Turning Torso, full frontal
I was aware of Turning Torso long before I came to Malmö. So I was surprised to hear a classmate say the other day, referring to some pictures of the amazing building, “that looks like a nice place, how would I find that?” Even though the structure, designed by spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, stands 54 stories high, while performing a 90 degree twist on the way up and is the tallest building by far in this southern swedish city, he missed it somehow. I felt obliged to feature it as one of the not so little, hidden gems in this post. Check out the pics below, they can speak for themselves.
The other hidden gem for today is Café Erik. You can find it situated on the fringe of Davidshall torget, at Erik Dahlbergsgatan 9. My friend and I wandered across it the other day while in search of an inexpensive, yet satisfying lunch. We were in my part of town so I felt obligated to lead the hunt. I knew there were a few nice places around, but I had never eaten at any of them. Mostly they looked a bit over priced for lunch or they were the type of place with the potential to put us into a sleepy stupor the rest of the afternoon with their enticing meat and potatoes style overload. My friend, “T” felt the same way, but was determined to keep going on this path until we found the perfect place. Thankfully most places here have a sign placed outside on the sidewalk announcing the lunch specials du jour. This helped keep us going at a quick pace until we stumbled upon this little den of freshly made italian bread iniquity. If it hadn’t been for the sign out front we would have passed it off as a coffee shop with nothing more to offer. But something on the menu caught my cohorts eye and so we ventured in. A nice man behind the counter proceeded to smile and welcome us to his place in swedish. I wondered if this was Erik himself, but then I remembered the “Erik” in the name of the street, alas I came to the logical conclusion. I ordered prosciutto and fresh mozzarella on fresh baked herbed ciabatta off the regular menu. It came topped with sliced red bell pepper and greens. My girlfriend ordered the hot pressed italian sandwich of the day. When our plates showed up to the table they were overloaded with crunchy vegetables, fresh meat and cheese and the best bread I have yet to shove into my mouth at light speed. “T” said it was better than a lot of the food she had while backpacking through Italy . It is definitely a unique place, the decor reminiscent of a polynesian tiki hut, but with what looked like ancient south american cave paintings on the walls, yet serving from a very italian style menu. The crazy thing was that it was lunchtime and the place was practically empty. I mean we were served a large plateful of great food for around 60 kroner. You must try this place out. I have only been there once, but I will definitely try it again this week to confirm that I wasn’t dreaming. Varsågod!
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Turning Torso, full frontal
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When you first get to Malmö you can’t help but notice all of the bicycles. There are 400 kilometers of bicycle lane here. It is one of the great things about this city. Bike’s are everywhere. Thankfully the region has a very flat landscape to facilitate cyclist’s efforts, however I think most would still truck it up and down the hills if there were any. It is important to to be aware of the difference between the bicycle lane and the pedestrian lane when you are here. As a newcomer I didn’t make this observation quick enough and was constantly dodging the seemingly rogue bicyclists. Then one day, while trying to cross the street and barely avoiding yet another one coming straight for me, my boyfriend stated casually, “You know you are standing in the bicycle lane.” I felt pretty stupid as the girl rang her little bell to get my attention. (Yes, they all have these great little bells attached to the handlebars!)
