Yesterday marked my first real "impromptu" trip in Sweden. Instead of planning, organizing and figuring out exact details, just a couple friends and myself decided Wednesday night that we wanted to travel south to Malmo on Thursday. So, we woke early Thursday and went walked to the train station at around 8:30. We caught the first train and rode "open" so that it was cheaper. You know, it is amazing how much more you countryside you can visually take in when you are just riding and not having to drive. Unlike in America, where you drive everywhere, here you just take the train. It offers plenty of time to put in the headphones, play your favorite songs and let your thoughts wander, bouncing from one topic to another as you stare out towards the countryside, passing-by right outside your window. This quite contemplation is a great way to start out the day.
So, 2 hours later, I found myself stepping off the train into the sunny Malmo city. A quick walk brought us to our only set destination of the day... the art store. As usual, everything was more expensive and the supply was limited, yet we managed to find the essentials. After buying my stuff, I walked out side and what do ya know, a red Ferrari sped by leaving a sharp exhaust note to remind me of what I had just seen. Now I knew the day was going to be good (Oh, I also saw an Alpina-tunned 850 BMW too... Todd, it was beautiful). Slowly, everyone trickled out of the art store and we shoved off to the city center. I am quickly finding that one of the best ways to explore a city and really get a good local vibe is to first start out at the city center and then start radiating outward toward smaller streets of interest. So, inline with that thought, we walked around the city center. Enjoying a couple unique shops here and there and a then also checking out the regular ones also. (Sidenote: I saw a subway here! Haha, haven't seen one in a while.. it had the advertisements in the window for toasted or not just like home) We got hungry quick and so in true travel tradition, we found a pizzaria and ordered as much as we could. I bought the "skinka & osa" or the "ham and cheese."
Refueled and ready to see more we found the local design museum. It was great, imagine an old brick and mortar building, with the only support being dark warped timber. Now age that about 100 plus years and you've got a building that looks like it melted in the sun. Everything that used to be straight is drooping and curved. It looks like something out of a kid's fantasy book, and this is just the outside! Now, you go in and of course the floor has been redone, and the walls have been painted white recently, yet it still is like walking in the hills. You have to walk uphill as you walk towards the end of the room! But, enough about the structure, the interesting part was what was inside... tons of cool furniture. I am constantly reminded here about the normality of design in this culture. It is a constant for them, something that is an everday part of their lives. Childern grow up expecting good design. This can be seen even in the toys that they play with. Where in America you would be hard-pressed to find a new toy made out of anything other than plastic. Here there are shops upon shops that sell "Playsam Toys." Which are wooden cars reduced down to the basic form. Almost like a computer mouse on wheels, and the wheels aren't plastic either. They are solid metal and rubber. The whole toy doesn't have the "feel" of a toy, instead it feels like something your grandpa could have built in his shop just for you. With every detail being thought out. With these kind of toys how could you be anything less than creative? Well, anyway, we looked around the museum for a little while and then headed out into the city again. We quickly found that everyone had different opinions on what places to go. So, we split up into groups of 2. I went with Ronnie and we checked out a couple fashion stores and design stores until around 4 or so, when we found a really trendy coffee shop. It was great, with modern black& deep red leather sofas and chairs in the main lounge with white walls and B&W tile floor. It was a great place to just chill out and take in what we had seen. Of course some design conversations insued and 2 orange juice cups later we headed back towards the train station.
We caught the 6:08 train to Halmstad, and had a seat in cabin 14. Two hours later we got off the train and started our walk back to Patrikshill. Happy that even though we didn't "plan" our trip we had a great day and were able to appreciate the spontinaity of the day. Hopefully there will be many more trips like this in the future.
Hope everyone at home is doing well. I heard about the tornadic winds in Lawrence, and the damage that occured. Hopefully it didn't affect people to badly. I love the continued contact with people at home. It's great to hear about what is going on, sometimes I feel so behind on everything. Especially since most of the news is in Swedish. Anyway, I will proabably update this again in about a week or two when I get the chance to road trip it to Stockholm with a couple friends here. I will be busy until then getting projects done and so on, so I apologize in advance if my email replies are slow.
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