Year Abroad: A trip to Malmö

I have been on my study abroad for just over eight months now and have still not had the guts to travel alone. Sure, I’ve signed up for a few trips without anyone to go with, but I always end up joining a group or tagging along with others once I get there. My recent trip to Malmö, however, was different.

I don’t know what motivated me to do it, but one evening I just opened up my laptop, pulled up booking.com and booked a hotel in Malmö for two nights. I don’t know what came over me, but I knew one thing for certain… I had just successfully booked my own solo adventure.

I took the 9:00am FlixBus all the way down to Malmö, arriving in the city just after midday. It is the third-largest city in Sweden (after Stockholm and Gothenburg) and is part of the Oresund Region linked by the Oresund Bridge to Copenhagen, Denmark.

I was too early to check in to my hotel so I did the most classic thing a tourist could do…wander. Being a Friday afternoon, the streets were pretty packed, and with the sun shining, many people were simply just enjoying drinks outside. It definitely felt odd not having anyone to talk to about my first impressions of the city, but a part of me loved that I could just silently observe my surroundings and take it all in in peace.

I did the most classic thing a tourist could do…wander.

The next day, I decided to level-up my wandering skills and managed to walk roughly 21,000 steps around the city. My first stop was Malmö Castle which in Swedish is Malmöhus or Malmöhus Slott. It was built between 1526 and 1530 and is also home to Malmö Art Museum. I did not go inside, but just circling its perimeter was enough to fascinate me.

Another one of my stops was Stadsbiblioteket (the City Library) which is open to the general public. As soon as I stepped inside, I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Despite it being a weekend, I felt like everyone there was studying. There was me with my rucksack, hiking boots, and sunhat silently tiptoeing around people who looked like they didn’t want to be disturbed. I quickly took a photo of the towering glass windows, and rows upon rows of bookshelves, and then quickly made my way out before I disrupted anyone else’s peace.

One of my most anticipated stops was St. Peter’s Church, a monument which I had spotted on TikTok and had written down to visit. It definitely did not disappoint. Built in the 14^th century, the church is regarded as the main and most important church of the city. It is not just the oldest church in Malmö, but its oldest preserved building too. I may have been brave enough to do this entire trip alone, but I still stood at a distance and watched two other tourists enter the church before I knew it was ok for me to follow suit.

It’s definitely fun and exciting to meet new people on a year abroad, don’t get me wrong, but if you ever get the chance to do it alone, I’d say go for it.

As soon as I was inside, I immediately took off my hat to gaze at the ceiling. There was a tall nave, reaching 25 metres at the transept, and the walls, pillars, and vaults were all whitewashed, giving the interior a light and bright atmosphere. The cherry on the cake was a woman playing the organ at the very far end of the church. I would not class myself as a religious person but there’s something about a church and an organ playing that truly touches my soul.

Another monument I visited was Turning Torso, a neo-futurist residential skyscraper built in 2005. While I had spotted the building quite early on in my self-guided tour, it wasn’t until I was staring up at it from below that I could truly appreciate its beauty. It is aptly named Turning Torso as it is based on the form of a twisting human being, constructed in nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises. If you look up a photo of it, you’ll get what I mean.

On my last day in the city, I decided to dedicate the entire day to walking to the Öresund Bridge. From my hotel, it would take two hours to walk there and two hours to walk back…a very long way for someone who has no one to talk to. After debating whether I would just prefer reading my book on the beach, I decided to go for my initial plan. Öresund Bridge is the second longest bridge in Europe, combining both road and railway in a single structure and running at nearly 8km from the Swedish coast to the artificial island Peberholm in the middle of the strait.

While I had spotted the building quite early on in my self-guided tour, it wasn’t until I was staring up at it from below that I could truly appreciate its beauty.

Once I got there, I didn’t really know what to do. There was no one around, and the hike there had exhausted me. I took a few photos and stared out to the bridge until I got dizzy; the length of it really felt like an optical illusion. After staring for a bit longer, I turned on my heels and walked all the way back. I want to say it was totally worth the hike, but if I had to give advice to anyone wanting to see the bridge, maybe take a bus instead.

My journey back to Gothenburg was not so pleasant. After doing a bit of searching online, I realised that most of the people on my bus had come from Germany, having already been through over four hours of driving. Everyone was either asleep, eating, or queueing for the tiny cubicle toilet that happened to be right in front of my seat. With headphones in and a book in hand, I managed to distract myself until I arrived back in Gothenburg.

All in all, my solo adventure was a success. I didn’t get lost, I didn’t get scammed, and most importantly, I didn’t regret it. It’s definitely fun and exciting to meet new people on a year abroad, don’t get me wrong, but if you ever get the chance to do it alone, I’d say go for it.