7 years later...

Well it was pretty special to be back in Sweden again together, after first meeting here seven years ago. Seven years ago at this time it was a dark rainy day, but today the sun was shining for us, as we crunched through the Autumn leaves on our way to a yummy asian vegetarian buffet. It was great to see the brilliant Autumn colours shining under the bright blue sky...

Walking through Folkets Park about 5 mins from our apartment

The same path we used to walk along 7 years ago when Martin would walk with me back to my student dorm

Walking along the canals around Malmö

A happy chappy :-)

Ostbricka

A cosy gathering with good friends and wine and cheese from all over the world... some good chats, laughs, and bellies full of cheese, and we all felt quite satisfied. Thank you Dougie and Johanna for en fantastisk ostbricka :-)

Dougie and Robert with all the goodies

Marty, Sandra and Johanna after lots of nice cheese

Anders, Malin, Dougie and Robert enjoying the wine

Johanna and Bec having a laugh

Troll Patrol 2

Marty cooking up a storm

Cosy dinner

Oh the bravery of the Swedes!

A bit warmer on the dock :-)

Troll Patrol

A lovely weekend away in the Swedish countryside! We ventured away with the in-laws to a quaint country cottage amongst the apple orchards. Picturesque walks through the mountains, good food and wine, Swedish quiz games and cheering on some crazy Swedes swimming- fun times :-)

The cottage we stayed in was near Ivö lake which is the largest and deepest lake of Scania, Sweden. We went across the lake in the car ferry to visit Ivö Island and saw a beautiful old church and walked through forest where we could really feel the trolls watching us from the shadows!

Standing in front of the limestone quarry which is full of old fossils!

The brothers doing troll patrol

The trolls were hiding but we found other things to do :-)

Dancing on the dock

Thoughts about Sweden...

Cool things about Sweden:

• It's light in Summer from 3:30am- 10:30pm
• Everyone worships the sun and lines up chairs facing the sun to get as much of it as they can at any spare moment
• People catch up more at house parties and dinner parties instead of always going out
• The dogs all understand Swedish
• Willy's (cheap supermarket) with good things for cheap prices
• The smell of the laundry detergent
• People of all shapes and sizes letting it all hang out on the beaches- people don't seem as hung up on 'body image' as in Australia
• Gorgeous white blond kids everywhere sounding very cute talking in Swedish
• People generally look very fit and healthy (maybe it's all the bike riding everywhere)
• When you go out for a walk along the beach you can see Denmark just across the water
• The closeness of other European cities is pretty cool (people go to Germany for the day to buy cheap alcohol)
• The amazing variety of wines available from all over Europe
• Buses are specially designed for prams or people in wheelchairs
• Lots of great bike paths and cars are more conscious of people riding bikes

Not so cool things about Sweden:

• Not often understanding what people around me are saying (but hopefully Swedish lessons will help this)
• Don't own a car here so it can take awhile to get around on buses and bike and is hard in the rain
• Fitted sheets are few and far between (although Ikea has just started stocking them!)
• No Milo, crumpets, BBQ Shapes or Snakata Rice Crackers.... mmm... yum...
• My favourite Garnier, Olay, and Pantene products aren't stocked here
• Malmö is quite small so there's not much choice of clothes or shoes when shopping
• Shop assistants can appear quite rude as the belief here that 'no one is better than anyone else' even goes when you're paying for a service- a bit different to 'the customer is always right'
• You have to pack your own supermarket bags at the check out (check out chick only scans the items and pushes them down the shute)
• If you try on clothes in a department store, you have to put them back out yourself (not like Target etc when they take them from you in the change room afterwards and hang them back up for you)
• It's very expensive to go out for dinner at restaurants or drink at a bar
• DVD's are expensive to rent ($8 for one new release)

The local neighbourhood

We've been lucky to have some sunshine again the last couple of days and I've been enjoying some nice walks around the local area. We've been living in this area for the last couple of months, but in a couple of weeks we'll be moving closer to the city. I've really enjoyed the fresh air and beautiful nature out here, and it's been great that it's only a 5 minute walk to see the water (and Copenhagen just across the water).

Long stretches of bike paths

Waazzuup...

You can just see Copenhagen across the water- we're very close to it here!

The local neighbourhood 2

Some nice houses around the neighbourhood...