Malmo and Copenhagen, Take One

I've decided that it would be in everyone's best interest if I break up our weekend trip to Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark into individual days of the trip. This way, I can get more into the details of each day and share more pictures since we did SO much and took SO many pictures. So here it goes...

Two weekends ago, we took a trip. In fact, it was the first trip we've been on that involved a plane since Ryan and I first arrived in Sweden back in August. I must admit that I am a bit ashamed of this. However, I feel somewhat justified when I remember how horrible it was to haul hundreds of pounds of luggage through the Stockholm Arlanda airport. It did take quite a bit of time and effort to push that horrendous image out of my mind. It really was quite the traumatic and scarring experience, you know...

Anyways! Our long weekend trip began early on the morning of Thursday, September 23rd. Ryan and I finished our last minute packing, took out the garbage (like the responsible adults we are), and headed to the bus stop. We met up with Shannon and Tyler and arrived at the airport about an hour before our flight was scheduled to depart.

Unfortunately, because we didn't feel like getting to the airport and waiting around forever, we were forced to sit separately on the flight. Which actually ended up working out to my advantage... On our first flight from Lulea to Stockholm, I had the pleasure of sitting next to, arguably, one of the single most adorable children alive. His name was Odin and he was nine months old. He was travelling back to his home in Stockholm with his father after spending two weeks visiting his grandparents. According to his father, I somewhat resembled his mother (who he was very ready to see after two weeks away from) and Odin literally drooled as he tried frantically to climb into my lap.

His father, of course, kept apologizing profusely and felt slightly embarrassed that Odin wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to assure him that it really was no problem because I LOVE babies.  I don't think he believed me. Honestly, if it wouldn't have been for the fact that I think I would've completely creeped out his father, I definitely would have just offered to hold Odin for the entire hour-long flight. I just didn't want him to push the flight attendant's button and accuse me of trying to be a baby stealer for making the suggestion.... Sigh.

After an hour of getting my baby fix, we landed in Stockholm and "switched planes" for our next flight to Malmo. By "switched" I really mean we got out of the plane and re-boarded the same exact one after about fifteen minutes. Thrilling, I know. The flight from Stockholm to Malmo was approximately an hour again, but this time I didn't have a cute baby sitting next to me... I only had Ryan. Haha. I took this picture of the Malmo airport through the window on the plane. I was amused by the fact that all of the buildings were painted with such a bright yellow color. The bright color made me hopeful that our whole trip would be so cheerful.

We got off the plane, retrieved our luggage, and hopped in a taxi that took us to our hotel. The Ibis Malmo was everything you can hope for in a budget hotel. It had a decent sized room by European standards with a TV and a little couch. But... best of all... it had ONE bed! It had a regular queen sized bed! I couldn't believe it! None of this two twin sized beds pushed together crap. I must admit, as nice as it is to have my own space and not have to play the "you're a blanket hog!" game, it's nicer not to feel like Ryan and I are Lucy and Ricky Ricardo sleeping in our own beds...

The bathroom was also decently sized. Only when you folded in the collapsible shower doors though. The picture we have of the shower doesn't quite capture how odd the design truly was, but it's hard to get a good angle in such a small space... Long story short: the shower was weird.





It took a little while, but we eventually found the bus stop to take us to the main part of town. Which, on a side note, is named Gustav Adolf Square. A lot of the major cities in Sweden have a Gustav Adolf Square in honor of Gustav Adolf, the late king of Sweden. It immediately made me think of Gustavus Adolphus College, a college we have in Minnesota. Josh Plattner... if you're reading this... the little bit of history I plugged in here is in your honor. :)

Anyways! Gustav Adolf Square was magical. It was so much larger than Lulea's downtown area and it was so full of life! There were all sorts of people just wandering about the shops and it wasn't even officially the weekend yet; it was just Thursday afternoon. And just look at all the pretty buildings! The old architecture throughout the entire city was simply stunning. I instantly loved Malmo and began questioning why we had chosen to study abroad in such a small city so far north where the city life and weather were obviously inferior. Why so I could travel and appreciate other places so much more, of course! At least that's what I'll keep telling myself...

 After eating some lunch, we stumbled upon a cute little bakery on the corner for some dessert. I had the most delicious mint chocolate brownie ever baked and Ryan tried this chocolate meringue thing. It tasted like a mix between chocolate, marshmallows, and pure sugar. It too was delectable. Although not quite as good as my heavenly chocolatey minty goodness. Tyler made Ryan pose for this picture. He told Ryan to "look longingly at his dessert". What weirdos.







We began exploring a bit once we were sufficiently stuffed to the gills. Here are a few pictures of the things we found...

A metal marching band that Tyler tried to march with.

Malmo's City Hall

A tied up gun sculpture. Apparently there are three of these worldwide and one of them is located in New York City?

We then attempted to go see St. Peter's Church... but that didn't work too well. You see, it wasn't so much open for visitors that day.

Our visit was only about seven months too early to see it... But they did put up this really nice sign to let us know that it wasn't worth checking back tomorrow. Which was courteous.

We took a stroll around the church just in case there was anything worth seeing on the outside. It was pretty. But I have a feeling that the inside would've been a lot more pretty had it not been "closed due to restoration".

After our disappointing tour of St. Peter's Church we spend the rest of our afternoon and into the evening doing nothing but walking around and exploring the entire city... Here is what we found:

A massive bike parking lot.

Some nice views.

An old tree to climb.

And a park!

A very large, beautiful park.

With a very large windmill.

And gardens filled with flowers.

We walked all around and explored the whole park until coming to an old Swedish castle/fortress. Here is a small portion of the fortress with the mote that runs around it. They left most of the original structure, but the inside has now been converted into a museum. More about that later... we visited the museum on Friday of our trip.

Our next stop was the newer part of town, down by the water's edge. The Turning Torso building (a very famous piece of architecture in Malmo) was located down here along with what they call "An Ecological City of Tomorrow". The designs of the buildings are all very modern and new. This is, supposedly, what all sustainable cities of the future will look like.

It was really interesting to see such a stark contrast between the buildings we saw in Malmo's town square and these ones on the water front.

All of these apartment buildings are facing the ocean where you can see Copenhagen across the bay on a clear day. Plus, the sun sets perfectly right over the horizon. I can't even imagine how much it would cost to own property here. I'm sure it's not inexpensive by any standards. It was almost comical being there as the sun was setting because we watched as the residents came out on their decks to enjoy the view.... and most of them were around my grandparent's age. I guess I know where I'll be buying one of my summer homes once I start making the big bucks being an engineer instead of spending the big bucks to be in school.

The perfect sunset was the perfect end to our first perfect day on our trip.

After putting on countless miles and spending about ten hours exploring.... we were beat. We made the trek back to the main square after the sun went down to grab some grub and then it was back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. The end.

So there you have it! Our first day in Malmo, Sweden! It was nice to recap all of our adventures and remember all of the wonderful things we saw. I hope you enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoyed writing about it. There will be much, much more to come... I still have to fill you in on Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday! Please... hold back your excitement. :)

Until next time...

Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!

-The Bogarts