A visit from the Netherlands

As some might note, this update has been long in coming, actually I have already been back to the Netherlands but I will try and make some updates with, most importantly: Photos :).

So! A long time ago, in the 2nd week of februari, my dear girlfriend Lisanne came to visit me in Lund. After all of the stories about the people in my corridor she wanted to see for herself if it was really as cool here as I said it was, and of course she missed me a little bit ;). I think the start wasn't all it could be. I bought me a ticket to Copenhagen to pick her up but I felt trouble, which turned out to be true. First train to Copenhagen was canceled, the second one did not really go there, even though the conductor assured me I was on the right train after seeing the ticket. As it turns out I was not so I was one hour and fifteen minutes late in picking Lisanne up, great! Ah well, seeing her was great again and as we sat in the train we chatted away happily. Back home I introduced her to everyone and had the first experience of speaking in another language with your own girlfriend, it was nice though to be able to gossip in Dutch ;).

First day we got her guestcard (you need this card to enter the student nations where the parties are... damn swedes and their rules) and bought dinner. Lisanne thought it was a real party to be in a Swedish supermarket as everything had very 'cool' names (I had to trust her on this, I was a bit used to it by now ;)). I made bami for some people in my corridor which they immensely enjoyed. I also got a fresh supply of 'Hagelslag' which made me insanely happy, as well as a bottle of goldstrike, she knows what I want!

Next day we visited Lund. We had lunch in Lunds Nation where we could see all the way to the Öresund bridge; Lunch is served on the 6th floor in a skybar and you got an awesome amount of food, all for 35 kr. (almost €4,-). Couldn't really complain about that. After that we went into Lund. Of course Lisanne had to visit the highlight of Swedish culture: H&M, as well as a lot of other shops... women *rolls eyes*. But it was actually a lot of fun to stroll through the Lund streets with someone for whom it is all new and point at the beautiful buildings we do have here. We also did the obligated visit to the cathedral and saw the astronomical clock beat, which is just as spectacular as the one in Prague (read: not very). Of course I also explained to here the inner workings of Swedish alcohol laws, meaning we got loaded up in the Systembolaget (Swedish state controlled booze stores) with drinks, ready for the first party! That night we went to VG's with the people living in my corridor. The party was very good and everyone was very interested in meeting my girlfriend (which girl is actually able to live with me??). Went to bed and ready for the next day: Malmö!

So the next day we got up way too early, but if you wanna visit all the beautiful cities here you better be prepared! We took the train to Malmö (which is ridiculously cheaper than going to Copenhagen by the way) and got off. Luckily I already scouted out the city (see 3 logs ago) so we could start with the most important things, shopping and Lilla Torg (which was voted Sweden's most popular square, once you've been there you can sort of see why, it does breath character). Last time we were there we also scouted out a chocolate museum which was closed, and what better place to take your girlfriend than a chocolate museum! We crossed the entire city on foot (it is actually pretty big) and arrived at what we guessed was the chocolate museum. But as we walked in it seemed quite small.... We asked a petite lady behind the counter about it, and she explained that it was a very small, but most assuredly very cute, museum where you can also buy chocolate, enjoy hot chocolate, and she explained patiently, watch the process of it being made through the window behind her. All in all she was a very nice lady, happy to answer any questions we might have had. The one room museum was indeed very small but it did contain the entire story of Mazetti chocolate, which was actually quite interesting. Also notable were the nowadays very racist images of black people harvesting cacao under the watchful eyes of their white overseers. A well, everything for a little chocolate! This turned out to be very true when we bought 5 special handcrafted chocolate each. While I am not one for overreacting or going "OH... MY... GOOOOD!!!" I must say this was very, very, very, very, very (you get the point) good. We bought some more so we could make my corridormates jealous and went on our way to find a nice place to eat and see the park again. Visited the park, I'll keep it short, wasn't much and had dinner at a very nice steak place. The dinner was also very good and satisfied we went back home again just in time to join the others in Lund nation for a party.

Next day we stayed in Lund and visited the Sketch Museum. This museum features public art (as found on train stations for example) and the sketches that were made while developing these pieces. This was actually very interesting, and shed some light at how artist is actually a real profession, not just waiting for that zap of inspiration but really having to work to create something. We walked around and when we got home there was a huge dinner waiting for us! Some girls from my corridor made everyone Lasagna, which was great. Also it was Marion's birthday which we celebrated by singing birthday songs in our own languages and eating cake, great dinner. That night was also the WHIP, or rather: Wild Huge International Party, a party for international students in some house that some people rented. Beer and cider were very cheap (and out of cans.. no tap :)). The party was as you would expect, drunk international students, dancing and lots of fun. Some Italian actually tried to get with my girlfriend at which she looked at me a bit desperately but she's a big girl, she can sort it out herself ;).

Saturday after the party was resting day (three days of party takes its toll) during which we stayed in and entertained ourselves in our corridor, watching movies (Sweeney Todd, not for the squeamish as Lisanne found out ;)).

Sunday was the day Lisanne left again, so a sad day, but we made it a very good day. We went to Copenhagen (she was leaving from the trainstation anyway) and visited pretty much the entire downtown city in one day. First we walked all the way to the little mermaid (which I can tell you, is still pretty far away), passing through hotspots such as the big square containing a round icetrack, Nyhavn and the royal park on the way. After waiting for 30 minutes for a flock of Japanese to finish their pictures and taking our own we headed back through the Kastellet to have the most Danish lunch imaginable, at the café of national pride Ida Davidsen (http://www.idadavidsen.dk/index.php?page=8) who is revered for making the Danish sandwich, the smørrebrød, famous. I must admit it was a nice sandwich but very overpriced, ah well what do you expect. Apparently she really is sort of a celebrity there and we did actually see her come out and talk to some people. She looked like a very nice old lady with cooking hat and all, walking slightly bent as if weighed down by all the attention but always smiling. Guess she makes a killing selling sandwiches ;). We now crossed some other sidestreets we hadn't seen yet, finding a GREAT board game store! That made me very happy of course. Furthermore we also visited the H.C. Andersen museum which taught us about his life and showed some of the real versions of his fairytales (The little mermaid especially was very, very gruesome, with death, torment and general unhappiness being the main themes it seemed). All in all it was a bit interesting though part of a very touristy establishment, which is not a compliment. We ended the day with an unlimited pizza and salad eating, that almost sounds healthy because of the salad but it really isn't ;) It was nice though. It was sad to say goodbye again but as you can read at the start we already saw each other again in the Netherlands, which I will also write something about later on.

For the rest you'll have to look at the pictures!

Hej då!

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