Sweden

Øresund Bridge

St. Peter's Church

Malmo Park

Øresund From Top

Malmo Castle

The Nordic Windmill

Turning Torso - Sweden's Tallest Building

I travelled across the Øresund Bridge on Saturday to go to Sweden. Malmo, the nearest Swedish town is beautifully small. For someone like me who has come from a behemothic country with those big gargantuan cities, Malmo is quite a revelation. It is small, it is extremely modern and absolutely deserted.

But first about this bridge to Scandinavia. Øresund bridge is the long desired connection between Denmark and its other Nordic brethrens which was opened a couple of years back. It has a kind of two layered design - 2 rail tracks below and a four lane road on the top. It is possibly (again not sure but Wiki atleast says so) the longest combined road and rail bridge in Europe and zooms straight into and across the Øresund strait.

When it comes to the suspension part of it Kolkata's Vidyasagar Setu will give it strong competition. Infact the cable stayed part of it may be shorter than the Vidyasagar setu and much less spectacular. But when my Greyhound bus zoomed into the 4 km long undersea tunnel and zoomed out onto the bridge I knew what was special about this bridge.

Compared to the Øresund bridge Malmo would appear very staid. But this small town boasts of its own little walking street and hosts Sweden's tallest building. Aptly called the Turning Torso this building takes a 90 degree swirl as shoots up into the sky.

Unlike Copenhagen, Malmo is peppered with Indian restaurants. Either the Indian presence in Malmo is more or the Swedish have a tongue for our spices. But I have vowed not to visit an Indian restaurant when I am out of India. I am trying to make the most of it by eating as much non-Indian as possible. That does not mean I dont like Indian food but this is my time to savour non Indian delicacies.

Malmo is so small you can pretty much walk around the city in a day. And thats exactly what I did. While on our way to the Central Staion we stopped by at the St. Peter's Church. Who is this St. Peters. How come most cities have a church in his name? Like any other magnificent church this one too stands out like a majestic old man who gets better with age but never quite dies.

At the onset I had decided not to focus on the shopping street but rather see the other side of Malmo. The more of history I can get the more it helps me to realize the significance of my time. So we went straight to Kungsparken & Slottsparken - the green manicured expanse just adjoining the Malmo Castle. The highlight here was the Slottsmöllan or the Windmill. This one has been preserved from the Nordic times. And it is quite a sight.

The Technology museum is a stone's throw away from the Malmo Castle. They have a World War II submarine - U31. You can go into it and get an idea of the life inside a submarine. I checked out the kitchen and the toilet (pics to be uploaded later). Most interesting were the old motor cycles, cars, marine equipments, rail engines, torpedos and what not. Works of geniuses who were always ahead of their time but are now caged inside a museum. 3 hours flew by and we were not reading much since it was all in Swedish.

Next stop was the Malmo Castle, the highlight of my Malmo trip. A modern musuem housed inside an ancient castle, happily coexisting, each enhancing the others charm. It houses a make-believe dungeon, slaughter house with sound effects et al. It also houses an aquarium, a reptile museum and ofcourse a modern art gallery. I lingered on till I was driven away at 4 pm.

It was raining outside and it was cold. We did not have too much protection. So it was time to return home to Copenhagen and temporal reality. So back we were by the same Greyhound across the Øresund again.

My only regret - I did not buy a Sweden Tshirt for June. I was too much into the conversion game. But I have learnt my lesson and have vowed not to repeat the act. Bloody Indians.


P.S. I do not have a camera with me on my trip. That is making the trip more mystical you see. Till now I was happily dependent on my colleague's camera and the arrangment was fine. The gem of a person that Anand is, he has forgotten to bring his card reader. So his camera is done for the trip and there is no way I can upload the photos till I am in India. So all photos that you see are placeholders taken from various sites to give an idea of where I went. The same, I hope, will be replaced by the ones taken by me. I am sure all this is driving me closer to my long awaited digital camera.