Sweden- 1st visit of the week

Feb. 15th-
Proof of friendship is coming in this post! I am getting past that awkward phase of enjoying my new company but not wanting to scare them away when I document our 2 hours of friendship with a photograph. You know how that goes.. Anyhow this past weekend I went to Malmo with Amy and Alex, both of whom I met through the Copenhagen Adventurers Meetup group. Amy is from Canada and Alex, who actually lives in Malmo, is from England. Since Amy and I were already planning a trip over to Sweden for Sunday Alex offered to show us around and we wound up spending the whole day there.
While we tooled around waiting for brunch to start (the concept of brunch is not well understood in Sweden.. technically its lunch since it doesn't start until 12 and when pickled herring is served I'm not quite sure the food qualifies as breakfast either) we went to Malmoparken to see the sites of the Tivoli equivalent in Malmo. Not quite as impressive although we did see some ponys, a chocolate factory and a giant rubber band tower. I swear its the playgrounds in Denmark and Sweden that make Scandinavians the happiest people in the world. Imagine playing King of the Hill on top of a bouncy web of rubber?! Amy and I couldn't resist.
In Malmo we had brunch and then went to a free art exhibit on South Africa by photo journalist David Goldblatt. Here is Amy as happy as I was to be enjoying my first scandinavian brunch! Notice the blankets on the seat chairs because yes we were sitting outside in -3 Celcius weather. (There were heat lamps as well).
After the exhibit we walked down to the coast to a new neighborhood that is being developed. The turning torso is the tallest building in Sweden and a brand new landmark for Malmo. Right across the Öresund strait from Copenhagen, the city boomed after completion of the bridge in the picture below. Thanks to that people can now work in higher income Denmark and live and play in cheaper Sweden. Its not cheap to cross the bridge but it is very convenient. Trains bring you across the sound every 20 minutes and its an open border. Dinner in Sweden anybody?

Today I am taking off to visit Blake and Courtney up in Stockholm! As a matter of fact I am going to miss my plane if I don't take off now... but I'm very excited to see some familiar faces and to visit with another valle scholar. Stockholm is supposed to be the most beautiful city in all of Scandinavia.. can't wait to take a look at it. Have a great weekend!