1st country out of Denmark: Sweden. Visited Malmö

I've been a little busy the past few weeks since my last entry. With the ongoing twice a week Danish classes and my research project was a little tied up with things. But weekends I will spend like either the  sat or the sun, going out. However, the places that I visited in 3 weekends, were the same places that I've been to. But these 'again' trips are with my colleague, Francesca.

Yup! Finally I've stepped out of Denmark! and its to the nearest country, Sweden. on the 17th Nov, I visited Malmö. This is the most southern most city in Sweden and its also the 3rd largest occupied city in Sweden. In fact this trip to Malmö was not really planned. Coz that weekend, I had decided to stay home to revise my Danish lessons as on Mon I would be having a mid-term test. But my colleague, Francesca, called me on fri and asked me if I would like to join her and her in-laws to visit Malmö. Of course I said yes! hahaha.... coz its exciting to step out of Denmark and visit a new place. So we arranged to meet at 9am in Lyngby station.

Sat finally came and I met Francesca's in-laws (father, mother & sister) for the 1st time. They are all very nice people. We took the train to Københaven Central station and from there we take the Regional train to Malmö. Altogether, it took us about 1hr to get from Lyngby to Malmö (minus the waiting time for trains).

Malmö train station

I must say Malmö is rather similar to Copenhagen. The architectural of the buildings are somewhat similar to that in Denmark. I mean the historical buildings. I went to the tourist information center with Francesca's sister-in-law, Caterina. We got the map of Malmö and also the places of interest. Caterina was interested to see the Malmö castle, so we decided to walk there then to the town center and hopefully if we got time we'll visit the chocolate factory.

The weather in Malmö today is not the best weather. Coz it was foggy and cold (hiaz... by now I've gotten use to the fact that the weather in Scandinevia is always chilling cold). While walking to the castle, we saw a very interesting house. See below for yourselves.

House in the water

Yup! the house was partially submerged in the water! I'e got no idea what happen to the house or was that done purposely. hahaha....Strolling through the park, we finally saw the Malmö castle. ermmm.... I must say, the castle was really ugly! hahaha... i mean i've been awed by the few castles I saw in Denmark, so when i saw this, i was really disappointed. Anyway the Malmö castle has been converted to the Malmö museum.

River in the park that leads to the Malmö castle

That's Francesca and her son and me

Malmö castle

So we decided to head to the town center. Caterina wanted to buy some souvenirs. and she was telling me that all the things in Copenhagen were so expensive. She could not get anything within her budget. I told her, yeah, things in Copenhagen are relatively more expensive than in other countries. But she managed to get a couple of mugs bearing the Malmö words on it. 

Shopping district of Malmö

We had our lunch at a Burger King outlet. We had wanted to eat our sandwiches in a cafe, but seems like outside food was not allowed. I had brought my sandwiches with me, however, Francesca's mother-in-law had also made a sandwich for me! I couldn't believe it! hahaha.... the sandwich comprise of bread that she made herself and salami. Yup! Italians like to eat Salami. After our lunch, we did some shopping. I did window shopping, but Francesca and her in-laws really bought stuffs. 

Streets in Malmö

City hall of Malmö

Some interesting statues in Malmö city center

A stall selling fruits and veggies in the town center square

Took this photo coz the name of the restaurant caught my attention. hahaha... yeah a very unique name for the restaurant. =P

Malmö in the evening

After much shopping its back to Copenhagen. Francesca and her in-laws invited me to her place for dinner. I was a little embarrassed. Coz its like Francesca had cooked for me a few times now... and I've never cooked for offer her anything. Just helped her with her English only. Anyway, its not easy to decline Italians when they invited you. So i went to Francesca's place and her mother-in-law cooked. Wow! I must say the food was good! Her father-in-law offered me wine which he brought from Italy. The reason why the food tasted so good was because, all the ingredients were brought from Italy. and things like the tomato sauce/puree, olive oil etc. were prepared by themselves. 
I'm really not joking. the olive oil that was used in the cooking was produced by the olives grown in their garden! yup! so its really amazing! And I'll be going to Italy to join them for Christmas celebration this Dec! Yup! so I'll have lots more opportunities to taste the fantastic cooking of Francesca's mother-in-law. Can't wait for Christmas to come! =D