10/30-11/01: The Return To Lund!!!

October 30th: A Few Fun Facts

• 748 days after I first moved to Lund, Sweden.
• 454 days from the day I moved from Lund
• The day I finally returned to Lund.

That's right, it has been well over 400 days since the last time I set foot in that little Southern Swedish town that first defined my now 2+ year Swedish adventure.

I had been plotting my return for a while but with the wealth of visitable places in Europe, it just never quite happened. However, it had been on my mind, and I had been planning for some time to come back. And then Evan moved back. This of course caused me to pause, but I decided to still return anyways.

And so, herein lies my tale:

10/30:

So we all know what sucks about Sweden. Free health care. Gay marriage. An oppressingly high percentage of statuesque blonds. But let me tell you something that is awesome ... you get the 31st of October off! Yep, you get Halloween off, or as they know it Alla Helgons Dag. Of course this day off is not because of candy, witches, gouls, etc ... it's because of religion. And naturally that means that no Swede's know why, but hell, you get a day off. So cheers!

Since Alla Helgons Dag was on a Saturday, my company was kind enough to give us Friday as a paid vacation day (in addition to my 5 weeks of vacation, plus the days of Christmas to New Years, and all the other superfluous holidays). This proved to be the perfect weekend to do an in country road trip. I contacted Evan early in the week and he gave us the green light to come down and goof off for the weekend.

We looked at various transportation options, but ultimately the cheapest option was to rent a car. Henning (UCLA grad ... but don't hold it against him) came along to keep me company and to explore a bit more of this crazy country we call home.

So around 1ish on Friday, Henning and I hopped in our rented VW Golf (awesome car) and hit the "interstate". Come to find out ... driving from Stockholm to Lund is as boring as can be. I guess I'm spoiled with the drive from Seattle to Spokane where at least we get a beautiful city skyline, the Cascade Mountains, the Columbia Gorge, and the (slightly too) vast Central Washington dessert/plains. It makes me realize just how damn lucky I am to come from the state I come from ... but I digress.

After about a 7 hour drive we made it down to Lund. The crazy thing is that Evan lives in the same building that I lived as a student (before Courtney moved). So not only was I in a town I spent a year in, I was walking through the same building (the door code still is the same as it was when I lived there too).

After finding an overnight home for the HUG-Bug (license plate HUG-???) we joined Evan and a bunch of his classmates for some drinks at their apartment. The plan was to hit a costume party at Sparta, a residence hall that Evan lived at when he was here for the first time. I was feeling lazy so I just tossed on a t-shirt that Courtney gave me that says "Jag är en vampyr" (I am a vampire). You'll notice the blood on the shirt down below. I hopped on the back of Evan's bike and we rode there like someone on a high school date.

The party was funish. It was a typical Lund corridor party, in which it was super crowded and I didn't know anybody. But through it all, Evan and I both were able to agree that the following guy, was a douche-bag.
Seriously, fuck Oregon. Fortunately Evan was weilding an axe and somebody was randomly wielding Han Solo's blaster pistol and my shirt was covered in blood ... so the guy got the point. You of course might recognize Evan from photos in ESPN as last year he was awarded the lifetime achievement award as "THE GREATEST FANTASY FOOTBALL COMPETITOR OF ALL TIME!"

The evening ended without incident (which is Blake-speak for "I threw up outside of a residence hall").

10/31:

The next morning we got a somewhat late start. We headed over to meet up with some folks at Mormors Bageriet (Grandmothers Bakery). We recharged with breakfast sandwiches, muffins and coffee. At that point Evan and I took Henning on a brief tour of central Lund. The weather was very cooperative, which was spectacular. Here are some photos over by the Domkyrka:
We can thank a giant for building Lund's Domkryka. The legend ... er ... History channel documentary states that the giant was enlisted by St. Laurence to build a cathedral (around 1085, give or take). The giant told St. Laurence that he would do it on the condition that he would get to keep St. Laurence's eyes when it was over. However, he told him that if St. Laurence could guess his real name, he would spare him his eyes. So the giant set to work with remarkable speed, and after a time St. Laurence was literally shitting himself wondering how he could possibly guess the giant's name. I mean ... what kind of names do giants have anyways. Remember, this was pre-Harry Potter. Finally, the night before the giant was to place the last stone, St. Laurence followed him home. While evesdropping on the giant's cave he heard a woman's voice (or a giant womans voice) singing to a child about how tomorrow, Finn would bring eyes back for their child to play with!)

The next day, right before the the giant was about to place the final stone, St. Laurence said: "Hey! Finn! Is your wife as ugly as she sounds!?!" At this, Finn, his wife, and his child were so enraged that all three grabbed columns in the churches crypt. However, as we all know, God is the giant's natural enemy, and he shrunk them down and turned them to stone, where they sit in the crypts to this day. Below you can see the oft photographed celebrity, Finn, the inventor of the full service engineering firm: Architect, engineer, contractor.
Here is the beautiful, simplistic, and imposing cathedral.
The main building of the university. I actually really like this photo, the sky was being very cooperative.
The fountain outside the main building. The saturation was cranked up on this one.
Also a little doctored, but I think quite cool:
Evan and me in front of the main university building:
After giving Lund its due, Evan retired to his study where he played baccarat and enjoyed a fine brandy (I would translate what that really means, but children might read this blog). Henning and I instead headed to Malmö. The Manhattan of Skåne.

Since Henning and I are both geeks for buildings our first stop was the Turning Torso. Santiago Calatrava is my hero. I should consider it a career goal to be involved in one of his projects:
The other engineering monument in Southern Sweden: The Öresund/Øresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark.
After that we went out to go see the Malmö old town. They added a ferris wheel in Stortorget. Eat your heart out "London Eye".
After a few hours, we had our fill of Malmö, so we headed back to Lund. We met up again with Evan and hung out and watched some South Park. At around 6ish I headed down to meet up with a former coworker, Henrik, who holds a rare place in my heart as the only PhD student in Lund I met that isn't bat-shit-insane. Henning tagged along, and we headed to Viggos, which is an awesome burger place right in the heart of Lund. Henrik and I caught up about how the office was doing and talked about his little Lukas, who I am sure is growing at mach speed.

At first the plan was to leave for our Halloween party at 7 that night but I realized after 15 minutes that if I was going to operate on a time crunch I would:
a) be rude
and
b) not have fun

So I said fuck it, and told Evan to plan to go ahead of us. I was so glad I did it because we hung out, didn't talk about anything monumental, but it was a really great (though not particularly photogenic) time.

So after a bit, Henning and I headed back to Evans where we enjoyed a little wine, put on our incredibly elaborate costumes, and waited to meet up with Evan.

"Hej kids. Wanna see a dead body?"
Henning and I eventually headed out to the party, and made it there around the same time as Evan. Shortly thereafter my mentor leaders Pernilla and Danlin arrived! At completely my own fault, I totally spaced on letting Pernilla know I was coming down there until I was on the drive down there (she concurrently sent me a message to my facebook status calling me out on my mistake).
I had a really great time catching up with Pernilla, who I had lost touch with a bit after her brief foray in blogging ended.

Henning was rocking a Batman mask I bought for him that cost me a whopping 25 :- (3.50 or so). Unfortunately for him, the ears of the mask, coupled with his freakish height and low ceilings made it impossible to wear said mask. Here he is undoubtedly quoting Mr. Batman: "FEAR ME!"

Question though, who's more intimidating? Henning or the guy right in front of him?
O.M.G.! ! ! Where did my mustache run off to?!?
A lumberjack, a bumble bee, an exposed Batman (aka Henning Wayne), and a Patriot! These colors don't run!!!
Dancing like there's no tomorrow! So basically a normal day for me.
Notice the guy standing behind me. He was basically standing in that corner, by himself, making white man dance moves that would even make me say "Pshhh, I can dance better than that." All the while he had his shirt over his shoulder, and he was making creepy eyes at every girl around him.

Here he is after escaping his corner!
A pretty awesome Mario:
Evan:
He's a lumberjack and he's ok.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps.
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on womens clothing.
And hangs around in bars.
"Special delivery! I've got a package for you!"
So disturbed right now:
Eventually we rolled on home. Henning and I had walked up there, but Evan had his bike. Let me tell you, there's no worse way to end a night than to turn around and see this nearly upon you:
11/01:

The next morning, Henning, Evan and I rolled over to Espresso House for our morning breakfast. After some last minute pleasantries we bid our farewells and headed back. The drive down was about as exciting as the drive up, but it was a really great weekend, and I'm glad I finally made it down again.