Österlen

During our two week road trip Oliver and I spent two days along the little coast which stretches from Ales Stenar to Kivik in the Eastern part of Skåne which is beautiful with a lot to see and do.....

Ales Stenar

Constructed around AD 600 the 67m ship-shaped rocks of Ales Stenar are fascinating. It is believed that the stones were erected as a solar calendar.

Foteviken Viking Reserve

After spending a lovely morning strolling through Hjärup and Lund, Oliver and I decided to take a trip to the famous Foteviken Viking Reserve.

A hike in Söderåsen National Park

Knowing that my Jojo Summer Card was about to run dry I decided to make one last cool summer trip on it to Söderåsen National Park. I expected it to be pretty but no where near as diverse and as beautiful as it actually is.

Bjärred Beach

Bjärred is a little coastal town 10kms from Lund with a nice little beach and some fancy looking houses!

Landskrona...a great place to spend a few hours

Whenever the train stopped at Landskrona when I was on my way up to Helsingborg I peered through the train windows hoping to see a glimmer of why I should visit. But it always looked super quite and uninspiring. However, kitted out with my Jojo Summer card I thought what the heck, let me see if I am wrong.

And man-oh-man was I mistaken. Landskrona is a lovely and it really is an awesome way to spend a few hours!

A cool town: Kristianstad

It's known as the most Danish place in Sweden, which is not surprising considering the town was founded by a Dane in 1614, Christian IV of Denmark.

A spontaneous stop in Höllviken

One of the days last week when the weather was simply beautiful there was no option but to head down to the beach. My plan was to arrive at the central station and take the next bus to whichever beach. It turns out as I got there a bus to Falsterbo Peninsula was about to head out.
I had been there once before and knew that it would be well worth the journey (about an hour and a half just to get there). However, I did not expect the bus to get so full that it would have people lining the walkway. It was packed. It seems everyone had the same idea as me.

I sat in the bus and was grateful that I had a seat next to a window but soon the heat in the bus became too much and I just had to get off! So as soon as I heard the word strand (beach) I climbed off.

A stroll in Dalby Söderskog

Although it was a bit of a pain in the butt to find Dalby Söderskog is a lovely place!

Living right next door to Dalby I realised that I was irritated that I hadn't paid a visit to a national park so close by. So, I packed my bags and headed out to take a hike in the forested region.

Around the Sound

Travelling around Sweden isn't the cheapest thing in the world. And wanting to go across the Oresund Bridge to get some of the action happening in Denmark is even more expensive. So what to do?

Make a trip of it!!!

Going via train return to Copenhagen from Lund will cost you roughly 216SEK but if you buy the Around the Sound ticket it will cost you 249SEK so why buy the Around the Sound ticket? Here's why:

• You get unlimited travel in Southern Sweden and Denmark for a full two days
• It's the perfect excuse to go away for the weekend
• You get to take the train in one direction and the super awesome ferry in another
• And, when the weather is good its amazing just how much you can see in two days!

When my friend Karolina was here we decided to make use of this pretty sweet deal and see how much we could see. This is what we managed to do:

Falsterbo Peninsula

30 kilometres South of Malmö, , Falsterbo Peninsula is a beautiful little getaway, even if it's just for a morning.

A walk along the beautiful coastline stretching between Skanör and Falsterbo is calm, relaxing, and wonderfully beautiful.

The water is clean and clear and appears to go on forever. This peninsula is the southwestern most tip of the scaninavian peninsula and is the border between the Baltic Sea and the Øresund.

The origin of both towns dates back to the end of the 12th century and today there are affluent areas with large houses.

But the reason you really go to falsterbo peninsula is this:

It's for the stretches and stretches of white sand and blue, blue water!

It's a train!No,it's a bicycle! No, wait! What the hell is that?

Up-down, up-down, my legs are pushing themselves, and the swooosh, I freewheel for a short while, clickity-clack, clickity-clack, the slight downhill means I am picking up a little speed, clickity-clack, clickity clack, we giggle, this is simply too cool, too random, it's awesome!

People have a way of making random inventions that exploit things of the days gone by; a burnt house makes for an awesome paintball field, or an old submarine as a new age museum. What would you do if you had a stretch of old railway that was no longer in use but that stretched through beautiful farm lands and little bits of valley? Make a rail-bicycle of course!

Valborg

Today is Valborg in many Northern European countries. What is Valborg? Well up until today I thought that it was just a massive piss up here in Lund but it turns out that there is a whole lot of history to this day and it is one of their biggest holidays, second only to midsummer.

It is the eve of May Day and it often also known as Walpurga's night in English and Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish. Started as far back as the middle ages it was orginally a pagan festival that was meant to watrd of evil spirits and welcome fertile soil to the lands as spring approaches. In that same vein, minus the religion, Valborg today is more about welcoming spring and saying goodbye to winter.

One of the biggest parts of the tradition is lighting huge bonfires and it appears that this starts at around 20:00 when things start to get dark. Then people go about singing traditional Swedish songs. Lund and Uppsalla are said to have two of the biggest and oldest festivals with students gathering to get merry from as early as 08:00. Generally students start with some champaigne and strawberries before working their way to the harder liquor to make sure they are in the merry spirit by the time 20:00 comes round.

I don't think I have the liver or kidney capacity to get started that early but plan on heading over at around 11:00. I'll be sure to give you a follow up entry outlining what I am sure will be both mad and awesome!

Till then :)

Spring has Sprung

Living in Southern Sweden this time of year is the stuff dreams are made of. The weather is pleasant and every time you head out your door there are new flowers in bloom. Somehow when the weather is good everything just seems better. People's moods are lifted, the birds are chirping and everything just seems to be in a moment of peaceful blissfulness.

A little stop in Hjärup

A stone through away from Lund, Hjärup is a lovely little place to visit for an hour. During the week it is deathly quiet and you could be tricked into thinking you are the only person there.

Ice Hockey!

We were totally this close!

Last night I got to go to my first ever ice hockey game! and it was a big one! It was a 40 year anniversary game so the stadium was quite full! We went to watch the Malmo Red Hawks on their home turf.

Lovely Lomma

Lomma, like most beach towns, is quite during the off-peak season. But it is incredibly beautiful, especially on days like today when the weather is warmer and the wind is calm. Just a twenty minute bus ride from Lund heading to Lomma for a short break is a great idea. Walking along the promenade it is easy to see why people love this little town in the summer but it is also breath-taking in the winter with the sea frozen and a nice view of the Oresund bridge.

Here are some pics from my latest stroll:

Soothing cemeteries

I don't know if it makes me weird but there is definitely something soothing about cemeteries, especially these old cemeteries in Sweden. I find myself drawn to them. They are quite and the trees  sway with a wisdom that only they know and which seems just out of reach of those that wander the paths beneath them.

The Polar Plunge!

Yesterday, myself and some mates from class made a mission to Kallbadhuset (literally translated to Cold Bath House). I was a little nervous about the whole thing....one, you had to be naked while relaxing in the sauna and two it involved jumping into icy cold water.

Random Ramblings

I have been stumped about what to write about. In all honesty...I have been busy with class stuff mostly!

However, there are some changes that are happening. Firstly, it is starting to get cold! Last weekend the weather was randomly spectacular (apparently Swedish summer weather), the temperature was over 20 degrees Celsius, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and all in all it was just glorious! Needing to get away from the books for a while I hopped n by bicycle and found a spectacular little road that was lined by green fields and I just enjoyed the awesomeness of riding in the fantastic weather and beautiful scenery. I had a feeling that was a good weather send off...I knew it was going to start getting colder thereafter. And it has...with wind chill factor is has been about 9/10 degrees Celsius.

Considering how quickly things are going to get cold I decided to visit a neighbouring city, Malmö, this afternoon! Malmö is the third biggest city in Sweden and it is gorgeous. Being Sunday, there weren't many attractions that were open but I found myself just randomly strolling through streets and admiring the clear skies and great architecture. In South Africa Sunday's buzz with shops and activities, I was surprised at how quite and closed everything seemed in Malmö... However, several clothing stores start to grumble open at around mid-day so I did a spot of shopping. I finally bought myself a pair of pants for gym so there is no more putting it off! Yip, I will be joining gym this week (another change).

In the next two weeks I will be finishing my first course and starting my second. At the moment I am writing and studying like some kind of psycho. The paper I am writing counts for my entire mark for this course so I guess I'm a little nervous about it! On top of that it is the first paper I am submitting for grading at Lund and I am scared of how I will be graded! eeeek! "The first cuts the deepest", right?

Anyway, I can feel that these are just random ramblings as I really have nothing concrete or of incredible interest to tell you!! But when I do, you'll be the first to know :)