Saw a Viking about a Ship

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to write a short post about my time in Denmark and Sweden last weekend! I had the best time and just loved every bit of it. It is such a cool region, and often times people overlook it when they make plans to travel, but it's definitely worth seeing. I had a lot of fun learning a little bit of Swedish and doing Swedish things, like eating Swedish meatballs. It was cool. ;)

My train had to board a ferry to cross the Baltic Sea

Scanlines ferry

My location crossing from Germany into Denmark


However, I did not enjoy the train ride to Copenhagen because it was a ten and a half hour long journey and I was travelling alone, so the boredom was real. I did make some friends on the train from Hamburg up to Copenhagen, though! I met a girl about my age who was returning back to Copenhagen where she is studying abroad. After about an hour of her and her boyfriend sitting behind me she mentioned her home in Kansas and I turned around and said, "So THAT'S where you're from!" She had an accent that sounded like North or South Dakota, or even Canada. I told her that I'd been trying to figure out her accent and we laughed about how neither of us really sound like people from where we are from. She turned out to be really cool and gave me some good advice about my upcoming trip to Italy!

Copenhagen clock tower

Copenhahen Brandenburg Gate?!

So I finally made it to Copenhagen and got to walk around the city for a while with my friend Martin! It was cold and dark so we just walked around for about an hour seeing some of the main sights in Copenhagen like the royal palace, an astronomy tower, the main shopping strip, and the central square where the big tall building with the clock is (I'm not good with building names...). I really just loved walking around the streets because the town is so pretty even at night and the buildings are all really cute and old-fashioned looking. Plus it's on the water so there are lots of canals and bridges through the city. Another thing I liked are the restaurants and pubs in Copenhagen that are half underground, so you when you look where the ground meets the building, you see people below you through the window dining and hanging out. It's really cool!

Malmö

One of the squares in Malmö. On the side of the building you can see old advertisements

Old phone booth


After looking around and freezing Martin to the bone, we took the train across the water to Malmö, Sweden. I loved this city! We took advantage of the sunny day on Saturday and walked all around town and I got to see a few of the squares and had lunch at Barbacoa, which is close enough to Chipotle! The whole day was just so fun walking around and sightseeing. There are lots of pretty churches and old buildings that have been really well preserved. I also like that while yes, Malmö is a gorgeous city, it's not very touristy! In fact, there weren't many people out at all because, as Martin explained, Scandinavians hate the cold. Including him, but he was a trooper showing me around town!

Turning Torso building & canal 

Baltic Sea pier 

Triangeln train station


The next not-so-sunny day we braved the wind and bitter coldness to see the edge of town on the Baltic Sea. That part of town was so awesome. The main attraction there is the white Turning Torso building. People with lots of money get to live there! The area is super modern and has a lot of really awesome looking apartment buildings and there is art everywhere, I just loved it.

"They Eye" street art 

"Optimistic Orchestra" street art 

Another thing that I really like about Scandinavia is the biker-friendliness! There were SO many people on bikes all around the cities and the bike racks were always full of hundreds of bikes. I love biking, and I really wish that Huntsville and Florence (and the rest of the States, really) worked harder on getting bike lanes next to streets for bikers and just generally a safer biking/walking environment for people to use to get around town. It's not only good exercise to bike, but it also makes your carbon footprint significantly lower. I love seeing elderly people on bikes, too. It's so awesome that they are so healthy and fit.

Bicycle counter

In Malmö there is a street with a bike counter, and it detects metal on the bike lane and counts each bike everyday for a year that passes through. It was four MILLION last year. So awesome. Germany is pretty biker-friendly, too, but I think it doesn't really compare to Malmö and other cities like that that go out of their way to make safe walking and biking lanes for people. Also, fun fact, Malmö is the seventh-friendliest biker city in the world.

I'm sure you can tell, but I loved every minute of seeing Copenhagen and Malmö last weekend and and hope someday I can see more of Sweden! My dad has been to Stockholm and he loved that area, too! I would also love to visit one of my friends in Finnland someday, that would be amazing.

So now I'll be pretty stationary for a bit while I study for finals and save up for Italy! We'll be seeing Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Rome in February. I can't wait! Travelling with friends is always so fun, but it will be bittersweet since we'll all be going our separate ways soon after and I will miss them soooo very much.

That's all I've got! Thanks for reading :)

Bethany