Week One - Lund, Sweden: Part 2

Lund was an explosion of new experiences for me. Everything was a marvel and novelty and I loved everything about it. Especially the bus system. It's more efficient than I ever would have expected. The bus times are posted at each stop and the buses are clean and comfortable. When you want to get off you just need to press one of the "stop" buttons anywhere on the bus instead of pulling a string.

I arrived at a good time in Sweden. The weather was great with a few rainy days here and there. I was able to do some sightseeing and food tasting my first week. One thing I'm going to miss, hands down, is Swedish falafel. It's like nothing you've ever experienced before. Falafel I've had in the past was dry and had a funny taste. This falafel is freshly made, nice and crunchy on the outside and still gooey on the inside. They're sold at kiosks around the city. My friend took me to their favorite falafel place and it was there I was also introduced to the strange gigantic food portions of Sweden.

12 - 13" (30- 33cm) falafel wrap for about $4 (SEK 35)

This thing was enormous (and absolutely delicious), and while my friend said the large portion sizes were new for them too, it was definitely the opposite of what I was expecting. I've always been told that America is the one with giant food portions and European portions are much smaller, but Sweden may be one of the exceptions. The drink sizes are smaller though.

The city is proudly old. The streets look like rows of townhouses, each one a different style than the next. It's colorful and fun. It really is like the travel shows. There's rows of shops on the bottom and just above them are apartments. You could see some people out on their balconies doing some people watching throughout the day.

In the center of Lund is a large ancient stone cathedral called Domkyrka. My friend likes to joke with me about it, saying: "how does it feel to see  a church that's older than your country?" Hahaha... stop.

It's grand on the outside, but the inside it breathtaking. There was huge wooden calendar/clock in one corner, a private praying area in another, rows of chairs in the center and mural with large wooden seats for (probably) the old church council.

Here's some pictures of the crypt and the mural from plainjp's instagram:

 


There's a crypt under the church but I didn't take any pictures.
There's a famous story about this church that my friend told me as we walked around. Here's a short version of that story:

A man was going to build the church when he met a giant that said he could build it for him. The only condition was that the man had to guess the giant's name before the church was finished. If he couldn't, then the giant would steal his eyes. 

So the giant began building the church and the man guessed names, but none of the names were correct. Finally, the man got worried and went for a walk. He overheard a giant mother singing to its child that its father Fin would bring home a man's eyes for it to play with soon. 

The priest ran back to the giant, who was had just laid the final stone of the church, and shouted "Fin! You're name is Fin!" The troll got mad and ran into the church to tear it down, but as he ran he got smaller and smaller. When he went to pick up a pillar of the church to tear it down he turned to stone himself.

There's a carving of the giant on one of the pillars in the crypt (whole story here). As my friend finished telling the story to me, we were just walking up to that pillar. I give them kudos points for nifty story-telling.

Next week: Runes and a play

Reason for Absence

I'm not sure if taking a break from the blog was one of my smarter ideas or not, but I was experiencing some serious writers block. I'm not sure why either.
My original plan was to document what I did while I traveled.
The problem with that was I just didn't have enough time in the day to sit down and type away. I regret not having a journal with me. I had my planner but something small and pocket sized would have been nice.
It's not too late though! I haven't forgotten everything, just some small stuff that probably would have wasted space in a post anyways.
I did, however, document snippets of my journey along the way, so for some cities I won't have to strain too hard to remember things; for example: Stockholm and the Lofoten islands (oi... Lofoten...but let's not spoil anything)

Taking this trip was the best thing I ever did for myself. Even though traveling alone came with some challenges and was lonely sometimes, it gave me the freedom I never knew I could have.

So thank you for being patient with me! I'm back and ready to continue the story of my adventure~

Week One - Lund, Sweden: Part 1

I flew into Copenhagen a little over a week ago and took the train from Denmark to Sweden via the Øresund Bridge with my friend. From there we went to Lund, Sweden where I've spent the past week. My first day here was hectic but fun. My friend took me to a Viking festival where we camped and spent the night. I met some new people, and tried some new foods and even bought some gifts at the market.

My brother loves swords and sword fighting so I thought he might enjoy a little sharp gift from the market~ (Shh, don't tell him!)

One of the people I met let me borrow an extra dress they had so I wouldn't be "naked" as they say, at the festival. It was a little chilly that day so I didn't mind that it was made of wool.



I also got to see a Viking battle reenactment.

It was both entertaining and funny. Luckily I had my friend to translate the jokes and comments. At the end they all lined up, took a bow then charged straight at the audience screaming and wielding their weapons!

I also tried some alcoholic drinks, since I'm of age legally in Scandinavia. Everyone had fun having me take sips of different drinks ( beer is terrible by the way, haha). I also tried something they call "burnt almonds" or "brända mandlar" and a special toffee candy on a stick. The almonds were incredible! They were roasted and candied in what tasted like honey, cinnamon and happiness. They're definitely best served hot.

It was also that day that I discovered the Skåne sun.

I'm about 5,000 miles away from home, farther than I've ever been before, so of course there will be geographical differences, but the sun here is something all it's own. The sun rises in the summer around the same time in Virginia, 5am, but sets around midnight. This has tortured my circadian rhythm. I get tired around the same time I do back home (9-10pm or 21:00-22:00) but it's still bright and cheery outside. In addition, the people I've hung out with all stay up until it's dark. I can't say all Swedes stay up late like this during the summer months, I'm sure there's plenty of early birds like me, but it's a change I didn't expect.

Another thing is the glare. I told my friend that it was oddly bright outside and they told me it's probably because we're so far north. I'm not used to the glare. I don't feel like researching the percentage of glare based on region but it seems like a logical answer to me. Now, I practically live in my sunglasses, or else I'll be the only one in the group squinting like I got dirt in my eyes.

My babies since I got here

"Their sun" (my nickname for it) also wakes me up really early. I've been slowly turning into a morning person over the past year but I always wake up really early here. Early for me that is.

I'll leave it here for now. Part 2 coming soon.