Its kinda weird to write a travelogue after 3 years, but then I guess it also has it pluses. Like for example you have already had closure on incidents like the airline delaying your baggage, etc. (read 'closure' as 'getting paid $200' as compensation). So you can pretty much cut to the chase!
Lund is an extremely small town. It is like the 'Karayanchavadi' or "Rae Bareilly" of Sweden....so you can imagine my shock when I walked around the first night looking for a restaurant and found.....'Tandoor'. They actually had two cooks from Hyderabad, who were maha excited to see a brown man after a long time...their smiles were shortlived though, when they figured I cant talk Telugu to save my life.
Lund is an extremely small town. It is like the 'Karayanchavadi' or "Rae Bareilly" of Sweden....so you can imagine my shock when I walked around the first night looking for a restaurant and found.....'Tandoor'. They actually had two cooks from Hyderabad, who were maha excited to see a brown man after a long time...their smiles were shortlived though, when they figured I cant talk Telugu to save my life.
The 'Grand Hotel'....well, it was not one of those cheap and dingy places....it was expensive AND DINGY!
...but I could not argue with the view!
The first thing that hits you about Lund and for that matter, all of Sweden is the mode of transport. I always knew that there were gonna be more bicycles than in any other part of the world, but the scale is unimaginable until you actually see the place. The biggest retaurant in town has like 2 car parking slots and 200 bicycle spots! obesity is a fairy tale in their town!
Did I say "Rae Bareilly"? make it "Pilani". Lund is actually known best for its university. On the last day of my stay there, I took a walk inside and was in a spell for about 2 hours. The best way to describe the place is this: Imagine Amazon. Imagine Rome. The university was like 'Amazome'. Its technically a forest, with the most exotic architecture for class rooms and libraries.
So now I have a valid reason for not winning the nobel!
Lund is also very close to Copenhagen. Thanks to the Oresund bridge (which is made up on an 8 KM bridge over the ocean for road and rail, a 4KM artificial Island and a 4 KM tunnel), it is a simple train ride away. An Australian journalist and I decided to make the trip and kill the next 2 days there.
The first thing that struck me about Copenhagen was the stone fountain right outside the railway station. So I unloaded 10 frames of my camera immediately.
When I moved to the next street, I found another one. Another 10 frames. After walking for about 15 minutes, I realized what an idot I was. These fantastic stone fountains were not an 'attraction', but that was the default architecture of the city. Theres one on most streets! The place is a historian's heaven. Every other building in downtown is a one time palace. Every other church you pass by, has a history of over thousand years.
the only thing that pissed me off about the city was this...bang in the middle of all the overwhelming history was a freakin "Burger King"...that ubiqutous mark of corporate America. For heaven's sake, right next to it is the palace where the phrase "The King is dead. Long live the King" originated. It was shocking and I felt like it was sticking out like a real sore thumb. So I asked my cabby, "dude dont you feel bad about this?"...snap came the answer.."are you kidding me? the food there is soooooooo good!". Really, god bless America!
Thankfully, I was soon distracted by a whole lot of other things that Copenhagen had to offer. Like the "Museum Erotica". The 13 foot bronze phallus at the lobby, quickly announced to the visitor this was way more edgier than the rest of the "Museum Erotica" franchise!
that and the original "little mermaid", who Anderson thought up not far from this statue!
However, the highlight of the entire trip was being at the best possible seat to watch the 32nd America's cup, thanks to my client. A bunch of us were taken on board "the hamlet", a small fishing boat and we parked meters from the action. America's Cup is the ultimate regatta and the F1 of sailing.....and I had no idea how it worked! But the sun, the lager and the company was good enough to make it one of the most enoyable afternoons of my life!
We were a bunch of analysts and journalists from different parts of the world, who had a fantastic 4 days together. Surprisingly enough, I never spoke to or heard back from any of them again. It was one of those trips!
