Culture Shock!

So, now I am back in Sweden again, got back yesterday. It feels ok. My luggage got stuck in Vienna. Of course! My luggage always gets stuck in Vienna. I think I will try to avoid transit in Vienna in the future. It now has arrived in Stockholm, but will not get from there to The Small Town until Monday because it is Easter! Anyway I went directly to my parents’ place to avoid spending more time in The Small Town than is absolutely necessary.

From Kabul we flew to Dubai again, and even though we had some problems with the customs because of the flak jackets, we had quite a lot of time between our flights. My colleague’s brother lives in Abu Dhabi and works and he came and picked up together with a cousin who lives in Dubai. They took us out for dinner on the town, very nice! They took us to a big shopping mall, not too far away from the airport, by Dubai creek. It was quite some difference from Kabul! I somehow felt it a little difficult to grasp, that on the same day I had lunch in a clay hut in a dusty street in Kabul and in the evening I had dinner on this terrace in a glitzy, shiny, all gold, marble (fake!) and crystal shopping mall, overlooking the yachts in the harbour in Dubai. It was very nice. I loved the place and all the beautiful people frequenting it, but it somehow also felt completely absurd. That huge difference in wealth and lifestyle only separated by a two hours flight. Completely absurd! And as my colleague and I had not had the time to change clothes we felt very dusty and dirty in that shiny environment.

Landing in Sweden did not make the culture shock less. Here it was a snow storm when I arrived! Flying is definitely a fantastic way of travelling, but sometimes I wonder if it is not too fast. Sometimes I would prefer to let the transport take some time to let my mind adjust slowly and to digest all the impressions on the way.

I will soon post pictures from my trip to Afghanistan here on the blog. I will just have to sort them out first and get back to my own computer and the photo software I am used to. So just stay tuned!