Saturday 27 April 2013

Malmö

Malmö is a short train ride away from Copenhagen. Until last week I honestly thought there were alternative ways to get to Sweden from Denmark, but turns out there's quite a bit of water separating them. My geographical skills are somewhat sub-par.

This is the view from the train- lots of wind mills, actually in neat little rows

To celebrate Leo's no-longer-birthday we went to Malmö on Sunday, not being content with one outing in the weekend. 





We found a row of huts that sell freshly caught fish, open from 8am to 2pm every day. After we meandered a little (and of course had coffee at a nice folksy cafe), we headed to the Sauna in the Sea, which we had heard a lot about and which was the real reason for the trip.


The image was found at this blog 

We paid 50 SEK and entered two separate changing and bathing areas, segregated by gender. The aim is to swim in the salty sea water (I only dipped up to my chest, while it wasn't as cold as it looks in the picture above, it wasn't more than 6 degrees IN the water that day!!), have a sauna in one of the saunas of varying heat, and then plunge into the cold sea water after. The decks you see above are meant for lying out on, catching some vitamin D and generally relaxing.

To use the sauna you must be naked, and generally everyone sunning themselves was naked too. Since I've been to the spa town of Baden Baden in Germany, the no-clothes spa experience is old rope for me. I generally think everyone could do with being a little more chilled out about their bodies, and this is the ideal way to do so while also getting some much needed r & r. 

I really enjoyed the experience, I was surprised how quickly I aclimatised and didn't even feel cold. My only negative was that it was a bit lonely being there all on my own. The whole point was to go as a two-some, to enjoy the experience together, but the gender segregation meant that, while all the ladies that went in twos and threes got to enjoy their chatting and relaxation time, I had to sit on my lonesome just because my partner was not a she-girl. I wish I'd known before hand, as I would have brought a book, or paid some woman to come with me. 

Malmö is a much nicer city than I had realised, it's full of beautiful old architecture, has a really pleasant town square with cafes and restaurants, and has lots of small parks, a central graveyard that is nice to sit in (they don't seem to have the same formality in graveyards here as we do in Ireland) and cobbled streets.






This cafe served cheesecake exclusively

To conclude, I'm a little sad that I'm living in Denmark and not Sweden. Swedes have gorgeous, lilting accents and are a pleasant bunch generally speaking. I might stand a chance of ever integrating and learning the language if I lived but a few miles across the sea, but alas. Alas. All is lost.

Somewhat tired (actually from that morning)

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