Day 114 8th June 2017
And so we move on to our next adventure. “Do widzenia Poland” and “Hallå Sweden”. In the new Smartphone App based world – a new country means – add a new language to Google Translate. Learn Hello and Thankyou. Add a new country map to the map navigator (off and online) Here We Go . Change the timezone on the clock and check what it means for Australia and New Zealand.
Going for the cheapest flight means we get up at 3 am to get to the airport for the 6am flight to Malmo – a cheap as chips Wizz Air flight! We did get to fly from the Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport – I did wonder how Lech Walesa might feel travelling out of an airport carrying his name?
A short comfortable flight and suddenly we were in Sweden. A short flight – even a longer flight in Australia – and you are still in Australia or over a vast ocean somewhere.
We quickly discovered this is a country embarrassingly bilingual with the change to English being seamless the minute it is discovered you have only one language and it is not Swedish.
Once at Malmö central station we discovered we are in a land of spending. Immediately, and not-refuseable was – SEK 10 (about AUS $1.30) to go to the toilet. Eventually toileted and with bags safely, and exorbitantly stored – explore Malmö .
First task. Having left my international charger on the train in Poland (I thought) we searched for another. Helpfully referred from one shop to another we found Kjell and Co with more friendly helpful staff and this time the perfect replacement. The Next Day. Isn’t it always the way – the next day I unpacked everything in every bag because I can and because we are here for 2 weeks. Yup of course – there was the original charger in the depths of a pack pocket! Now we have one each.
Being too early for the Tourist Information office we meandered through the lovely old town spreading out from the large square. Finally get to the Tourist office and find the perfect way to see Malmo in our dazed and tired state – a Canal boat tour. A lovely way to spend an hour when the legs and brain were not feeling like a walking tour. Crisply windy, and canals loaded with young people barely controlling paddle boats – celebrating graduation. However with a gentle narration from the skipper we pass many of the sites of Malmo and then some:
The ‘Turning Torso’ a tall elegantly twisting. Billed as the only “twisted skyscraper” building in the world.
One of the sculptures ‘Non Violence- (or the Knotted Gun) by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd one of 16 around the world. 10 of these are in Sweden.
One of the world’s oldest Icebreaker still operational – The Bore
Looking for food we found ourselves back at the station and hungry. One stall seemed to suggest local, slow food. It was staffed by delightful and informative young women selling Nordic street food. We were hungry enough for wild boar sausage wraps. Thoughts harked back to Asterix and Obelisk and Wild Boar Stew! Delicious.
