Holiday Weekend Recap

Erin's birthday weekend was four days long because of the Easter holiday, so we got out of town for two day trips. The festivities started on Thursday evening with a special birthday meal cooked by yours truly along with some small desserts I picked up at a nearby conditori. Here's a pic of Erin having a nice time:

Kullaberg Nature Reserve

On Friday, we rented a car and drove to Kullaberg Nature Reserve with a couple of pit stops along the way, including the Höganäs Saluhall, a super cute shopping area that is kind of like a tiny old mall filled with adorable shops, a cafe, and a restaurant. We did a little fika in their cafe, and I had a bun filled with lemon curd that was YUMMY. We also stopped in a town called Krapperup -- yes, that's what I said -- and walked around a building that kind of looked like old horse stables but which housed a museum, art gallery, cafe, and butik.

At the nature reserve, we hiked a bit through the woods, had a picnic lunch on a fallen tree, and then drove to the very tip of the park where we saw some truly spectacular sights. I'm including a few photos here, but they don't quite capture the beauty of this place.

 

We are planning to return to the nature reserve to visit Nimis, the driftwood labyrinthine sculpture that is part of Ladonia (a very interesting thing to read about).

Copenhagen

On Saturday, we took a train to København. I love that city! It is vibrant, historic, exciting, beautiful, progressive, and diverse, and I cannot wait to go back. We first walked past Tivoli, an amusement park in operation since 1843, and onward to Strøget, the main shopping district. The streets around Strøget were packed like sardines in a can, and there were people playing music and performing magic in different spots all around. After having a Tuborg pilsner at a cafe just outside the shopping district, we made our way to the famous little mermaid statue at Langelinie pier, near which we walked past a uniformed soldier with a machine gun slung over his back. The result of the recent terrorist attack, maybe?

After seeing the statue and complaining about the yahoos climbing all over it, we walked down to Oscar Bar Cafe for a glass of wine and then pressed onward to Nyhavn for dinner. The last pic above is of the Nyhavn area. Our travel book defines this area as "the city's default postcard image," and I'm sure you can see why. 

As an aside, we saw an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations which claimed that the best restaurant in the world, Noma, is located in Copenhagen. Apparently, it takes several months to get a reservation there. 

Fredriksdal

On Sunday, we took a short 10-minute walk from the apartment to Fredriksdal museum and gardens. While the gardens are not yet in bloom, it was still incredibly beautiful and I cannot wait to go back. One really amazing thing about Fredriksdal is that they house endangered or threatened livestock that are indigenous to Sweden which they call "landraces." Not only did we see pigs, horses, a cow, sheep, goats, and chickens, but we also saw two baby lambs and a calf. None of them wanted to be friends with me, but you can bet that I tried very hard.

It was around this time that Erin started to get sick with an ear infection and fits of coughing, which brought the weekend of fun to an end. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery for my girl!

Swedish Holidays

Two holidays are swiftly approaching: Erin's birthday and Easter. More on the former in a later post, lest the source of this holiday catch wind of anything she's not allowed to know about.

In Sweden, Easter is a secular holiday and is a very big deal. Signs of it are omnipresent in Helsingborg; namely, twigs are decorated with colorful feathers all over town that are periodically changed out in central areas. For example, the front window of the cafe I'm writing this post in is framed by twigs decorated with pink and white feathers. For further proof, here are a few pics we took over the weekend.

I need to point out that the central picture was taken by a teenaged guy who attends the international school in Helsingborg. After chatting amiably for a bit about where we were all from -- he is from the north of Sweden -- and what the weather is like there, he politely turned to me and asked, "Would you consider eating less meat?" He then asked Erin the same question. There were signs in English all around the city center that said things like "don't eat smiles" and "fur is dead." 

Back to Easter: there are small chick figurines wearing clothes and large plastic eggs filled with candy for sale in stores. There are also crazy sales going on at the grocery stores; yesterday, there were three pallets of eggs in the produce section of the shop nearest our apartment. Only 5 kronor for six eggs (about $0.58 USD)! These eggs were not refrigerated, else we might be the proud owners of at least 10 packages. In addition to Swedish kids painting eggs, the Swedes love to eat them alongside their pickled herring, and Easter is a great time to chow down on both with all their loved ones. I say, why not?

In my opinion, the most interesting thing about Easter is that the little kids dress up like witches and go house to house exchanging paintings or drawings for candy. It's basically like Halloween, except these "witches" really just dress like old people. The folklore is that during Easter, all these witches fly to some mountain to meet the devil. Isn't this the coolest?

On my walk to the cafe this morning, I passed a small school or daycare and the kids inside were wearing their costumes. I made eye contact with a little girl wearing a colorful headscarf with large painted-on freckles all over her cheeks and nose. If I could have one wish on this Wednesday, it would be to take a selfie with that little girl. But hey, I don't always get what I want.

The first pic below was blatantly stolen from the Internet and the second is of an item I happily spotted in the grocery store yesterday.

Because of Easter, Erin has a four-day weekend that starts on her birthday, known as Good Friday in some circles (but not in this one). The plan for the long weekend is to do a day trip to Copenhagen and at least one other day trip, either up the coast or to Sofiero, which is considered one of the top tourist destinations in Europe. More on that next week. 

Happy Easter to all the little witches out there, and a great big happy early birthday to my Erin! I love you lots and lots.

Settling In

We officially moved into our apartment on Monday, which is where we will stay for the rest of our time in Sweden. Knowing that we don't have to pack up and move another 12 times feels pretty amazing; Erin and I have done multiple fist bumps to commemorate the occasion. I've also been cooking up a storm and ceremoniously made a large pot of spaghetti sauce for dinner last night to baptize the place with the appropriate smells. Getting settled seems to have ironed out my insides a bit, which were getting a little crumpled from living out of suitcases for a month. Jenny is back! 

Here's some background on the apartment. It: 

• was built less than a year ago when two new floors were added to an existing building
• is on the fifth of six floors
• is located about a mile and a half from the city center and is much quieter than where we were previously (there were several nattklubbar around our hotel and we were frequently awoken by shouting, presumably drunk Swedes, including one fight that involved shoving and more than a few barely understandable F bombs) 
• has large, wonderful windows and nice, clean lines throughout
• was previously inhabited by an older couple who were both very sweet but whose English wasn't so good (for the record, our Swedish isn't so good either)

We were lucky that a previous ex-pat had stored his furniture at the plant where Erin works, so we already had a couch, bed, chairs, end tables, and nightstands along with a few spare kitchen items, all of which were brought in by pleasant, chatty man from a moving company who told us all about his estrangement from his brothers and father, a coffee burn he received on his chest as a child, how to prevent scarring from burns, his difficult work schedule, and how he practices Thai boxing in his spare time. Other than that, we fitted our new home with dishes, towels, sheets, candles, lamps, and many colorful items after several trips to IKEA to make it feel more cozy.

From the window in the kitchen, you can see an impressive-looking building that I hiked out to yesterday and which may be a castle. A large stone sign outside of it says something along the lines of:

"To the remembrance of the Battle of Helsingborg on 28 February 1710 and the memory of the Swedish and Danish soldiers who fought and fell on this battlefield for the city of Helsingborg."

Apparently the Danes and the Swedes used to fight over Helsingborg all the time (yawn) and it was once part of Denmark. This reminds me: there's a Great Dane living in our building named Fidel Castro. 

Feel free to take a moment to reflect on that.

Now that we're settled, we're going to start planning some trips outside of the Helsingborg region and are considering a few day trips. Hopefully I'll have some updates on that soon. As an aside, I picked up some new books: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. 

Until next time!

Denmark and the Penultimate Move

Our weekend was colorful but windy. On Thursday, we moved out of the temporary apartment and into a hotel room, then back into the temporary apartment on Sunday. We are officially gold medal contenders for the Olympic team in moving, and the sweet front desk clerk has agreed to be our coach. One week from today will be our final move into our long-term apartment. Relief is within reach!

Here's a rundown of the news since my last post.

Friday Fail

Although this is a little embarrassing, it's also so ridiculous that I'm compelled to share. First, on Friday, I took myself out to the Dunkers Kulturhus, an interesting space that is a tourist center, Helsingborg history museum, reading room, bar/cafe, art gallery, and gift shop. It is also teeming with children.

Afterwards, I walked to Kårnan, the old castle atop the hill in city center. This is where things went wrong.

First, to the left of the large stone staircase leading to the top of the hill, I saw a large blue neon-lit sign I'd never noticed before that said HISS. Beneath this sign was a long, eerie stone hallway lined with historical information about Kårnan, at the end of which was an elevator. On the elevator door was something about a fee of 13 crowns. Ever the adventurer, I pressed the elevator button and stepped inside. As I did so, a totally hidden door in the wall of the tunnel opened and a woman appeared with a credit card machine. I asked her if the 13 crowns was a museum admission fee, and either she didn't speak very good English or we didn't understand each other, because I paid the fee as an elderly man got in with us. We rode to the top and the elevator door opened to reveal the truth:

I'd paid 13 crowns to ride the elevator. I'd gone the handicapped route. There is no Kårnan museum (UPDATE: you actually can tour the castle, but it's only open certain times of the year).

Erin's consolation was that 13 crowns (about $1.50 USD) is a cheap mistake.  

Saturday Trip to Denmark

On Saturday, we took the ferry to Helsingør, a Danish town just across the Öresund from Helsingborg where we went to visit Krongborg, the castle made famous as Elsinor in Hamlet. The ferry departs from the marina every 20 minutes without end, and aboard is a place to buy food and drinks as well as a duty-free shop with booze, cigarettes, stuffed animals, and perfume (i.e., everything you'd ever want). While waiting to board the ferry, I met a gray spaniel named Tilde, whose mom explained is afraid of being left behind while travelling. Tilde was whining a little bit while wearing a custom-made collar with her name on it, and she tried to lick my face while I pet her and talked to her in a funny voice.

Here is a selfie taken aboard the ferry.

We trekked out to the castle (FYI, "castle" in Danish is slot) and, holy cow, what an amazing thing to see. Kronborg is a UNESCO Heritage Site for good reason. These pictures will not be able to accurately capture how incredibly awesome it was to see such a beautiful structure still standing after nearly 500 years. How is it even possible that people once lived here?

Kronborg is basically an enormous museum, complete with winding staircases, tapestries, art, furniture, and more. Interestingly, there were a good many people in the courtyard dressed in all sorts of costumes, and we found out from one of the tour guides that those people are LARPers, i.e., participating in Live Action Role Play. They pay large sums of money and come from all over the world to perform Hamlet there, but have adapted it for various eras. For example, one woman was dressed like a flapper. 

  

After Kronborg, we walked around the town quite a bit, shared a falafel sandwich, and had a beer at a pub. One thing Helsingør has that is amazing is an enormous, incredibly cool library and kulturhus which houses an art gallery and maritime museum along with a place to sit and have something to eat and drink. 

Shameless Plug

One thing I spent a bit of time on last week was a new and improved website for my dad's business, www.TJsDiscountAuto.com. It's a work in progress, and I'm still struggling to figure out the intricacies of search engine optimization. But, for those of you who don't already know, my dad is just about the best one out there and we're hoping the website gives his business some new exposure. 

Have a good week, everyone!

News and More!

I have some good news and some bad news. 

Good news #1: Yesterday, I patted a black lab who was sitting on the stoop of a cigarette shop. We've also spotted at least one fat tabby slinking around the streets. Naturally, I tried to approach him, but he does not seem to want to be friends. Here is a picture of the tabby in question trying to get away from me.

Good news #2: We got word that we'll be able to officially move into our permanent apartment nine days early on March 23.

Bad news #1: We have to move out of our temporary apartment on Thursday and into a hotel room, then back into the temporary apartment on Sunday. Still counting? That will be a total of seven moves when it's all said and done. We've accumulated more stuff since our last foray in the hotel (remember that trip to IKEA?), and the rooms are a bit of a tight squeeze for all of our suitcases, things, and bodies. Alas. I am trying to stay positive and focus on the fact that we'll be in our final Swedish living space within two weeks, but Erin has had to give me a few pep talks. The idea of packing and moving all our crap again and again makes my insides groan.

Other stuff: This past weekend was all about walking and enjoying some weather we Michiganders have not experienced in quite a long time. Sunday hit 50 degrees and the sun was actually shining for more than 10 minutes, so we were out and about as much as possible and spent much of the day walking along the water while periodically stopping for wine. I also had the greatest meal of my travels so far: a Quorn meat-free chicken fillet burger with pickled onions, some kind of spicy cream sauce, and potatoes. It tasted like heaven on a plate and I ate all of it.

Odd Swedish observation #432: Early calculations show that approximately 6.2% of the population uses ski poles while they're out walking. More analysis needs to be done, of course, but I've been far too busy with the hair salon study. 

If the weather is good, we intend to take the ferry to Denmark this coming weekend to visit Kronborg, a castle in Helsingør that Shakespeare wrote about in Hamlet. Until then!

A Few Key Points and Some Pics

1.  It has been confirmed by some people "in the know" that smiling at babies and dogs on the street in Sweden is perfectly acceptable. Their parents, however? Not a chance. 

2.  I am going to get started on a massive sociological survey here in Helsingborg. The early hypothesis is that there are more hair salons per capita in this city than in any other on earth. Even more curiously, they open quite early in the morning and seem to always have a single stylist sitting in a hair chair fiddling with his/her phone because there are no clients. What's going on here? This may be a case for Hercule Poirot.

3.  Speaking of "his/her," I learned that there is a gender-neutral pronoun in Swedish.

he = han

she = hon 

gender neutral = hen

There's an interesting article about this here. Even more interesting is that it originated at two nursery schools in Stockholm. 

4.  Erin and I have made it through our first "real" week in Sweden. We have been in the same apartment for more than seven days now, her final day of the work week is underway, and I have managed to keep myself productive every day. I have also been devouring Glamorama by Brett Easton Ellis and am nearly finished with it. If anyone out there has also read it and wants to discuss, please let me know. I was dreaming about the book last night and have so many questions about confetti and foreign camera crews. 

5.  On Wednesday, I took the train to work with Erin in Landskrona, where I met her colleagues and drank coffee in their canteen and eyeballed the auto parts they engineer at the facility on display in the lobby. While there, a crazy loud alarm went off and a fire truck drove up loaded with men who put out some sort of kitchen fire while we all stood around on the lawn.

6.  We left the plant after lunch in the canteen, where I ate some sort of mixed bean salad atop some very thin pancakes, and hopped on the train to Malmö to finish up a few things for Erin's work visa. We managed to get to our destination after riding our first Skånetrafiken bus and walking alongside a fairly busy road for 15 minutes without really knowing where we were headed, and then felt so mentally exhausted afterward that we wound up back in Helsingborg having wine at a bar near our apartment called Pitchers. We have to return to Malmö in a week or so to pick up her identification card, when we may be brave enough to have a meal and take a few pictures while we're there.

7.  I have forgotten to mention that it's semla season here in Sweden. Semla is basically a giant cream puff that is absolutely everywhere this time of year. People eat these things during fika like it's a religious miracle. There's even a place in city center that has semla in picture frames hanging in the window. I tried to take a picture of one of these, but didn't want the man sitting nearby to think I was a paparazzi, so I took a pic of this instead.

8.  We are anticipating some unseasonably warm weather this weekend and intend to be out in it as much as possible. I will leave you with a few pics I took on one of my walks earlier this week. 

Happy Friday, everyone!

Week 2 Begins!

Today marks the first full week that we've been in Sweden. It is also the beginning of our attempt to establish a routine involving home-cooked food, a full work week for Erin, and me being on my own. This morning, I decided to trek through the rain, sans rain boots, to the Espresso House on the Öresund. This is my view:

Sucks, huh? We discovered this place -- along with many other lovely cafes, restaurants, and bars -- on Friday during a very long walk along the shore. As you will see, Helsingborg is a truly beautiful place, and we cannot wait to experience it during the the summer.

One important thing I've learned in recent days is that if you smile at someone on the street in Sweden, you are seen as either crazy, drunk, or American. While I am never fewer than two of these things at any given time, I've decided to stop giving crinkle eyes to strangers. This is not easy for a guy like me, and I still catch myself doing it pretty frequently. I wonder, though: does this rule also apply to babies and dogs? If anyone has the answer to this extremely pressing question, please leave it in the comments.

One huge feat we accomplished since my last post is finally moving into our temporary apartment. Holy cow, it's enormous -- three bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms -- and we are no longer living out of suitcases that we subsequently have to move every day and a half. This is our view from the living room:

...and here are a few pics of the place:

Notice that the bed is actually two twin beds pushed together with two very thin mattresses atop a large base with individual blankets. This makes nighttime snuggling a little challenging, but still beats the Ward and June Cleaver days. 

After moving into our apartment, we took a ceremonial trip to IKEA, where we first had a little fika in their cafe. I will say that IKEA in Sweden is zero percent different from IKEA in the U.S., with the exception being that all of the signs are in Swedish. The place was packed with Swedes buying cost-effective home goods, and we were able to buy all of the necessary items to make our temporary place a little more comfortable. We have also begun navigating the grocery stores, which are odd places, and a few of our standard staples are difficult to find. I suspect, for example, that Erin may return from her work trip to the U.S. in April with a suitcase full of granola bars. 

Our first meal at home consisted of hummus, cheese and crackers, olives, and cucumbers followed by a frozen pizza and wine. It's possible that neither of us have ever been so relieved to eat such simple food after such an unsettled week.

We also had the displeasure of returning the rental car to the Copenhagen airport on Saturday. Let's just say that we learned a few important things during that trip; namely, despite what the train map says, not all trains go to Helsingborg, so it's important to make sure you get on the right one. After a two-hour detour, we wound up at an Italian restaurant called Bonasera Bonasera, where we ordered spaghetti marinara and -- you guessed it -- pizza and wine. The pasta rolled out covered in mussels and shrimp and seemed to be spiced with the same things you'd put in mulled cider. This is why I've decided to finally start basic Swedish language lessons today. Since when does marinara involve seafood? And why put cinnamon in tomato sauce? 

Later this week, Erin and I will take the train to Malmö, which is the third largest city in Sweden, in order to complete the necessary steps for her work visa. I am sure these two clueless Americans will stumble at least once while we are there. Until then, here is a hopeful image for those of you freezing your buns off in Michigan and on the east coast!

P.s. Happy 11th birthday, Lindsay!