We landed at Copenhagen airport after a short flight from Paris, navigated our way through the purchasing of train tickets and caught the train to Malmö: our new home for 5 weeks.
Daffodils in bloom
The trip from Copenhagen airport to Malmö is an easy 25 minute train trip across the Øresund Bridge: an 8km combined railway and motorway bridge linking Sweden and Denmark. It was then an easy 10 minute walk from Malmö Centralstation to our quintessentially Scandinavian Airbnb apartment, which is right in the centre of town and aptly fitted out with all the Ikea essentials. The walk from the station to our apartment took us through the main square in the centre of the Old Town. Every night it is bustling with people sitting outside the many bars and restaurants that line the square.
In the Old Town main square
We’re here at a perfect time: at 9.00pm the sky is still blue and the sun still warm. It’s Spring and Malmö is incredibly pretty. There are cobble-stoned streets, flowering trees, buildings that look like they’re straight from a storybook, grassy parks full of wild tulips and daffodils, and a winding set of waterways where you can enjoy a paddle boat ride— it is so picturesque and better than anything we had imagined.
In the park near our apartment
We’ve been starting our days with a run, enjoying home cooked lunch, and taking walks around the park across the road from our apartment after lunch and dinner. I’ve also joined the local library (which is beautiful) and a yoga studio nearby so have been loving 1.5 hours of Ashtanga practice every day. I feel a little bit lost not having a job and having that sense of obligation to work, but having the free time to take walks, cook all our meals and do yoga every day is a pretty good trade-off. Not to mention the never-ending travel planning — hardly something to complain about.
Of course we’ve also experienced Swedish meatballs, three times— once home-made, once from Ikea and once from a restaurant that is meant to have the best in Malmö. They were delicious, and admittedly, much better than my home-made ones. Although I’d argue my home-made ones were better than the Ikea ones, which didn’t even have dill (although thankfully they did have the essential ingredient: lingonberry sauce).
Meatballs at Två Krögare, a restaurant serving traditional Swedish food in Malmö
On the weekend we took a day trip to Copenhagen on Saturday and on Sunday went hiking at Söderåsen National Park, which is about an hour’s drive from here. We hired a car and braved the left-hand drive. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside and a beautiful forest for hiking.
Our hike in Söderåsen national park
This week we are going to Amsterdam for two nights (such is the ease of international travel in Europe!). Some of Dylan’s work colleagues are meeting in Utrecht to work on Friday, so he will join them there to work together for the day. I’ll spend the day exploring Amsterdam.