We tried to sleep in as long as possible as it was our last day of our trip, a long travel day. We enjoyed the hotel breakfast once again, and watched a Japanese family of four managing their two little kids with skill. The dad gave the kids a boiled egg for them to peel while mom got her food – the eggs kept them busy and quiet.
After breakfast we went up to our room to chill out and try to use every last minute before the check-out time of noon. We were surfing the web and playing video games and I realized that the hotel WiFi was broken – it was switching on and off – so in this way I burned through most of the remaining data on my eSIM without realizing. Bummer!
We had a do not disturb sign on our door but despite that someone knocked, and when I answered the door two housekeepers looked shocked and apologetic. Maybe a mix-up, but maybe they just wanted to get a jump on cleaning. Either way, they were early and we were still entitled to stay. I was just trying to be horizontal for as long as I could.
Finally we checked out and stored our suitcase in the hotel’s locked storage room while we went for lunch. We had a target restaurant that looked good, but when we got to the area it seemed hard to find. Eventually we realized it was downstairs inside a shopping center, and it looked super busy. So we went back outside and looked around.
Every time we travel in Europe we see kebab places – and we love kebabs, but it always feels like a wasted chance when we could eat the local food of wherever we are. But since we tried and failed, it seemed like a good time to get a kebab. There was a busy kebab place nearby that had an automatic kebab meat slicer running – high tech! I had a kebab wrap, which Kuniko had a falafel wrap and they were both excellent. We drank lingonberry soda with them, and it was a big, messy meal but very delicious.
Back at our hotel we went to pick up our bag from the storage room. I joked with the staff by asking if we could take any one we wanted, and he joked back that he recommended the bigger suitcases for more loot. But seriously, we could have taken anything and they wouldn’t know whose was whose. Weird system.
From there we got back on the Arlanda Express (using the savings trick we learned coming in) and we were able to do early check-in at the airport. The kiosk was a little weird and wouldn’t print out my boarding passes, but at the desk everything was fine.
We went through security and on to a bar for drinks and to recharge our devices. We had a great corner seat at a big mainly empty place, so we killed a couple hours using our phones, reading, playing games, and drinking beers.
Closer to our departure we stopped at a really stylish bar/restaurant for sparkling wine, and had one of the best meals of the trip – a big open-faced shrimp sandwich. It was so good! Much higher quality than typical airport food.
We caught a three hour flight from Stockholm to Istanbul, and had a little time to kill in the airport as we awaited our connecting flight. We knew better to drink Prosecco here, and we weren’t super hungry after the snacks on the plane. So we just chilled out by the gate until the line started moving to board.
We sat next to a high school aged Japanese girl, part of some kind of group of other school kids scattered throughout the cabin. She kept to herself during the flight, and Kuniko and I could do some serious sleeping. Once again we were able to sleep through about eight of the eleven hours on the plane before arriving in Osaka.
We got lucky with immigration, our suitcase and customs so that we caught the next bus to Kobe, and then from there we took a train to Nishi Akashi and a taxi back to our home, as is our tradition. All our souvenirs survived the trip, and we had a cold bottle of champagne waiting for us in the fridge.
It was another great summer trip for us. We really like the vibe in Europe and exploring new countries there is a great way to escape the summer in Japan. But as we look to the future there are only a few more countries left unexplored in Europe, and as we get older we might want to look around some other places, too. We might change things up next year – who knows?
