January 7, 2019

As I mentioned in Arrivals and Departures, the second half of our Sweden move-in day deserved its own entry. It all started with the bed pads.

The rental agent informed us that the apartment came fully furnished, except for bed pads. Assuming she meant mattress toppers, I bought a few at the local home store. But once I saw the actual beds, I recognized my folly.

Swedish beds are a little different from American ones in that their bases (unlike to our box springs) are like very large, slightly soft ottomans. On top of those, you add cushioned bed pads, like very thin versions of a mattress that can be rolled up. Without the bed pads, sleeping on the bases would be like sleeping on a carpeted floor. 

Once we had left our belongings inside the apartment on move-in day (chucked unceremoniously into a large pile), my single-minded focus became finding bed pads. My nesting instinct was in full overdrive…I was determined to find these elusive necessities. We all desperately needed a good night’s sleep during our first night in the apartment, especially my two sons. The oldest had flown on the red eye two days earlier and hadn’t slept a wink since. He had landed and gone straight to work, getting by on coffee alone. My youngest was due to start his new school the following day and was very jet-lagged. Sleep was critical.

IKEA seemed a logical option for finding what we needed, but in all of our trips to Sweden, I had never seen an IKEA. It always struck me as odd, not seeing an IKEA in its country of origin, but passing one on the interstate near the airport back in the States. It was like being in Stockholm and never hearing ABBA. Although Google listed an IKEA location in central Stockholm, it only sold kitchen supplies.

I asked the desk clerk at our hotel where to find an IKEA and that’s when I experienced a miracle on Vasagatan Street!  (It’s not actually called Vasagatan “Street,” because “gatan” means “street,” I just added that for effect). Apparently, there was a GRATISSBUS to IKEA! Yes, you are translating that correctly – a FREE bus to IKEA. 

Not only did the bus run on the hour, but the bus stop was directly across the street from our hotel. I thought I was dreaming. I was already half asleep anyway. The alleged bus stop was located in one of the few places I could easily find in that confusing part of the city around T-Centralen (the central station). The area was like a maze.

But first, I had to return to the apartment to measure the beds and grab my son. Racing out the door chasing daylight we rushed the twenty minutes back to the hotel to catch the bus.

IKEA is a shopping marvel and the story of its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, is fascinating. When he was just seven years old, Kamprad would buy matches in bulk and re-sell them at a profit. Soon, he branched into sales of other items. When he was seventeen, his father gave him a graduation gift of money for doing well in school, which Ingvar used to start a bona fide business. Using the first letter of his names and the first letter of the village (Agunnaryd) and farm (Elmtaryd) where he grew up, he formed the name IKEA. And I was so happy he did, because we really needed those bed pads!

Despite our exhaustion, we were excited to visit the store. This was not just any IKEA, but one of the largest in the world, and in the country of its founding, to boot .

After the twenty minute bus ride, we emerged to confront our challenge. I had no idea where we were and wasn’t 100% sure if the bus would still be running once we found what we needed.

With no time to waste, we walked inside, where we were greeted with exactly what you would expect – clean lines, lots of glass, and an efficient operation. Classic Sweden. Riding up the tall escalator to begin our adventure, we felt like we were entering the Death Star in Star Wars from the landing bay.

My very tired son really rose to this task. In an effort I can only describe as Amazing Race-worthy, he helped me to quickly find the bedding area, ask for help from someone who spoke English, choose what we needed, and place our order. We were then herded to the warehouse to pick out our merchandise. 

“Drifting” around corners like a race car driver with the IKEA cart loaded full of tightly-wound bed pads made my son’s day. It was good to see him laughing after all of the stress and exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours.

We did not realize how large and heavy the six bed pads would be, and worried about how we would get them on the bus. But as we efficiently paid for our purchases at a self-check-out kiosk, we learned there was a delivery desk one level down. There, an no-nonsense employee tagged and prepared our booty. It would be delivered to us that very same day! After grabbing a snack at a nearby Espresso House (the Sweden equivalent to Starbucks), we waited for the bus to take us back into town. 

This was my kind of shopping experience - quick, efficient, and successful - and with a Swedish pastry and tea thrown in for good measure.

By 7 PM that evening, the delivery driver had arrived and brought the items right into the apartment. It was quite a miracle, because the Swedish phone number required for the driver to notify you when he was close by didn’t work. I just happened to walk outside looking for him right as he pulled up. They won’t deliver if you don’t answer or aren’t waiting when they appear. So it was a close call.

But within an hour, comfortable beds were ready and waiting so that we were able to turn in early, utterly exhausted.

Finally, move-in day ended…our belongings had arrived, half of our family was together, our apartment was warm, we were well-fed, and we had comfortable places to sleep. Thus, we spent our first night in our new, albeit temporary home in Stockholm, knowing we had to wake up early for my son’s first day of school.