a visit to Sweden's number three - Malmö

pictured: Malmö graffiti in kristianstad // alex and mike in yellow with a yellow background

the third largest city in sweden, Malmö was once an industrial town. now, it's becoming quite the metropolis; having built a really huge bridge that connects it with copenhagen, as well as the largest building in scandanavia - the turning torso.

so we (mike, kelsa, alex, and myself) headed off to Malmö to see what's up with number three.

after a 2.5 hour train/bus ride, we arrived in the city center and started our foot tour - which would take us around the old town, to the modern art museum, to a toy museum, some organic gardens, and then to the beach that looks upon denmark. all of the mentioned were seen and great - minus the toy museum which we didn't even pay to enter because it looked more like a flea market than something worthwhile (i was kinda really disappointed, cause i love toys. i wish they would have tried harder.)

i had read that Malmö was a "hidden green city" - meaning it was pretty organic, lots of visible green energy, and garden roof tops. i didn't really see much of any of that. okay, i did see one garden roof - on a boat house - and the buses run on biofuel. but, i was really expecting more. maybe we just missed it.

luckily, the day couldn't be ruined because the weather was so lovely. even the beach / bath house we went to visit was still nice. and the water was surprisingly warmer than any swedish body of water we had touched so far, and quite clear. (we didn't go swimming cause it really wasn't THAT warm, and the bathhouse was gender separated - boo hoo - so no fun there).

exhausted again, we headed back to our solgarden for a quiet maglehem evening.

the 57th magic rainbow experience - of Skåne

pictured: the tour begins

during the maglehem nolltie, magnus decided to tag his very unique van (turquoise VW) with his band's logo - in return the van was transformed into something magical. offering to take us wwoofers on a short road trip around southern sweden, magnus reved up the ol'van and we so the magic rainbow experience began...

we started off where all good things start - at the end of the sea. known to us as 'little stonehenge', this sight is actually called "ale's stenar" and consists of a bunch of decently sized rocks that were apparently placed on sight during the ice age. crazy, right?

pictured: ale's stenar // the sad stone // the cliff to the sea // the crew (kelsa, mike (aka tom), me, alex, magnus, magnus' daughter)

it was very beautiful - being so close to a cliff that overlooked the sea and surrounded by wandering cattle. plus, some of the rocks really took on a personality of their own (see sad rock).

pictured: alex in from of glimmingehus

next up on the magic rainbow experience was glimmingehus - a fort / house / something that was really never used as anything (the walls were made too thick, so the place couldn't ever get warm) - other than the now tourist sight which includes a shop and cafe. nonetheless, the building was quite lovely, especially because it was all lit by candles (which seems to be the swedish way). and there were all sorts of different rooms for eating, dancing, and just hanging out with your invisible mates.

pictured: glimmingehus in illustration // glimmingehus in reality // the dinning room with americans fake-chatting

and so the tour continued on, further into the countryside of sweden. we stopped in the small, harbor town of Simrishamn for some fresh air and an ice cream (i chose polka - the peppermint candy one - and it was delicious. of course, i licked that scoop right off the cone - but luckily it fell into my hand, so i just plopped it back on and proceeded to enjoy.) there wasn't much open, or too much to see, but Simrishamn was interesting enough - you know, all that classic swedish village stuff. and there was an interesting sculpture of freshly caught fish. there's something a bit off about these fish though. slightly bird-esque.

pictured: interesting sculpture (what do you think, bird-like, seal-ish...?)

then it was time to drive on back to maglehem...what a nice day. thanks magnus!

pictured: alex being silly with a big shrimp

circus tents, drunks, spook bands, and a whole lot of hot dogs...the maglehem nolltie

pictured: festival entrance featuring h,hg

a weekend that was predicted to be filled with rain, 3,000 people, and a whole lot of craziness turned out to be sunny (for the most part), maybe 500 people, and semi-crazy. but as always, there was lots of fun to be had and some good tunes to be heard.

friday evening marked the start of 'maglehem nolltie'. the campers did indeed start started to roll into a large pasture (filled with lots of sheep poo) and the art team was busily finishing wrapping trees in scrap fabrics. the grill started cooking and we (americans) began to man our stations with no swedish speaking skills whatsoever. as always, speaking english was, for the most part, quite fine (some people, like a guy we like to call colonel toad, even thought we were super duper cool cause we were from the USofA - and especially liked when alex said 'i've got family in alabama' in a southern accent. turns out mr.toad has dreams of moving to the south and knows quite a bit about it.)

pictured: alex and wagemann - aka hungry, hungry ghost

and when saturday morning came upon us, it was time for hungry, hungry, ghost to get all spooky (there was another 'ghost' band, so they were collectively called 'spook bands') on sweden. tucked under an orange circus tent, alex (accompanied by wagemann) played what i think what his best show. the sound was surprisingly good and the circus tent made for an interesting stage. unfortunately, since it was a morning show (11am) not too many people were there - but the lucky few seemed into it. there was even a reporter from the local paper who interviewed alex - which actually showed up in the paper the following day.

here's the article - you might want to use google translate.

http://www.kristianstadsbladet.se/kristianstad/article906136/Fraringn-Brooklyn-till-Maglehem.html

and as the day progressed, things really started to cook up. literally, i took over the grill;
first because i was freezing and wanted to be by something warm, and second because i didn't want to disappoint anymore people by saying i only speak english, so i can't understand them. but it turned out that i liked cooking on the grill (something i hadn't really ever done). sure, it was a ton of pork chops and hot dogs (known as korv) - but there was something really nice about it. i really don't know what. maybe it was just the heat. maybe it's just cause i'm a grill master at heart. (for the record, i did also cook up some veggie hot dogs and sausages, and even a few rice, corn patty things - but it was mostly meat, which is not something i am now proud of).

pictured: grill master // the korvs (can you find what doesn't fit in this image?)

and there was some wildness to be had. especially from a cookie-monster-of-a-man who sort of resembled a troll and had the craziest crocs imaginable (think melted crayola rainbow). red faced from either too much beer or too much sun, he really looked ridiculous. not to mention he enjoyed pissing just meters away from picnicking families and enjoyed being a nuisance during performances (yelling 'hail hitler' and 'can't you play some nice tunes').

pictured: magnus' band - the 57th magical rainbow experience (can you find the troll?)

but the festival ended and the grill closed up shop. we were all very tired.

pictured: the troll highlighted

out and about

the day started off with an offer from magnus to go into town - see some sights, run some errands - so of course we accepted and hopped in a very teal, very noisey VW van.

first stop - Åhus - to visit the dump (and of course, drop off an assortment of trash). but before the dump, we toured the small town - saw some harbor, some swedish looking shopping square, and the factory of absolut vodka (i had no idea they were a swedish company).

pictured: inside the dump // funny collection of animals (in various textures)

and when we finally made our way to "the dump", we discovered it wasn't really a dump at all - rather it was a sorting facility to recycle your goods. Sweden, unlike the US, requires people to sort their own crap - into cardboard, electronics, burnable (misc. paper, plastic...etc...i'm a little unsure how eco-friendly these fumes are), and other categories like tree wood. a fairly new system, this sorting dump really makes you notice how much you waste. and it's all very organized and clean. nothing dumpy about it. well, except this weird collection of random animals hanging outside the front. that's kinda dumpy - in a good way, of course.

next stop, kristianstad - for some food shopping. another smallish town (but the biggest around) kristianstad has some nice old buildings and a park, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be much happening. we just visited some costco-esque stores (where there are disgustingly huge blocks of processed cheese) and hardware shops, buying goods for this weekend's upcoming festival.

which brings me to the next activity - putting up the circus tent which will serve as a stage during the festival. a heavy, massive looking thing. it took 20 people, none of which really knew what was going on, to put it up (and it's not really even still up). but, it's kinda neat. and now i know how circus tents work. yay.

pictured: me and some new zealander holding up the pole // inside the rising tent // semi-risen tent

and of course we've made some new swedish friends.

meet mr. coneman and mr. bullytots.

Destroying homes, one spade at a time

Between all of the ants’, spiders’, and weird slivering bugs’ homes we uproot (literally)we come across in our gardening days, we’ve probably uprooted (literally) hundreds, possibly thousands of little critters. But no critter has been more obviously disturbed than today’s fine friend – the hedgehog – who we appropriately named “Harold”.

pictured: mysterious spiny ball // harold awakens // harold heads to another corner

A nice young lad, with a plump form, glazed over eyes, and one hell of a hairdo, Harold is the first hedgehog I’ve ever seen (other than sonic by way of sega). So, it should come as no surprise that I had no idea what Harold was when I found him.

Charged with the mission to excavate a 10 foot by 4 foot area full of weeds and plants, we set to work cutting plants with large shears and putting spade deep into earth. After most of the brush had been cleared, I delved much further into the root-ridden ground, hoping to pull out a big one. And as I made my way to the corner I noticed a pile of leaves with a spiny ball shaped object peaking through. Unsure of what it was, I poke and prided, until I was thoroughly confused (after I thought I saw it breathe and heard it rumble a deep snore). So, I shared my discovery with the rest of the gang, and together we rolled out the ball object to further inspect. For about 10 minutes, we had no idea what it was – a ball, some flora, possibly a hedgehog? No one knew…until we poked some more and out popped little harold’s head – but just a little. So we tried to move our new, sleepy headed friend away from our pile of dirt into a new pile of leaves, but he wasn’t having it – as he decided to run around and make his was to corner number two. Eventually, we did manage to give Harold a lift on the spade – at which point he promptly ran off into a – well – hedge.

We all felt touched by little Harold and we hope to see him on his evening walks (apparently Harold is an old friend of solgarden's and last summer he took walks with another hedgehog on the sidewalk).

After we met Harold, nothing else mattered.

I’ve got blisters on my fingers!

Yes, it’s true – there are blisters on my fingers. Each place we visit just happens to have a slightly different rake, a slightly different lawn mower, and slightly oversized gloves. Meaning, any calluses I’ve acquired are pointless. And fresh blisters are plentiful.

And today’s blisters are the result of mowing a huge lawn with a semi-broken push lawn mower, weeding the biggest, non-tasty weeds I’ve ever seen, and then raking it all up. Alex on the other hand, hasn’t any blisters.

pictured: alex riding the mower like a pro

And that’s because he was comfortably seated on his toy-sized lawn mower, making rounds in the yard (literally, he had to go round and round due to his lack of driving accuracy, which left many stray grass clusters). Just look at him go…

pictured: a nice mow job // oh, wait, there's lots of missed spots (but alex got much better, and is now actually as pro as he looks)

But alex did help with some weeding, and he even went au natural – forgoing gloves. And he did lots of raking. But no blisters. Maybe all that guitar playing is coming in handy (i really can’t help but make constant hand puns).

pictured: the weed man

pictured: the weeds before // and after

In other news…the poster for this weekend’s music festival was posted today – and hungry, hungry ghost is one of the featured bands (not even magnus’ – our host here, who is also a player in festival - own band is featured)!

Oh, random – but here’s where we sleep – a mini house thing.

And today we were joined by two more wwoofers – Americans from Oakland, California. And together we all drove to the nearby sea to skip stones, collect seaweed (well, I did, everyone else was more into the stone throwing), press foot onto sand, and enjoy the calm water rolling. Unfortunately the water is really, REALLY cold - colder than any freezing-cold lake. What a tease Sweden, what a tease.

hej då...part three / hej...part four

pictured: urnatur's small garden, made larger - with the help of a spanking new (yet sort of old - wood doesn't grow in a day, those trees died at a tender tree age of 25) fence!

the wwoofing experience at urnatur was one of utmost quality. not only because of the luxurious accomodations and food, but in such a short time, we were able to learn so much. so much we probably would never be able to learn on our own - like the traditional fencing methods, starting a fire without the help of newspaper, and of course, what weeds taste the best.

pictured: alex's last dinner in the hermitage - baked apple slices stuffed with cheese, young potato salad with mixed wild greens, and garlic butter (rhubarb pie with vanilla sauce for dessert)

but today was that day again, when we pack our things, say our good byes and scatter away like two lost ducklings. and to the south eastern part of sweden we headed - via bus, train, and then bus again. the journey was rather short - just under four hours - and quite pleasant (except for the fact that we had first class window seats, that in actuality didn't have a window, but rather a furry wall, boohoo). and when we arrived to kristianstad, we were greeted by a tiny spiderman (who's also known as ruben) and we headed off to the town of maglehem where we will be spending the next week and a half wwoofing at a place called solgarden - part restaurant, part b&b, part garden.

pictured: solgarden's entrance

here, alex will play a show, we will weed some more, and we will help with running the music festival (that alex will play in). so far, it's a nice area - near the sea, spotted with patches of cow, and covered in a variety of growing grains. and we have our own little room in a cluster of house type buildings that feel a bit like rosenhills - in some odd way, cause it really isn't the same. but there are bikes for us to ride (ones that actually seem to work!) and an old railroad turned into a really long bike path down the road. so i'm pretty excited.

and already tonight, alex has had his first lesson with a riding lawn mower - that looks more like a powerwheel tractor for farmer kids than a useful machine. pictures to come...

pictured: some views from nearby