Part 5: Malmo & Copenhagen - Inside the countries of bikes and blond people

(25.06.2022-01.07.2022)

Addendum: It is Friday, June 24th in Sassnitz. After the final exam of the "basic safety and security awareness training according to STCW- Code VI/1 (1-4) and VI/6" (doesn´t it roll off the tounge smoothly?) I call the Office for Maritime Shipping, because I still have to apply for official documents. My naivety - to think that the application would certainly be easy, because I am in a highly developed, digitized, first world country - is once again punished, because I am in Germany instead. And here such things are still done by good old mail...that is, with physical copies.

So I hurry quickly, before night falls over the village, to the upper castle ring. The documents I acquired during the safety briefing need to be duplicated by the local copyist before I can take them to pigeoneer and send them to the Office of Seafarers and Explorers by carrier bird. To be on the safe side, a confirmation of transmission is also foxed.

But joking aside - Germany, you really don't need to be afraid of digitization, honestly. 😉 But I still have a week to kill before my certificates are ready to be picked up in Hamburg. Where to, you could probably tell from the title. The Skane Jet takes me across the Baltic Sea on 25.06. at top speed . Next destination: Malmo.

Malmo is a mediocre tourist attraction, but I really like the atmosphere of the city: everyone rides their bikes, car drivers are friendly (yes, that is actually possible), people are open, everyone takes care of themselves. The progressiveness of the North, you can smell it - everyone can be who they want to be without being judged. I particularly feel this in the hostel - from a couple of zombie-like characters, who sometimes run around in their underwear, to grandpa, who spends the whole day gaming in the lounge, only interrupted by clockwork-precise 30-minute smoke breaks, to people who sing and dance like nobody is looking - these people are not only left alone, but also respected like everyone else. Although unusual, an extremely pleasant atmosphere!

In Sankt Petri church in the center of Malmo - find the "error"

On the tour through the city center I find an answer to the question why we are not as progressive at home. Northern Europe is religiously protestant. That means (at least here in Sweden) female priests, married priests, gay priests, LGBTQ flags in churches, etc. I have the feeling that the church hasn't lost touch with the people here.

In general, I enjoy my time in Malmo and the nice weather. Special thanks to Selina and Haber for the time together!

A day trip across the Öresund Bridge to Copenhagen turns out to be far too little. This aggressively beautiful city has so much to offer.

My personal Copenhagen highlight: Christiania, a district that was bought by a kind of hippie community. Since then it has been known as a district for artists, free spirits and potheads. Unfortunately, because of the latter, photography is banned there - after all, marijuana is (still) illegal in Denmark.

Entry into own territory...

...with its own flag

It was nice - there wasn't enough time, but I'll definitely be back. But I have to continue on friday, Hamburg is already waiting for me...