Monday
I have a contract to sign at both workplaces, and some minor arrangements to take care of for the first place, so I go to Denmark.
On the way home it occurs to me that maybe this is the kind of thing that could be fun to see, so I started taking pictures.
This is Tårnby station, near the first workplace. Tårnby means "tower city" and I've been meaning to ask my soon to be coworkers about it, because so far, I haven't seen any towers anywhere.
From here, you can see to Ørestad station, where I will jump off and take the metro to the second workplace from september.
In Kastrup, you have to change trains and have your ID checked. Kastrup is the main airport in Denmark.
Of course the little snippet of it you have to cross to change trains is next to nothing, but I still thought it might be fun to see.
Turned 180 degrees from the first picture: Going up from the floor level is access to the metro lines.
Crossing Øresund via the bridge. The total length of the bridge is about 8 kilometres before it dives under Øresund in a 4 kilometers long tunnel.
The picture shows a bit of Peberholm (Pepper islet) in the foreground with a windmill park in the background. Peberholm is an artificial island built in connection to the bridge and tunnel and is protected as part of a biological experiment. The name comes from a hint to the natural neighbor island on the other side of the bridge: Saltholm, meaning Salt islet.
I always love looking over Peberholm and will try to sit in the train so I can watch the nature as I pass. It's been made beautifully with little freshwater ponds and attracts a lot of wild birds. I especially enjoy when the geese have their little fat, fluffy babies.
Approaching Lund and a typical Skåne landscape. This region is one of the more denser populated in Sweden, but still has very good soil and is the most important agriculture region in Sweden.
Also, Skåne has been Swedish for less than 400 years, before that it belonged to Denmark. Even today, I think I see a difference between Skåne and the rest of Sweden: They have a bit more Danish attitude ("You can't tell me what to think!") and like to fly their red and yellow flag instead of the Swedish blue and yellow one.
Tuesday
Speaking of the bridge: Hubby is in Malmø with a friend and kindly takes a picture for me.
Here it is seen from the side. Hubby is in the Västra hamnen area ("Western harbor") which is an old industrial area, now beautiful and awesome to live in.
With Hubby out, I finish Julianna Baggot's Pure. Awesome post-apocalyptic read! I recommend it. It has some moments where it feels a bit "Let's appeal to teenage girls!", but I forgive it for having a really awesome and fascinating world built up. (Hm, reminds me of the Metro books that way: They have their issues, but I love the world they're set in)
Wednesday
Time to turn in my book and get some new ones!
Stadsbiblioteket in Lund. ("City library"). It's a rather odd building placed on "stilts".
Has your typical "art" in front of it, but if you go around it on this side...
... You come to this sweet little "oasis" semi hidden behind it.
I love when they leave little green areas like this in a city.
On the other side of the library, there is another little bit of "park". The trail leads back to the main entrance of the library.
Here is a statue of Carl von Linné, a Swedish botanist and zoologist who came up with the system for naming and classifying organisms that we use today.
Poor Carl gets yarn-bombed a lot.
The insides of the library.
On one side you can see directly out into the big tree in the little oasis behind it.
On the other side you can see out into the street. I like the little cozy areas they have set up for readers.
Thursday
Hair is in two braids split horizontally.
Hubby and I go for a hike to the north east of Lund today. Unfortunately the weather isn't as clear as I had hoped: There is something kind of cool I wanted to show you all.
It's a nice hike with lots of variation in landscape. Here we stopped to listen to the frogs living in this little pond.
Right here is 98 meter over sea level. In comparison, the five highest points in Denmark (Excluding Greenland of course) are at around 170 meter.
From here, we can see (But the camera cannot quite catch it unfortunately, which is why I hoped for clearer weather!) really far.
We can see to Malmø, especially where turning torso sticks up 190 meter and is the tallest building in Scandinavia. We can see the Øresund bridge and the Øresund water. We can see the island of Amager and the taller buildings in Copenhagen sticking up behind it.
On the other side, we have a good view over Lund. We can see Lund cathedral, but it didn't show up well on the picture. Approximately in the middle of the picture, you see a big squarish building. That is Lund university hospital. More to the right and sticking out from the rest is Ideon gateway, an ugly building with business and hotel combined. To the right of that, is the Sony Ericsson buildings.
Turning about 90 degrees and moving a little further ahead, we can see to the south of Skåne.
A view over the landscape.
The raspberries provided up with nice snacks along the way!
The windmill is approximately where I took the pictures over Lund, Malmø and Copenhagen before.
This is Dalby quarry. ("Valley city")
It always surprises me that Skåne, which looks so much like Denmark, has rock right underneath the soil. For me, this is something i associate with the southern part of Europe, not the nice farmland of Skåne.
Except for Bornholm, Denmark has soft soil up to 300 meter below.
Hardeberga church from the 12th century, right near the quarry.
Friday
Hair is in yesterdays two braids, packed into two buns.
We go for a shorter walk today to explore some of the new areas they are building to the south of where we live. Unfortunately it's too messy yet to show up well.
I can see the potential in the new areas though. They have left bits of nature alone, the new houses look nice and modern and they are going to incorporate a larger "sea front" area to some of it.
Right now, everything is muddy and messy though. So here are two pictures of the nature in the area.
I prepare to go back to work. Make sure I have my papers, keycards and keys and everything else I need organised and ready. Also, I download all the The snail cast podcast episodes to an old MP3 player, so I don't have to mix them up with music. Might be a good idea to have something like that with me for the transportation.
Saturday
It was on my to do-list to do a henna treatment in my vacation. Whoops. Now my vacation is almost over.
A henna-cassia treatment requires quite a bit of preparation and I have been lazy.
Oh well.
I get my "nest" ready with books, pillows and towels.
The supplies. The Welcos conditioners, 100 gram cassia, approximately 5 gram henna mixed with water and frozen (Marked with a note that says "uneatable" since Hubby has a tendency to try to eat anything I "cook"), 3 ampoules of Lador ampoules, they work wonders for thickening up a treatment so I hope it cuts down on the dripping to use 3 instead of the usual one.
Mixing the henna with some conditioner.
Yummy. It always amuses me that no matter what you do, no matter what stage of the mixing process, henna-cassia mud just never looks inviting.
Adding the cassia powder.
Hard, lumpy mixture.
Adding more conditioner. I know I didn't like the argan+gold Welcos conditioner, but I had the hope that it might help boost my gold tones. Love those!
And then it's pretty much adding conditioner until the texture feels right.
Argh.
So much for my clever plan that the extra Lador ampoules would help with the dripping.
Slightly better with everything wrapped up in cling wrap and bandage.
My ears looks weird in this, but there is a reason: If you don't try to pull your ears out of the cling wrap, the liquid will seep into them and it itches and tickles like crazy. So this uncomfortable ear-position is a lot better than that.
There is really nothing much you can do to keep the dripping down, but I've found that getting in the tub for about an hour takes 95% of the dripping. Of course that doesn't actually remove the dripping, but I find that I mind it less when I'm in the warm and comfy water. So I make a nice bath with lots of raw honey in it. Might as well give my skin a treat while I'm at it.
Friend of mine recommended Justice league the flashpoint paradox, and I watch it in the bath. It's good. I never really got into the DC universe, so this was interesting for me. Also, it was 1 hour 20 minutes, so I got rid of almost all of the dripping, so that was awesome.
I have my heating cap and books ready at the "nest". But instead of reading I go for one of the series on my to watch-list: Daredevil. I've had it recommended by a few people and it is awesome!
I go through the first 7 episodes back to back. Because of the Justice league movie and Daredevil entertaining me, I manage to henna treat for 9½ hours! Nice!
I get Hubby to take pictures of the rinsing process. It seriously looks like some sort of weird chemical spill, lol.
A quick CO to make sure I get all the cassia residue out, leave in conditioner and putting my hair back in a simple braid to leave it alone for 1-2 days. It always feels a bit weird for the first day after a treatment like this.
Sunday
Ugh. I'm always a bit sore after a henna-cassia treatment. I guess it's both the weight of the mud, the cling wrap, bandage and heating cap and that my follicles have been forced upwards for many hours to do the treatment?
It's a good excuse to be lazy on the couch. I start reading Twelve kings in Sharakhai, but it doesn't manage to catch my interest so I give up some 60 pages in. I start on Aurora instead.
Usually after a henna-cassia treatment, I can tell a colour difference in my hair. Not this time though. Strange. Maybe it needs more time to oxidize?
Hair feels happy though.
