Sunday, May 04, 2025

Day 1 - Helsingør, Lund, and Malmö

I get ready, I get all dressed up
to go nowhere in particular
Love - Lana Del Rey

Day 1 in Denmark was actually spent going to Sweden. I took a day tour that was taking me there but first with a stop in a town in Denmark called Helsingør. It was drizzling that morning when we set off and these drizzles pretty much filled all my days in Denmark. So all the photos you'll be seeing will be grey; I was bad in taking them and also bad in editing them. Anyways, what's special about Helsingør aside from the fact that it's very near to Sweden that there's a ferry that takes you to Sweden in about 20 minutes, is the fact that it has Kronborg castle which is where Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, is set. We were given some time in Helsingør which some people used to visit the castle, but I didn't because I didn't feel like it and sad to say I'm not knowledgeable of Shakespeare's works like Hamlet so I didn't feel like buying a ticket to the castle. I still entered the castle compound and I spent some time walking around it. It's by the sea, the Baltic sea I learned, and there's some people fishing by its beach. I'm not sure if they're getting any fish, but it did seem like fun, there was a little boy who excitedly tossed the line of his fishing rod but because it was a small one, it didn't get really far.

After the castle I explored Helsingør the town. Walking here and there somewhat aimlessly. In it's wharf / pier / dock (what do you call this thing, wharf might be correct?), there's a silver statue of a boy that's similar to the little mermaid statue in Copenhagen. It's not a merboy though, it's a boy sitting on a rock and Google told me it's entitled Han. Google also told me that its eyes could actually blink, aah I didn't know that so I didn't look out for it :( Anyways, I then walked further in town, again just walking here and there. I did enter St. Mary's Church, well didn't really enter it, most probably I couldn't find the door but I did walk around its cloister. Whenever I found myself in a cloister, I'm just happy :D I know it's silly. There's something about the space of a cloister that I really like.

Then it's time to leave Helsingør and take the ferry to Sweden. The ferry was quite nice inside actually, you can buy snack and stuff, but we pretty much spent all the time in the outer deck to have a last view of Kronborg castle and Helsingør. For more pictures from Helsingør, you can go here.

Getting off in Sweden, the guide was concerned we might get random check hence that morning he's making sure we all had our passports or for the EU citizens that they had their ID cards, but that day there's nothing. The guide said he experienced it some days before. So I guess such thing could happen. The first city we're visiting in Sweden is Lund. We're dropped off by its Cathedral and were given a map of the area and time to explore on our own. First thing I entered to was the Cathedral. It has an astronomical clock which would chime, but we were there on a Saturday before Easter and the church was going dark and the clock wasn't gonna chime that day.

There were beautiful flowering trees at the open space next to the Cathedral. Honestly, I was in a great spring time with flowering trees blooming during this trip but the weather was not really cooperating. No blue sky at all.

After the cathedral, I went to look for lunch. I did google for places before coming and I went to the food hall that's also indicated in the map I got. The food hall was interesting but the Italian place I googled wasn't open, again perhaps it's Easter weekend, I don't know. Nearby though, there's a like an open space with a lot of food trucks selling cuisine from different countries. No Indonesian :( though there's Korean and if I remember correctly Thai. We Indonesians, are not out there much I suppose. I chose a fried seafood mix from a French truck sold by an actual French guy which made me wonder, are all EU citizens able to work in any EU countries without having to apply for permit and all? Google told me it is indeed the case. It's quite something the EU, their freedom of movement though I'm sure brings problems but it's really something that they're able to achieve that. We just don't have it here and again I can understand the problems we can have if ASEAN is that open but when I hear news about the 4-5 hour delay in passing through the Singapore-Malaysia border this weekend, well what EU has seems pretty good. Anyways, after lunch I decided to go to the botanical garden. It has some cherries trees which were blooming and then other flowering trees like the one by the bench. I didn't know it at the time, now after googling and adding other information together, I'm sure it's white magnolia. Nearby there's pink ones which weren't blooming yet. Then I only knew that magnolia came in pink, but now I know they can be white too. I didn't really explore the garden much because I didn't really have much time and I have spent a lot of it taking pictures of the flowers.

After the garden, I made my way back to the cathedral. Somehow the path I chose to get back was quite quiet. It was a nice walk all around. For more pictures of Lund, you can go here.

After Lund, we're off to Malmö. Same thing, we're given a map and time to explore, so I just walked around following the map. I didn't see all though, I didn't go to the castle which was far off. Below picture is of Lilla Torget, an area with many restaurants and cafe and people. Below is a picture of an arch. Other than that I also visited St. Peter's Church.

Then it's time to get back to Copenhagen, but there were two more things to see. First off was the Turning Torso. This interesting twisted building. As bad as my picture is, the way it twists is really interesting.

The second was the Øresund Bridge. The top of the bridge is covered by cloud in my picture. The bridge is really interesting; there are 2 parts, the top are for cars and the below one is for trains and it's an important transportation link between Sweden and Denmark. On the day I left Denmark, there's some issue with the railway in this bridge that there were disruption for the trains. The bridge is also famous because it's the setting for the Nordic TV series, The Bridge, which I have heard before and heard it's really good. I want to watch it when I have time. It was so good that there's the Asian remake of it with the body being found right between Singapore and Malaysia in season 1. I didn't really watch that version when it's on TV; the season 2 has more Indonesians in it and still I didn't really watch it much. After taking the picture, we all boarded the bus to cross the bridge and go back to Denmark. For more pictures from Malmö, you can go here.

:) eKa @ 8:16:00 PM •