TO REGARD THE PEA IS TO ENVY THE PEA.*

Thursday was my birthday and I took both it and Friday off from work, which was really nice. Vacation feels very long ago, despite my semi-long weekend of travel to see Becky and London and now this long weekend to celebrate my birthday.

The kids and I went out to dinner on Wednesday night, in Malmö, though we weren’t super impressed with our meal, unfortunately. It was still nice to hang out with the kids, and going to Dolce Sicilia afterwards for gelato made up for it. On Thursday morning, I got up early, and Karin got up with me and gave me presents, all things I had asked for, from Anders and both kids: an orange metal pop-up wallet, a new iPad cover, and a gift certificate for Malmö Opera. She also wrote the inscription in my birthday card, which was lovely, and made me teary-eyed.

Anders was in Denmark all week for work, so he wasn’t home, and Karin was leaving to head up to Gothenburg for a music festival with Olivia, so Martin and I had planned an expedition to Odense for the day. We didn’t plan the travel part very well, as I should have booked train tickets in advance. I didn’t even think about it, as I thought it would be like getting tickets from Malmö to Copenhagen, even though I had booked tickets to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum several weeks ago. The train tickets were super expensive, and with the weak Swedish kronor, even more so.

Martin met me at Hyllie Station, where it was cold and spitting rain, despite a forecast promising dry conditions and wind. We took the train over to Copenhagen and changed there for the train to Odense which took just over an hour. Martin was working on the (very hard) Thursday edition of the NY Times crossword puzzle, so that kept us occupied the whole way. We had gotten recommendations from a friend of Karin’s for other things to do/see in Odense so we had options for the rest of the day after the museum.

The first was Storm Pakhus for lunch. It’s a huge old warehouse full of street food trucks with so many choices it was hard to decide. I know you’ll be shocked to hear we finally opted to go for Japanese, and got a big platter of sushi and tempura shrimp and chicken to share. It was delicious! Very close to the train station as well, though we did some extra walking trying to figure out how to get there. The sun actually came up and the sky cleared up a bit, so we were very happy.

After lunch, we walked back over the train station bridge to the other side and the center of town. I realized as we came off the bridge that we were right next to the parking lot and huge park that we had been at when we were last in Odense in 2018, with Kathey and Russell, when Kathey was running in an international race. We walked through the center of town, and got to the HC Andersson Museum in time for our 1:30 booking.

The museum is fairly new, it opened in 2021, which must have been difficult, in the middle of the pandemic. It was lovely, all rounded shapes and light-filled architecture. We got audio headsets that we wore through the whole museum, that activated as you got near to each exhibit and display, telling you little snippets of information and stories. There was a long section about Hans Christian Andersen and his life, a section about things he owned, and his artwork and writings, and then a huge area with different round rooms that highlighted each of his most famous fairytales, where you could sit and listen to the stories. It was really lovely, with beautiful art and displays, and funny narration (written by the author of the Lemony Snicket books!). I sang the Thumbelina song to Martin, which my sister and I were obsessed with as children. 😀

The museum also includes the house where Andersen was born and lived until he was 2 years old. A tiny 6-room building that had 5 families living in it at the time of his birth (a very poor family in a very poor quarter of Odense). Afterwards, we went in the gift shop and then back out onto the street where we stopped in a couple of stores.

Because the weather was so nice, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at Eventyrhaven riverside park, which is also HCA-themed, with statues and art and lots of beautiful greenery. Anders had texted me earlier and was going to be passing through Odense on his way home, so we sent him an address for a place to meet us and after wandering through the park, we found another green spot and sat down to talk and wait for our ride. It worked out perfectly, and was much less expensive than taking the train back to Sweden! And bonus, we stopped at Emporia and had dinner together at Vapiano’s as well, before I drove Martin back downtown.

And yesterday, which I also had off from work, we had Debbie and Ola, and Camilla over for a delicious dinner of rosé pepper salmon grilled to perfection by Anders, with potatoes from our garden and a salad of ruccola, strawberries, and parmesan. And birthday cake for dessert! Perfect!

Storm Pakhus for delicious lunch!

Martin and me at Storm Pakhus

Illustrations about Hans Christian Andersen’s life

Papercut artwork by HCA

The golden nightingale from HCA’s fairytale The Nightingale

Illustrations from The Ugly Duckling

Murals in the HCA Museum Memorial Hall

Bird sculpture in Odense’s Eventyrhaven park

Martin and I enjoying the park

HCA Paraden, Eventyrhaven

Mood: Happy
Music: Stiftelsen—Vart Jag Än Går

*from the narrative info next to the mattresses displayed for The Princess and the Pea, which made me laugh.