One of the awesome things about working for Delta is that we can pick-up trips from other bases. I’ve done this quite a bit internationally, as it’s an awesome way to score a 24-hour paid vacation to somewhere fabulous. While some people think it’s crazy to fly that far for a short period of time, I see it as an opportunity to do something unique and cool.
This time: Stockholm, Sweden!
Weeks ago, I took a gamble and booked a food walking tour in the city. The reason it’s a gamble is because any airline employee will tell you that the kiss of death for a layover is making plans. Delays, cancellations, re-routes often mean we don’t make it to our intended destination. But I had a good feeling and it paid off.
We landed last Sunday morning in Stockholm at 0745 local time, made our way to the hotel, and I took my usual two-hour nap. Having something planned is a good way to ensure you don’t sleep the day away, which is easy to do when you’ve been up all night working.
I got up, got ready, and went and found the metro. I was promptly mistaken for a Swede, with someone asking me for directions on the platform in a language I won’t even pretend to understand. After a relatively short ride in a subway car packed with soccer fans, I emerged at the department store meet-up point for the tour.
You can imagine my surprise when I ran into two customers from our flight. Well, and theirs too to be fair. They saw me and said, “Weren’t you our flight attendant from New York last night?!” I was. We had a laugh, considering we were 30% of the 10-person tour.
It turns out that booking with Food Tours Stockholm was an excellent choice. Their Culinary Södermalm tour took us around an old working class neighborhood in the city that’s now super trendy and packed with unique restaurants and independent shops. Despite the intermittent torrential downpours, we were able to hit-up seven culturally-diverse places, where we sampled food and beverages at each one.
Stockholm can be a pricey city, so at $85 USD, it was an amazing value. We spent 3.5 hours with our guide, Anna, and I was literally stuffed at the end! We snaked through Södermalm and feasted on Chinese, Swedish, Greek, Indian, and Japanese delicacies, with an intermediary stop for gelato/sorbet. And we finished the tour at a chocolate factory.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how absolutely legendary they were in working with my egg allergy. Each restaurant had clearly been briefed, and alterations were made to my dishes so that I could fully participate. The hospitality was really amazing.
You all know that a culinary lens is the one I want to travel through, and this truly did not disappoint. My crew was so excited to hear about the tour on our flight back, and agreed it was a well-laid plan.
I ended the evening by running into two other crewmembers completely unexpectedly in Gamla Stan, the old town. Out of all the restaurants in Stockholm, we had made the exact same dinner reservations at the same restaurant and were seated at side-by-side tables. Of course, we commingled tables and ended up laughing hysterically over dinner, before capping our evening at a rooftop bar near the hotel.
Was it a whirlwind 24 hours? Yep! Would I do it again? Duh! Already planning my next out-of-base pick-up.
This job has its moments where you want to scream, so you have to take advantage of the perks. For me, that’s continuing to see the world as I always intended when I started CulinaryHopscotch. Only this time, it’s a paid ride, a paid roof over my head, and some walking around money to do cool things like this. Onto the next one!
Culinary Hopscotch 