Art!

No matter what, I still don't really 'get' art. Some things just make me wonder how or why it is considered art. I've said it before and I will continue to say it.. I guess until someone really enlightens me to what makes art.. art. Don't get me wrong, some stuff I just love but there is a lot of stuff that just leaves me scratching my head. Attempting to broaden my art knowledge, Emma and I headed off to the modern museum in Malmö to check out Picasso.. coz, Picasso.

The museum is a pretty funky building, and the orange really pops and calls to me coz I like orange.. not as much as green but orange is definitely right up there in my colour love.

Into the orange awesomeness we went and jumped right into the art.. first up we check out all things, Tora Vega Holmström. You weren't allowed to use your phone, there was a big clear sign saying no to mobiles.. however, I witnessed the staff just sitting on theirs. The entire time. Which didn't make me feel so bad about taking a snap of my favourite painting..

It had me at giraffe.

We continued on checking things out, moved around slowly and quietly. Got annoyed with one lady and her kids. Not sure why you would bring a baby to a museum but she did and her older boy was just a noisy little shit. Touching and stuff. We tried to get away from them but they eventually caught up in the video room, where.. surprise surprise they were noisy and disruptive. I'm not sure what was worse, the door hitting Emma and leaving a bruise or the annoyance of that little family. 

I am not saying to never take kids to these places, I am just saying, make sure they behave and if they don't then leave instead of disturbing everyone else. It's not a supermarket where you always have kids playing up.

We finished up and headed off to the small botanical gardens to enjoy some lunch.. Emma got the vegetarian option, which had pumpkin.. so score! and I had veal. 

Both were quite delicious and I would go there again.. preferably on a less chaotic day. The lines were looong.. we braved them twice. The second time for some organic soft-serve with caramel topping and it was sooo yum!

We took our ice cream and went for a stroll around the garden, taking a few snaps here and there..

 

 

 

 

Not a bad second day to the second week indeed. Oh yes, I should also mention that our train out to Malmö had some issues too. 2 days in a row we were stuck on a train longer than needed and you know what... you. just. gotta. laugh. But hey, at least we were so late for a couple of the trips that we will actually get some money back. Woo.

Take a Walk..

..With Us!

Emma and I decided that a good little walk around Kristianstad's Biosphere Reserve would be a good way to spend a Monday. A nice 6km walk through some nice surroundings, in the hot sun on a stunning day. Then picking up some berries from the market before heading home on a short 20min train ride. A relaxing type of day to start the second week of vacation..

We started our walk at the river, not exactly the proper starting point, but Emma and I rebels.. rebels without a cause! So we started here.. 

 

 

When we got across the bridge we saw this interesting building..

..that we decided we would come back to the end of the walk as they have a cafe in there as well as some interesting facts and stuff. 

Now we have the start of the walk..

 

As we walked on through the nice semi shaded area, we spotted a few little things along the way.. I kept thinking these things were alien flowers and would spit things at us at any moment.. we survived, coz you know, they didn't. I think it was too warm for the little aliens so they slept! 

There was also a lonely little raspberry.. that wasn't ready to eat. Sad! However, there was a few more a little further down the track.. Emma picked a few for me. Noms! There is just something so simple and lovely about eating berries freshly picked and in the.. *dundunduuuun* wild.

Then there was this big boy..

We continued on our merry little way until we came across this tower!

It looked a little wobbly/bouncy as Emma went up and took this snap..

After a little more walking on uneven grounds.. we came across the site where a castle once parked its big self. Nothing more than a large mound now.. perhaps the Swedes would call it a mountain?! haha 

We continued on and were greeted with some lovely flat paved road.. with potholes of course. However, on the sides of this road we had some lovely fieldy views and a lone moo... who seemed to be keeping fit by doing laps!

And of course there were horses.. 

Before long, we were met with a bridge! There were warnings on this bridge, it led to an area with *dundunduuuun* aggressive cows!

We braved the cows and headed along the dirt road.. the sun was out in full force.. beating down on us.. Emma was starting to look a little red.. I was, for once, clever and had sunscreened well.

As we neared the end of the dirt road we saw a welcoming sight.. wooden slats to walk along in the coolness of a shaded area.. 

oh, how wrong we were! The slats were uneven in spacing and it took some fun manoeuvring to make sure one didn't step wrong and roll an ankle.. or something. We made it to the end, all intact with no real injuries apart from a little sunburn on Emma's shoulders. During the course of the walk, the parentals had called and asked if we could go and tend to the dogs when we were done so they could go off gasbagging. It was an easy ask, and who doesn't love spending time with pups! So instead of heading into the building we skipped at the start, we headed to the markets, grabbed some berries.. then an ice cream coz we were quite hungry but didn't want to stop for lunch when we could have leftovers at the parentals. Berries and ice cream in hand, we headed to the station.. jumped on the train.. told the parentals we would be at the dogs within the hour... or so we thought!

We hit a little bad luck on the trains.. it was all smooth sailing until we passed Vinslov.. where our train appeared to lose power. Just a little hiccup we thought.. but it turned out to be more than a hiccup. The cable had come down ahead of us and started a fire. So there we sat, in +30 degree heat on a non air-conditioned train waiting to find out what was going to happen.. time ticked on by.. we had to call Emma's brother to then go and deal with the dogs.. and eventually he came to pick us up once we were able to move the train back to the previous station.. over 3 hours after our journey started, we were at our final destination. It was madness but all you could really do was laugh. Stuck on a hot train with no liquids and berries.. but SO very glad we were clever enough to down some ice cream beforehand.

Definitely an interesting way to start the second week! Gotta keep you on your toes! I still chuckle at the people who got on in Vinslöv just to get stuck! Now that's some bad luck!

Summer Beering!

It has been brought to my attention, and I kinda already knew, but I have been really quite slack in the blogging department. We have done stuff over the past month and had some fun times, lovely weather, drunk some good beer.. however, I just haven't had the... desire to park my ass my ass down and type. It's been warm, warmer than it usually is. The summer is just delicious! We even have to sleep with the windows open, which gives it's own issues. Noise mainly. I even got the fan down and gave it a good clean, yes, that's right people.. it is so warm that I feel like I need to have a fan going. First time ever that we have bothered.

Emma is currently on summer vacation, this has been her first week so we celebrated by heading over to Copenhagen for the day.. to drink beer at our most favourite bar, among a few other things.

We headed off early to check out a breakfast spot Emma has been wanting to go to for a while now, Bang & Jensen. [photo] and another [photo] The place is pretty rad looking. We arrived and then spent about the next hour, drinking a little coffee.. ok a lot of coffee, eating a.. lot of food and conversing while enjoying what was already a stellar day! You will also be pleased to know, I put sunscreen on, so there will be no goggleface or any type of silly burn!

After breakfast, we headed to the museum.. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, coz you  know, it's been a while since we looked at some statues! [photo] Plus, it was already pretty warm so we thought a trip to the museum would give us some climate controlled goodness.. we. were. wrong. Hot Damn! That place was warm! The coolest part was when we hit up the mummy section. Sweet relief! 

Can you find me?!
Now... Can you find Emma?!

I didn't do it! I swear!

The worst part? Walking up awkward steps to many of them to get to the roof terrace, where they would have refreshments.. or so the signs said. We arrived, there was just a tiny kiosk there and it was closed. Thanks, man. We stayed for a little bit, checked out the view [photo]..

..watched people on the amusement park rides and listened to some of them scream, before heading back in coz it was hot, there was no cover and no refreshments. I needed a beer at the very least!

We finished up in time to hit up a store for some cool cool water before heading off to the beer shop to pick a few brews to take along to see the Goats the following day, as well as some mead. We tried some of the mead at the CBC, so we grabbed the two we tried, and the two we hadn't. A mead tasting session with the parentals one cool night might just be on the cards.

Some fun sights of Copenhagen.. oh you know, just walking my wagon.

One day I am going to paddle around in the water on a giant swan with the swans..

No trip is complete without a little graffiti!

With our beer purchases in hand, we had really worked up a thirst and off to Mikkeller & Friends we went.. we arrived a little after opening, parked up in the ultimate spot and got ordering in the wonderfully cool air-conditioning.. perfect for drinkies!

We started with To Øl - black malts & bath salts, as well as a Mikkeller - spontan peach. Both were damn delicious. I am becoming more and more a fan of beers with the little sour hit. Definitely a good start!

To go with the beer drinkage, we grabbed some cheddar crisps and one of the yummy dried sausages they supply with cornichons. I love those little suckers the most! The sausage I picked this time around was the lamb. It did not disappoint, but then again, not a single of one the sausages I have tried there have been bad.

Next round was another To Øl - grenadier, another beer that just went down so nicely. Accompanied with The Kernal - imperial brown stout, which was swimming pool-esque. Couldn't even finish it to be honest, but you win some and you lose some. 

Ding ding ding, round three! Another To Øl was on the cards, this time it was mocacchino messiah which was another winner, To Øl is really producing some delicious brews. We went for another Mikkeller too, this one had a name that just appealed.. I wonder why! Green gold! It was pretty darn tasty too. I can't complain at all.

Round four was a couple of recommendations from the barkeep.. no surprise that To Øl was featured, liquid confidence. It went down very easy, he even recommended that if we had the room in our haul for home that we pick up the whole liquid confidence range as they were all very superb. I think that would have made things a little heavy.. maybe next time. Coz look at this haul?! 

We actually got 2 Zombie Killer, so that made 5 bottles of mead, 4 bottles of beer, not the smallest of bottles either. Emma let me into the bottle shop just off the buy myself and I came back with Daybreak and Barrel Aged Broken Dreams, as well as leaving a recommendation with the awesome woman who worked the shop and was melting in the heat, she wasn't lucky enough to get the air con! Anyways, I left a recommendation for them to possibly import some beer from my hometown, Upper Hutt. Kereru Brewing Co. They not only have the spunkiest labels but I can just imagine they would do some lovely brews and I would love to be able to get my hands on them. They are a little free-er with importing booze in Denmark compared to Sweden... I think.

Anyways, back to round four, we had the To Øl and the other was The Kernel - ipa citra, which was very nice. Night and day compared to the imperial stout that we tried earlier. Very happy with those recommendations indeed.

Round five was a Mikkeller & 18th Street collaboration - grapefruit dead. Which I had been eyeing up since we arrived but I wasn't convinced on the grapefruit aspect of it.. but it definitely went down a treat. Along with yet another To Øl - black ball ballistics! These two were once again recommended by the barkeep and they were spot on! I guess you would have to know what you are doing in a place like this. 

Round six happened, purely because we watched mr barkeep wipe off a beer from the board and put something new up.. that of course peaked our interest and so we just had to give it a go.. it was Boon - pudd kriek (cherry) It was fresh and delicious and really ended the day well I thought, we did a double take on the cherry and went for some of the cherry wine that was sitting on the bar calling out to me alll damn afternoon! I was not disappointed in it at all. Fredriksdal - cherry wine is perfect, in small quantities. I wouldn't want to drink too much of it but it hit the spot nicely with the cherry kriek at the end of the day.

We packed up and headed off, cruising past Coffee Collective to grab some beans and a nice cool coffee before embarking on a train ride.. which could have very easily turned into a ride from hell if we had of paid attention to the signs, I thought let's just get on and eventually it will get us to where we are going.. afterall it was a Swedish train! Pay no attention to the sign that says it's taking no passengers! hahah

We got home, I made some rather yummy cheese and sriracha toasties.. how damn good does that look?!

A quick shower and some glasses of water and it was time to call it a night, we needed to be up early...ish to head out to see the Goats. I always wish they lived closer, especially now that they are having a bubbagoat!