Eurovision and a Boat Ride

We had an exciting weekend close to home, starting with an afternoon in Malmö that consisted of a walk through The Emporia, one of Scandinavia's largest shopping malls, and a few loops around the international food festival taking place in city center. If you guessed that we worked an afternoon glass of wine and a snack into all of this, you'd be right. While the mall was really no more remarkable on the inside than any other shopping mall, it is pretty cool from an architectural point of view. 

Eurovision

Yet another benefit to living in Europe is access to all the splendor of the Eurovision Song Contest, which we had the pleasure of watching for the very first time this past weekend. Eurovision is basically a bigger, flashier, more exciting version of American Idol. It's been going on since 1956, and we were two of nearly 200 million viewers that tuned in to watch the grand final this year. Abba, who brought the top prize home to Sweden in 1974, is one of the best-known winners of the contest.

Many Europeans get super excited about Eurovision. Some have parties or gather at their favorite gay bar to ogle the smiling Europeans in splashy costumes singing and dancing beneath dazzling lights on live television. It is pure cheesiness at its absolute finest, so Erin and I were honored to experience this cultural rite. To be fair, we didn't see the whole thing and missed what is supposedly the best part (the voting) -- I was asleep by 10:30 and it went on until well past 1:00 a.m. -- but I did whip up a homemade pizza and we toasted with prosecco to celebrate our initiation into this fine institution.

This year, Sweden's own Måns Zelmerlöw won with this performance, so of course we were pleased as punch. The rule for voting is that you cannot vote for your own country, so the whole thing can get very political. The winning country then hosts the competition the following year.

Boating to Mölle

After the flurry of excitement that was Eurovision, we had the pleasure of joining our friends Simon and Julie on their lovely motorboat for a ride to Mölle, a beautiful little town in Skåne that was the site of Sweden's first nude beach in the latter 19th century. This may not seem like a big deal, seeing as nude bathing is a fairly common thing here, but I understand that those folks got involved in a little more than splashing around in the water, if you catch my drift. Nowadays, it's less a place for titillation and more just a quiet, cozy little seaside town.

The full force of the wind wasn't apparent until we were well out into the Öresund. Since the water was pretty choppy, Simon had to keep the boat moving at a fairly low speed of nine or 10 knots to limit the feeling of being on a roller coaster. I haven't been on a boat in quite a long time (ferries do not count), and the cool wind blowing through my hair and on my face, the spray of the salt water on my cheeks, and the beauty of the blazing yellow canola fields dotting the Swedish coastline made for quite a romantic combination. I distinctly realized that I've never seen any place as beautiful as Sweden, never mind that I also saw my first wild jellyfish -- there were dozens of them floating in the harbor. 

 

What wasn't romantic was feeling seasick as soon as we entered the marina, and I worked very hard internally to avoid leaning over the side of the boat and retching the remnants of the östsmorgas I had for my morning snack into the water in front of all the tourists lining the pier. Thank goodness this did not happen, and the walk around town calmed me instantly. We also enjoyed a lovely picnic of bread, cheese, fruit, and pastries on the boat. Thankfully, the ride back was quite a bit smoother, and Simon was able to crank up the speed to around 20 knots. He even let Erin drive!

On a sad note, Erin and I have just passed the halfway mark of our time here, so we're frantically trying to pack in as much travel as we possibly can in these last three months. Norway and Iceland are booked and in our near futures -- stay tuned for more news on the travel front!