How we nearly angered the Viking Gods - Ystad and Ales Stenar

On Thursday we got my car.  A Volkswagon Passat wagon, brand new with only 17km on the clock.   The only problem was that its a left-hand drive.  Sure thats not a problem for Swedes who are used to driving on the right hand side of the road, but for us it was going to be a challenge.  When the kids asked how driving on the 'wrong' side of the road felt, both Kris and I struggled to find an analogy before I finally summed it up as "It's like wearing your T-shirt as underwear".  Sure this was a bit random but it did kind of sum it up - its still familar but just wrong.  But how would I know anyway, I wussed out and made Kristine drive our first road trip :)

I spent some time looking at where we could go. We didnt want to do lots of driving in town - there were too many bikes and too much traffic.  Then I found Ystad. It's a small town on the south coast about an hours drive from Malmo but most of the drive is freeway.  At Ystad is the "Ales Stenar" - "Ale's Stones", which are touted as Sweden's Stonehenge.  Its a set of standing stones, set up by the vikings in the shape of a boat on a hill overlooking the bay. But more on that later :)

When I mentioned this at work, it turned out the other Aussie expat family was planning on heading out there also, so we decided to go together, see the stones and have a picnic in Ystad.

So the first port of call was shopping.  We had our migration biometrics (photos, fingerprints and signature, for our ID cards) done on friday, so we stopped by the shop and got some bread, meats and lollies.  We made a fruit salad, pasta salad and packed cheese, ham and pepperoni.  We also got some lollies to keep the kids (and adults) happy.  It turns out the Swedish word for "foam" is "skum".  This makes for some interesting names - for example there are plenty of fire extinguishers with SKUM written across them in huge letters and it also relates to foam lollies, such a these:

In case you can't read it, these lollies are called "Hello Kitty Skum" - appetising..

The Ales Stenar are about 20 minutes drive from Ystad.  Once we parked in the carpark at the bay below we were suprised by how windy and cold it was.  Overall its been about 10 degrees or so, but its been pretty comfortable but today, the wind cut straight through the jackets and we were a little worried it would blow Tomas away.  It made it hard to hear each other, but we managed to group up and walk through the cow paddocks until we came to stones.

 Alana at the steps overlooking the bay.

 Looking back over the bay

We have some old photos of my dad and his cousin at the stones in Rollright and I wanted to recreate something similar, so here's all the kids in front of the South Eastern "Stern" Stone

 The stones are formed in the shape of a ship, 67m long.  It is made up of 59 stones each up to 1.8 tonnes (thanks Wikipedia).  Archaeologists excavated the site in 1989 and found human remains and ash from a pyre that aged the relic at about 1400 years old - 600AD.  These are some photos later that show the informaton signs with some details about the site.

Here's the view from the SE looking NW towards the NW Stern Stone:

 and from the middle of the monument looking towards the NW Stern Stone.

 Me in front of the NW Stern Stone:

 Kris resting out of the wind:

 A view of the stones from the west by the cliffs.  The NW Stern Stone is on the left.

We aso got a couple of shots in front of the NW Stern Stone - Tom wasnt too happy with how loud the wind was:

This is looking to the Northwest along the cliffs away from the stones:

These shots are of the information boards about the stones.  There's some interesting information, such as the stones are set up so that at the Winter Solstace (shortest day) the sun rises over the SE Stern stone and sets over the western mid-ship stone.  On Summer Solstace (longest day), the sun rises over the NW Stern Stone and sets over the eastern mid-ship stone.  On the Equinox the sun travels between the mid-ship stones.  Read the signs for more info but it works like a giant calendar:

 

 

As we were about to leave, Tomas decided he needed to pee and walked over behind the NW Stern Stone.  Kris and I managed to catch him before he angered any viking gods.

The wind made some nice waves - There were even people surfing in full dry suits.

 After leaving the stones we went back to Ystad to find a place for a picnic.  It was pretty windy, which made it hard to find a good place.  One park looked nice, but it turned out that its was outside a crematorium so we decided to give that a miss.

Eventually we find a nice sheltered area called a kyrkogård.  "Oh good, a church garden."  I thought.  It had a nice little stream and some sheltered areas, so we pulled in and then I found out that it actually meant "graveyard".  Deciding we were unlikely to find a nice area to eat that didnt have bodies nearby, we found a quiet area and had our picnic.

A frog prince statue in the creek - I tried, but none of the kids would kiss him.

This duck waddled out of the creek and chased Tomas until he screamed and ran after Kris.

The stream with ducks:

Our picnic:

We left Ystad around 2:30pm and got home at 4 just as it was starting to get dark.

War of the Worlds - Our welcome to Sweden (warning: some medical descriptions and lots of whining)

"From the moment the invaders arrived, breathed our air, ate and drank, they were doomed. They were undone, destroyed, after all of man's weapons and devices had failed, by the tiniest creatures that God in his wisdom put upon this earth." - War of the Worlds

This was the thought that went through my head in the first week we arrived in Sweden. I was sick, Kris was exhausted and it seemed that Sweden was doing it's best to get rid of us...

Ok maybe I should start at the start...

About 5 weeks before we left to go to Sweden I played a rugby grand final (and won), but in the process I managed to break my eye socket - including the fine bone that sits between the eye socket and the sinus tubes.  This meant that I was unable to blow my nose, sneeze or equalise the pressure in my ears or risk breaking it again.

The first surgeon said it was unlikely we were going to be able to fly as the pressure changes on the plane could blow it out again.  Fortunately the head surgeon checked and said it was close but I should be ok.  Of course there was a chance that, as soon as we took off, the pressure changes would blow out the bone and fill my eye socket with air.  While my eye wouldnt fall out, it could strain the optic nerve and I could end up going blind in that eye.

Nothing like a little bit of worry to start an overseas trip...  Couple that with the way our last few weeks went - we only got the final Visa approval from Sweden on the thursday (we were due to fly Monday) Kris had to organise getting all our gear packed into storage and the house clean and I was going crazy trying to get all my work done before we left.  I even ended up working until 4pm on the last day we were in Australia, and we were due to fly out at 10pm.

By the time we finally got on the plane we were tired and run down.  Kris and the kids got a little sleep and enjoyed the movie but I didnt have a very good flight.  To start with I could feel the pressure in my ears but couldnt pop them due to the risk of my eye, so for most of the flight I had pressure changes in my head.  I've flown lots of times before and never had any issues, but this time I ended up getting really bad motion sickness and had to dash to the toilets at least 4 or 5 times to throw up.  By the time we hit Copenhagen airport I was feeling awful, but we still had a hour long taxi ride and an hour dragging our stuff back to our apartment.

The next day I woke with a burning throat and a feeling like I'd been hit by a bus.  I ran a temperature around 39degrees and was pouring with sweat.  It got to the point where I could hardly swallow.  We couldnt easily see a doctor as we didnt have our Swedish residency so Kris bought me some painkillers and throaties and I tried to sleep.  For the first five days in Sweden I was sick as a dog.  I think it may have been tonsillitus, but it could have just been a really nasty strain of man-flu.  Either way Kris was forced to do most of the week solo while I sweated and struggled to even drink water.

Finally by the end of the week I started to get over it and began to feel better.  Then Kristine came down feeling sick. Sweden was definately trying to kill us.  Fortunately Kristine was only sick for a couple of days and soon we were both up and about.

Then the legacy of my father (and a week of being seriousy dehydrated) hit.  I came down with gout.  For anyone who doesnt know what gout is, lucky you...  To start with it feels like I've dislocated my big toe.  It starts to swell and becomes sensitive to the touch, including walking.  If I'd rate the pain from tearing my calf muscle as a 7, the pain from gout is about a 10.

Kristine had some joy in reminding me that I'd thrown out my gout medication before we travelled.  "I've only ever had issues with it twice before," she remembered me saying.  "I won't need it."

I was determined not to let it slow me down, so we went to copenhagen for Kristine's birthday and I managed to limp and somehow keep up (but you'll notice most of the walking photos from the day have me behind everyone else).

I coudnt see the doctors for gout medication (see above) so it was anti-inflamatories.  The swelling got so bad that it bruised and I managed to hit my toe on everything - a shopping trolley, the side of the bath, Alana's shoes, a particle of dust.. and each time it was like an explosion.

This is about a week and a half in - the swelling had gone down a little by then but the bruising was still to come.  Even now, two weeks later, its still sensitive and a little swollen.

So in addition to this, Kris has hurt her hip (thanks to sleeping awkwardy on the super soft bed) and the kids have been sniffly.

It seems like Sweden has done its best to get rid of us, but slowly things are returning to normal, so hopefully we're through the worst of it.  Figures crossed.

Sunday 10-Nov Kungsparket

So after attempting to go to Kungparket on Saturday and failing (we ended up spending the day in Malmo Hus museum), the kids were desperate to go and kick their ball around.  So we decided to head back to Kings Park.

The kids loved the fallen leaves - they were golden, red and everywhere!  The kids made a point of kicking pretty much every pile of leaves and had a ball.  We found a nice quiet area to kick the ball and climb some trees. Alana found a plastic bag full of clothes and toothbrushes and Tomas founded the "Hideout Club" under the branches of an overhanding tree. 

Australian Monkeys are apparently an introduced species in Sweden and the cause of a lot of noise and destruction.  They rapidly take over any tree filled areas, here's some we found:

We also found a stack of conkers and Cam loved the spikey conker shells:

 

Our Soccer skills also left a bit to be desired:

Then Dad decided to be BORING and go for a walk to have a look at the gardens around the back of Malmo Hus.

Leaves on the water:

 Turning Torso over Malmo Hus:

Windmill in Malmo Hus gardens:

We managed to make it back - via the shops to post some postcards - with only one mishap.

We found a nice empty park area where the kids could kick the soccer ball around.  Then I noticed a sign, written purely in Swedish.  I could make out a few words "access forbidden" and "parents are responsible for children."  A quick google translate failed to translate most of the other words but did reveal the words "landslides" and "subsidence".  We quickly moved on, but Kris took a photo of the sign to translate fully later as we considered our brush with death.

At work on Monday I got a friend to translate the sign.  Turns out the area was where the council plough all the snow and it says that playing in the snow is forbidden as it could collapse and may contain sharp items.  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry...

St Johns Kyrka, Malmo Hus and the Aquarium (Saturday 9-Nov)

Saturday we decided to get out of the house. It was purely to have an explore around Malmo and not because the kids were getting cabin fever and driving us nuts... honestly.

We started our day around 1pm, because we decided to have a slow start - not because Keir decided to sleep in until 10am..

We still didn't have our car (it comes Thursday) so we picked a nice local place to explore, somewhere easily within walking distance.

On Friday evening (after work) we had headed down to Triangeln (the Triangle) where there is s a big, old church - St John's Church, built in 1903.  It's not quite as old as Sankt Petri Kyrka (St Petri's Church) near Central Station (built in 1300s) but it's quite impressive:

We ended up heading to Emporia at Hyllie and buying some new shoes and a soccer ball for the boys.

So for Saturday we needed somewhere local and somewhere we could kick a soccer ball.  We remembered Kungsparket (King's Park) near Malmo Hus (Malmo Castle) having some nice spaces, so we thought that would make a nice work.

On the way, we came across one of Malmo's iconic sculptures "Non-Violence":

We came across a pretty cool fountain in Kungsparket, that kids enjoyed:

Heading into the entrance of Malmo Hus.  Malmo Hus was founded in 143 by King Eric of Pomerania.  It was demolished in the 1500s and rebuilt in 1530 and used as a stronghold for Denmark.  (Skane - this region of Sweden - was part of Sweden until 1658 when it was ceded to Sweden as part of the Roskilde treaty).  When it ceased being of strategic value it became a prison for w hile.

 A map of old Malmo, including Malmo Hus (Closest to camera.) You can also see the spire of St Petri's church at the back.

 Malmo Hus was converted into a museum and at the end World War II it was used to house survivors of the concentration camps - as commemorated in the plaque below.

 

 

The kids loved this well/sculture, thinking it looked like the Entrance to the Chamber of Secrets from Harry Potter.  "Without the sinks.." Tomas made sure to tell me:

We went into the Malmo museum which cost 80sek for us all (about $15) this included a taxidermy exhibition, aquarium and access to the tecknik musuem (but we didnt make it there due to time).

We couldn't take photos in the museum but we did get a couple of photos in the aquarium at a shark display (Although photos of our kids being eaten by sharks is becoming a common theme)..  Until we were told off for using our flash...

The jaw is a fossil from a megalodon (an extinct dinosaur era shark) but Tomas still didn't seem phased by being eaten by it.

By the time we got out of the aquarium we were feeling a little homesick (thanks to a Cane Toad exhibit) and it was almost 5pm and getting pretty dark.  The Teknik musuem (which houses a jet and submarine) was just across the road and included in our ticket, but it closed at 5pm so we didnt have the time.

We made it home in time to make a quick dinner and had an early night.

Alana's Post - On our way to Malmo Sweden

Our first flight from Adelaide:
At 10 thirty PM to Dubai it took about 13 hours. I got to sleep once, I slept for about 3 to 4 hours but the rest of the time I was on the computer screen on the back of the chair in front of me. The second flight I started off watching a movie then I changed to the downward camera then the forward camera the back to the downward camera. As soon as we took off I could see houses and paddocks. Dad let us have our iPads so we have been on then all day. We had breakfast today that was cool and we had different things the second time I had coco puffs and fruit salad it had watermelon rockmelon and grapes .

This is me on the plane waiting to get off and dad said "it will be about 3 more hours so I set a timer!

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 Dad's note:
The Plane had both Downward facing and Forwards facing cameras that the kids could select from the entertainment screens on their seats.  Since we mostly flew at night, there wasnt much to see, but on landing and take-off it was cool to see the houses and runways below and in front.

The kids were encouraged to sleep for the night flight from Dubai - they managed to get a few hours sleep and I think Kris snuck a couple of hours in too.  I (who bragged about being the experienced flier) had some problems - I broke my eye socket at rugby a few weeks before and it cracked the bone between my sinus and my eye socket.  So for the whole flight I couldnt regulate the air pressue in my head and I ended up with horrible motion sickness, which I've never had before.

Alana took this photo waiting in the airplane at Dubai ready to get off - we had 3 hours between flights, but they went pretty fast.  The kids sat and played their iPads while Kris and I had a few minutes rest before we did it all again on the flight from Dubai to Copenhagen.

The kids got breakfast on both flights - hence Alana's comments about the breakfast the second time.  The boys meals were set to Vegan as we needed to ensure that they didn't get any dairy.

No Death Curses at the dinner table! - Random Swedish Adventures

Ok so the title was something I had to say to my kids today while we were eating dinner...  Its the sort of thing that you never imagine yourself needing to say until you have kids - joining other such examples as:

- Don't put that in your mouth,
- Why is the toilet green,
- That isnt supposed to go up your nose, and
- Seriously if you dont leave it alone, it will fall off.

We managed to find Harry Potter on television (English with Swedish subtitles) and the kids watched that while Kris and I prepared dinner - Spaghetti and Knottbuller (meatballs).  Turns out the kids like the meatballs (like you get in Ikea) and they sell for 18kr per kg - which us about $3..  Of the 13 days we've been here, we've had them 3 nights.  Anyway we made it to dinner and the kids start chucking death curses at each other from Harry Potter - fortunately they still cant do "avada kedavra" properly, so instead we get "Advadaka, Advadaka", which probably just causes mild discomfort or burning behind the ears. And then of course mini Hermione (Alana) does the perfect reproduction of "Its Wingardium Leviosa, not Wingardium Levi-oh-sarr".  If Harry Potter was real I dont think any kids would ever make it there, they'd be dead from siblings death curses or in Azkaban by now...

Currently we are in temporary accomodation until the house we will be renting is available (27th Nov).  The place is an apartment on the 5th storey of an block right near Malmo Central station - while we're definately going to get fit climbing the stairs, it is very convenient for public transport and only a 10 minute walk from my work (where I start on Monday). The only real issue we have is that there's really only two bedrooms (There's a lounge, bedroom 1, bedroom 2, a toilet, a bathroom, a sitting room and a kitchen/dining.)  That means initially we had all three kids in the same room.  That really didnt work as they slept well the first night because they were exhausted but we were ready to try some death curses of our own when they were still talking at 11pm the following night.  So we moved Cameron into the sitting room and he's been sleeping great.  Alana and Tomas have good and bad nights - since we've mostly spent the last two days at home (Kris came down sick with the cold I had) they've not burnt off enough energy and hence don't settle well for sleep.  Kris just threatened that the next one she hears talking will be sleeping on the balcony.

The view from our apartment is pretty cool - there's a building site (which I think is building the next extension to Malmo Central Station), but there's also some cool old buildings.

This is the old Post House that is out of our south window:

Central Station has been pretty handy - there are 8 platforms and trains going as close as Triangeln Hyllie (Pronounced Hilly-ah) which is the site of the big Emporia shopping centre and as far as Copenhagen, Stockholm, Gotheburg and other parts of Sweden.

This is "The Green Thing" as the kids call it - the building that is being constructed between ours and central station:

Currently Sweden is taking in thousands of refugees from the wars in Syria and the Middle East.  They come via Europe to Denmark and then take the train across to Malmo.  There's a big Red Cross gathering point near where we are and all of our immigration paperwork is delayed due to the flood of immigrants.  Sweden has been very welcoming and there are lots of signs near Malmo Central Station like the one below (It reads - Refugee? Welcome to Malmo in a variety of languages):

One thing I love about Europe and Sweden is the age and majesty of some of the buildings.  We came across this church on our walk back from the shopping centre - it's St Petri' Kyrka - Saint Petri's Church.

And we also found this sculpture - it's titled "Immigraton" and has a group of people on a giant fish.

Overall, Sweden has treated us well so far - we've been on a few little exploration trips and we've worked our way around the shops for food and other neccessities such as power adapters and ipad chargers.  Pretty much everyone speaks English if you do, and some even have apologised for starting in Swedish.  We've definately got some work to do on our Swedish but we're working hard - in the background I can hear Kristine's iPad "Springer, Springer" which means "to run"...