The train itself was an adventure. Unlike Copenhagen, none of the signs at the station are in English (the ticket I bought at an automated kiosk was also in Swedish), so it took a leap of faith to trust that I was navigating myself to the right track and the right train. With the help of a few kindly strangers, I made it to Malmo just fine. (Yay me!)
Once there, I walked around some of the major pedestrian areas including a very old and picturesque part of the city called “Lillet Torg” (or little square). Malmo is much bigger than Lund, and the town felt more like a big city…Lots of movement and action, tall buildings, etc. I took myself to the “Form/Design” museum which was a really quirky three-story museum dedicated to showcasing artistic or unusual Swedish design innovations. They had a candy necklace that was ten feet tall, chairs made out of eggshells, clogs made of brightly-colored clear plastic, and a great many bizarre sculptures, textiles, and housewares. It was a lot of fun.
Afterward, I sat down for yet another weird meal of smoked salmon pasta with lobster sauce. I sat outside on Lillet Torg, and read “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” on my Kindle. (The books is set in Sweden, so it seemed appropriate.) Malmo is on a small river, and my guess is that in the wintertime it gets bitterly cold. When I was there in the afternoon, the sun ducked behind a cloud and the temperature immediately dropped. The waiters at the café bustled out with small fleece blankets for all of the customers on the terrace, as if this sort of thing was pretty par for the course. I happily took one, bundled up, and enjoyed some time people watching in the square before heading home to our hotel in Lund.
It was a good day. I really like wandering around a city on my lonesome, and ended the day feeling independent and content.
Malmo
On a loosely-related note:
Something I’ve learned from my wanderings around Sweden is that this is a very pricy place to visit. Sweden is hand down the most expensive place I've ever traveled. It's more expensive than London. More expensive than Paris. It's really overwhelmingly expensive. For example, the average price of a beer is about $10 dollars. A Pepsi is $5. A candy bar is $2.50. It's impossible to find dinner at any place other than a street food cart for less than $30 a person. Dinner in our hotel is $60 a person. I've been wandering around Malmo and Lund looking at boutiques and souvenir shops, but everything seems about twice as expensive as what I'm used to in the US. It's not like we're in some sort of fancy town or exclusive boutique area. We're not. Lund is a very quaint, regular town. It's just, compared to the US, things are really expensive. I'm still having a lot of fun walking around the town, drinking coffee in cafes, and reading my Kindle. Anything other than window shopping is just off the agenda.
It makes me feel very lucky to get the chance to visit Sweden. It the kind of place that unless we were travelling for Matt's job, we would likely never visit. Quite simply, we couldn't afford it. And even if we could, we'd probably end up spending the money travelling somewhere where our dollar could be stretched a little further. With Matt’s company footing the bill for the airfare, the hotel, the taxis, the trains, and half of the meals, it’s really the only thing that opened Sweden up to us. I often hate that Matt has to travel for work so much, but every now and then something like this happens that makes it all seem (mostly) worthwhile. It’s a real perk, at least. And even though the town is sleepy and expensive, it’s also very charming. They have cobbled streets, friendly faces, a passion for bicycles, knitwear, and killer sushi. Everyone here is amazingly, awe-inspiringly multi-lingual. Without this trip, I wouldn’t have known that (or anything) about Sweden. Now, I feel like I’ve learned something about a part of the world that used to be completely off my radar.
That’s what travel should be all about, right?
As we get ready to pack up and move from Sweden to Paris, I’m looking back on this leg of the trip with affection, happy to have the chance to see this part of the world.
I am missing Frankie quite a bit, though. She told me today that being away from me was “the hardest thing she ever had to do,” which broke my heart a little. I hope she’s enjoying her time with Grandma Jo, though, and that she’ll forgive me for skipping out on her for so long.
1 comment:
I think you are so brave to wander around all these new cities all by yourself. What an adventurer. Frankie seems to be doing much better now that she has caught up on her sleep. She is back to her funny, clever self. She misses her Mom and Dad a lot but doesn't realy bring it up very often. No reason for guilt, it's a great adventure for Frankie, too.
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