Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Locals- questionaire

I live in Malmö, Sweden.

[img]http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=64537&rendTypeId=4[/img]

Most Swedes speak Swedish, of course, but Swedish is not "officially" the language of Sweden. A few languages are granted special protection because they have long been spoken by well-established minorities in Sweden. Two such languages are Finnish and Romani.

Most Swedes are able to speak English.

Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm (our capital) and Gothenburg (Göteborg). Population 280,000. (The total population of Sweden is about 9 million. The total land area of Sweden is 449,964 km² (173,720 square miles), which makes it slightly bigger than California.)

Pildammsparken, The Willow Pond Park, is situated in Malmö right next to where I live, and it's really nice.



There are other nice parks, too. And we have a quite beautiful main library, which won first prize in an architeture competion some years ago.



We have a nice main theater house from 1944, Malmö Stadsteater. Famous film director Ingmar Bergman, who died a few months ago, directed the first play ever at Malmö Stadsteater, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I had found a nice picture of it, but suddenly the link shut down!

Both the library and the theater are close to where I live. There are sports stadiums nearby, too.

Downtown, people gather at Lilla Torg (Little Square), where there are all sorts of restaurants, cafés and bars.



In August the Malmö Festival is held, when Stortorget (The Big Square) looks like this:



A popular new landmark in Malmö is our new skyscraper, Turning Torso.



Turning Torso is situated in Västra hamnen (West harbour), the newest district in Malmö where everybody in Malmö comes to swim in the summer.



We actually have a quite nice sandy beach in Malmö too, Ribersborg, but these days people prefer to lie down on the clean wooden construction that you can see in the picture above. And there are such nice cafes right nearby in Västra hamnen, too.)

Anyway, this is Ribersborg:

Ribersborg

And let me mention one of my own favorites in Malmö, too. It's Katrinetorps Gård, a lovely old mansion from the year 1800, situated in the southernmost part of Malmö. The place is still quite rural, although the trains bound for Copenhagen pass nearby, and a lot of new shopping centers and the like have sprung up not far from the railway. Katrinetorps Gård has got a lovely restaurant, and I quite often cycle there on a Saturday or a Sunday to eat a delicious weekend meal!

Katrinetorps Gård

This is Malmöhus slott, an important castle or fort from the 16th century.



We also have a church from the 13th century, Sankt Petri kyrka (Saint Peter's Church).



Recently, Öresundsbron, the Strait of Öresund fixed link, was built between Malmö and Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It may not be historically significant, but it sure is important for us here in southern Sweden! It's very easy to travel to Copenhagen from Malmö these days, and Copenhagen is a large and important European capital. Trains cross the bridge every twenty minutes, and it takes only about forty minutes to go from Malmö to Copenhagen.

This is Nyhavn (New Harbour) in Copenhagen. Pretty, isn't it?



Malmö is also very close to Lund, the second most important university town in Sweden. Lund is pretty, intellectual and charming, and it is ancient and youthful at the same time.



The University of Lund. There has been a university here since, I think, the 15th century. This is the main building, which is of course much more recent. Here the all-male Student Choir, founded some 150 years ago or so, gather each year on the first of May to sing beautiful songs in honour of spring and the month of May.

The county that Malmö is situated in, Skåne (Scania), is really beautiful and varied. I can recommend Ales Stenar (the Stones of Ale). It's a monument somewhat reminiscent of Stonehenge in England. Admittedly Stonehenge is a lot more impressive as a monument, but take it from me - the landscape surrounding Ales Stenar is breathtaking, because the coastline is very steep. You can walk right up to the edge of it, and you feel as if you are almost flying over the Baltic Sea.



The Swedish poet Anders Österling wrote a poem about Ales stenar. I'll make a rough translation of parts of it:

Where land hovers between sea and sky
Ale built a giant ship of stones.

....

Its stem are stones
its sails are clouds
It sails the stream of time unfettered.

....

Around the ship and grave the water glitters
old as time and wide as the open sea.
....

Each new spring brings flowers around ancient stones
the lark sings, and the summers of Skåne tumble in the wind.

Okay, let's leave Ales stenar! There are also lovely beech forests in Skåne. Many of them are unbelievably full of white wood anemones in the spring.



So what do I like the least about where I live? Uh... how about January and February in Malmö?



It's as depressing as it looks. Gaaahhhh!!!!

Well, I've posted very many pictures already. i will be back later with a bit more information about Malmö.

Ann