Holy Nimis! and the Arrival of Spring

Swedish meteorologists say that spring begins when the temperature exceeds 0 degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days, so winter never actually happened in Helsingborg this year. For this American, this past Saturday was the first day that spring could be thoroughly felt, and Erin and I took advantage of it by walking everywhere and spending quite a bit of time by the sea. Buds are appearing on trees, flowers are everywhere, and people are coming out in hordes to bask in the sun. We also watched a skinny teen boy in a bathing suit walk down the steps off the promenade, step into the sound, and submerge himself completely. My theory is that this was on a bet, since no reasonable human would have leaped in there for pleasure's sake; we're still a ways off from proper swimming weather.

Kärnan Castle Tour

On Saturday, we also took a tour of Kärnan, the castle in city center that I wrote about in a previous blog post. Until recently, the castle was closed to tourists but opened up for the season in early April. It was once a great deal larger than it is now, and only the central tower remains. This is still pretty neat considering that construction on the castle began in the early 14th century. 

Aside from physically being inside a structure that is as old as this one, the coolest part of the tour was when we reached the viewing area atop the castle, which I'm guessing has to be the tallest point in Helsingborg and which provided a truly spectacular view. Reaching this point was not an easy task, however. There are 146 very steep, narrow steps in a winding staircase leading upward, with only a thin iron rail along one wall to keep you from an unpleasant fall. The historical pamphlet we received says this staircase "made it very difficult for right-handed assailants to wield their swords upwards" during the days when one might be wielding swords at all. If you were to fall on these stairs, I cannot imagine how you could avoid tumbling down to the very bottom, never mind what would happen if you were also carrying a sword! 

NOTE: Hand-drawn interpretations of what falling down these stairs with a sword might look like can be sent to me by post; please message me for the address.

Nimis

On Sunday, we made the trek by car back to the Kullaberg Nature Reserve for a hike down to Nimis, a structure built along a very rocky shore by the artist Lars Vilks. Vilks was recently in the news as a target of the February terrorist attack in Copenhagen for drawing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed as a dog.

From what I've read, Vilks began construction of Nimis in 1980, and he continues to work on it today. It comprises 75 tons of driftwood that are haphazardly fitted together with long nails in the shape of a labyrinth that you must climb through like some sort of crazy jungle gym. It feels remarkably sturdy when climbing on it, and despite the precarious need to watch where you step, it doesn't feel like gripping onto it with all your might will bring it crashing down around you. The wood is smooth and worn down, likely from the many hands that have slid over it for the past 30ish years.

Because of how difficult it is to reach the area where Vilks built Nimis, it took two years for it to be discovered. He's been to court over it several times, and it was ruled more than once that it should be dismantled. What's complicated the legal process is that the sculpture has been bought and sold a couple times, and also that Vilks declared the micronation of Ladonia around the sculpture. I highly recommend taking a look at Ladonia's website and reading about it: http://www.ladonia.org/. Seriously fascinating stuff.

We were told that finding Nimis is difficult, and Ladonia's website seems to offer the bare minimum of direction. We did manage to find an appropriate place within the nature reserve to park the car, and then sought markers for the path to Nimis: orange N's painted on trees. We followed these markers into the woods, but because many of these markers were also on trees with orange and blue dots, we wound up following the dots several kilometers down the wrong path. Erin shouted out "this is dangerous!" more than once in response to unsure footing, steep hills, and rocky and difficult paths.

After righting ourselves, we made our way back to the appropriate markers and began the difficult trek down to Nimis. Somehow, we passed several children and a few dogs who seemed 100% unaffected by the difficulty of the hike. I know that Scandinavians are much more accustomed to hiking than we Michiganders are, but as I was huffing and puffing and regretting my choice of boots, all I could think was, REALLY?! 

This is just a taste of what we had to navigate through.

The many miles we hiked wiped us out and we were both asleep by 8:30 last night! 

Erin will be heading back to the U.S. for a work trip later this week, and I have a couple day trips planned for myself as well as a date with a portfolio of old movies. There will also be homemade macaroni and cheese happening. 

Have a great week, everyone!