Malmo Day Trip

My trip to Malmo last Saturday was a bit of a disaster. Well, that may be an ovestatement, but it was certainly much less pleasant than I had hoped. I went to Malmo because I forgot most of my jeans at home and everyone said shopping there would be much cheaper than in Copenhagen. Part of the problem was that I got a late start. I went to the main train station in Copenhagen and took the train for about 25 USD over the Oresund bridge to Malmo at like 1:30, forgetting that stores would probably close by 5. I arrived in Malmo at 2 and rather than looking at the map I picked up at the visitors center, I just started walking - the wrong direction. I eventually figured out that I was not heading towards any shops, busted out the map and turned back the other way. When I got to the main shopping area there were lots of little stands promoting various products. This lady wanted me to take a stress test so she could explain why I should buy this self help book. She had me hold these sensors and talk about irritating or upsetting circumstances in my life. However, apparently my life is fairly stress-free because she could not find anything that showed up on her stress sensor machine. So, she sent me on my way without the sales pitch for the book. Perhaps I should have taken the test again at the end of the day :)

I think I went into a gazillion clothing shops. I was unsure exactly what the exchange rate was, so I went with comparative shopping. The weather was much warmer than earlier in the day so I was burning up hastily running around in a sweater trying to find something cute and seemingly reasonably priced before all of the stores closed. It was pretty unpleasant, but I finally settled on the cheapest pair I could find which were 399 SKK. When I got home I figured out that this was equivalent to about 52 USD. Not terrible, but not much of a steal either.

After shopping I was close to a bunch of restaurants, but I decided to walk to the western harbor because the picture on the tourist map looked nice. It turned out to be a much longer walk than expected and by the time I made it there I was starving. The restaurant variety turned out to be pretty sparse and really pricey. The area was really pretty, but full of ultra trendy, modern condos. I did get to stop and see the Turning Torso tower on the way, which was pretty cool. Its a tower that rotates 90 degrees from bottom to top. I wanted to go back to the area with a bunch of restaurants I was originally at but couldn't handle the walk back without food first, so I asked a group of guys where the nearest bus stop was. They kindly directed me and gave me bus fare. I went to the stop and waited about half an hour - the duration of time over which the bus should have come twice. After the second bus just drove on past the stop, and lots of Swedish men yelled at it, I figure I should move along to a different stop. I waited at a different stop on another bus which dropped me off at the main Malmo train station, and walked back to the restaurants I started at. Everywhere was packed, I was starving, and you had to wait to be seated at a table serving anything besides appetizers. So, I ended up just eating a meal of appetizers - garlic bread and spring rolls and having 2 beers. Everyone was super dressed up. I was probably the most underdressed person there. I got to sit out on the patio though, which was nice. The food and drinks were really expensive. I got the cheapest beer they had, a Falcon which is a light lager made in Sweden, and I think the small ended up costing about 7 USD and the large was about 9 USD. Ouch! After dinner, I was exhausted and headed back to Copenhagen and then back home.

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