Refugees

For the longest time I had not seen any evidence of the thousand refugees a day that were coming to Sweden. I had read many news articles talking about the influx of refugees all over Europe. I also know that Sweden has a very tolerant asylum stance. It just hadn't been very obvious to me in my tiny village.

I don't go to Malmö so much, but we had gone for my birthday and I hadn't seen any signs of refugees. Zoë had gone to the immigration office to get a new residence card, and of course she said it was chaos. Finally when we went for Chris' birthday I saw it. The central station in Malmö was full of people sleeping on the ground, police, and signs like this.

About two weeks ago they started passport control into Sweden. So if you are on the train from Denmark over the Öresunds bridge, the cops won't let anyone off at the first stop in Sweden until all papers are checked. It's not such a hassle really, it's just odd to see how things change. Especially when the majority population of a country is running from war and famine. It also makes you very aware of how first world problems are not problems at all, and how something you had no control over, like being born in a truly free country, is the best thing that could have happened to you.

 

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Snow and Bryan

We had the first snow of the season last weekend. It was awesome. It started on Saturday at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Charlie and I had gone for a walk. Bryan, our friend from TN, was coming for a visit. By the time I meet him at the train station it was big, fat, wet snow with lots of wind.

 

After warming up and getting settled at the house, we headed out to Zoë's place for South African food. We had a meat dish called bobotie and a dessert called malva pudding. I love malva pudding, and I learned how to make it!

 

By the time we headed home, everything was covered.

 

The next morning we headed to Malmö to meet Maud. Our final destination was Copenhagen for an Asian noodle restaurant. We thought we would show Bryan the Turning Torso and pick Maud in one trip. The weather was super rough for being outside, so much wind and snow. There aren't so many pictures from this part because it was wet freezing. I insisted that we walk to the shoreline to see the Öresunds bridge, though. Silly me. It was so snowy you couldn't make out the bridge at all.

 

We made it back to warmth and enjoyed a break from the cold on the train ride over to Denmark. We met Alex at the noodle restaurant. She lives just down the street. We had delicious dumplings and noodles for lunch, and spent the afternoon hanging out in Copenhagen.

 

The next morning Bryan caught a flight back to the US and I very carefully walked to work on the snow that had frozen into ice. It stuck around for a couple of days, but it's all gone now. We are back to rain. I'm hoping for another good snow soon.

 

 

 

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Happy Birthday Chris!

Chris had a two a part, two weekend birthday. On Friday after his birthday we went out for a fancy dinner in Lund at M.E.A.T. It is themed after an American style steak house.

The walls and some of the decorations are butcher shopesque. Notice the meat hooks from the ceiling and the shiny white tiles on the walls. The servers wore butcher aprons as well.

 

 

We ordered the sharing appetizer. It was very interesting and the presentation was beautiful.

 

 

There was charcuterie with homemade pork rinds and fried pig blood.

There was ground carpaccio with radishes and pea shoots.

 

There were pumpkin arancini and seafood ceviche.

For the main meal with both got the beef checks with buttered chanterelles and cranberry compote. It was delicious. We finished off the meal with mint mocha mousse.

 

 

The next weekend we met friends in Malmö for dinner and then headed out to the boulebar. Boule is what we call bocce ball. We went to the same boulebar where I went last year. It's a really cool set up and it's a fun game.

 

 

 

 

There was also a foosball table. Chris and Maud made an excellent team. They destroyed their first competition, but weren't much of a match for the German dream team.

 

 

 

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Copenhagen Street Food

Chris had read about a new concept in Copenhagen for street food. We found a sunny day and went over to check it out. It sits on the water and the entrance faces the water. It could be tricky to find by the way it is situated, but there were signs to make it clear, and a stream of people walking toward it.

 

It's basically like a food court in the mall, but instead of only having fast food chains it has food truck fare. Some of the places are built in place, while others drove in food truck and parked them.

 

 

 

These smart guys built prep kitchens on top of their space.

 

It's a good setup. There are plenty of tables and even fireplace. It's like walking down a street full of food vendors, only protected from the elements.

We tried out tacos and duck fat fried French fries

This is the face that duck fat fried French fries made.

We went back a second time the next week and tried out fish and of course repeated the duck fat fried French fries!

 

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Happy Birthday Michelle

My birthday happened to fall on a Friday this year. I planned a night of bowling and pizza in Malmö. About 20 friends came out to celebrate with me.

 

Alex and Emma

 

 

 

I didn't win in my group of bowlers, but I came in 3rd, not terrible. Pizza was just down the road two blocks. I was looking for real Italian pizza. There is a lot of pizza here, but mostly you find it in kebab restaurants. The middle eastern pizza is just not the same. I found an Italian restaurant ran by real Italians and it was delish!

 

 

Johan, Chris, Matt, and Owen

 

The crew

 

Salami, jalapeños, and feta

 

A very Zoë face and a very Andrew face

A very Zoë face and a very Andrew face

 

The Sunday after, Alex invited us over to her apartment in Copenhagen for brunch. She made a fantastic eggs benedict with homemade English muffins. She has a super cute apartment.

 

 

We decided Charlie needed a trip to the big city and he loved it. He got bus rides and trains rides, which makes him happy.

 

 

It was a perfect birthday weekend!

 

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