Back in September, after HiveFest in Netherlands, I went to Denmark for a few days to visit my friend from Taiwan who is now living in Sweden. Confusing right? Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Taiwan!! It just shows how connected our world is.
Elva was my language exchange partner when I was living in Taiwan. Each week, we'd meet up for a couple of hours for a chit chat, an hour in English and an hour in Mandarin to help each other improve our language. A few years ago Elva met a Swedish guy who was studying in Taiwan. Soon he returned home, then Elva went to visit him, coincidentally at the peak of Covid, though I don't think they had planned it that way. I have been meaning to visit Elva for a while as I've never been to Sweden, and since I was going to Amsterdam, it made sense to roll two trips into one. She lives in Malmo, which is only half an hour's train journey away from Copenhagen, and that's where Denmark comes into the story.
The train ride from Copenhagen to Malmo was a nice experience, but that shall be for another post.
Malmo is pretty boring (I didn't say that)
Ever since I said I'd be visiting, Elva had prewarned me that Malmo is pretty boring and there isn't much to do or see. That's fine I said because my objective wasn't sightseeing. We hadn't seen each other over nearly four years, and as fate would have it, our friendship took us half way round the world. It was lovely to see Elva again after such a long time. We went for a stroll around the older part of town, and true enough, that didn't take long, an hour or so. 🙃 It was a nice walk though.
Turning Torso
We had an afternoon to kill before dinner time, and Elva suggested that we do a boat ride along the canals. It sounded like a fun thing to do and we could get to see a bit more of Malmo without walking. Perfect!
We went for more walks first as we needed a supermarket to get some food for a picnic on the boat ride. This time we went to a newer part of the city by the harbour. This area was such a contrast from the older part we had visited earlier on in the morning.
One building that really stood out for me is the Turning Torso, you can see clearly why it's called that. Standing at 190 meters tall, the Turning Torso is the tallest building in the Nordics when it was completed in 2005. The twisted design was the first in the world when it was built and it twists 90 degrees from the base to the top source
BookaBoat
Time for our boat ride now. The boat ride is fully self service, you book and pay everything on the app, turn up at your reserved time and they send you a code to activate the electric boat. They say you don't need any experience to operate the boat. Just as well, as Elva had only been on it once with her boyfriend and his friends. Whereas hubby and I, can't even swim let alone operate a boat! The dock is by this bridge, the newer part of town is ahead of us, the older part behind, in this image.
Before getting on the boat, we have to collect life jackets and cushions from the lockers (they text you the key to the lock) and spent time reading all the instructions carefully. To be fair, it wasn't that complex but you just want to be sure before you get in the water.
There's also map so you know where to go. There are three suggested routes, a big loop, a small loop and the marina area, which potentially could take you out to the sea to Denmark. Not recommended!! We booked the boat for two hours and Elva was very gung ho. She suggested we go to the marina first, then do the small loop and finish off with the big loop. All that was doable within two hours - according to the map. Since we were all novices, I suggested maybe we should do the big loop first and then see how we're doing for time.
Source : BookaBoat
And you know what? I'm glad we did that, because the three of us were such idiots. It took us ages, like 20 minutes just to undock the boat and get used to the levers to manoeuvre directions and speeds. At one stage our boat was going round and round in circles 😂🙈
Once we figured everything out, we were on the roll. It was an absolutely lovely way to spend time around the city. The boat was big enough for 12 people. Personally I think that would have been a little on the squashed side, but great for sharing costs. You can go as fast or as slow as you want. We did it the slow way and cruised along the canal, admiring the various viewpoints. When asked, Elva didn't know about many of these places even though she's been in Malmö for over a year. You're hopeless, I told her!!
So sadly, I can't tell you anything about the landmarks. I'll just show you the view along the way. A bit of this, a bit of that and a bit of me.
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My day trip to Malmö turned out to be a really lovely day, catching up with friends, and the boat ride which I really enjoyed. If you're ever in Malmö with a group of friends with a couple of hours to kill and want to relax, I highly recommend it. Plus, the best thing about this trip, I get to pin a new country on my Pinmapple map!!
