Malmö here I come! Four hours of whizzing past lush green pastures and cute farm houses and NO penises or mountains of depressing garbage along the train tracks. I sat on the bench at the train station with my backpack WIDE open and didn´t worry one minute about scoundrels. Cleaner than ever, and comfortable chairs and magazines and food cars with beer and wine! ooh yeah I could get used to train rides like this. I was sitting in the quiet area? This exists? I even had to ask someone, Are there assigned seats? She looked at me like I was an alien. Okay. I get it. Or. gan. ized.
So, I headed down to the south of Sweden cause I heard it was beautiful,(too true) and two friends Lovisa and Freja that I met at Sadhana live down in Skäne.I arrived on the perfect midsummer´s day. The longest day of the year in Sweden. Sunny and chilly and windy and hailing? Yeah apparently that´s normal. I trekked through the ghost town of Malmö on midsummer through the plazas filled with amazing sculptures and statues. It was strange for things to be so empty. Everyone flees to the countryside to celebrate midsummer and so the town reminded me of walking through UVillage on a sunday morning before anything opened. Everything was still there, there was just no movement. The city was still. It could have been weird but it was actually quite lovely, none of the hustle and bustle of the tons of shops, I could gaze into all the closed store fronts and wander and wander until I got to my hostel. My hostels in Sweden just keep on getting better and better by the way. This one was kind of a walk, but I had a four bedroom dorm all to myself decorated of course head to toe in Ikea, and the beds ohhhh the beds. I want to write poetry on the blissfulness of the sleep on the hostel beds in Sweden. Its something magical. And this time around I decided to go for the breakfast. In all the hostels in Sweden you have a delicious breakfast buffet which you can buy for around 7bucks. You also have to pay to rent linens at the hostels here, but since I have my own towel, pillowcase and sleepsheet I figured the money I save on that can now go to delicious breakfast! And when I first arrived I just wanted to shop for my own shit but since the whole town was closed I just rolled with the hostel brekkie. Ohhh good toasted bread with oats and nuts in it, covered in warm melting butter and rasberry jam that tastes like pie. Thin savory slices of cheese, tangy apple juice, fresh melon. Make your own museli with rasins and crunchiness and the best of all is the strong, real coffee that I havent had in ages, none of this nescafe ho ha that they have in India.
After indulging in a long night´s sleep and a long, lingering breakfast I set out to traipse. I hadn´t heard back from my friends and didn´t want to head all the way to their town and not see them so in the end I just decided to explore Malmö on my own. Apparently Malmö is Sweden´s first fair trade city, but all the shops were closed so I didn´t even get to ask anyone how you make a whole city fair trade, etc. But the coffee I had was fair trade and it was delicious so I guess I got a little taste? of it. I found myself walking through the banks of this lovely park. The whole place was like a setting for a Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tale. Snow White and Goldilocks and the Little Mermaid had to be just around the bend. Geese with bright orange beaks taking over the water banks and paddling back and forth in the tow of the river. Flowers small and white that smell like the inklings of springtime in Reno and make me miss home terribly. I find a quiet dock and sit in the sunlight and write and draw for an hour, until the weather turns seattle style and starts raining for a bit. It is so quiet I could hear the creaking of the wood under the flow of the water, a distant dog barking, geese honking, I could hear the wind rustling through the tall river grass. I laughed out loud to myself that I was really in this place. Then I turn the bend, and whats that? An old fashioned windmill? Is Sweden serious? Does it try to look like a postcard all the time or is it just a coincidence? Funny thing is I found a postcard later of this exact spot.
I made it all the way to the ocean and stared out at the bridge that takes you from Malmö to Copenhagen. Everybody wave at Denmark! The water was such a deep dark blue and the wind blew furiously splashing it up cold against the rocks. A good day for kites as some people were finding out. I walked around the waterfront and checked out all the amazingly cute apartments with bright crayon colors and impecible design, I saw the Turning Torso Malmö´s most famous building which is actually pretty cool. I was walking along the oceanside and all of a sudden movie style out of nowhere romantic music began playing and getting louder and louder till finally this woman was belting ballads where is that coming from? I looked all around me. There was no one. I finally climbed over the hill where it seemed sound was coming from to see these speakers in the grass just playing music. But no one was around. WHAT. Its nice, but who is this music for? Anyways...I made it home after trekking completely around the city, exhausted and made myself some spagetti.
I had this nice plan of just chillin for the evening, writing some postcards, going to bed early to catch my morning bus back to Stockholm. The I was in the TV room and meet Mai, an american girl from where? Of course Seattle. And her friend Susanna who is Swedish-American and has also lived in Seattle for like the last fourteen years. What a small world. So we chat about the two countries and healthcare and Swedish etiquette, etc. They invite me out with them that night. And of course I go. I´ve been wandering by myself all day long and could use some girl time. Especially Seattle girl time- boo ya. So we get all dressed up, luckily I bought some cheap flats in India and can finally rock one of the dresses I got there and we go out for dinner. At the light out hour of 8pm. I had one the most delicious Swedish plank of a meal. And I mean that straight up. It was called the vegetarian plank. About a foot and a half of eggplant and veggies baked under vast layers of delicious cheese. Sided with mashed potatoes squeezed out frosting style to look pretty then baked, with some crazily decadent Swedish sauce. And a roasted tomato, and freshly just slightly steamed bright green broccoli and asparagus. OH WOW. I havent eaten this good in a long ol time. And we shared a bottle of white wine. Granted the meal cost about as much as one night of accomodation for me, but sometimes you just have to enjoy a good meal, and company, and delicious wine. These girls are so much fun and we sat around chatting while Mai got hit on by every guy in sight, and then went dancing at the Cuba Cafe. Dancing hmm, more like watching this Edward James Olmos look alike with a profound mullet shake it like Shakira in his skin tight all white bellbottoms outfit. Quite fun though to drink strawberry mojitos and get to dance in public and all while it isnt quite dark out. And did I mention that this spot was in the middle of a park in Malmö- everything just HAS to be cute here doesnt it?
Anyways, I had a lovely time in only two days and got to be alone, be with friends, and be by the ocean. Pretty Pretty good.
Im back in Stockholm heading to wwoof for two weeks, so check you then!
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