Leaving Lund.

I left Lund on June 9th 2014 after possibly the best 6 months of my life. I absolutely fell in love with Sweden and Scandinavia in general. The city of Lund was historic and beautiful, I loved every minute of cycling around, meeting friends for fika and travelling. I met some of the most interesting, kind, thoughtful, inspirational and wonderful people during my time there and I miss them all every single day. My plan at the moment is to apply for Masters programmes in Sweden so I may be back there in the not too distant future but I thought I would just share some of the photos taken by the ridiculously talented Paul Carleton, they are of my brilliant friends and my last day in Lund. 

Celebrating Swedish National Day with meatballs and lingonberry jam. Starting from the left we have Antonia, Amy, Michael, me and Paul.

The awesome dinner party Esbe and Paul threw for us all. Starting with me and working left we have Amy, Lucy, Michael, Maxime, Antonia, (someone I don't recognise), Matt, Barney, Marie, Dennis, (two more people I don't know), Flavia, (another mystery guest) and Esbe!  

Amy, Esbe and me on my balcony on my final day in Lund, just before I headed off to the airport. How beautiful are they!?

Thank you to everyone I met for making my time in Sweden so magical. I hope I will meet you all again some day soon!

Easter in Stockholm - Day One:

Having been in Sweden since January I decided it was about time I visited the capital, Stockholm, so me and my friend Amy packed our bags, booked our flights and headed away for the Easter weekend. 

It was a bit grey on the Friday but we headed through Stockholm to our hostel (The Best Hostel Old Town, in case anyone was wondering). It was in an amazing position and only cost £50 for 3 days including basic breakfast and wifi, so not a bad place if you wanted to visit Stockholm cheaply. We stayed in a 28 bed dorm and other than smelling like teenage boys (not in a good way) and being a bit hard to sleep it was fine. Anyway, once we had checked our bags in to the hostel we headed out to explore Gamla Stan (Old Town).

The Old Town is a total tourist trap but I can see why, it is a maze of narrow cobbled streets and brightly coloured buildings. These photos don't really do it justice because the sky was very grey but as you will see later, it looks so pretty in the sunshine. 

After a quick look around we had to make away across the city for our first attraction - the ABBA Museum! It is a lovely walk along the harbour to the island of Djurgarden, an area of the city park and also home to a load of the cities museums. 

Amy is a big ABBA fan and I have good memories to singing along to ABBA songs when I was little so we were both keen to visit the museum. The only thing I would say is that almost £20 a ticket it was the most expensive museum we visited, so that is worth bearing in mind. 

Inside the layout is very colourful and interactive. They have loads of the original costumes and instruments on display and you can have a go at auditioning in the studio, mixing your own music and creating a music video for famous ABBA hits, you will definitely come out humming songs all day! 

After a day walking around my feet were ruined so we made our way back to the hostel for a break before we went in search of dinner (we managed to find a nice place in Sodermalm and had steak and salmon as a treat!). I didn't get many pictures in the evening but I did get one just as the sun was beginning to set over the city.

Copenhagen with Dad.

Not long after I got back from home my Dad came to visit me in Lund. The nearest airport is Copenhagen (about a 40 minute train ride away), so I met him at the airport and we headed in to the city to make the most of the day. I made the mistake of not making a plan of action before leaving so we wandered aimlessly for most of the day looking at the stunning architecture and admiring the canals. We didn't do everything I would have liked so I will definitely be heading back to Denmark soon to see what else the city has to offer.

Unfortunately Tivoli Gardens was closed until the summer period, I have heard it is a must see in Copenhagen so it is definitely on the list of places to visit when I go back. The old gateway to the Gardens was pretty impressive though. 

The cafes all had delicious looking open sandwiches and smorgasbords in all the windows. I had eaten an overpriced hotdog at the airport when I was waiting for dad to arrive so I didn't get to try one, dammit. We did stop for coffee at a little cafe in the harbour later and dad tried a trio of herring, so we didn't miss out on the food completely. 

Copenhagen was a really quirky place (like most of Scandinavia) and they had these table football stands just on the side of the street. 

For a capital city, I was struck by how quiet Copenhagen was. You could wander easily through the streets without having to fight through commuters and tourists. Like in Lund, a lot of people seem to commute by bike, it was a refreshing change from all the traffic and noise of UK cities. 

My favourite area (and the top tourist trap) was the colourful harbour of Nyhavn, the 17th century waterfront and entertainment district of Copenhagen. It is lined with brightly painted townhouses, cafes and bars. It also serves as a heritage harbour and houses many wooden ships. 

From Nyhavn we hopped on a boat tour and wound our way through the canals until we reached another of Copenhagen's famous landmarks…

The little mermaid!! 

Based on the story by Hans Christian Andersen, the small statue has become a city icon and a major tourist attraction since 1913. For all the hype that surrounds it the statue itself if quite small and unassuming. It is always surrounded by hordes of tourists so you need to be quick with your camera to get a person free snap. It also backs on to a rather industrial area of the city, not quite as photogenic as they make it seem in the guide books!

We finished off by wandering past the towering town hall. It was a lovely day in Copenhagen but there is definitely a lot more I wan to go back and explore. 

I'm Back!!

Hello!!

I have returned! I am sorry for being a terrible blogger and not writing a new post since February, I went home and then everything spiralled into a busy mess and blogging got a bit forgotten about, but I am back now and I have some exciting things coming up so I will be making an extra effort to keep the blog updated. Anyway, I thought I would share with you some photos from the time I have been away and update you on what's been going on… 

My lovely friends Lucy and Shaun got married - I was a bridesmaid 

and it was an altogether wonderful day! 

I also got to meet my gorgeous new godson, Freddie, for the first time. He is a little chunk but I love him to bits already.

I spent some quality time at home with family and friends, we went to Chester and walked the walls and also took a trip up Moel Famau.

And obviously I got lots of cuddles from my favourite little tabby cat, Sherlock.

It was just a really lovely time to catch up with my friends and family and recharge my batteries before I headed back to Sweden for exams and essays. I didn't think there would be any point in blogging at home as this blog is supposed to focus on Sweden, but I felt I should give some explanation for my absence!