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:

News...more like procrastination with a touch of narcissism

Hello everyone!

I am so sorry that I have been out of touch lately. Things have been a little crazy! I went back home to South Africa in the beginning of April for a very fast and furious two weeks. My brother and his wife had just had their second baby and my sister was about to have her first! It seemed as good a time as any  to whip out my savings and go home for a little visit. On top of that Oliver and I hadn't seem each other for four months and I was absolutley dying to see him!

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 :)

14 Random facts about Sweden

1. Sweden has a population of roughly 9.4 million people
2. Pippi Longstocking is Swedish
3. Swedes are known for their Innovations. Swedish Inventions include: the zipper , marine propeller, the refrigerator, the computer mouse, the pace-maker
4. The Nobel Prize Ceremonies are held in Sweden and Norway every year on December 10th. The Nobel Prizes were founded by the Swedish inventor and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite in 1866.
5. The favorite food in Sweden is usually meatballs with potatoes and lingonberry sauce. (a berry type jam). Swedish pancakes are also a favorite.
6. IKEA and H&M are both Swedish brands
7. Sweden is full of music! Sweden has produced many famous musicians and musical groups over the years such as: ABBA, The Hives, Millencollin, The Cardigans.
8. Sweden is the land of the Midnight Sun! Every year, Swedes celebrate Midsummer (Midsommar) on the twenty-third of June. On this longest day, in many parts of Sweden the sun never sets.
9. All the Tsars of Russia including the last one, Nicholas II, were Swedish. This is because in the 9th and 10th centuries Swedish Vikings invaded Eastern Europe and founded the first Kingdom of Russia (might explain why they both value good Vodka)
10. Per capita Sweden has the most number of McDonald's chains in Europe
11. Sweden was neautral in both World Wars
12. The sun rises at 3:30 in summer and sets at 15:30 in winter
13. The first ice-hotel in the world was built in Sweden
14. On Christmas Eve every year at 15:00 most Swedes settle in to watch Donald Duck

Psalmer från köket (Kitchen Stories)

Did you know that you can hire DVD's from Stadsbibliotek for free? Yip! For free....they have a range of Swedish movies, international films, and documentaries.  If I am not mistaken you can take up to 5 DVDs a week which is a pretty sweet deal. So in my pursuit to learn more Swedish I have started watching more Swedish movies and it just so turns out I had to watch one for a course I am doing on ethnothgraphy. I think I am going to start doing some short Swedish movie reviews for this blog! Enjoy!

The film is primarily set in the kitchen of Isak, a cantankerous old man who lives alone and unwittingly agreed to take part in an ethnographic study on single men’s habits in the kitchen. Folke Nillson, the researcher assigned to observe Isak, encounters numerous problems in his endeavours to understand the habits of single men in the kitchen. The absurdity and simultaneous reality of the film makes it humorous and moving.

However, as the research continues the observer becomes the observed and soon enough the two men find themselves becoming friends, despite being warned not to do so. Sheding light on issues related to ethnography the film has some alarmingly funny and bizarre scenes!