Sweden, Iceland & Copenhagen

This trip is mostly memorable for how badly it went sideways at the start.

I was already not feeling well when I left Boston. By the time I was three hours into the flight to Iceland, my connecting flight to Denmark had been cancelled. I started getting sick at the airport and couldn't think straight enough to figure out how to rebook. Three hours into a transatlantic and someone on my team was DMing me asking if Infrastructure had called me directly about a Bluecoat issue.

I made it. Iceland in late November is dark — the sun barely clears the horizon at those latitudes — but there's something about the cold light and the candles in every café window and the snow falling on cobblestones that helps you understand why this part of the world has the highest happiness scores in every survey.

From Iceland I made it on to Stockholm via Sigtuna and Gardstanga, then down to Copenhagen. Slow days, dark afternoons, hot drinks. By the end of the trip the bug had cleared and I was glad I hadn't bailed and turned around.