“Backpacking is always a bit disorienting, but by the time I reached Stockholm after a sleepless overnight bus ride, I was downright delusional (Edward-Norton-chasing-Tyler-Durden-around-the-country-in-Fight-Club delusional). Not only had I not slept properly since leaving New York, but all the conversations I’d been having in Spanish, English and (basic) Italian with other travelers, while trying to remember my German and learn Norwegian, made it hard for me to figure out which language I was even supposed to think in, much less try to wrap my head around the more difficult Swedish.”