreator in Northern countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland) on the tour that ended up being postponed once more to this year... I said they'd better play the show of their fucking lives in Helsinki. Given that show didn't happen for me in the end... I'll refrain from such comments now!
Anyway, can't back out of this now. Leaving in less than a week and a half.
Insanely worried, but also can't wait. To see the shows, take a what may be a once in a lifetime trip to the North of Sweden, return to Berlin...