This is part 2 of the stories of my vacation in summer 2017 around west coast of Sweden.
Day 2 (2017-07-14) -- From Landskrona to Helsingborg
Be careful of cows
The plan was to start hiking from a small coastal town Landskrona northward for about 20km, until Helsingborg, the point where Sweden almost nearly meets European continent. This could have worked out exactly as I planed, if it were not for some cows.
The hiking trail is quite scenery, passing by beach, farm lands and small towns. Besides some local people walking dogs, the trail was nearly entirely mine.
Then I bumped into a group of Swedish school kids on excursion. They obviously have not seen many Asians in this part of the world and showed cautious curiosity to me. To avoid this awkwardness, I had to gave my precious picnic table to these kids. (BTW, one of their teachers had a Mohawk haircut, which tells how Swedes think about dressing code.)
Having lost my lunch spot, I walked further north and got stuck at a mountain top. The farm in the photo looks quite close, but the slope is so steep that I was worried that I could break my leg if I fall. Then an old couple came from downhill and I consulted them for advice. The lady said "Oh I went down that way some time about thirty years ago. I am sure as young as you are, you can do it." Obviously being old does not always mean being prudent. I decided to walk backward. It turned out in a hurry to get away from the kids, I took a wrong turn and missed the stairs going downhill.
However, once I got to the farm, the road was blocked by some cows happily eating their lunch. Although they look very Buddhist, I waited patiently for them to move away. Of course, while I was waiting, I also fanatically checked the map to see if the trail really passes through a cow farm. It does, I saw cows, horses and sheep many times in the following days.
Being frustrated by cows, I cheated a little bit and took a bus for the last 5km. The good thing about summer of norther Europe is that you always feel it's just lunch time.
Helsingborg & Helsingø
If it were not for the huge cathedral, I would have mistaken Helsingborg for somewhere in the middle east. One street in city center has Baghdad Along, Damascus restaurant, Istanbul dessert, etc. Later my AirBnb host told me that Helsingborg has a big immigrant population. As a consequence, men's hair cut cost as low as 69 SEK. This is even cheaper than in China. Unbelievable.
After 20-minute ferry, I arrived at Helsingborg's much smaller Danish counterpart Helsingø and for the first time officially stepped on the continental Europe. The ferry crosses the border in the middle of the trip, so you can only buy cigarettes for the 10 Swedish minutes, and only alcohol for the 10 Danish minutes. This seems to explain why there are much more drunk people on the way back to Sweden.
Helsingø is nice little tourist town, quite what you would expect at such place. But they also have quite a nice statute. And the Danes certainly know how to build a castle.
The producer of The Game of Thrones probably have seen this.
Dinner was Danish fish and chips, with a bit of salt wind form the sea.
