Köpenhamn and Skåne

You might find it a bit odd that all high schools in Sweden have the entire Halloween week off of school and yet Halloween is an American holiday and in America we don't even get Halloween day off of school!  Don't worry, it was just a coincidence that Höstlovet (vacation week) is the same week as Halloween.

The main event that occurred during Höstlovet was our trip to Köpenhamn (Copenhagen)And it all started with my very first train ride into Köpenhamn, Danmark.  When we got there we met up with Sierra and her host parents (my second host family) and checked into the hotel.

Köpenhamn's train station

City Hall

                                  You always tell me to take pictures of everything so here ya go... All of downtown Köpenhamn right here :)

We went up the Round Tower which is a spiraling brick path up to a lookout over all of Köpenhamn.

The view from the top of the tower (full 360 degree view)

City Park

We ate lunch at a typical Danish sandwich shop...

...and I tried a special danish drink called citronvan.  It tasted like a combination of sprite, sparkling water, and lemonade (very good!)

This was my first dish: smoked salmon and shrimp on bread with a green pesto-ish sauce.

And my second dish was apple and onion coated pieces of meat served with a rye-type bread.

And of course we had fika there as well with a danish pastry.

These were all the options of sandwiches we got to pick from.  It took me about an hour to decide! Just kidding, but I did want to try them all!

Finally after touring the city, our host parents released us in Tivoli! An amusement park that was Halloween themed.

I took Sierra on her first upside-down roller coaster and she loved it so much that we went on it about 4 times.  We were even able to figure out the location they had the camera and pose for it :)

Then right before closing time the park put on a water, smoke, light and fire show.  It was one of the coolest things I have seen!

Unfortunetly I was unable to put the video onto my blog but you can view the performance on this link.  The video gets a little boring in the middle but the ending is definitely the best!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzU7o06yJpAUZGhESmUyWUFMbWs/edit?usp=drive_web

The next day we got a different view of Köpenhamn - from the water on a boat tour!

The opera house (Operaen in Danish)

One of the most modern opera houses in the world and is located on a man made island in the city.

This statue of the little mermaid (Den lille havfrue) is Denmark's icon since 1913 and is based off the story The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen who happens to have lived in Köpenhamn.

Then we passed the Royal Castle.  The building on the right is where the king lives and the building on the left is for the queen.  You can see that the flag on the queen's side is not up meaning she is currently not home.

Our last stop in Köpenhamn was to try a typical Danish sausage: the Rød pølse (red sausage).  

It was pretty bland but still good.

  

Train station

One really cool thing about taking the train into Köpenhamn is that the train goes halfway on a bridge and then goes under water for the other half.  Although the tunnel is cemented and you can't see that you are under water, you can feel the pressure change when your ears pop.

Lund:  The next day we went to Lund to see Maira and Axel (Sierra's host siblings).  Axel gave us a very nice tour of the campus before we went out for dinner.

The next day we toured all around Skåne (southern Sweden).  We started in Malmö and visited the Turning Torso; the tallest building in all of the Nordic countries! Unfortunately since it is residential living building we were not allowed to go in.

Downtown Malmö

Next we visited the southern most point of Sweden.  And you could say it was a little rainy and windy :)  We were outside for about 1 minute 30 seconds, just enough time to take the picture and when we got back in the car we were soaked even wearing our rain clothes!

The storm is coming! The storm is coming!

Our next stop was at Kåseberga. Here we ate herring burgers and took a short hike to Ale's Stones.  It is a mythological monument that apparently outlines a ship but really just looks like an oval.

We have to hike about 500 meters to reach the stones and when we did we were on top of a bluff.  You could say it was a little bit windy :)  At times it felt like it we jumped we could be blown away!

After not being blown away we went to Kivik to find some crap (see picture below).  Just kidding! Kivik is were hundreds and hundreds of apples are grown each year and made into juice sold all over the Sweden!  They also produce other types of juices and to-die-for ciders.  We got to walk through one of the factories and headed out to the orchards to see the different types of apples and... we accidentally got locked out.  Oops!

We fika-ed in apparently the best fika place in all of Sweden.  The place had a very nice old feel to it and they bake their pastries and bread fresh everyday- the bakery is attached to the shop and you could look in and see where they work.

That night we spent back in Malmö.  And in the middle of the largest wind storm ever in Sweden. 

The winds were 93 miles per hour, high enough to classify the storm as a hurricane that was named Simone. And the heart of the storm was in Malmö!  Unfortunetly we weren't allowed to go out and play in the wind, but we got to sit in our room and watch the boats rock crazily back and forth and see the trees sway to 45 degree angles with the ground.  In the morning street lights, trees, traffic cones and everything else were laying in or on the sides of streets.

For breakfast Stefan was so kind to take us to Starbucks because I have not seen one since I came to Sweden and it reminded me of home.  I did not go to Starbucks that often in the US so you might think it is weird that I wanted to go here, but something about finding something from your home town in a foreign country...I don't know; it's just a great feeling!

On our way home we stopped at the location of the very first Ikea. Ever.  Now the building doesn't look like anything, but it will always have historical meaning.


What is the first thing that you think of when someone talks about or brings out a candy cane?  Probably Christmas right?  Well the town of Gränna practically survives off of polkagris (Swedish candy sticks/candy canes).  Grännais where candy canes were invented in 1859.

There were over 20 flavors to pick from!

And we got to watch them make it. 

 That translucent blob in the above picture is where we start...with grease.

They put powder flavoring in it...

...when it becomes like taffy you have to keep on stretching it so it won't turn hard...

...He formed it into a loaf-ish thing and added a couple strips of color...

...then you twist...

...and twist...

...twist some more...

...Then when they are the perfect size they are practically hard and ready to be pact!

We visited some castles on our way home.

Dome kyrkan in Linköping

And we went to the locks.  These are the biggest locks in Sweden.  The boats have to go down (or up) 7 different lifts.

And finally we visited a very large candy store.  It is a Cloetta candy store.  Cloetta is the second largest candy brand in Sweden so of course we have to try at lest one type of candy from there!

It was such a great adventure and let me see so much of Skåne and another country!


Oh and I think I should tell you a little bit about Skåne.  Skåne is the region of Sweden that we toured (southern Sweden).  They have a very different dialect than the rest of Sweden and most Swedes not from Skåne think Skånska (the Skånish dialect) sounds like they are talking with potatoes shoved down there throats.  They are really throaty and to everyone else very hard to understand.  People at school like to see who can make the best Skånish accent. :)


Sorry it took me so long to post again.  There were a lot of pictures to download.