Hello Sweden! And a fun little Air Canada Wi-Fi Hack

Venturing into a new country for work is quite the adjustment. But it can also be a lot of fun!

STOCKHOLM — I didn’t know what to expect when I booked my trip to Sweden, but I have loved it so far.

It began at Pearson Internation Airport where I went straight to Plaza Premium Lounge at Terminal 1-international where I enjoy some free meals and beverages of all varieties. If you live in Toronto and travel on a somewhat regular basis, I cannot recommend a credit card with lounge access. The American Express Platinum card gets you free access to that lounge and comes with a Priority Pass membership, which gets you into that and hundreds of lounges across the world. There was a Plaza Premium Lounge at London’s Heathrow Airport where I was able to have myself and another reporter colleague have breakfast. They even had a gluten-free option for my colleague which he appreciated.

We arrived in Stockholm at 1:55 and just made it in time for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ first practice at Hovet Arena. They’ve spent the first two days of practice on an Olympic-sized sheet of ice even though they will be playing on a surface of regular NHL ice dimensions on Friday and Sunday.

The first day in Stockholm is a struggle just to get adjusted to the six-hour time change from Toronto. After covering practice and posting a whole bunch of articles, I made my way to the AC Hotel in Ulriksdal, which is a few miles north of the city. I was initially concerned that I would be far away from where the action was, but thanks to Stockholm’s fantastic tunnelbana Metro and commuter rail, I’m door-to-door from my hotel to Avicii Arena in 30 minutes. I wish Toronto’s transit was this good, but I’d settle for a fully opened Eglinton LRT over nothing at this point.

@davidalter35First time ever in Sweden for any reason and satisfied with my room. Very Scandinavian. #hotel #sweden🇸🇪 #stockholm #foryou #foryourpage #travel

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I checked into my hotel around 7 p.m. local time. There was a fancy pizza place next door called Spisa Pizza where I had a delicious pizza to myself. They fully disagree with pineapple on pizza, so I knew it was going to be good. And it was.

I made it to 9 p.m. thinking this was the perfect time to sleep and get adjusted to the time change. I made a plan to get up around 7 a.m. thinking I’d be golden. I woke up at 3 a.m. wide awake. While I felt good at the time, I knew that was going to mess up my day. Unable to fall asleep, I did some more work and tried to sleep again at 5 a.m. with a plan to get up at 7-7:30 a.m. I woke up at 10 a.m. with the Leafs set to practice around noon.

The second day of practice was more eventful. The Maple Leafs held a long practice full of line rushes, drills and special-teams work. We then spoke to Auston Matthews, Max Domi, John Tavares and head coach Sheldon Keefe. The building has a nice little media work room where I stayed until around 5:30 p.m. and headed back to the hotel to drop off my things before meeting up with some work colleagues who took us to a nice local restaurant and pub called ‘Harvest Home’. I went with a traditional cheeseburger and fries.

It was quite good.

I’ve been trying to keep with an intermittent fasting routine I developed in August but this trip has certainly tested that. The good news is the quality of food in Europe is far superior to that in North America and if I cheat, there is a nice offset.

The next post will feature more stuff about the city as Thursday is set aside for sightseeing since the club has the day off.

The Air Canada Wi-Fi hack