I woke up the same as I had done every other morning we have been away. Made my way to the bathroom, had the requisite bathroom evacuation and dragged my way to the sink to wash my weary face. I looked up and caught my reflection in the mirror. What did I see?? Another line on the face. Fine. A slightly enlarged beer belly. Ok. Another grey hair. OH FUCK I'M 30. I thought this day would never arrive. I thought I fought off the signs of ageing. I thought I sold my soul to preserve my youth for eternity. No, I am 30. A new dawn has arisen. An age of contemplating pension schemes, mortgages, of maturity and (my god, no) children of my own. SHIT. SHIT. SHIT. Still, look on the bright side, I'm not at home, I'm away. Maybe, just maybe, no-one will notice that I'm 30. Who am I kidding, of course they'll know. BUM. Ok, but we are going to Sweden today, another new experience. That's it, I need to start my thirties as I finished my twenties, traveling and seeking new experiences. Developing stories to tell my impending children, cause you need stories to share don't you?? Experiences to pass on?? Thank god, my life has a purpose!! Ok, so where was I?? Oh yeah, trip to Sweden.........
So we left our hotel early this morning and caught a train over the Oresund bridge to Malmo. Malmo was, up until the 17th century, an integral part of the Danish empire and as such, there has been a long-standing link between the peoples of the two cities. The completion of the Oresund bridge has further consolidated this relationship and made it easier to commute between the two cities. The bridge itself is spectacular, although you don't really get a sense of it when you are traveling across the stretch of water between Denmark and Sweden. It was only we arrived in Malmo and I saw a picture of the bridge in it's entirety that I really got an idea of it's scale. As you can see, the bridge is pretty breathtaking.
So we arrived at Malmo station (which was pretty grim it has to be said) and made our way over to Lilla Torg square, which was really picturesque, but for the plethora of restaurants....couldn't take a single decent picture, how annoying!! From here we walked to Kungsparken (see photo) and took a look at what we thought was the castle, but then decided it couldn't be it was so dull looking. The streets were lined with more colourful buildings, much like Nyhavn in Copenhagen, why are the buildings so colourful here?? Anyway, we headed back to Lilla Torg and ate lunch at Victors as the storm clouds gathered. We braced ourselves for a sudden downpour, but fortunately it never came.
After lunch we walked back round to the castle complex and had a proper look around. I still believe that the castle is one of the most boring and ugly castles I have ever seen, and I've seen some castles in my time believe me!! Luckily, the interior more than made up for it. There were several museums and art galleries inside, as well as a reptile enclosure (including bats, cool). The castle itself dates back to 1434, when the Danish king Erik of Pomerania was on the throne. Initially, it sat on the seafront, but it is now slightly further inland. The castle underwent a massive refurbishment in the 16th Century under the instruction of Christian III of Denmark.
Inside the castle, in the Malmo Konstmuseum, we caught an exhibition by the artist Mary Beth Edelson. Part of the exhibition included cards where you could write an answer to a question and the card would then become part of exhibition itself. The two questions I responded to were........
What was it like to be a boy/girl?
Immigration is...........
After our taste of Swedish culture, we made our way to the new Western Harbour development. The area was designed as an environmentally friendly development and contains restaurants, cafes and shops. It was quite a cool place to hang out but, unfortunately for us, the wind was quite strong and it was rather overcast still. However, I could imagine on a clear, sunny day that it would be a nice place to chill out and take in the views (you can see the Oresund bridge from the development).
After taking a walk around the coast, we made our way back to the city centre for dinner. We found a quiet, modern restaurant near the city centre (Chili) and settled down to a traditional Swedish meal (burger and chips!!).. The wonderful thing was the difference in price between Copenhagen and Malmo. We have found Copenhagen to be very expensive so far, with meals not much less than £15 a time and beers hovering around the £5 mark. Thankfully, things were a little more affordable in Malmo. In fact, the prices were a little more in line with the prices we pay at home.
As we left Malmo we reflected on our brief flirtation with Sweden and how it compared to Copenhagen. There certainly seemed to be a more relaxed feel to things in Sweden. There was almost a Mediterranean feel to the city of Malmo. People just chilling out, eating al fresco and seemingly less up tight than their neighbours. It is fair to say that, so far, we had found the Danes to be rather rude and impatient, perhaps even a little cold - which is odd for an Englishman to pick up on, given our notoriety for being cold. In general, despite a few exceptions, we have not been impressed with Danish manners. We have been barged out of the way in queues (a particular faux pas to an Englishman), had people standing right up close behind when taking money out of cashpoints (ready to jump in as soon as you took your card out) and the service in some shops and restaurants could best be described as surly. All of this is surprising given that Copenhagen nearly always does well in those standard of living surveys.
On arriving back in Copenhagen we made our way to the Copenhagen Jazz Club, only to find that it was closed. Note to self, be more thorough in your research!! Disappointed, we made our way back to Tivoli gardens once more and had a stroll around the site. At least we had a stroll until I spotted the arcade games, then I suddenly forgot I had turned 30 and decided to demonstrate my prowess on Time Crisis 3 to my wife. It's sad how desperate I was to revisit my past addiction to video games. Of course, she was unimpressed with my gaming abilities, and was eager to drag me off to the shops selling souvenir tat, of which there are many. Having resisted the temptation to buy a classy (mmm) little mermaid ornament, we made our way back to our home amongst the strip joints and porn emporiums to eat the wonderful (E number ridden) miniature birthday cake the wife had bought back home. The final confirmation of the next stage in my life.
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