Lund’s Flea Market

Even though it was a business trip over the weekend, the rain forecast made me scrap my plan to relax on Bornholm Island. Instead, I hopped on a bus to Lund station, thinking I’d head to Copenhagen for some shopping.

I happened to spot a flea market on the way and decided to hop off. I thought it would be a quick walk, but it was surprisingly huge—probably stretching about a kilometer along the road? There was a lot of “junk,” honestly, but it was pretty fun seeing things where you wonder if they’d actually sell. Most of it was old clothes, shoes, dishes, and books, but I also saw things like old train conductor lights and vintage-looking sewing machines that might actually fetch a high price in Japan.

It was so interesting that I ended up walking around for about an hour. At a stall run by a tough-looking guy, I found a movie soundtrack record I’d been searching for forever. I must have looked really happy holding it, because he suddenly started talking to me in Swedish. I waved my hands and told him I didn’t understand, so he switched to English. When I told him, “I’ve been looking for this in Tokyo for the longest time,” he looked a bit pleased and told me everything there was 50% off the price tag. I didn’t find anything else worth getting, but honestly, I was just thrilled to snag that record for only 20 krona.

I was wandering around not really knowing which way the station was when I ran into someone from work. He was on his way to the gym, so I asked him for directions and we said our goodbyes. Come to think of it, I often hear that people run into colleagues all the time here. I’m not sure if it’s because there are fewer people than in Tokyo or if everyone just ends up doing the same things because there aren’t many places to go, but it’s kind of interesting. The strawberries being sold in the town square looked delicious.

Copenhagen Carnival

In the end, I took the train straight to Copenhagen. While I was shopping at the stores in Strøget, things started getting unusually noisy outside. A crowd formed in no time, and when I went to see what was happening, it turned out to be a carnival. After a marching band passed by, groups of people were dancing like crazy. It seemed like they were mostly amateur groups, as many of them had friends in the crowd cheering them on, dancing together, and snapping photos. It was a really joyful scene.

To put it bluntly, it was a “everyone joins the fun” kind of festival, with beautiful people and not-so-beautiful (lol) older ladies all mixed together. In that sense, I even saw a woman who looked pregnant dancing in an outfit that left her belly exposed, which made me a bit worried for her! Whenever there were kids in the crowd, the dancers would invite them out to join in, and they’d give the biggest smiles whenever a camera was pointed their way. You could really feel their spirit of truly enjoying the moment.

After that, I walked over to Nyhavn, but since I’d been there a few times, there wasn’t much new to see. However, while looking for interior goods at a department store called Illum (there’s one right next to Illums Bolighus), I had a nice little win. They were having sales that you don’t usually see at the main or specialty stores—like 40% off if you buy two items. I couldn’t resist, so I braved the heavy bags and bought some tableware. It was a surprisingly successful shopping haul.

Helsingborg to Helsingør

Sunday. I decided to take the route my friend Kosa, who’s stationed here, showed my wife and me when we visited Northern Europe before. It’s a loop where you take a ferry from Helsingborg to Helsingør in Denmark, then head south back to Copenhagen. I headed out to revisit a castle called Kärnan and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art near Helsingør. Unfortunately, the castle itself has been destroyed, leaving only the tower and its unique gate that looks like two cylinders joined together, but it’s still quite striking. I also saw a house that was the only one to survive the wars of the 1600s; it had that cute style you often see in Lund or Malmö.

The building called Knutpunkten, which combines the train station and the ferry port, is a “modern building”—rare for stations around here—and it felt a bit like a small airport. Large ferries leave for Denmark, just across the water, every 20 minutes. To be honest, they feel unnecessarily big and frequent, but once you board, they’re surprisingly packed. I’ve heard people go to Denmark because alcohol is cheaper there, and sure enough, there were plenty of Swedes on the boat stocking up on massive amounts of booze. It made me wonder if they were just doing the round trip solely for that (lol). In fact, as soon as we arrived in Helsingør and I stepped off at the station, the crowd thinned out immediately…

Helsingør is home to Kronborg Castle, the setting of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” but since I’d been there once, I skipped it. Other than that, it felt like a really small town. An ice cream shop in front of the station was unusually crowded, but after seeing how massive the servings were, I skipped that too. One thing that feels a bit different from Sweden is that the exterior walls of the houses are often painted in colorful or pastel tones. I don’t think I see these kinds of colors much in Southern Sweden, though you see them in places like Nyhavn in Copenhagen.

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is located in a town called Humlebæk, which has a beautiful coastline just south of Helsingør and north of Copenhagen. They were holding a special exhibition called “Made In China,” so as soon as I entered, I saw works using kanji (Chinese characters). It felt strange being an Asian in Europe looking at Asian art. Another interesting thing was that while I’d seen many Chinese people in Lund, Malmö, and Copenhagen, I hardly saw any here. I felt people’s eyes on me quite a bit, maybe wondering if I was Chinese myself, which was kind of an interesting experience.

I saw a crowd gathering in the outdoor plaza, so I went to check it out just as a performance was starting. It looked like someone was taping a bunch of raw eggs to their body. Rather than watching it as a “work of art,” most people were just looking on curiously, like “What on earth are they doing?” I couldn’t help but laugh watching the kids approach cautiously, only to stop at a certain distance and return to their parents with puzzled looks. Finally, after taping eggs all around their face, the performer started doing situps on the table they’d been working on. The eggs started popping one by one, and then they slipped off and fell to the ground. They then stood up, bowed, and the performance was over. For the kids, it was so surreal they had no idea what just happened, and even among the older ladies watching, many had an “incomprehensible” vibe. The performance itself was interesting, but watching the audience around it was a really fun time too.

The museum has a gorgeous garden overlooking the sea, and I could totally see why so many people were there relaxing and eating packed lunches. I was a bit jealous of the kids running around energetically on the perfectly manicured lawn. One thing that might be different from Japan is that you don’t really see students or adults doing that. The building, made of glass and wood, feels wonderful when the sunlight streams in.

Another thing I liked about this museum was the hands-on corner for kids. There was a calligraphy station tied to the exhibition and a corner where they could make things using various materials—it was quite impressive. Honestly, it looked fun enough for adults to play too, and I saw a few adults enjoying themselves while looking after their kids. Since there was a display showing the origins of the kanji for “bird” (looking like a hieroglyph), there were drawings based on that posted around, which was pretty cool. I did wonder if whoever wrote “Maximum” (最大) actually knew what it meant, though.