A Day in Malmo

Lycka means happiness. Happiness means coffee in the afternoon.

10:00pm on a Saturday night I get a text inviting me to Sweden the next day. Because of the sheer awesomeness of being able to travel internationally at a moment’s notice, I said yes.

Malmo is a quiet town, or maybe it just is at 10:00am on a Sunday morning. I was joined by my weekend travelers, riding trains across oceans at 9 in the morning. Stepping out of the central station we realized we were in for an interesting day, looking like we didn’t know which way was up. There was no research, no Pinterest recommendations, we were just flying by the seat of our pants. We found a tourist center and picked up a map. A physical paper map, that we used to no avail because one hour later we were lost on the opposite side of town, and I’m sorry to say it was my leadership that got us there. the thing I admired most about Sweden that day, was that at the end of January, they still had their Christmas decorations up, all around town, because Sweden doesn’t give a damn about your time limits on holidays.

After the deafening silence of the morning began to fade into soft chatter and life on the streets we regrouped and began to see some interesting things. We made our way to the local castle, fort, former prison, and natural history museum all in one. And then we saw it, the shining beacon of hope to salvage this day in Sweden, the quintessential symbol we have subconsciously been searching for, a windmill. This windmill made us more excited than a kid in a candy store.

We strolled through the surrounding gardens, dead though they may be, but our spirits were high. We saw the skyline standout, the twisting tower, which was on all of the postcards of this, the third biggest city in Sweden. Perhaps my favorite part of the day was learning fika. Fika is the Swedish equivalent of afternoon tea, with coffee and pastries and friends in a cozy café to break up the day. With this, which reminded me of the relaxation effect of a Spanish siesta, I started to like Sweden. People say Malmo is Copenhagen’s little brother, separated by the largest train bridge in the world. In fact, there is even a show on Danish Netflix that pays homage to it called “The Bridge”. Original, I know. But the friends I made that day were worth the wake up call and the time spent being lost.