I recently flew from Sweden to South Africa. When booking flight tickets, I usually check what it would cost to get out of the sardine tin and save my knees from fourteen hours of economy. You know, in case the managing director of Lufthansa wasn’t a reptile and suddenly took pity on just me. “Hey, here’s a seat that isn’t designed by a Nazi matchbox company and you won’t have to sell your organs in exchange for personal space.” It could happen.

This time, much to my surprise, the MD didn’t call and I had to accept my working-class fate. The engineers at Boeing obviously have a twisted sense of humour and designed the planes accordingly. As common cattle, we were herded to the front of the aircraft and marched through business class, showing us what we’re not entitled to. And as entertainment for upper-class citizens to gawk at while they sip champagne and pretend to check their counterfeit Breitlings.

But the engineers didn’t stop there. They were having far too much fun to stop there. In their brilliance, they invented premium economy. Why pay less and fly economy, when you can pay more and fly economy! Genius! I located my seat amongst the other livestock, took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for the coming night. My arse slotted into its seat like a Tetris brick. No space wasted.

When the air hostess asked “Chicken or pasta?” I’m not sure she was prepared to hear me request if I could get off the plane.

“Sir, we are at 39 000 feet.” Confusion in her no-nonsense, no-sense-of-humour German accent.   

“That’s ok, I’ll take the pasta to go.” A long fall to a sudden death sounded rather appealing. With any luck, I would pass out or freeze before even seeing the ground. The thought was bliss.

The cunning engineers have designed the seats to recline to the exact angle which allows your body to lean back while your head falls forward. These guys must have been wetting themselves with laughter while drawing this up. During the night I managed to doze off for 23 seconds and was woken by a warm, damp sensation on my nose. I had slid down my seat and planted my face into my neighbour’s sweaty side.

With approximately two hours remaining, the cabin lights came on and I was gently awoken by the plastic thud of a tray across my forehead. “Breakfast!”

Not that I was sleeping, but I closed my eyes and pretended that slumber was possible. Breakfast consisted of urine-coloured bits of goo, known to Lufthansa as scrambled eggs. The bread rolls were freshly baked, in 1984. Now they could be used to build another Berlin wall, or break one down.

The best thing about flying economy is getting off the plane and being grateful for not being on a plane anymore. I can sit on a pavement and it feels like the Radison. I can stir manure into luke warm water, call it coffee, and it’s delicious. The shower cleanses my body with unicorn tears and a clean towel is the soft embrace of exotic, illegally imported, near-extinct bunny fur.

Walk into a sports bar in Sweden and ask if they have rugby. The barman will tell you to wait a minute while he checks with the chef.

The Uppsala Rugby Football Club showed the final at their clubhouse come English pub. I made the effort to wake up at 8am, feed myself, put on a green jersey and walk the 700m to their premises. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to watch any of the previous matches, as I was just too preoccupied with not giving a shit. Thirty grown men chasing an ostrich egg around a football pitch has never evoked emotions or caused me to groan like a sexually frustrated water buffalo, dragging its member through a thorn bush. Experts on the topic have informed me that only real men watch rugby.

However, the antelope made it to the finals against a team of south-Pacific islanders wearing white. So I went, because that’s what real men do, and I feel a desperate need to be accepted into this culture of real-mannery. I sat on my arse for eighty minutes, staring at a projector screen, while men in Japan had an aggressive orgy in an open field. I could feel the testosterone flowing through my veins!

The game is easy to follow and the rules are simple. The man who catches the egg, gets cuddles. These poor chaps have been away from home for so long that they put life and limb on the line, for the sake of some masculine affection.

Amongst the audience in the clubhouse were people from all over the world. Their origins often identifiable by jerseys, accents or choice of shitty English ale. One flamboyant spectator could obviously sense that the entire room was curious as to his heritage. After banging on the ceiling beams and shouting “Die Bokke gaan julle naai!” for the fourteenth time, we still were not quite certain which team he was supporting. Sensing our confusion and common need for an answer to the burning question of his birthplace, the gentleman was considerate enough to drop subtle hints, “Suid Afrika!” Allowing us to figure it out ourselves, saving us the embarrassment of having to ask and ensuring a good night’s sleep.

I spend much of my time studying at home, pretending to be productive. I justify it by telling myself that I save money by being a hermit.

Eventually, I admit I’m not learning anything about wind power by playing guitar and fluffing the couch cushions. My flat is a breeding ground for procrastination. So I venture out into town, where homely distractions don’t drag me from my desk.

Cafés are my preferred workplace, but I brace myself every time I pay for a cappuccino in Sweden. Those coffee beans had better damn be fair trade. At that price, the whole Ugandan village should be brushing their teeth with caviar.

My favourite Café is a spot called Los Vegos. Everything they serve is plant-based. It’s one of those places that really tries to look shabby in order to charge more. Patrons may opt to sit in an old, tattered couch which was obviously bought second hand to, like, save the planet, man. If you find used furniture too luxurious and wasteful, then seat your bottom on their plastic crates, turned on their side. Such spaces are reserved for VIPs.

One could also sit at a normal table, like a conformist swine. This is what makes me stand out as a counter revolutionary in a sea of enlightened indigo children. That and my lack of dreadlocks. The hairstyle seems to be a way for hippies to identify each other. As though the smell wasn’t enough. Tattered, loose-fitting garments, somewhere between pants and a poncho, sewn together by Cambodian child labourers. Clothing allows the hippy to be unique, like every other hippy.

Lunch hour is not a good time to be at Los Vegos. It’s when all the hippies take a break from playing bongo drums at the train station or begging on behalf of Amnesty International. They flock to Los Vegos, but in a totally unique way. With their identically unique garments flowing around them, wafting their unique scent – unwashed – in their wake.

They speak all at once and at the top of their voices, like hundreds of weaver birds in a single tree, competing for attention. “I’m going to Ghana to volunteer in the Planting Trees for Peace project.” “We’re going to fly over town in a hot-air ballon and drop marijuana seeds to combat global warming and end wars.” “Capitalism is suffocating my spirit animal.”

Hippy parents bring their indigo offspring into the café, carrying babies in cotton slings – handmade by destitute Colombians. The parents let the entire establishment know that Moonbeam was born vegan, can’t drink breast milk and shits world peace.

An appointment with the dentist is right up there with final exams, the headmaster’s office and plane crashes. Maybe I’m being too harsh there. I shouldn’t compare my dentist to a cunt like a headmaster.

Visiting the dentist as a child in South Africa was viewed as a death sentence. The appointment would consume my thoughts for weeks. Nothing existed after that date. Everything leading up to D-day was just slow, torturous preparation for the afterlife.

Dentists were highly educated, old, grumpy white men with pubic hair sprouting from their eye sockets. They had made their fortunes, overcharging for their services, and realised money brought them no joy. Acceptance of a wasted youth, staring into people’s mouths, holidaying five times a year in Mauritius with hookers and cocaine, driving the latest BMW, sent them into crises and insanity. Should have gone with the Porsche. Having failed to find meaning in their lives or a cure for herpes, they vowed to torment every little shit that sat in their chair.

Meanwhile, on the dark side of this planet, Swedes also require dental care. One would expect a Swedish dentist to be suicidal. Working without sunlight, examining people’s pie-holes is bad enough. But a nation which considers rotten fish a delicacy must be a nightmare. Unless your toothpaste contains hydrochloric acid, nothing removes the smell of decaying, tinned herring.

However, my Swedish dentist seems to be a regular homo sapien with nerve endings, human emotions and comprehension of pain. The kind of guy I’d invite over for a barbecue. That’s if he wasn’t so horribly good-looking. My guy friends would dream up ways to dump my corpse in the Baltic for inviting Orlando Bloom, while their wives sweat, nowhere near the fire. In his contract with Satan, Orlando definitely swapped the hookers and narcotics for a granite jaw-line and panty-dissolving smile.

Choosing a dentist is one of the most important decisions we make in our lives. It’s worth waiting for the right dentist. A man with his tool in your mouth is not to be taken lightly. If you’d prefer a woman’s tool poking your gums, I hear Thailand is the place to be.

Summer is a vague memory, as though it happened years ago in another country. Cafés have removed their outdoor furniture. No one wants to lick an ice-block cappuccino in a mug. Watching the leaves turn various shades of orange, yellow and red is beautiful. It’s the closest I hope I ever come to seeing fire fall from the sky. The burning colours signal that it’s time to rummage through the attic and find my gloves, beanie, reflectors, vitamin-D and enormous jacket. Apparently there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. Bullshit. Eight months of winter is a human rights violation.

It only takes a single gale to remove all the magnificent leaves from their perch. Their departing performance is spectacular. A final wave good-bye before millions exit stage towards the earth. Branches stripped bare, mounds of gold coat the ground and quickly begin to decay. Town resembles a wasteland. None of the greenery, warmth or cheer of summer seems to survive the onslaught of autumn.

Morning frost on the roofs lets us know that the air is dry and our nose hairs will freeze while cycling. In town the buildings and streets have scaffolding all around, but not for construction works. The festival of lights is approaching. In order to distract the population from the plummeting temperatures and soul-crushing darkness, the city of Uppsala creates artistic light shows around the cathedral, bridges and buildings. A great initiative with good intentions. If my mindset were better I would appreciate the moment and be mindful during the festival of lights for its beauty. Instead, the festival just serves as a reminder that we’re locked inside a deepfreeze in someone’s basement. And over the next few months the owner lowers the temperature and removes all the light bulbs. Sick bastard. Strap in, put Sinatra on repeat, keep your nuts toasty by an open fire or book a one-way to Portugal. The sun is out of office until March.

I’ve met people in Sweden who are actually prescribed, by their GP, to visit a warmer country in order to receive a dose of vitamin D. We decided to book our tickets before it came to that.

Stepping off the plane on Malta, into the above-zero air temperatures was a great start to the trip. However, it quickly became obvious that Malta is heavily geared towards northern-Europeans fleeing the frosty climate of their home country. That’s just not our style. Even though we were running from sub-zero Sweden.

Being the bad-ass rebel gangsters that we are, we made use of the fine Maltese public transport system to hop over to the little island of Gozo. After travelling through southern Africa and south-east Asia, moving around a European country felt like cheating. Everyone spoke perfect English, no one tried to scam us and not once did I ride on a rusty tuk-tuk next to a chicken. It almost takes the thrill out of travelling, but relaxing to not plan and research every detail.

Sweden is not well known for its sandy beaches or amazing waves. Probably because there aren’t any. However, these Scandinavians have more lakes than they know what to do with.

During the summer months they pull out this antique steam engine and run it between the lakes and Uppsala. The whole operation is run by volunteers. Mainly pensioners, kids and train enthusiasts. The tickets are also dirt cheap. The locomotive is named Lennakatten, apparently after a cat called Lenna that used to ride the train every day. Very cute.

The forest is definitely worth a few hours walking. It’s beautiful in there, especially near the end of summer when all the berries start ripening. Free fruit!

Camping is laughably cheap. We pay 30 Crowns ($4) per night and have access to all the necessary facilities. We are always the only people camping in the forest. Having the woods to ourselves is great! Well, we’re not completely alone. We share it with about seven hundred million mosquitoes.