Day 8

Had a great time last night!  Went to local ‘nightclub’ called Tages and saw three Swedish bands, all from this area.  The first band, Trash Queen, was the best of the night.  They were an 80’s glam rock band, complete with big hair, eye make-up and rockstar attitude.  They were local boys, from a town near Landskrona.  All their songs were covers – all sung in English – of bands like Def Leppard, Poison and Motley Crue.  Even got a photo with the lead guitarist as a souvenir.  A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Got home around midnight and skyped with Jodie for about an hour before hitting the sack.  Still can’t get the ringing out of my ears.

Caught the train to Helsingborg today.  It was cold, as usual, but the sun was out and made for good sightseeing.  Chatted with a Finnish girl called Suvi on the train – she was a graphic designer of some kind and lived in Sweden when not travelling to Helsinki for work.  She was visiting friends in Helsingborg before heading further north to meet up with her boyfriend.

Got in to Helsingborg just before 12pm.  Another beautiful town, quite a bit bigger than Landskrona.  It’s one of 3 major ports in Sweden and you can catch a ferry across to Denmark from there.  Found the tourist information office near the station, picked up a map and headed out for some sightseeing.  Made my way to Kärnan, a 35 metre tall tower dating back to the mid-12^th century.  Climbed the 146 steps of the spiral stairway to the top and took in a great view of the town.  You could actually see across the water to Denmark.

Note to self – make sure you recharge the camera batteries before going sightseeing!  Camera made it another half an hour after leaving the tower before dying.  Managed to get a few photos in, but not as many as I would have liked.  Just have to come back another time I suppose.  Couldn’t decide what to eat for lunch and by the time it got to 2pm I was starving.  Ended up eating Subway; another cop-out.  Sorry Sweden.

Made my way back to the station only to find I had about 40 minutes before the next train.  Chatted with a group of people who all had maps and big backpacks.  They were part of a Danish ‘Scouts’ troop (you know, dib dib dob dob) and it turns out they were a few hours away from the start of a 20 hour mini Amazing Race.  They had to get to something like 5 checkpoints and stop to do activities/challenges along the way.  Sounded cool.

Left over chilli con carne for dinner, then out to another local bar called Inferno to meet Johan again.  Watched the first Swedish heats for the Eurovision competition (called ‘Schlager’ by the locals because that’s the kind of music it usually is).  Highlight of the night was Dolf Lundgren’s lip-synced rendition of Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation”.  Complete with dancing girls, Dolph in a tuxedo doing a mimed drum solo it was great.  Can’t say I agreed with the two acts that went through to the next round, but what do I know?

Home now, just finished skyping with Jodie and about to head to bed.  Another whole day to fill tomorrow before work starts again on Monday.  Hope the weather’s nice…