Advertisement
Published: April 19th 2008
Edit Blog Post
So Sweden eh? Havign never been there, I had alot of preconceptions about Swedes and their homeland, all of which turned out to be based on pure fact. Thanks to the beautiful Øresund bridge, I was able to hop on a train, and arrive in Lund no more than an hour later. I was to meet up with Lina, whom along with a friend surfed my couch back in 2006. I messaged her to say what time I would arrive, but did not hear anything back so I went for a walk around the town upon arrival. Many shops and cafés were furnished with Ikea products, there were Saabs and Volvos galore, and nigh on every woman was gorgeous. Three from three for Sweden! After messaging again and getting no respose I set off in search of a phone box. Whilst doing so my phone rang, and it was Lina, who had been at the station the whole time. Oops! Turns out I exited the other end of the station... this did have an upside though, as it meant we could hitch a ride with Lina's mum back home.
After a bit of lunch, Lina and I got a train to
Malmö. She had a job interview in a bar, after which we had a walk through the city, picking up some salted rice and corn snacks on the way. Imagine a smaller Copenhagen with a more cosy feel and there you have Malmö. It's tops! We soon found ourselvs by the water and 'Turning Torso', which is deisgned to look like the torso of a naked woman slightly twisted. Gotta hand it to those Swedes! The sun was slowly making its way to the horizon, so we sat and watched, nibbling on the rice snacks all the while. The water felt about five degrees, but that is no match for a Swede. There were a couple of young girls by the water, one of whom thought it would be a good idea to jump in! Needless to say, it was f--king cold, and there was much screaming to be heard. Hastily she vacated the water, only to jump in again! Loco. Once the sun had dissapeared beneath the horizon, and the temperature dropped a little, we decided to go back to town in search of a hot beverage. Past experience has shown me that, when in need of a warming
drink, I am quite likely to end up with half a litre of ice cream. Today was no exception! Just kidding, something about the words 'wind chill' and 'four degrees' just don't make one think 'ice cream'. Lina took me to a pretty flash place called 'Mello Yello', where we got that warm drink. After that it was time to get a train back to Lund for some midnight homemade lasagna.
On Tuesday I met Lina after uni, at 1pm. The sun was out so we did what most Lundites do in that situation, that is get a falafel and sit by the cathedral. In need of something sweet after the hot chilli sauce, we found a candy shop, and I was happy as a.. well, yeah. It tastes better over here! We had a look around town, and the student areas too. There are what the Swedes call 'Nations', which are basically student buildings with apartments in them and a bar downstairs. Hence, student exchanges to Sewden are hightly sought after, and not for the quality of education! If nothign else, six years of attedning St. Andrews Cathedral School taught me to appreciate the very buildings after which it
was named. The Lund cathedral is quite an impressive one! the amazingly high ceilings make it hard to move around quietly, as the slightest noise well echo echo echo for a good few seconds. There stands a clock in one corner of the cathedral, which was built in the 1400's. Apart from the time, it can also tell you the day, month, year, sun and moon rise and set times, and on which day certain religious holidays will fall. Not bad for a 600 year old clock!
Later that afternoon Lina was teaching swimming to six year olds at the local swimming hall, so I came along too and had a swim. I considered joining the class, but as I would have been taller than the instructor, I stuck to the grown ups pool! was good to go for a swim, after the last one was some 16000km away! After a drink at Hercules Bar, we headed home for some salmon and spinich.
The next day Lina had uni from 9 till 16, so I dicided to take advantage of the weak Swedish Kroner, and do some shopping. First I had to see the crypt beneath the cathedral, then got
a train to Malmö. The shops were fúll of Danes with the same idea as me, and soon I was the owner of three new jumpers and a hat. All for only 700SEK, bargain. Lets hope I don't loose this hat in Darwin like the last two. I'm really good at that for some reason! I explored Malmö a little more, then headed back to Lund in the rain.
That night Lina and I went out to the nations. Helsingkrona was holding a thai night, so we headed there only to be told all the food was gone. Nevertheless, we stayed for a beer or two, a they were as cheap as you'll find anywhere in Scandinavia. Or so I thought. We then headed to another nation which was serving food aswell. Again, it was all gone. However, we stayed there for some more drinks, and a night of chess, checkers, and connect four with some international students. Having not had dinner, we eventually left and got home about at 24. Some rummaging around in the fridge yeilded some leftover lasagna and salad, which did went down well.
Thursday was to be my last day in Sweden, and I was yet to have Swedish pancakes. Once Lina was home from uni, I made lunch for us both, then we went to a nearby forrest. Naturally, the song 'forrest Families' by The Knife was playing in my head ad nauseum. There were alot of walkers in the forrest, all using ski poles. Either swedes have poor balance, or they were in training for a cross country ski race being held somewhere in the north soon! I'm guessing the former. Once we returned home, there was just enough time for pancakes. What am I saying, there is always time for pancakes! Using a typical Swedish recepie, we made about 10 pancakes, and there were no leftovers... The Swedes eat something called 'cloud berry' on their pancakes, and whatever it is, it's nice! We then had a rushed 10 minutes of packing and burning photos before heading to the train station, only to find out the train was late! 13 minutes later than expected, I was saying goodbye to Lina, and boarding a train that would carry me back to Denmark.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0604s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Anna
non-member comment
missed it!
hey willy! i thought i had set myself up with one of these subscriptions for your blog, but it turned out i hadn't, so tonight when dining with my new best friend james and his family, as well as your mom, i was informed that you've been blogging away since i checked last. i'm off to the next one, see you there! :)