Hej Sverige! Lund at a glance.

Mabel Kang
Aug 24, 2016
3 min read

So what's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say "SWEDEN"? I don't know about you but for me, IKEA meatballs (yumz) comes to my mind along with hot, tall blonde-hair blue-eyed Swedes (why do they have to be so perfect-looking?!). Lucky me cos this is going to be my home for the next 5 months!

Hej Sverige!

(Pronounced as 'Hey Sva-reah'. Means 'Hello Sweden!')

Lund

It has been 14 days since I've arrived in Lund, Sweden so I'm all settled in and it has been beautiful here! It's quite a small town with quaint cobblestone paths as you can see in the picture above.

Most of the people here own a bike and they bike everywhere which sucks for me because:

1) The bikes here are really tall which is a big NO for a short girl like me.

2) My feet can barely touch the ground (I even struggle to reach the pedal at its lowest point) when I'm seated on the bike which means it's super uncomfortable & I'll have a tough time braking.

#Shortgirlproblems am I right??

Despite the lack of a bike, I get around fine because I just take the bus or walk to wherever I'm going which is a pretty good way to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of Sweden, and getting my exercise from all that walking is a bonus!

Just a random cobblestone street in Lund

And no, it's not a ghost town in case you were wondering why there's no one on the streets. I took these pictures at like 7am.

So what is there to do here in Lund, you might ask. Well, to be honest - not much. Lund has lots of old buildings with gorgeous architecture so one of the major things you can do here is to just enjoy the wonderful view! Lunds Domkyrka is a famous cathedral right in the centre of Lund and it's over a 1000 years old! Fun fact: apparently it used to be white in colour.

Sweden also has a pretty strong cafe culture - they do love their fika*! One interesting thing I noticed is that the chairs in the outdoor seating are all NOT angled towards each other! Rather, they're angled to face the outside so you can people-watch while drinking your coffee.

*Fika: Means to have coffee (usually with pastries and sandwiches)

As for shopping, I've been to H&M approximately 5 times in the past 2 weeks (I know, I'm mentally telling myself to stop it too). Although H&M comes from Sweden, it is not that much cheaper here (to my disappointment). You can find sale items ranging from SEK50-99 (SGD8-16) which is pretty worth it but normal-priced items are about the same or just slightly cheaper than back home.

I've been eating out quite a lot initially and I'm feeling the pinch. But I promise I'm gonna cook more from now on! Food in restaurants and cafes are quite pricey and it's really not a sustainable lifestyle to eat out all the time. I'll be writing about the great food I've eaten in Sweden shortly such as awesome food deals that are really a bang for your buck and also the pricier yet super delicious options (because we all need to treat ourselves once in a while right?). Super excited to share with you all about the yummy food I've been eating which justifies the reason why I'm getting fat. So stay tuned for that!!