Cycling to Sibbarp

We're lucky to be living near the water and we enjoy riding to Sibbarp beach and having picnics and soaking up the sunshine. From the beach, you can see the bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark across the water. It's a pretty cool feeling to be sitting on the beach looking across at another country just over the water!

The bridge from Sweden to Denmark in the background

Ute dag med Svenska klass

We had a picnic at the beach for our last day of Swedish classes before the summer holidays- which we're on now- classes start again in August. It was fun to chat with people about what they're doing in Sweden and get to know each other a bit more in a relaxed way. We played some soccer and volleyball and enjoyed the sunshine...

Some of the other people in my class

Soccer with the boys

Our cool teacher- Nadin (we get a new teacher after the summer break so hopefully they'll be just as good)

Svenska klasser

I've started learning Swedish at Folkuniversitet where I'll have classes every afternoon during the week. The classes are in a pretty cool building where they used to build submarines, near the marina. From our building I can see the Turning Torso- an interestingly twisty building that is the tallest building in Scandinavia and the second tallest residential building in Europe!

It's something different to be in a classroom with 16 other people who are from all over the world- Ghana, Pakistan, Mumbai, Thailand, Spain, Portugal, Iraq, Bangladesh, Romania... with some of us, our only common language is Swedish so we have to try and stumble through so we can communicate with each other.

It was a strange feeling on the first day to chant the alphabet in Swedish together, play games to learn how to say different numbers, and tell something about ourselves in basic Swedish- it was kind of fun to feel like I was back in primary school!

My school on the right (the orange and grey building with the white pipe running vertically down the side)- next to the Turning Torso building

Off to school...

View towards Malmö central on my way to school

My wonderful husband waiting for me after school

The Swedes sure do know how to make the most of the sunshine outside the city library

Strolling through Lilla Torg (the little square) in Malmö city after class

Cruising around Copenhagen

We went to Denmark for the day with Ceri and Lisa- just a 30 minute train trip from Sweden. We had a delicious vegetarian buffet for lunch, and then set off to see The Little Mermaid.

After a 45 minute walk to get to where she sits, we couldn't believe it when there was a big sign up saying "mermaid exchange" and we saw she had been sent to Shanghai for the World Expo and replaced by a giant screen showing her sitting across the other side of the world!

We decided that a boat trip and an ice cream was the best way to cope with this sad shock, and jumped on the nearest boat to bob about on the water for awhile. After some yummy Danish ice cream and soaking up the sunshine we all felt much happier :-)

Lucky man ;-)

Aaah... beer for the boys and ice cream for the girls- works every time!

The poor lonely mermaid in Shanghai

On our way to the ice cream...

Ceri & Lisa's visit

It was fun catching up with Ceri and Lisa and showing them around Sweden and Denmark. We had some yummy BBQ's and shared some tasty European wines together; catching up on all the news and chatting about travelling...

BBQ on the terrace at our place

Midnight meandering

View of the bridge from Sweden to Denmark just a short walk from our place

Baileys at the beach :-)

Ceri and Marty watching the World Cup

Viking Village

We went to the Fotevikens Museum, which is actually a Viking settlement on the edge of the stretch of water that joins Sweden and Denmark. There are around 30 Viking dwellings built there, which you can wander around and even go inside to get a feel for how the Vikings really lived.

People who are really keen on Viking history actually choose to live in the huts and wear traditional Viking clothes, and use the same tools that were used back in the day to prepare food and make clothing.

The Viking settlement is considered to be a free and independent 'Viking Kingdom' with its own rules and regulations, and there is a constitutional law which all the Vikings there must obey. They believe that in their settlement the Viking Age always applies, and that the present does not exist... 'it is the year of our Lord 1134.'

The Vikings cooking their lunch on the fire

Lisa and Bec living it up in one of the huts ;-)

Watch out for those vicious Vikings!

Bec chose a hut and a hat and felt quite at home

Marty and Ceri protecting the territory

A picture from the internet of all the Vikings that live at Foteviken

Midsommar Fest :-)

Swedes like to celebrate mid-Summer with a party with good friends, good food and wine, singing and schnapps! It was great fun to experience a real midsommar fest, and cool that Ceri and Lisa (our friends from Australia) could be here with us to celebrate as well. The table was stocked with 16 different types of herring, potatoes, eggs, caviar, meatballs, salmon, and quiche.

After several rounds of schnapps and some fantastic Swedish style drinking songs, the Aussies felt obliged to share some Australian songs- and tried out Waltzing Matilda, Tie me Kangaroo Down, and Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oy Oy Oy- only to realise that we didn't have such a catchy repertoire as the Swedes, and that the typical Aussie bloke having a drink with with mates doesn't usually burst into singing like the Swedes can! The Swedes surprised all the Aussie's later on in the night by leading the way with several Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie Oy Oy Oy's which made us all smile :-)

Midsommar table set up in Anders and Malin's backyard in Svarte.

A picture from the internet of a typical Swedish maypole which children usually dance around on Midsommar Eve

Marty and Bec after a round of singing

Anders, Robert, Anna, Johanna and Thom

The kids playing on the big slippery slide :-)

Team Bafana Bafana fighting it out with the old Viking game 'Kub'

Marvellous Malin and Beautiful Blanco

Janice, Ola, Johanna, and Dougie cheering for Midsommar!

Netherlands vs. Denmark- Live

A pretty amazing feeling to be amongst 84,000 other people watching the Netherlands and Denmark. The stadium itself looked fantastic as the golden edges sparkled in the sunshine.

The game was good, but unfortunately Denmark got beaten 2-0 after a couple of unlucky goals. In hindsight it was cool to see the World Cup silver medalists live, but they did have the unfair advantage of all the empty seats as well as the security guards, being orange...

Argentina vs. Nigeria- Live

It was really cool to get to see the Argentina vs. Nigeria game live! The energy and excitement in the air was awesome :-) We got there early and watched the stadium gradually fill up with people waving banners and flags and blowing their vuvuzela's.

After Argentina scored the first goal early in the first half, they slowed down the pace straight away, making the antics of Maradona (Argentinian coach) on the sidelines the most exciting thing - especially when juxtaposed with the not to excited Nigerian coach, Lars Lagerbäck, a hire hand from Sweden.

It was fantastic to see the superstars of Argentina in action and feel the atmosphere in the stadium.