Categories
in sweden traveling

skåne roadtrip!

roadtrips are practically an art form, but like all travel, they must be done with the right people. for us, this means easygoing friends who share our interest in food, nice landscapes and all kinds of kitschy or cute things. so when our hosts (lovers of all things kitsch and tasty like us) suggested we do a roadtrip around skåne, our answer was a very enthusiastic YES! :D

in the morning, we rented a wreck and drove around the countryside of central skåne, dodging the heavy rain in search of a famous moose park… which was unfortunately closed. all we saw were 3 sad mooses…

to make up for that small setback, we decided to stop on one of the biggest second hand stores of the region, where we checked out the dishes and christmas decorations…

the weather had cleared up by then, so we did a first quick stop by the baltic sea, to check out the beach and the war bunkers that still exist there:

we also stopped at a burial site that we saw on the way. the stones in this region are all very round, due to erosion.


by then it was time for fika, the traditional swedish coffee break, so we stopped at a little quaint town by the sea. after having crossed the dozens of fields of apple farms, we couldn’t resist a piece of apple pie!

then we turned south, driving along the coast. there are many signs of bronze age in this part of sweden, and we got to see a few marks of the early populations on the polished coastal stones. boats and axes are featured prominently.

a bit further southt, we made a detour to see ale’s stones, sweden’s own stonehenge: a set of massive stones set in an ellipse on a cliff by the sea. nobody seems to know very well why they’re there, but they’re quite impressive nonetheless – and the cows seemed to love them as scratching posts!


we couldn’t resist the calling of the sea, so naturally we descended the cliff and picked rocks at the beach.

with the sea air opening our appetite, we had to make a pit stop for refuel. we drove by a place in skurup that has awesome fast food: meatballs with lingon jam, red danish sausage, fish and chips, and an amazing wrap with sausage, cucumber and mashed potatoes. skurup is famous for being the starting place for the wonderful adventures of nils (the boy that traveled sweden on a goose), and they have a great slogan “when in europe, don’t miss skurup”. it’s a really small place, but i guess it’s worth it for the food and the sweets! :P


on the way home, we passed fields upon fields of sugar beets… i had never seen one up close, so we made a quick stop on a recently harvested field to snatch a leftover beet, which we cleaned and chopped when we got home. it didn’t taste like much except… sweet! :)

all in all, a very successful roadtrip!

Categories
foooood in sweden traveling

nöt-crème

in my head, netherlands has always been the holy grail of sweet temptations, the anti-diet country: they had vla! oliebollen! stroopwaffles! chocolate letters! hagelslag! speculaas!

but here in sweden… just, wow. i feel like we’ve entered a whole new saccharine dimension. we’re in a constant sugar high, giddy from all the treats and the excitement of discovering a new country. sweden is refreshing, clean, organised… and sweet, like you wouldn’t believe it!

case in point: nöt-crème.
these little things were invented by a family who started a company to produce one health product based on honey, herbs and all that good stuff… but that didn’t go very well with the customers.
so they thought “hey, how about we do something that resembles cake filling instead?”
they grabbed some hazelnuts and did just that, and suddenly they had kids queuing to buy the stuff and eat it straight from the package!

how cool is that? :D

Categories
traveling

a rainy day in copenhagen


clean streets and soaked socks, this is how i’ll remember our day in copenhagen. :)

Categories
in germany traveling

public transportation

on the list of things we love about berlin, public transportation is featured prominently. i have a monthly pass for the first time in my life, and though it’s just a small piece of paper (not even a card!), the freedom it gives us is breathtaking. we can go anywhere in the city, anytime (well, after 10am anyway), by bus, tram, metro or rails. no need to worry about gas prices, insurance or where to park.

at 53 euros/month, the cost comes at around 1.76 euros/day, which is nothing for a big city, and especially given the mileage we put on it. the public transportation system here is as efficient as you would expect (despite some incidents now and then.)

the possibilities make me ridiculously happy. i’ve never felt better about our choice of leaving the car behind :)


Categories
in slovenia traveling

ljubljana

“When arriving in a city, we see streets in perspective.
Sequences of buildings with no meaning. Everything is unknown, virgin.
Later we’ll have lived in this city.
We’ll have walked in its streets.
We’ll have been to the end of the perspectives.
We’ll have seen all the buildings.
We’ll have lived stories with people.
When we’ll have lived in this city, we’ll have taken this street a thousand times. After a moment, everything belongs to you because you’ve lived there.

It was to happen but I didn’t know it yet.

Ljubljana.
This thing that sounds weird was added to the long list of old weird names that we have somewhere in our brain. Ljubljana, Trnovo, Ziherlova, slightly slipped next to Shanghai, Groningen, Braga, Ermesinde and Porto.

It becomes normal and familiar.”

on the eve of moving, i always come back to adapt this quote from the movie l’auberge espagnole. these streets we’ve walked a thousand times are ours too.

and now, off to berlin we go! :)