So last weekend I was in Sweden (Malmö to be precise) to see one of Eric Saade’s concerts (Sweden’s Eurovision entrant last year), because frankly all of his music is awesome! No really, it is!

As this was an el cheapo trip I flew with EasyJet from the misc airport Stansted in the middle of nowhere, which required getting a coach there late on Friday and sleeping at the airport. -_- Though I do have to say that an airport at 2am with no-one around apart from the odd handful of people sleeping is rather tranquil. Fast forward several hours after throwing away all of the liquids from my bag and re-purchasing them on the other side of security and it was time to board! As far as budget airlines go this was all very streamlined and efficient, window seat and everything, no hassle, leg room quite reasonable etc.

Now the downside (there had to be one right!) was that my flight was landing in Denmark and not Sweden…….. which was of course entirely intended ; Malmö is a 10 minute train journey over a bridge from Copenhagen airport!

(said train journey over a bridge)

Got out at the station in my destination, got some local cash (which turned out to be entirely un-needed as *everywhere* took card), and ventured outside! First impressions; the place is like a clean quaint version of a built up 70′s English town but with all the signs in foreign. Second impression; jesus christ the wind is cold. The weather app on my phone said it was currently 10°C, but it clearly didn’t take into account the freezing wind rolling in from the sea at full force… conveniently my hotel was only a short walk away (via getting a map from the tourist office opposite the station)!

Checked into hotel with ease, informed I had free breakfast awaiting me the next day, bonus! Hotel was really nice too, free tea/coffee 24/7, free wifi, super comfy/warm beds etc. Then went off exploring the town after a short nap:

After a few hours it was almost time for the concert, I thought I’d turn up an hour beforehand rather than queue up all day because it was bloody cold. This turned out to be a good decision as those of us with VIP tickets were let in right after I turned up… so turn up, get passes, walk straight in and straight to the front, no queuing!

The average age of the concert attendee’s everywhere outside of the VIP area seemed somewhat younger than I was expecting (mostly 10 year olds with parents :s ), but oh well, at least where I was there were quite a few people from other countries (I believe I saw German, Finish, Danish, and Icelandic flags there) that weren’t 10 year olds… so I didn’t feel that out of place, lol.

As for the concert itself: FANTASTIC! Probably the best produced/choreographed concert I’ve ever been to (not highest budget mind, just truly well produced… slick, so much attention paid to the dancing on every single beat of every song). I think also the only concert I’ve been to that I could sing all of the lyrics for. :s There was also not much of a proliferation of camera wielding terds, \o/ most people were too busy screaming at him or singing/jumping. \o/ \o/ Lots of the songs seemed to be special extended concert versions too (with room for audience singing… a few thousand people in a crowd singing Manboy acapella is pretty amusing), nice when someone takes care of what they’re doing for a concert rather than just playing an album and singing it. Lets not forget the ending either, he had the water shower thing on stage, lol.

After that I think about 10-20 of us with backstage passes were waiting around backstage because he was gonna come out and meet us (pretty sure half the people with backstage passes weren’t Swedish, lol… lucky he speaks good English!). He’s definitely a funny guy! I did have to ask him about the lyrics to “Backseat”, and suffice to say, yes, they are as rude as they sound (“You’re the pilot girl I’m cruising”, “I’m riding in your backseat” etc.), but apparently no-one else noticed this? He said he was just angry when he wrote it, lol, funny hearing an entire crowd singing it though.

It was a good length concert too, think it started at 19:00 and finished at ~21:30, we didn’t end up leaving until about 22:45.

At this point I had to find somewhere to sample the local beer and night-life, ended up in the local brewery for a couple of hours. But at the prices they charge for beer in Sweden one could hardly drink much (like £7 a pint >_>). Cheaper to get the train to Copenhagen, go out there, and get the train back (I was too lazy to do that).

Next day, all you can eat buffet breakfast, meats, fruit, cereal, toast etc. etc. Very filling! Packed up my stuff, checked out of the hotel and went out to do some tourist stuff. First stop purchase a tin of Surströmming (aka fermented/rotting herring), sadly I didn’t get to taste it as Danish airport security confiscated it as tinned fish is apparently considered liquid.

Anyway, tourist stuff. I went around Malmö Castle/museum, rather interesting if not very castle-like. Apparently the locals dug up plague victims remains and used their bones to make bone china. Also went around the kinda scummy looking “beach” which was freezing and full of goose poo. Then followed that up with eating moose and gravlax at a local restaurant and watching some football on their TV. They do seem to like their patio heaters out there, screw environmentalists!

And with that as the weather was starting to turn, time to head back to Copenhagen airport and home. God knows how I ended up sat next to a bunch of Danish weeaboo’s on the flight back, jeez listening to them was almost as bad as suffering a screaming baby. But oh well, a fun weekend!