09:55 (Felix)

The first night in Malmö is over! My fellow editor Danny and I have been out for some drinks with friends and colleagues from other websites, and it became – at least for some of us – a quite short night.

The place we’ve been to, you might want to mark it in your Malmö map: It’s called “Bee Bar” and is located at Triangeln (SEK 58 for a draft beer), promising a “Schlagerbar” during the whole Eurovision, and last night didn’t prove any different!

One note about public busses: If you don’t have an accreditation around your neck, you will have to buy tickets for the bus in advance, as there is no familiar option for buying one on the bus: They don’t take cash, nor maestro, and no credit card either, and many bus stations come without ticket machines. You might want to consider getting your ticket well in advance, if you consider travelling by bus.

Today is going to be another sunny day in Malmö, with the accreditation centre opening and a lot more people arriving.

See the current weather in Malmö for yourself – even though our forecast on the right side says “Partly Cloudy” – at least that’s my current view from the hotel room:

[singlepic id=247 w=500 float=none]

Now I will head down for breakfast (thank god it’s until 11 on weekends), and  soon I’ll take the bus to the arena to pick up my accreditation, hopefully the last bus that I will have to buy a ticket for (somehow)!

A lot more people will arrive today. We have put our website into Malmö mode, now let’s all turn Malmö into Eurovision mode.

14:53 (Martin)

Made it to Malmö! Actually, it’s been an incredibly smooth ride really. With an early flight from Gatwick to Copenhagen, we decided to stay overnight at the airport (in a hotel, not on a bench!), and so this morning was relatively stress-free. Landed safely, stocked up on cheap wine from the Netto at Copenhagen Airport, and found our way to our accommodation for the first part of the stay – a slightly quirky family apartment right near Triangeln station in Möllevången neighbourhood, which lies between the Arena and Central Station (where EuroClub is located).

Möllevången is a lively neighbourhood with lots of bars and quite affordable restaurants – by Swedish standards, anyway! Some of the more snobbish locals look down on it for its substantial immigrant population, but I’m liking the vibe so far. And zipping out to the Arena to pick up accreditation earlier was a doddle, too – bumped into friends from escXtra and other sites at Triangeln station, and that’s clearly going to become a habit in a city that isn’t all that big, after all. So far so smooth – now time to meet up with my esc-chat.com colleagues, and maybe catch up on a few hours of sleep before tonight’s socialising!

Oh, and did I mention the weather is gorgeous? I see Felix did already, but he’s right, anyway. Long may it continue!

18:05 (Felix)

Earlier today I decided to go pick up my accreditation, and combined that with a nice walk through sunny Malmö. This city is a bit hard to get a feeling for, but finally looking over Pildammarna with Turning Torso in the background gave me some of what could be a Malmö vibe.

[singlepic id=250 w=500 float=none]

As I wrote before, it’s a bit complicated to use the bus here, so I decided to take the train from central Triangeln to the Arena’s station, Hyllie. On my way I also spotted the first official busses rolling through the streets of Malmö, but these were not an option yet as their official service only seems to begin tomorrow.

[singlepic id=249 w=500 float=none]

Finally at Triangeln, you could tell that Eurovision was really happening here, as the area is decorated with butterflies and other “We Are One” elements. I was looking for the train station, so I went back to the construction site that I passed before, and wondered if the station is really in the middle of it – it is. To my relief, normal people walked in and out, so I didn’t have to fear that the station is closed! If you go there, this is the station:

[singlepic id=253 w=500 float=none]

This place is quite a mix of old, messy and futuristic. I went down the steep escalators (see in the video below), and took the train to Hyllie (costs SEK 21). After a short trip I went to the Arena to pick up my accreditation and my bag – now I don’t have any problem with the busses anymore!

So far, Malmö – at least in this beautiful weather – turns out to be a nice enough and very relaxed city – with lots of seagulls.

Short walk through the town, Triangeln escalators and Hyllie station