When I came to Helsingborg in Sweden to pursue my Master program in Service Management at Lund University on 31st of August, 2019 it was autumn here. Soon the orange leaves of the trees faded away as winter came and everything seemed so gloomy. The sunlight used to go away at 2 pm at noon and the nights were long and tiring. But surprisingly as I live in the Skåne region there was no such heavy snowfall during the winter. I was eagerly waiting for this shivering and pale winter to end as some Swedish friends of mine told me ‘Hold on a bit, things will change soon and you will enjoy the summer here!’.
Their saying came true eventually as the spring started to bloom with all the new leaves in the trees and colorful flowers everywhere during the mid of March, 2020. The days grew longer as the sun started to shine bright. After a long hibernation period in winter, people started to enjoy the beautiful nature and everything became so lively and vivid. As the days passed by, and the summer came in June, the Skåne region had become a fairyland with all its natural beauties and scenic grandeur.
One of my many reasons of coming to study in a Scandinavian country was to travel around the beautiful places in Europe. I had plan to visit some places of Europe during the summer vacation but the outbreak of COVID-19 forced us to stay in our homes as the international borders were locked down. I thought this summer vacation will go boring but one day, I came to know that skånetrafiken, the public transport authority of Skåne region had offered summer card to travel around the whole region with a discounted price. Suddenly I made a plan of visiting the attractive places of this region of Sweden as there was no internal restrictions on travelling.
I started my travelling with some places in Helsingborg as I lived in the city. I visited Kärnan which is a medieval tower part of the larger Danish fortress of Kronborg. The place has a special attraction as one can see both the Swedish city Helsingborg, and the Danish city Helsingor, on the other side of Øresund from a high point. Then I visited Sofiero Palace which is located five kilometers north of Helsingborg city and it is one of the finest royal mansions of Sweden with a collection of beautiful floral attractions in the palace garden. Generally, in the winter it was uncomfortable to visit the beachside of Fria bad because of the chilling wind but in summer I along with my friends enjoyed a BBQ party along the beachside of Fria bad in Helsingborg.
Then, I visited Malmö Castle and the castle museum which was founded by King Eric of Pomerania in 1434. The castle museum is filled with historical and traditional artifacts. There is an underground aquarium and wildlife sculptures which is very attractive for children as well. I also went to the Technology and Maritime museum, Malmö where there is exhibition of vintage cars, motorbikes, aircrafts, engines and machineries and most amazingly a submarine. There is a section which is more of an exhibition but with plenty of interactive details and there is also an experimental portion where we can try all sorts of physical experiments. The visit was worthy of the amazing experience I had there.
Aerial view of the Malmö Castle
Afterwards, I went to Fortuna beach located at Rydebäck for summer camping with my friends. We set up our tents and we had grilled BBQ for dinner. The most amazing part was the bonfire that we lit at night to keep us warm from the cold and we kept singing and dancing around the fire. There are also lot of attractive sea beaches in the Skåne region. Among them, I visited Lomma Beach near Lund and Åhus beach near Kristianstad with my friends and I must say, Åhus beach is a natural sandy beach in Skåne with clear water which makes swimming enjoyable.
Fortuna beach
Moreover, I went to Ale Stenar which is a 1400 years old iron age structure which predates the Viking age and is one of the Scandinavian nation's most mysterious historical monuments situated on a plateau above the cliffs near the picturesque village Kåseberga, around 20 km southeast of Ystad. Ale Stenar consists of 59 vertically stones arranged in the shape of a ship hull. These stones are aligned to the movement of the sun and the moon and were used to make astronomical observations. The sun goes down at the north-western stones during the summer and rises in the south-western part in the winter.
Furthermore, I had an amazing day trip to the town Kristianstad where I had a walk around the Naturum Vattenriket and the beautiful Tivoliparken. The lush green and the floral essence everywhere had refreshed my soul. Then I went to see the holy Trinity Church which is located right opposite the Kristianstad central station. On the same day I visited the Railway museum of Kristianstad. It was a rainy day so I enjoyed walking in the nature even more.
At this stage I would also like to mention that I had only seen Viking age fortresses and castles in the movies and the famous TV series 'Vikings' until I visited ‘Trelleborgen’, a ruin of the 1400 years old circular Viking fortress of the then King Harald of Denmark and Skåne which is a palisade fortress made out of wood situated in the small city of Trelleborg. The city was named after that Viking fortress at that time.
However, the best place that I visited in Skåne region is Mölle beach and the hiking at Kullaberg. The natural beauty of the beach of Mölle will take one’s breath away. From the beach I could see Kullaberg which is actually a peninsula and a natural reserve land. The terrain is curved with rocky cliffs rising from the sea and lush green on the top of it as the home of many rare species.
When I went to the top of the cliff, I could see the vast infinite ocean beneath my feet and the mesmerizing beauty had kept me spellbound for a long time. I also had plan to visit a similar natural reserve area like this which is Hovs Hallar located near the city of Båstad. I went to the beautiful small city Båstad but unfortunately due to time shortage could not go to Hovs Hallar on the same day. But I will go there in the near future as it cannot be missed.
So, this was the story of my travel around Skåne region of Sweden during the summer of 2020. I must say Skåne decorates itself with a whole new look during this time. All the places are so beautiful, and the weather is so good that, every trip to these awesome places will have a lasting impact in one’s memory for a lifetime. In the end I just want to say that I loved every bit of this summer here in Skåne, Sweden.