In these impulse blog entries we are supposed to talk about a cultural experience we have had, right? And what is travelling if not a cultural experience? As to the relevance my journey to Malmö has for my master’s thesis, I did take the same trains I will be needing for my journey to Lapland, which I will be documenting. Of course I did not just travel all the way to Sweden just to be able to write another blog entry, but I will gladly take the opportunity to use my experience productively. So in this blog entry I will be analysing what observations I have made on my way to the north that might come in handy when repeating my journey in February.
My Travel Companion
Well, not only did I travel part of the same route as I will in February, I also had the same travel buddy join me: my mom. There are some valid reasons for it, both because my mom and I share some of the same passions for travelling, spontaneity, Scandinavia, and sustainability, and also because she’s my mom and I like spending time with her. However, we hadn’t travelled together just the two of us in about a decade, so in a way this trip was also a good way of figuring out whether the two of us were compatible travellers. Some observations I have made on this topic were that while we both are quite relaxed, my mom does enjoy a higher level of comfort, probably due to the fact that she is just not 24 anymore, but also that she has significantly more money at her disposal than a 24-year old (me in this case) would have. While, if I had been travelling by myself, I would have just booked a seat on the overnight train and gambled whether I could upgrade it to a mini sleeping cabin on the day of, my mom went to the register at the train station (yes, like real life people and stuff) and made the reservations for our sleeper cabins a month in advance. That being said, I was very grateful that she did (and also paid for my reservation <3) because I slept the whole night through on the train, feeling better rested than most mornings when I wake up for FH. So to summarise, I believe my mom and I complement each other quite well when on holiday, taking turns who gets to be relaxed and who stressed out, having the same priorities (i.e. looking for cute shops and taste-testing cinnamon rolls), and both being very flexible about our plans (like spending the whole day at a children’s museum when it is too rainy to do any sightseeing).
My Route
In order to get to Malmö without having to fly, we decided on taking the overnight train to Hamburg, then a 5-hour train ride to Copenhagen and another 30 minutes to Malmö. The first train ride went by in no time, because all we essentially did was fall asleep, wake up shortly before Hamburg, have breakfast delivered to bed and then we were already there. During the train ride to Copenhagen I mostly worked and we played cards, and on the ride to Malmö most of what we did was just admiring the Öresund bridge and taking pictures. So all in all, the journey was really enjoyable and didn’t feel long at all. When going to Lapland in February, however, this is of course only half of the distance we’ll be making. We will have a stopover in Copenhagen, from there we will journey on toward Stockholm and then take another overnight train, taking us all the way to Lapland.
My Luggage
While I severely overpacked for the 4 days we actually spent in Malmö, I will surely be having even more luggage the next time around. This time it went quite smoothly with having one big backpack and a small suitcase and I’m thinking for February I might just pack all of my clothes into a slightly bigger suitcase and then have a backpack for most of the camera equipment. If I find out that on our journey farther north there are some passages where pulling a suitcase is simply not an option, I might have to reconsider that choice and maybe switch to a duffel bag instead. But all in all, manoeuvring my luggage proved to be fairly easy this time around.
My Film
While mostly for my own entertainment and for the memories, I did bring a camera with me and take some photos as well as video snippets, also as sort of a “trial run”. One thing I realised though is that I felt a little disconnected from the activities if I was “the one with the camera”, documenting things. It obviously makes sense that I felt that way, but this time it did keep me from reaching for my camera quite a few times because we were actually there to visit my best friend who I hadn’t seen in months and I wanted to spend as much uninterrupted quality time with her as possible. Next time around though, the story is going to be a different one, because I will be travelling with mostly strangers (except for my mom of course, but I consider her as more of a camera assistant than film subject), thus I will more easily find into my role as observer I believe. I am quite used to that role due to working in event photography and videography a lot, where being invisible and unnoticed leads to the best results most of the time.
My Conclusion
All in all I can say that the trial run for our journey in February was a great success, also showing me what I might have to take into consideration, also what clothes to pack and which ones to leave at home, and what to expect from the train rides up north. I am thoroughly excited for February and I feel a little more confident and assured that everything might work out somewhat how I imagined it would.
