Snow in Skåne

Although I certainly noticed the ever-increasing (until Dec 21 anyway) darkness of the Scandinavian winter last year I think being in a city (Copenhagen) made the seasonal change less dramatic. There are always lights in a city and especially at Christmas time. It seems like an ok trade-off to be honest - it gets darker, but the Christmas lights are prettier that way.

Here in Lomma, a small town in the countryside between Lund and Malmo, there are not so many holiday decorations and lights. As a result it just seems...dark - all the time. Even in the "day light" hours (between say 9 am - 3pm) there has been little sun light over the last weeks. I remember seeing the sun on the last two Sundays (ironic) but not on any other days. Its just grey and rainy, or grey and misty, or grey and snowy, or JUST grey.

I recently told a friend that I am starting to feel like a vampire. In the last weeks I have been more or less tied up with school and group work in the day time, travelling there in the morning darkness and biking home in the evening darkness.

There is an upside to all the cold though. Unlike in Japan where winter = cold weather camping IN your apartment (due to a lack of central heating and insulation), here it is often warm inside. There also gløgg, or spiced wine that just makes the season so much nicer. One great thing about Sweden is that you can get all the good taste of gløgg but without all the alcohol, since the kind they see in the shops has only about 2.5% alcohol content (which is probably all gone once you heat it up).

And like in Copenhagen the larger towns do have pretty holiday decorations. M and I went to Lund a few weeks ago on a weekend where we had some snow. Lund is a small city of about 75,000 people but is home to one of the largest universities (Lund Uni) in all of Sweden. Around 1000-1100 Lund became the center of Christianity in Northern Europe (according to wikipedia anyway :-). Here is a pic of a church in Lund in the afternoon sun (yeah that was a Sunday too!).





















A typical street in the old section of Lund, an area with many charming shops and LOTS of cafes - all those students need to stay awake and study some how I guess.
















Lastly, this is a pretty photo I took on my way home from school one day. A snow covered field with a brilliant sunset and Malmo's Twisting Tower profile in the distance.