May Day Weekend Recap

In the event you haven't already heard, Erin and I are engaged! You may want to hear an elaborate story involving a brass band, a plane dragging a banner with our faces on it, the scoreboard at Olympia Stadium projecting our names in flashing neon lights, or Erin on one knee in the sand, bathing in the light of a sunset over the Öresund while sobbing out her devotion to me, but none of that would be true. We ultimately decided together and are thrilled and excited to be taking such an awesome step that feels exactly right. I am filled with lightness, peace, and contentedness when I think of spending my life with such a kind, loving, supportive, motivated, family-oriented partner who looks so cute when she wakes up in the morning. Lucky Jenny!

We are still trying to work out the details regarding the ceremony and what kind of celebration we will have, so it may be a little while before I have any more info. Thanks to everyone for all the amazing support we've gotten!  

In other blog news, Erin had a four-day weekend because of the May 1 holiday, May Day, which some leftist Swedes celebrate by holding political rallies and demonstrations (we did not witness any). We crammed a lot of activity into the weekend, so this post may be a bit longer than usual.

Landskrona

May Day is preceded by Walpurguis Eve, which we celebrated with some of Erin's HR colleagues in Malmö. Prior to the festivities, I took a train to Landskrona to explore the town where they all work. Landskrona is an odd place for reasons I can't quite explain. Perhaps this is because it was periodically raining and very windy for the duration of my time there, I was already coming down with a cold that Erin gave me as an engagement present, and I was a little irritable. Maybe it was the odd bar/cafe I stopped at where a strange man who made an unnecessarily loud "AHHHHHH" sound after every sip of his gigantic beer was staring at me every time I looked up. Or maybe it's just an odd place and therefore requires no explanation whatsoever.

My first stop was at the Landskrona Museum, which contains totally unrelated but fascinating galleries of both art and historical artifacts. One was a photography exhibit by the French artist Eric Antoine and another of paintings and sculptures by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd, who created his non-violence work in honor of John Lennon. 

Another gallery consisted mostly of ancient stone hand tools, which was very dark and had an eerie soundtrack playing to make you feel as though you were actually walking around in the stone age. There was also a gallery that reminded me a bit of the Detroit Historical Museum* in that there were a couple old shops reconstructed that you could walk into, along with other cultural artifacts from the region. I even took a selfie with a polar bear statue that was hanging out in the stairwell because, why not?

*NOTE: For those of you in the Detroit area who have not visited the excellent Detroit Historical Museum, I highly recommend making a trip out there and coupling it with a walk to the main branch of the public library next door to check out the wholly underappreciated frescoes on the top floor. 

After the museum, I made my way to the Landskrona Citadel, a defensive fort near the beach that is surrounded by moats. If you guessed that the Danes and the Swedes used to take turns possessing this fort, you'd be right -- those two were like siblings who couldn't get along back then. I walked through the pristine grounds while the sky turned from gray to black and then started pouring. 

The happy young lady above was laying in the sculpture garden just outside the grounds of the citadel. She had other plans and was therefore unavailable to fika with me.

Malmö

After parading around Landskrona, I then joined up with Erin and her colleagues for the trek out to Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden. We first took a nice walk along the beach where I snapped this photo of the famous Turning Torso building, the tallest skyscraper in Sweden.

We then had dinner at Bistro Stella, a lovely and delicious gastropub owned by the husband of one of Erin's colleagues. This cozy place is situated across the street from Thai House, a restaurant with awnings over windows flanked by Bodhisattva statues that proclaim it to be a pizzeria and pub named El Conquistador. Go ahead, take a little time to process that one; the rest of the post will be here when you get back.

At Bistro Stella, I inhaled a special three-course vegetarian meal consisting of white asparagus, risotto, and a lemon tart while Erin got down with some white fish, potatoes, and a chocolate mousse. We then walked down to the beach to experience the bonfire that had been lit on the water in honor of Walpurgis Eve, a time to gather together to celebrate spring and the upcoming summer. The lighting of bonfires is a tradition dating back to a time when Swedes considered April 30 the last day of winter and believed the bonfires warded off evil spirits. 

Loads of people were gathered along the shore, and tons of little kids were skipping rocks, a practice called "throwing sandwiches" in Sweden. While I didn't see any stones actually skipping over the water's surface, I did see a bunch of tiny kids in full snowsuits -- including one in a complete alligator costume -- picking up anything in sight and chucking it a few feet into the water. Seaweed, rocks, shells, and handfuls of sand were not off the menu for those dedicated kids. We truly had an amazing night with lovely company!

Sofiero

On May Day proper, we took the bus out to Sofiero Slott, the castle here in Helsingborg that was first occupied by Crown Prince Oscar and his wife, Sophia, after whom the castle was named (they would go on to become king and queen of Sweden and Norway). Sofiero easily made it to the top of my list of favorite sites in Sweden so far -- something about that place is pure magic. 

Many of the gardens weren't yet in bloom, though there were plenty of gorgeous spring flowers to ogle at on the immaculate, stunning, and expansive grounds. I took about a million pictures and will post a few below, but they really don't do the place justice; pictures can be funny like that.

The castle sits atop a tree-lined hill carved with walking paths leading down to the Öresund, some of which are lined with the rhododendron bushes for which Sofiero is best known. The nearly 500 varieties on the property should start to bloom in the next few weeks, and you can bet your buns that we'll be back to get a look at them. 

The rhododendrons were originally planted by Crown Princess Margareta, wife of Crown Prince Gustav Adolph, who received Sofiero as a wedding gift in 1905. Margareta did loads of gardening on the property with her kids, and also took color photographs of her work. They had some of the photos hanging in one of the greenhouses, and I really wish I could've gotten my hands on one or two of those prints. They were so cool!

While there, we also took a tour of the castle, enjoyed some wine from their cafe on the balcony overlooking the water, and observed some of the sculptures and modern art on the property. 

Our final adventure of the weekend involved a trip to Lund, where we poked around in some shops and eventually wound up at Restaurang VED for one of the best meals of our travels so far: a margherita pizza and an appetizer of grilled asparagus with Chèvre, walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette. Perfecto!

Have a great weekend, everyone!