Malmo and Copenhagen, Take Two

Our second day in Malmo began rather early so we could check out of the hotel and have as much time as possible to explore before heading over to Copenhagen late that afternoon.

We made our way downtown to Gustav Adolf Square where we picked up some delicious pastries (from the same little shop we stopped in the day before) and fresh fruit from the farmer's market. It was the best breakfast I've had in a loooonnngggg time. The raspberries and plums we had were ripe and juicy, and the pastries were out of this world. Plus, we got to sit in the sun on a park bench in Southern Sweden and enjoy all of this wonderful food on a beautiful Friday morning. How much better could it possibly get?

We took off towards the converted fortress museum (Malmo Museum) after wolfing down our breakfast. Boy was it an interesting and diverse place! They had all sorts of exhibits there....

They had an aquarium area that had all sorts of fish and underwater creatures as well as a few amphibians.

I can't remember what this particular species of fish is exactly... but I just thought he looked creepy. So I took a picture of him to share with all of you so that you could think he was creepy too.

They even had dinosaurs! Not real ones though....

Rounding the corner after the dinosaur exhibit.... we came to their hall dedicated to "Tolerance". They had a variety of stories from around the world about violence/intolerance witnessed by Swedish people.

There was even one from Duluth, MN!!! Pretty weird, huh?

The story was an account of a young Swedish boy living in Duluth who witnessed a crime but never spoke up or told the police that the man they let go was guilty. (That's what I remember translating from the Swedish writing anyway... it was something along those lines.)  I think it was supposed to teach us that by keeping silent, we are promoting violence? I don't really know for sure.

Not that I should feel PROUD to say my college town is in a museum exhibit about violence....

But it is pretty cool to see a picture of an area I live next to in museum in a foreign country. Even if it isn't for the best reasons.

After learning about tolerance, we looked at some fake cute baby animals.













And then... we entered their "Health" exhibit...

Here we learned that HIV-AIDS is spread when you love someone... haha.

And we learned that love can also lead to babies...

And then Ryan got scared. So we high-tailed it outta there real quick-like... :)

Learning about the formation of babies was a bit much for the boys... so we went to the war history part of the fortress.

And then we moved onto some art exhibits...

Some of the art was really beautiful...

The scale of this picture doesn't really portray it very well, but this mural was painted in a massive dome. From far away it looks like tiles, but it's not....

And some of it... was a little... demented?

Not to mention strange....

They had this whole upper area that resembled an attic and it was filled with nothing but giant projection screens of... what would you call them? Independent films maybe? I don't know... Apparently it was art to someone. To me, it was just weird.







After getting our fill of nature, history, art, and all sorts of other lovely things... we headed to the train station to meet up with our friend Manuel.

And then... it was off to the chocolate factory! This is the last original chocolate factory that is still up and running in Sweden. They pride themselves on making "real" chocolate by adding as few ingredients as possible. Unfortunately, you have to schedule a tour in advance to actually SEE the factory... but we got to see a miniature museum exhibit about its history and sample some chocolates. They were fantastic!

Having liquor added for flavor was a very common theme. I thought the Bacardi Razz hearts looked nice, although I didn't try one.

Ryan, however, jumped at the chance to try their whiskey flavored chocolate. Go figure. ;)

He and Tyler both decided to try it....

Ryan is convinced now that the best thing to mix with whiskey is chocolate. After sampling a little bit, I'd have to say I agree. Although I'm not sure we'd have Katy Smith's vote on this one.... And she is THEE Whiskey Girl after all! ;)

After the chocolate factory, it was a whirlwind of suitcases, backpacks, busses, confusion, and different passes for about two hours until we finally boarded the train to Copenhagen.

But we made it on the train! It was just a short ride across the bridge and under the water to Copenhagen. That's right, I said under the water!

Speaking of water! Our hotel in Copenhagen was called the CabinInn. Not because it resembled a backwoods, Minnesota-style cabin though...

But because it felt like they had built a hotel around an actual cruise ship. Complete with the tiny room and bunkbeds.

And the airplane-sized bathroom that is completely taken up and when you wrap around the shower curtain to take a shower. Did I mention that it makes the entire floor wet too?


It's a good thing we didn't plan on spending too much time in the room. If we had, I might've been a little disappointed. haha








After checking out our new digs... we did a little exploring on our way to find some food...

Where Ryan decided to impersonate statues...

Yes, I know I chose to marry him. Yes, I know he is beyond weird. I love him anyway...

After moseying around, we finally found a place to eat dinner. I can't even remember the name of the place now... but they had really good food and horrible service. I don't think our waitress liked waiting on the Americans... haha sad but true.

After dinner, we made the game plan for Saturday and passed out from exhaustion. I don't think we even made it to 11 pm before everyone was snoring....

And that's that! Day two of our weekend excursion. Sorry about the delay between posts. Blogger has been having some issues with me and uploading my images. I'll try to make her cooperate to do a post tomorrow. No promises though.

Until next time...

Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!!
-The Bogarts

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

Archipelago trip photos

Sorry it has taken so long to get these pictures up on the blog from our trip to the Lulea Archipelago... I just finally got the pictures from Tyler on our picture exchange the other night. Enjoy!

About a month ago now, we took an amazing day trip via boat to the island of Kluntarna (part of the Archipelago near Lulea). The weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was a sunny Saturday in September, with a slight breeze, and temperatures in the low 60's.

It took us approximately 90 minutes to reach our destination from the port in downtown Lulea. As soon as we stepped off the boat, we started exploring this beautiful island.

There were these awesome "boardwalk" type paths throughout most of the island that enabled us to get around easily while not getting completely lost as we roamed about. They definitely weren't the sturdiest thing I've ever walked on, but what can you expect from a volunteer maintained island?

From the top of a hill on the island, you could see some of the other nearby islands in the Archipelago. There are over 700 islands of varying sizes within about three and a half kilometers (about 2 miles). I wish I could take an entire summer and do nothing but explore all of them!

I think that the rock formations, the views, and the woods were very reminiscent of the North Shore. I believe that's why I enjoyed the scenery so much. It was just like being on a camping trip with my family back in Minnesota.

See what I mean? Gorgeous.

The only thing that really had no resemblance to Minnesota what-so-ever was the ground. There wasn't just the usual grass with patches of dirt and rocks... there was all sorts of colorful vegetation instead.

Here is a picture of a "labyrinter" we found. These were made by people over the years who have traveled or settled here, and can be found scattered around the entire archipelago. According to an informational site about the islands, "The concentration of labyrinths in the Norrbotten archipelagos is the largest in the world." 

We also found and climbed an old watch tower that was used during World War II to spot planes as they flew over the islands.

You can't really tell from the pictures, because they don't do it justice, but it was quite the climb to the top! And it was scary getting up there and even more scary coming back down. But at least they had the triangle cage around the ladder... it was kind of comforting knowing if anyone HAD fallen, at least they wouldn't have died. They just might have broken a few bones and lost a few teeth...

We ran into some locals from Lulea who decided, since it was such a beautiful day, to take their yacht out for the afternoon and pick some berries in the archipelago. Doesn't that sound just rough? Yeah, I thought so too.

But they were actually very nice people and they even showed us what plants grew lingon berries and how to distinguish the real blueberries from other berries that are blue but don't taste nearly as good.

And so, we picked berries. It was delightful.

After picking berries, we joined the rest of the exchange students so Ryan and Tyler could partake in the wood-burning sauna.

There was, in true Lulea exchange student fashion, mostly guys in the sauna of course. Shannon and I decided to pass. Something about mass quantities of sweaty guys in close quarters just didn't appeal to us. Also, the whole cooling off in the ice cold water with said sweaty guys didn't sound too great either. But apparently it did to Ryan and Tyler.

And then, after a full afternoon of exploring, we took the boat back home.

Shannon and I both slept a majority of the way back. It was an exhausting day! Thankfully, the boys took one for the team by staying awake to get these great pictures.







Well.. there ya have it folks! Some scenic pictures from the beautiful country where we have the opportunity to reside this year.

Coming up next... our explorations of Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark!


Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!!
-The Bogarts

My apologies... Blogger is hating on me right now.

Sorry for the extreme lack of posts and updates this week! The past few days have flown by and I just haven't found the time to do any posts this week. And, sure enough, when I went to do some today... Blogger is having issues uploading my images! Needless to say, the posts I need to do are pretty useless without photos... so you will just have to be patient for a little while longer.

I really am sorry for keeping you hanging. I will do my best to get a post up today if Blogger starts cooperating....

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!

Peace, Love, and Swedish Meatballs!!!
-The Bogarts