To keep up with the tradition, a long time later I finally got the time to post abut something - this time I needed two months to write about my summer vacation!

First of all, in the end of July I was sure I'd have no holidays this Summer, I wanted to save the days off to go home in Christmas. That idea collapsed on one of the last days of that month - the manager of the company I was working on called me to his office, gave me a paper and 20 minutes later I was cleaning my desk - that was my last day there. With me, several others were made redundant and had to leave the company. The crisis in the construction sector had a strong impact in a company that dedicates exclusively to residential engineering consultancy.

It took me few days to realise that after all I could have some holidays.
Where to? Considering that the plane prices to Portugal made it impossible to go there, the destination was simple: Sweden!

Why Sweden? Because I have friends there that I haven't seen for a long time, because I heard the country is nice, because the plane tickets were cheap, because I felt like visiting a new place.

Malmö

Got to Malmo on the second Saturday of August.
Malmo is the third biggest city in Sweden, with a population of 282.000 (Glasgow 580k, Edinburgh 448k, Porto 240k, Lisbon 564k)

It was great to see the friends. Here are the pics of the salsa party that night

Next morning (more like next afternoon) was time to get to know Malmo.

The architecture is interesting, usually combining the classic with the modern.

Getting to the seaside there was a nice warm wind, unlike what I was expecting in Sweden. I was told the previous week was even better, one of the warmest weeks on record in Malmo!

On the horizon across the strait I saw some strange pinnacles coming out of the water. "Copenhagen", I was told!
Oresund (or The Sound) is the straight that separates Sweden and Denmark, Malmo and Copenhagen. It got known by the crossing composed by a bridge and tunnel, with almost 8kms long (5 miles).
So Denmark was right there, some miles away - I made up my mind I'd have to go there during my short stay in Malmo!

That strange building in the water confirmed me an old idea I had about the Swedish people - they love nudism! It's the cold bath house, built 28 years ago. People use to go there all year long to swim and, for those who fancy it, get naked in front of others.

I saw a building I had only seen before in pictures - the Twisting Torso, designed by Calatrava and opened on the 27th August 2005. More on that later!

Looking back from the sea, I liked the large open green areas.

The Western Harbour, located south-west from the city centre, started being remodeled in 2001 from an industrial area into a residential one. It's now a very nice place to walk around - and live in.

Over the course of the next days I visited some other cities. To simplify things, here are the pictures I took in Malmo during my stay there.

Typical Swedish dinner, with a lot of sausages!

Green areas in Malmo on the end of the day.

The proof that Sweden is the greenest country in the world, everybody has a bike. Thinking about it, there are probably more bikes than residents.
The next picture shows one of 4 bicycle parks around the central station.

The main square.

By night.

Copenhagen

Had the chance to visit Copenhagen for a day. The first idea that struck me is that it's very seemed with Amsterdam!
It's a nice city, expensive (yes, more than Sweden - reason by which many residents started buying houses across the Sound, in Malmo, promoting it's fast growth)

...also with a lot of bikes!

The main square, with something like the city hal in the centre.

Is it only me or does this look like on the the guettos from the Schindler's List? Well, it's not easy to see on the picture but that was scary there!

The Little Murmaid, a little statue with millions of tourists all around - it's not that interesting, folks!

Another statue, an identic copy of Michelangelo's "David", with only a couple of tourists around!

Architects tend to think this is nice... I dont know!!! It's a bit Darth Vaderish isn't it? :p

Look at this picture - taken in Amsterdam (original Erasmus blog here). Don't the houses look the same?

Lund

In Rome, be a Roman! In Sweden, have a bike!

Curious fact about Sweden - loads of bikes, loads of shops with expensive bikes on the windows, no nice bikes on the road!
I was lent a bike, in truth I should call it a relic! It should be in a museum, it looked so old that I bet it was built by Neandertals or some other crazy humanoids, before the wheel was invented!
What to think of a bike without brake handles? :p

So now I had a bike! What to do with this piece de resistance, state of the art technology from the Egyptian era? I know, why not attempt to cycle 16kms (10 miles) on the other side of the road from the one I'm used to by now, all the way to Lund?

One hour later and having survived several near death experiences, all completely unrelated with cars coming the opposite direction or me having forgotten that after all that wasn't a BMX, I got to Lund.

Lund was nice and that's it.

Ystad

One more day, one more opportunity to visit other parts of Sweden. This time I went south, all the way to Ystad.

From that day I recall the great sunshining day (in fact the first time this year I only used a t-shirt all day long!), the nice small city, the army fighting a terrorist threat to worlwide security and a great nap on the harsh rocks of a jetty.

Me on the jetty with a sore back from the nap on the confy rocks!

The eclipse that came after that indicating the end of the world.

And the army fighting a terrorist threat and trying to stop the end of the world as we know it. I needed to cross the square and didn't have time to way for the conflict to be over, so I just walked to the dark skin, bearded guy wearing a thick black jacket and asked him "wassup?"
After all he was just a Portuguese tourist with a turkish look, all ended up well and I continued my walk with the nice feeling of having saved the world!