The Old Country

Since Copenhagen is only a bridge away from Sweden these days, we took our free day and took a train to Malmo and Lund.


[Bathhouse!]

I hadn't been to Malmo since I was very young, but I knew that I had to let my friends experience something real Swedish. This, of course, would be the sauna experience. From wikitravel.com I read about a bath house that sits on the Oresund strait. After doing some research, I found out where it was and how much it cost. Only 55 Swedish crowns (about 8 dollars), my friends were up for it. What is amazing about the bath house is that it lies on a pier, out in the water, and you can go basically right from the sauna into the (freezing cold) water.


[The women's side]

The bathhouse is naturally divided into two sides, men's and women's, so that the Swedes can be as naked as they want without having to worry about the opposite sex. This meant that the girls (Annie, Casey, and Jessica) could have the whole process explained to them by me, but the boys (Sean, Tim and Aaron) were just released into a group of naked Swedish men without any warning. Although this was apparently an interesting experience for them, we all had fun relaxing in the saunas and being able to say that we bathed in the Baltic Sea in April. Everyone was pretty happy to do something really Swedish instead of just silly tourist things.


[Feeling relaxed, clean, and triumphant]

From there, we walked into the center of Malmo and saw what little sights there were
to see.


[Main square in Malmo]

While most people wanted to go to IKEA and eat Swedish meatballs in Sweden, Annie, Sean and I headed to Lund, about half an hour on the train north of Malmo, to visit some family friends. Friends of my parents from Chapel Hill, Eva and Bengt, were having a party for their son Jakob, who had just finished defending his dissertation. Since we were in the area, I asked Eva what they were doing that day, and they invited us to the party.


[Streets of Lund]

When we got there a little bit early, we went with Eva to pick up her other son Jonas' girlfriend. Jonas is a chef, and made all the delicious food for the party. Once at the party though, things started to get a little awkward. Everyone kept asking us how we knew Jakob, and I had to explain the long history of how we ended up at this party, since the last time I actually saw Jakob was probably 10 years ago. Annie and Sean probably felt even more uncomfortable, but I had to bring them with to have someone to talk to!


[Annie and Sean eating dinner...]

Unfortunately we had to leave early to catch the train back to Copenhagen and missed out on the speeches and dancing that followed. We did get great food, and while I got the chance to see Eva and Bengt, Annie and Sean got to see some of the idiosyncrasies of Swedes and Swedish parties, which they might have to get used to if they are going to stay friends with me!