#DXStockholm - Day 1 (A plog!?)

This is the first day and blog DXStockholm - mostly in pictures, can I call it a plog?! (ill explain why in the next blog) If you like this style of blog please give it a favourite, like or share so I know for the future!

Waking up at 5am to get a taxi to the airport the thought of flying to Stockholm still didn't seem real. Ok so I say waking up, I hadn't really slept as I had a hypo during the night which kept me awake. 

At the airport I met Adrian, a fellow GBDoc blogger and cat enthusiast, who kept me in check with his teacher like instincts! Going through security we must have looked rather dodgy resulting in Adrians bag being checked and myself getting a full body pat down! With a pod on one arm and a libre on the other, looking part cyborg I wasn't suprised! After chatting none stop for around 5 hours we arrived at our hotel, bumping into the Grumpy Pumper on the way, before heading off for a walking tour of Stockholm with other T1D bloggers. 

My hotel room for the weekend

Haymarket Hotel

Stockholm walking tour

Meeting bloggers who Ive been friends with on social media in real life never fails to surprise me. I find it incredible how members of the #gbdoc and other #docs around Europe are exactly like they portray themselves online. It was lovely to finally meet Melanie, Jen and Sofia after following each other on Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram - without this event it would not have been possible! Walking around Stockholm with our hilarous Australian tour guide we learnt a little about Stockholm and a lot about each other! 

Stockholm is an lovely city, it reminds me of Austria with its clean streets and amazing old buildings. On our tour we saw the bank where Stockholm Syndrome first took place - something myself I was quite unfamiliar with, as well as seeing the building, which was across from the square of our hotel, where the Nobel prize award ceremony is held. 

#GBDOC on tour

On the bus to the reception at the Science and Technology Museum with Jen

Finally met Sofia (Diabetesia)

Jens pod came off on the slide! Good job there was a spare!

I will never learn to frown

A backpacker and her pod, a Diabetesia and a Grumpy Pumper walked into a bar. 

Our evening reception was held in the Science and Technology museum in Stockholm which wasn't a conventional type of museum! We played on dance mats and Jen even managed to rip her pod out on the slide! (Dont worry I had a spare! Thats the best part of having a diabetic meeting - everyones prepared for every eventuality!)

Surrounded by people, some of whom Id only known a couple of hours I couldn't help but feel incredibly grateful. Id been given this amazing opportunity to meet Type 1’s from all over Europe! With fellow bloggers from Italy, France and Germany to name a few, sitting outside chatting on our first evening it felt like we had known each other for years! Chatting about our diagnosis, diabetes and life outside our disease over a glass of wine in Stockholm was a surreal experience. 

I headed to bed with a straight line on my Libre after my day in Stockholm ready and raring to for the first offical day of talks at #DXStockholm! (I swear being around other diabetics cures me!)

Tack (thank you) for reading! 

Lots of love The Backpacker and the Pod xxx


Disclosure - I have been sponsored by Abbott to attend the bloggers programme at #DXStockholm. Abbott has not asked me to tweet/post/blog about the programme. Views are my own.