Swedish Souvenir Shops Have an Unhealthy Obsession with Moose

A few of us decided to take a day trip into Sweden today. It’s a 20 minute train ride from the central train station in Copenhagen, so it’s the easiest country to get to from here. It was an interesting day to take a trip because Sweden played Denmark in football tonight right in Copenhagen. For one, we saw countless people all day (the game didn’t start until 8 PM) dressed in either Danish - red - jerseys (in Denmark) or Swedish - yellow - ones (in Sweden - we actually arrived back in Copenhagen just as the game ended. We sort of expected to see the streets flooded with Danes in celebration - or riot - but it was quite uneventful, save passing by crowded bars issuing loud cheers and chants on our walk back from the station. Ironically enough, it was when we decide to head back to Keops that the bus got stuck in traffic of people - and cars and bicycles - coming back from the stadium in a winding, endless stream down the roads). We were supposed to meet up at 9:15…but for a variety of set-backs, didn’t get onto the train until 10:40. I think Sweden is more of what most people expect a Scandinavian country to look like, particular in respect to the type of architecture found in every neighborhood.

We were in the city of Malmö, which is less crowded than, say, Copenhagen, but does have it’s busy areas (Stortorget - the Swedish equivalent of Copenhagen’s Strøget). It also has the Turning Torso, which makes a 90 degree turn from base to roof - and is VERY expensive to rent per square meter.

We visited the Malmö museums, located in Scandinavia’s oldest castle, Malmöhus (originally build during Danish rule, but rebuilt - due to fires, etc. - many times since).

Unlike American museums, within the castle were several museums located in different areas and floors, including art, history, reptiles, and an aquarium. Part of the museum also allowed us to tour part of the original fortress. The castle wasn’t all it was cracked up to be; Hamlet’s castle (which is on several people’s to-visit list) fits more of the castle-view: unmodernized, untouched, centuries-old ruins located far from dense civilizations, majestically towering over the countryside.

Afterward, we walked along the exterior, taking in the sights before deciding to go on a canal tour of the city. Our guide gave the tour in both Swedish and English. Quite a character, he had a sense of humor in his speech that kept us thoroughly entertained. Unfortunately, after an afternoon of cloudiness, it started to rain a bit.

Fortunately, we all got ponchos on the boat. Even better, after we emerged from dinner after the tour less than two hours later, the sun was out and the weather was gorgeous!

The Swedes are noticeably more friendly than the Danes. The service in restaurants and cafés is more polite and friendly (with a better usage of English). Couples in paddle boats will wave to you as they paddle down the canals - oh, the canals! They flow through and around the city and are very beautiful. We spent the rest of the evening (after paying a brief visit to S:T Petri Kyrka - St. Peter’s Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the city) walking through the parks of Malmö.

By this time, there were only four of us left, as the larger group had fragmented and separated for various reasons. The beautiful weather made strolling along the park paths along the canal something special. An advantage of being light outside for so many hours of the day (from about 5 AM ’til 10 PM) is the long sunset. Casting a soft glow, the sunlight shimmers off the reflective water. Surely something this magnificent cannot exist in a modern city! But amidst the towering buildings of civilization is nestled a quiet piece of beauty only a walk off the beaten path will discover. To think that the two can co-exist with each other, I marvel at the sheer brilliance of it all - Malmö, Copenhagen, Denmark, the experience.

Our timing today was perfect (except, perhaps, for the morning lateness - but then again, those delays set everything else in perfect motion). As our train, which we caught right before departure right after getting back to Central Station, pulled away from Malmö, the sun was beginning to set. As I sat facing Malmö as it shrank in the distance, the Turning Torso dwarfed the city landscape beneath it. The sea glimmered with the rippling reds and oranges of the sun. As Sweden faded into the horizon and Copenhagen rose from within the sinking sun, I felt that a fairytale couldn’t do life justice.

Oh, and Denmark came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie with Sweden. However, the game was called off because of a fan attack on a referee.