Scandinavia

Keeping to our current trend of late flights out and eating dinner in the Dublin Airport, we arrived in Denmark’s capital city ready for bed. Thankfully the trip into Copenhagen using the train was super convenient. That or we’re actually getting the hang of public transport in Europe.

On the agenda for Saturday was a trip into the south of Sweden, particularly Malmö and Lund. It was an organized bus tour so we had an hour and a half in both cities and got to enjoy the Danish coast with its spectacular homes and quiet Swedish farmland along the way…



Both the ancient town of Lund and the larger city of Malmö were nice and it was a gorgeous albeit a bit chilly day...



Really loved Malmö’s twisting torso building. Just don’t give credit to the Swedes since it was designed by a Spaniard…



We had taken a 20 minute ferry across to Sweden, but took the impressive Øresund Bridge back into Denmark.



That night we walked through the center of Copenhagen and had dinner at a restaurant I had found online. I would like to have said a quiet dinner, but it seems the Danes like to gather in big groups for dinner and clap randomly throughout the meal. The food was wonderful, but the atmosphere a bit strange and we kept looking around for what in the hell they were clapping about.

Sunday we spent the morning doing my favorite thing- wandering around and taking in the city. Fall is upon them in Denmark and the crisp air and autumnal hues made for a lovely morning and afternoon stroll through Copenhagen…






Even with the overcast skies, the Nyhavn area is one of the most picturesque areas we’ve ever seen…



We missed out on two of Copenhagen’s most famous tourist attractions, but I don’t think we’ll be up at night with regrets. The Little Mermaid statue is still in China for the World Expo show and we decided to skip going to Tivoli, their famous amusement park. Reviews kept saying “don’t go if you don’t have kids!!” and after you read about 100 people saying the same thing you kinda feel like you should take the hint.

This is a trip we probably wouldn’t have taken had we not been living in Europe for 4 months. I’m overjoyed we did it with help from our Sponsor because Scandinavia ain’t cheap. The kind of "ain't cheap" where you pay $12 flipping dollars for 2 glasses of tap (oh yeah, I said TAP- like out of the faucet) water at dinner.

I have zero understanding of why things in Scandinavia cost 10 times what you would pay for them elsewhere, but I’m glad we got back to Dublin with the Wife’s head still attached. There were more than a few times I thought it may pop right off from sticker shock. My favorite was a cheap looking diner that was advertising a lunch “deal” where you could get a club sandwich for the rock bottom price of $30 USD. Yowser.

This weekend is our last in Europe, and we’re ending on what I hope to be the highlight of our time here…Barcelona! Along with Edinburgh, this city has been at the tippy top of my must-see list. I fell in love with Spain and their passionate life-devouring culture last year, and I seriously can’t wait to be back and to finally see Barcelona!!