Tuesday was set aside for Ida to do her Christmas shopping. So Timon and I decided that a visit to Hans Christian Anderson's grave was in order. The cemetery, starring HC, Soren Kierkegaard (Danish philosopher) and Natasja (reggae artist who died in 2007 in a car accident in Jamaica) is right near Ida's house and is surrounded by a high, very yellow wall. The cemetery is designated as the resting place for 'artistic and pioneering personalities'. Ida walked with us on her way to meet Jacob in the city. It was a beautiful sunny day which makes the snow absolutely sparkle. The main avenue of the cemetery is lined with very tall thin trees and the snow on the ground was deep. We found an untouched area and Ida and I lay down and made snow angels. I must have done it wrong because my coat rode up and my back and butt immediately froze on contact with the snow. Instead of helping me up, T took photos of me gracefully spread-eagled on the ground!
Later in the afternoon Timon and I spent ages in the supermarket trying to find ingredients for both rum balls and anzac biscuits. Imagine how hard it is to translate sweetened condensed milk, golden syrup and dessicated coconut! We ended up with everything but the milk and syrup, which Ida found later at another store. Now I'm pretty sure it's not that hard to make rum balls. But our effort turned out terribly. It could have been the ingredients, it could have been the skill, but ours turned out gluggy and tasteless. Very disappointing. We will have to try the anzacs next but I'm not holding out much hope. I seem to be awful at making sweet things.
On Wednesday we met Ida in the city (after a quick McDonald's breakfast - everything tastes the same!!!) and jumped on the train to Sweden. Sounds simple right? And it's supposed to be. It's also supposed to be a 25 minute trip. But it turned out that a snowstorm warning had encouraged everyone in Copenhagen to bring their travel plans forward so they could get home/away for Christmas. All trains were delayed and when we finally got on one, it turned out to be the wrong one. We got off at the Central Station and wandered around all lost until we found Ida's friend Rebecca who was accompanying us. The platforms were in chaos as the screens did not match the announcements being made every few minutes. After carving our way through hundreds of people, many with giant suitcases, we finally found the right train and squeezed on, standing in the aisles. Keep in mind it was -a lot of degrees at this time. Luckily two guys got off just before the train crosses the bridge to Sweden so T and I grabbed their window seats. It was pretty cool looking out over the water and wind turbines as we made the crossing. It could not have been more than 10 minutes on the bridge. Sweden itself looked exactly the same on arrival, deep in snow and freezing.
We got off the train at Malmo, the third largest Swedish city after Stockholm and Gothenburg. And if Denmark was cold then Sweden was positively Arctic. It was interesting to see the different architecture styles and the much more commercial focus of the city. We passed 3 Burger Kings, 2 McDonalds and 2 Subways in a very small distance. We went in and out of shops, mostly to keep warm but also to pick up a few gifts. Rebecca had to head back early to collect her son from daycare and by this point I had lost feeling in my face and toes. We all decided to leave together and found ourselves a train station. But in keeping with the day, the train was delayed by half an hour, was jam packed and then took an hour to get back to CPH. While we spent most of the day in transit, it was so very cool to be able to go to another country for the day. For 2 hours even. It's something us southern hemispherers have difficulty imagining but is a daily reality for Europeans. Many people live in Copenhagen and commute to Malmo for work everyday (and vice versa). There is no customs, border patrol or passport requirements. In fact it takes less time (normally) to get from Denmark to Sweden than it takes to get from Fitzroy to St Kilda.
We finally made it home after a long walk from the city (the weather drives everyone onto public transport, meaning the buses were packed like sardines) and we stocked up on whiskey, coke, chips and kebabs. Finally back inside we ate and drank our way through many episodes of Friday Night Lights. Ida made us Irish Coffees and the feeling slowly came back to my toes.
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