The Conquest Of Scandinavia

By Inge on 2005-09-25

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1. Magnus Pålsson (Helsingborg)

After having travelled from Rotterdam via Hamburg and Kopenhagen to Sweden, my first unknown and uncertain steps in Scandinavia were on the coast of Helsingborg where my ferry from Helsingor arrived. SoulEye picked me up there in the middle of the night, and a first surprise was encountered: they have a store there that is named after me! I already loved Sweden, and neglected the extraordinary alcohol prices in this evaluation.

Inge shop at the harbour of Helsingborg, Sweden

On my first day in Sweden, SoulEye and I visited the remains of the castle in Helsingborg, which was quite stunning. The entire city, and especially its touristical spots such as this castle, are remarkably clean and spaceous, giving you an open and welcome feeling. I also loved the views from the castle, allowing me to lose myself in overwhelming masses of clouds, the view of Denmark on the other side of the sea, and the great influence such views have on my excessive LSD-consumption the hybrid of natural and architectural colours from Helsingborg itself.

The most remarkable thing was ofcourse the statistically impossible high amount of stunningly beautiful women in Sweden. Women in The Netherlands on average are not ugly, but also not overwhelmingly eyecatching. There, in Helsingborg on a sunny afternoon, I got the idea that the entire acting crew of Baywatch was having a day off and used it to stroll through the pleasant streets of this southern town. I wouldn't have mind if my passport became invalid and I could not return to The Netherlands.

Helsingborg castle

View on the main street of Helsingborg from its castle

The evening we spent on listening music, dissecting MadTracker modules, argueing if all chip tune musicians should be immediately crucified or not debating why SoulEye liked chip tune music and I didn't, watching Pablo Francisco, further biting and cursing concerning the total lack of sense that all chip tune musicians apparently have agreeing that taste cannot be debated, and emptying SoulEye's 150 bottles of Wodka. Sleeping was never this easy.

SoulEye in his appartment at nighttime

The second day was mainly used to visit the art project Nimis & Arx at the northern coast of Helsingborg. This project consists of massive wooden pioneering structures, which allow visitors to climb through them up to several meters in the air. It's everything you wished back when you were young, and it's everything you will curse upon once you get older and more susceptible to physical injuries. For me, it was just plain marvellous, and SoulEye and I relived our youth while climbing the wooden buildings. Even the trip towards the art area is one big exciting activity. Getting there takes atleast half an hour of downhill climbing, and getting back takes, oh, several days of uphill climbing. It's not really the most accessible art project one can imagine, but well worth the effort of getting there. We even spotted a windmill on the way back to Helsingborg, which made me feel completely at home straight away.

Nimis entrance

Nimis entrance and Nimis overview

SoulEye & Inge at the entrance of Nimis

Overview of Arx

I spent the evening on demolishing SoulEye's two hard disks of chip tune modules exchanging music with SoulEye, and stealthily hid all booze that was left in SoulEye's fridge into the double bottom of my bag made sandwiches to take with me while travelling further to Kopenhagen for a short stay there. I said goodbye the next morning, told SoulEye that the noise of cluttering glass in my bag was nothing more than the 128-pieces Chinese porcelain set that I carry with me wherever I go, and continued my journey through Scandinavia. The first impressions predicted nothing else but joy.

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