God Jul!

Or this post title could be "holy hell, it gets dark here early!"

But we arrived happily in Malmo Central Station after a peaceful flight that arrived early.



Two countries in one day! Literally I was on the train from Denmark and then I blinked and I was in Sweden. The train ride from Copenhagen to Malmo is shorter than taking the subway to Main Station. Which bodes well because I think I see lots of Copenhagen in my future. And if it is possible, I love Malmo C train station. So far it is my favourite place. But that's mostly because it is Christmas and pretty much the entire city was closed and quiet. I had a good latte at the Espresso House (note to self: must learn to do currency exchange in head because 38SEK for a latte sounds very wrong until you convert it) and I had a lunch of traditional smorrebrod (open faced sandwiches) of curried herring and smoked salmon and dill, as well as some special Christmas pop called Julmust (kind of like coke with lingonberry syrup) at Sma Smorrebrod which is a fast food chain here.



I got to see Yama meet his brother for the first time after 11 years and his sister-in-law for the first time. I had to look away it was so touching and I didn't want to be crying when I met them. He was so happy, it was a dream come true for him to see them. His brother is so cute and seems very sweet. Which really isn't surprising since he is related after all.

I spent the afternoon exploring Malmo - it is very beautiful and reminds me of Quebec City except I really can't understand any of the words on the signs (in Quebec I at least have an inkling). Luckily English is very prevalent here and latte is universal. Some of the signs are kind of intuitive: for example, the ATM at Malmo C was under a sign that said "bankomat". The Swedish word for exit is "utgang" which I find amusing - in my brain it is "out, gang!" with urgency and with a John Cleese accent.

Lots of pretty random buildings with pretty random things.



ET: fon home.



So the sun went down at about 2 pm. What?!? I was not expecting that. It has been pitch black since about 3:30. What cruel joke is this? I know when I go to Kiruna there will be no sun at all, but I wasn't expecting that here since I am 1900 km south. Anyway today it suits me, because I am already curled up in bed since I didn't get much sleep last night on the plane.

I am debating going to bed now, since I am warm and sated and not sure there is much to see or do tonight (note to self: maybe Malmo C is rocking it tonight!) but suspect this will be folly because I'll just be awake at midnight and I'm guessing not much will have changed regarding the pitch blackness of everything and also the not much to do issue...

But first: dinner, ghetto girl style. I bought the cheez ballz mostly because I knew it would make Angie laugh. But I et them anyway.



Day one: it's a wrap! Merry Christmas to my peeps who celebrate.