Studera utomlands

I have too many things…how should I pack them? Should I choose green travel or not? I am afraid of travelling alone, should I quit?
There are so many questions and issues when it comes to preparing for a journey that, usually, it is scarier than fun to prepare for a journey that will take you to a completely new place that you will call home for the next months. If you find yourself in the same situation or you can relate to the aforementioned questions, don’t worry. In this post, I will do my best to help you figure out all the details about your travelling plan so that you will have a good start in your new adventure. Lastly, I will also share a funny story from my journey to Finland because, as Shakespeare said, “all’s well that ends well”.

I was offered a place, what’s next?

When you get your place, the first thing you have to do is take a deep breath and enjoy the moment. It is only natural that you will feel a large variety of emotions and thus you need to relax and start preparing for your new adventure. Even if you are like me, a super organized student that wants to have every detail figured out as soon as possible, or you enjoy planning the trip at the very last minute, a good thing to consider in due time is how you should get to your destination.
One of the things you should consider is whether you can travel “green”. As you might have found out, you get some extra money if you travel green, so you should definitely check it out. What you should also keep in mind, is that green travel does not necessarily mean using just trains and busses, but is also refers to the least polluting method of transportation. For example, in my case, I had to choose between a ferry and plane, thus I took the night ferry (Stockholm – Turku), and I was also eligible for the green travel money.

Another important aspect of your trip concerns how easy it is to get to your destination. I recommend you check well in advance the different ways in which you can get to your destination and start making a list with the pros and cons of each possible route. This should include the total amount of time that you will be on the road, from the moment you leave your house in Stockholm till the moment you reach your house in the new city, the cost, the number of layovers and lastly, what are the weight and total number of luggage limitations.

What are the things that I must pack?

I always felt that this was the 1 million SEK question, even more important than how I will do my thesis. There are several aspects that you should consider: do I want to keep my rent in Sweden, do I want to rent one of the self-storage spaces and keep some of my things there, do I want to take everything with me, do I have suitable clothes for my destination, can I carry what I packed? As an international student, I would really recommend you to consider all this aspects because, yes, it is true, you can buy clothes whenever you want, but you might find better prices in your home country for the same brand/store. So, if you plan to go home during the summer holiday, you should know in advance what do you still need to buy because it might be cheaper. When it comes to the decision of the storage space, you are the only one who knows how many things you own or whether you own any furniture.
For me, the aforementioned aspects were quite easy to cover. The reason behind this is that I did not own any furniture, I travelled to a climate similar to Stockholm’s weather thus needing the same clothes, but I had to make sure that I cover all types of weather because I am away during the winter-spring season and everyone knows how unpredictable the weather is during this season. This meant that I took all my belongings from Sweden with me, and I ended up with about 60 kg of luggage. In the end, it is up to you on how many things you take with you, but make sure that the wheels of your trolley can carry all that weight.

What’s in a wheel?

It was New Year’s Eve, and I was packing all my stuff. I decided to take the night ferry on the 1st of January because I had access to my apartment in Turku only from the 2nd so there was no point in leaving earlier. The packing went relatively smoothly, and I managed to squeeze everything in. As I managed to finish before midnight, I even had the chance to go to the city center and enjoy the fireworks. During the next day, I had to do some final shopping (mainly food for the trip) and I left in the evening to catch the ferry. All the checks and check-in in the harbor went really fast and I ended up waiting for about forty minutes to get onto the ship. And that is the moment when the real adventure started. I had to move all my luggage through some long hallways which was more difficult than expected but the travelers that were travelling light managed to pass me and I could go at my own pace. When I finally set foot onto the ship, one of the employees helped me with guarding some of my luggage while I took the rest to my cabin. When I reached the cabin, I saw that one of the wheels from my big trolley fell and it was nowhere to be found. As I returned to pick up the rest of my luggage, I asked if I could retrace my steps on the long hallways with the hope that I would find the wheel. Of course, I did not find the wheel and I had to make peace with myself that that is how my Erasmus adventure would start: with a complete disaster. I took the rest of my luggage to the cabin, and I decided to watch the departure from one of the decks. As the ship was moving slowly away from the harbor, I decided to call my family and tell them about what happened. Now, you can imagine that all my Balkan traits surfaced and, because I was so “happy” about the entire situation, I was using highly academic expressions. After the phone call, I decided to give it another try and talk to another crew member about the missing wheel with the chance of 1 in a million that it might appear somewhere. As I was trying to find some personnel, I noticed that there was an information desk on one of the decks, so I decided to go and let them know about what happened. As I started telling the clerk about my problem, he slowly took out a “package” with a note from behind the desk and asked me if that was the missing wheel. And what do you think? That was the missing wheel. Suddenly, the most disastrous adventure start turned into one of the best memories and funniest stories to tell at student gatherings. As we all know it, “all’s well that ends well”.

Have a pleasant journey!