Scandinavian Trip - Prologue

Both myself and my wife had 3 weeks off in December, so the time was ripe to plan a long haul trip. I thought it will be a great way to fulfil my childrens' dream of seeing fresh snow. I vividly remember the first time I felt snow flakes falling from the sky in the Italian Alps and carefully catching them with my glove tips. I wanted my children to feel the unbridled joy of that moment. We had been to New Zealand last year, where they saw snow bedded down as thin ice atop Mt Franz Josef. However it's time for the real deal!
I had been hesitant in planning this trip due to multiple factors, including uncertainty over location and timing of booking. I only started to plan this December vacation towards mid October, by which time all the prices for airfare, accommodation and activities had skyrocketed. However I felt this was the best year to travel given my son's national exam next year. So off we go!
Japan would have been a safe bet, but that could wait for later, as we can cover that within a week. That left us US east coast and Europe. Trump made things clearer by the US Government shutdown that crippled air services for a few weeks. Since we have already been to central Europe, we thought we will give the Scandinavian countries a visit this time.
		Planning this trip was a crazy time. Based on my initial analysis, it was clear that the package trip was the cheaper and much easier option, but the itinerary was fairly limited and didn't cover what we wanted, so my wife was insistent that she wanted it to be self planned. Plus it offers us an opportunity to visit her reclusive aunt in Sweden as well. Planning across 6 currencies, 3 timezones and 4 different languages was no joke. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, too many to recount here, but fair to say I lost a lot of money by opting for a bit more convenience along the way. I was wary of my SCB debit card not working half way through like my NZ Trip, so I spent almost a whole day with my bank trying to sort it out and they assured me that things with work (which it eventually didn't).
We also planned around a return trip to Copenhagen (given a tempting Turkish airlines offer for a stopover in Istanbul, which eventually proved more hectic and costly) and taking my wife's aunt for part of our trip (which eventually didn't happen). All of this meant we had to take 8 flights and 6 trains within 2 weeks!
Tracking transactions across 6 currencies meant that I had to rack up my brain to come up with a template that allows me to keep track of my expenses, which quickly ballooned out of control. With time running out, I kinda got fed up that I just focused on getting all the things in place for the trip instead of worrying about getting the best deal.
Talking to our family and friends also got in new scares, from driving in snow/ ice at night to wearing spikes for boots to carrying a car jump starter along. The last two were not required, but we couldn't take that chance. So, we had to scramble all the way to 2 hours before our flight to buy all the things needed. Squeezing the heap of winter clothes into the bags were a head scratcher as well, having to think about the varying temperatures and pack and repack according to the places we will visit (and this was just for days 1-2 of the trip where we go from 35 degrees and 8 degrees to 2 degrees to 0 degrees to -17 degrees in 5 locations across 4 different countries). While I am at it, I also tracked daylight in each of the locations and made it a point to enjoy our last dose of good sunshine on 8-Dec in Singapore.
This will be a trip of many firsts, including first time the kids have been to Europe, the first time they will see fresh snow as it falls from the sky,  our northern most trip, the first time we will be staying at a place that costs more than $1000 a night, the first time I will be driving on the right side of the road, in a foreign country, at night, relying on my headlights and wits and with free ranging arctic wildlife on the roads. Spending a day watching YouTube videos of cars crashing and skidding in snow might have been entertainment at some other point but it was harsh reality and practical tips now. To be honest, I would have avoided driving on this trip if our accommodation has been at the Santa Claus village or City center, which I couldn't get due to late planning.
Anyway, with a lot of things on my mind to just plan, execute the plan and keep my family safe, I don't think I might be personally able to enjoy this trip much. But let's see how it goes...