Walking and Shopping

Though we do take the bus to far-off points here in Lund, most of the time we walk. As I have mentioned previously, there is a large number of bicycles cruising these cobblestoned streets. Though sidewalks and paths are marked for both pedestrian and bike use, you really have to watch your step.

We went to a supermarket on the edge of the city last night that we'd heard was the most affordable around. We did some online research and found the bus line that would take us, packing our IKEA and Änglamark shopping totes, up there. We stepped off at what we thought was the right stop and wandered about for a bit without finding the place, and went into a Statoil station to ask for directions.

(In Swedish)
Jacob: Hi. Is there a Willy's supermarket around here?
Clerk: A what?
J: A Willy's.
C: Oh, a "Villys"! Yeah. It's to the left and way down there.
J: I guess we didn't walk far enough.
C: Exactly!



So, yeah, we hoofed it on past three more bus stops and found it. And it's open 7 days to 22! It was big and comparatively cheap. We hauled our booty (incl. a Kinder Egg!!) to the stop right across the street to get home.

Today, we walked peacefully... protected by the mob. No, really... a large group of people. I got to tag along with E's class on a walking tour of central Lund. A high point (and really kind of the only one) of the tour was Lund's Domkyrka.

We got to see the giant astronomical clock play its 3 o'clock show, and went down into the underground crypt. For some images, check the albums!

On the way home we picked up potatoes:

and a Pepe!

This was a pre-packaged-grocery-store ice cream cone by GB with bits and a coating of black licorice!!

-J.

Q: What do you do on Sundays in Sweden

A: Laundry!


Q: And what do you do while waiting for the laundry?

A: Nerd out!

We are sooo cool! Oh yeah, and E registered for classes, too.

On the walk back down from registration, we ran into our kitty friend again. He came trotting over to us, said his hellos and walked us to the edge of his turf.

-J.

A Rainy Day in Copenhagen

On midsommar day (Saturday) mostly everything was closed here in Lund, so E and I decided to get ourselves to Copenhagen, Denmark. One only has to cross the Öresund bridge to get there.

As previously mentioned, we each have Sommarkortet:

This card, offered by the regional public transportation authority, Skånetrafiken, gives the holder 50 travel allowences (3 hours apiece) to travel anywhere within the region (Skåne). It's a pretty good deal. And if you can get there and back (i.e. IKEA shopping) within the time limit, it counts as one trip. Crossing the aforementioned Öresund, however, is not included in regional travel, and requires an additional train ticket. E and I bought a round-trip ticket for two in Malmö, and set off.

(In Sweden, transit is strictly regulated with ticket verification at each leg of a journey. In the other countries we've visited this summer (Finland, Estonia) this policy has appeared rather lax: riders can generally hop on and hop off without really showing a ticket. While our ticket was stamped on the way to Denmark, when we returned on the same train, we rode for "free". If we had had the foresight, we could have avoided the return trip charge entirely. It would help us pinch our pennies (er... öre), but it would abuse the system, and we're not really into that.)

Anywho, we arrived in Copenhagen's central station just in time for a hefty rainstorm. Ugh. It's all because we left our umbrellas at home. We didn't want to give in to the overpriced "paraplyer" at the station boutiques, so we waited for a break in the downpour and hoofed it over to the nearby tourist information office. Though they had umbrellas for sale also, the nice lady at the counter told us that we might have some luck at the TIGER discount market around the corner. So, a-hunting we went.

Among the varied wares featured in TIGER's labyrinthine turns, we found new good-lookin' umbrellas for fractions of the station prices (as well as a dark chocolate Bounty bar!). Now protected, we set off toward Copenhagen's shopping mecca, Strøget.

(click here to see the full version of this photo)

Perhaps everyone was sleeping off the midsommar festivities, or maybe the weather was at fault, but pedestrian traffic on Rådhuspladsen was light. We spent the day wandering up Strøget, and in and out of all kinds of shops. Though much was available, we didn't find much to ply us of our Danish funny-money. I found a pair of jeans to replace the pair with the travel-induced-blown-out-knee, and we bought a really swell silicone bunnycake baking mold on sale at Bodum. By the time we reached Kongens Nytorv, the sun had rediscovered the day, and some yard-saley type tables had sprung up.

We may go back for Tivoli someday soon.

-J.

Spare No 'Spences!

A grocery store here has been playing its midsommar commercial on TV all the time. There's a family at a traditional midsommar table and the man at the head of the table gives a speech in Swedish about midsommar costing what it costs, and at the end of his speech he exclaims, in English, "Spare no 'spenses!" It cracks us up every time.



Last night, even with the TV and the lights on in here, we saw flashes of light through the drawn blinds. When we opened the window, it was a little Lund monsoon! This morning it was still raining, and it was cold (maybe around 55F). But heck, we were going to Kulturen anyway. We each took an umbrella, didn't put on enough layers, and headed out in the gross, drooling morning.



While walking over to Kulturen we passed a couple RVs heading out of town, but not a whole lot of other strolling folk. We took a super-quick spin through the Kulturen building, and then followed the posted note to proceed through the green gates - their tunnel was flooded.



The reflection at the bottom of the stairs there is the foot or so of water that had flooded the tunnel. We arrived at Lunds Kommun as they were finishing tying greens and ribbon to the midsommarstång. Then they invited the rest of the public to take flowers from two buckets they had available and decorate it. When all the flowers had been used, they lifted it up and stood it in a hole in the ground. There's a video here. A fellow with a guitar and another with an accordion played some songs as folks danced around the midsommarstång. There are videos of that, too (see the previous link). Unfortunately, it was still raining and still really cold...and our feet were wet. So we decided to call it a day. Here's us, right before going home.



We traded photo-taking with a family on their way out. They asked if we'd take one for them, so they took a photo for us. On the way home, we zipped through the market and bought some strawberries, as well as some chives, sour cream, and carrot marmalade. After a small lunch of nyponsoppa and a nap (for E), we cleaned up a little and prepared our own midsommar feast.



We had köttbullar, potatoes, lingonsylt, spinach, matjessill with knäckebröd, gräddfil (sour cream), chives, cranberry juice, and mini snaps. Tasty!



- E & J

Cycklingtons

Not as in biking lots, but as in dead bicycles, bicycle skellingtons.



I propose that in the City of Lund, at least in the central neighborhood in which we live, bicycles greatly outnumber autos. This may be in part due to the high concentration of students here. There are loads of bikes parked in massive lots and along sidewalks. And with enough standing bikes in one area, there are sure to be a few laying to one side (or in a hedge, or against a tree), discarded. The disrepair ranges from rust to bent or missing wheels. I had never really considered this scenario before. According to this article, Lund retrieved 2386 abandoned bikes from its streets in 2005. Two or three percent are claimed by their owners, the rest (those deemed roadworthy) are sold at public auctions, held several times a year. Though missed a big one on Mårtenstorget at the end of March, Elizabeth and I are keeping an eye out for news of any upcoming. It would be nice to have bikes, here.

Oh, and even the mailman has a rad ride:

After he had gone, we found this tiny envelope on the sidewalk:

The address was for one of the apartments in our block, so we wandered about the yard until we found it, and dropped it in the mailbox. Good deed done!

- J.

"Not a dunck..."

"More like a....a...how is called...sv, svvvwoa, svaaaaaaan! Ja? A svan."

When we were in Finland, we decided to take the ferry to the zoo - on an island, like Jurassic Park. It was about a 15 minute ride at most and was entirely enjoyable.

Upon disembarking from the ferry and walking up the path to the main entrance, our first stop was at this sign, placed prominently in the walkway:

Unfortunately, there were no translations in Swedish OR in English, and no other information on the displayed subject. A couple more steps into the zoo, and the displayed subject scuttled across the path before us. There were what appeared to be some kind of goose waddling all over the open areas in the zoo. They were unlike any goose we'd seen, but we didn't know what they were. Since the goose didn't speak English either, we decided to go have lunch. We wound up at a little cafe by the bear exhibit, with a wall of windows so you could watch them run around while you ate. We each ordered the frankfurters with fries, which we sort of figured would be a hot dog and fries. What we actually received was a bowl heaped with skinny fries, and about four or five skinny hot dogs on top. Sadly, we didn't take a photo, and I can't find anything like it online. When we ordered the food, the fellow at the register was especially pleasant and chatty and asked where we were from, what we thought of Finland, blah blah blah. So when we were finished with lunch, we asked the guy if he knew what kind of goose was all over the place.

He said, "Oh! No, no...not a goose. I don't know the English name. It's....not a dunck...."

And then followed the beginning sentence of this post. We thanked him anyway, and went to go wander the zoo a little more. We were pretty sure they were geese anyway. I think he thought that I'd said it was a duck. But either way, when we got back to the hotel we looked it up. Turns out they were geese - Barnacle geese.

~E :)

Sonic!

Upon leaving the apartment to go food shopping yesterday evening, we noticed what looked like a doorstep boot brush. (Down there in the lower right of the photo, under the folding chair.)

It was, however, a true igelkott (HEDGEHOG)!

It was sitting in the warm rays of the setting sun.

(A note on daylight: the days have been getting longer, and soon all of Scandinavia will celebrate midsommarafton. We don't really have any plans, yet, but we'll keep you posted.)

We think he lives under the deck or in... a hedge!

We picked up a couple of final things for dinner tonight. I cooked it all up on our tiny, two-burner-1/4-sized oven.

(The can there that looks like it says GIN is actually Hartwall Gin Long Drink. We bought that one can, tax-free, on the Viking line. Booze shopping onboard is HUGE. Gin Long Drink is a very tasty grapefruit malt beverage, alike to, say, Smirnoff Ice, but not so syrupy... and better.)

And the result:

Köttbullar, potatoes (I blame Ria Blaas and her show "Patty Peels Out" for that link), lingonsylt and chopped spinach, with cranberry juice! Which we ate while watching the Gilmore Girls (in English with Swedish subtitles).

-J.

IKEA pt.2

IKEA lays out their product departments in a neatly flowing line. One leads logically into the next, as if you're passing through the rooms of a house. The restaurant, however, is last in line. I suppose this is so that after a vigorous spree, one can sit down and refuel. We, apparently unconventionally, saw to this first. We each had a cold meatball sandwich with butter, lettuce and some kind of chunky red beet mayo (18 SEK apiece, or $2.56. Currently, $1 US=7.02 SEK.) Pretty delicious, really.

We spent our subsequent stroll going against the traffic arrows' advice. We found what we wanted anyhow, though it took dodging some regularly oriented shoppers.

From the KÖK (kitchen) department, we got measuring cups with both metric and US graduations.

From SPARA & FÖRVARA (save and preserve) we got a sack of thirty super-rad bag clips.

From BADRUM (bathroom) we got a squeegee wiper for the shower in the apartment we're subletting. (A note on bathrooms: nearly all of the showers we have encountered are really part of the bathroom, with only a curtain dividing off that section of the room. The floor and walls are fully tiled, and the shower head is a removable hand-held sprayer mounted directly onto the wall. The floor slopes slightly toward a built-in drain. A squeegee is needed to push any errant water back toward the drain.)

At the register we found IKEA's big blue shopping bag for 5 SEK.

(About shopping in Scandinavia: In paying for your groceries, you must either bring your own sack to bag in, or purchase a plastic or paper bag for a small amount at the register. Thus, it's wise to find some sort of sturdy, permanent shopping tote to carry about.)

Before leaving the store, we stopped by the bistro for 1kg of frozen köttbullar (meatballs), a jar of lingonsylt (lingonberry jam) and two wienerkorv (hot dogs!). These we enjoyed on the spot with a score of wienerkorv eatin' shoppers. Wild! So many wienerkorvar!

We caught the right local bus back to to the Värmhem stop in Malmö, and then our connecting regional bus to Lund.

Our stop is about three blocks from our apartment, and there's a grocery (COOP Konsum) on the way. So, it being close to the 20:00 (8:00pm) closing time (oh, and NOTHING'S open on Sundays, here), we stopped in for some foody-shopping. Cereal, milk, paper products, some pepparkakor (like gingersnaps), rice pudding in a tube, and messmör (soft whey butter) at check out were all packed into our giant new IKEA bag, which was then trundled homeward. It's pretty easy to carry, actually!

Just before we got home we met a nice orange kitty who followed us for a bit:

We miss our own orange kitties. Hello from from Sweden, Tot and Zip!!

-J.

IKEA's just as giant here.

Hi there! This is the first real-time blog post! It's Monday, June 18th, 20:27, and I'm writing about TODAY. Gee whiz.

We finally made it to Lund on Saturday with big, heavy suitcases, a pile of dirty laundry, and no more clean socks. Yesterday we bought a little bit of food and some sheets. But today, we hopped a bus to IKEA in Malmö, the next town to the south-west of us. From the bus driver on the first bus we bought summer cards, which are good for 50 blocks of three hours of travel each. So it's like 50 rides, but more like....well, a lot more than that. I think we only used one ride today, because we got to IKEA and home within 3 hours.



The bus to IKEA dumps you on the side of the road, so we followed some folks in what seemed like the right direction until we saw the big waving IKEA flags and made our way inside. First on the schedule was lunch. Everything's so expensive, though! But maybe not that much more expensive than if you eat out at a restaurant somewhere I guess. We're just not especially inclined to be paying around $7 each for lunch.

There's my first tiny update for now. I'll add more later, or let Jacob keep on....but NOW it's time for dinner!

Ta!

~E

Departure and country-hopping.

(This was the first post we wrote off-line on June 8th, before we could find somewhere to post - after this, it's all new posts.)


Whoo! We’ve just about finished adjusting our sleep schedule to this new time zone. We’ve traveled seven hours into the future. On Wednesday, June 6th, we bid farewell to the U.S.A. and flew from Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts to Reykjavik, Iceland. We’re in the process of uploading the first photos and figuring out this new iWeb program. The site should be up soon (by the time you’re reading this, it’ll be online!), and we’ll update the blog more often.

For now, we’re off to explore Helsinki, and then Estonia on the 10th. More soon.

~ J + E

Escape!!! (From the U.S.A.)

(For the first post, just to archive it here too, we put the e-mail that we sent to most folks who are probably reading this anyway...and if you DIDN'T get the e-mail, here's the first post!)



Hej, alla!

I hope I've lumped enough of you into this mail-list! If you're not reading this, let me know!! (Heh.)

Elizabeth and I have hopped our first bit of ocean to land in Reykjavik, Iceland. We've only got an hour-long layover and then we're off to Stockholm. It's a shame we don't really have any time here in Iceland.. and it's creeping up on 1am, all the shops are closed and a dense fog obscures the midnight-sun-lit landscape.

But long short, all's well and we're well on our way into our E and J's European Adventure 2007! I hope you're all well, and we'll see you sooner or later. We'll start up our travel-blog soon... stay tuned.

Med vänliga hälsningar,

Jacob and Elizabeth.