Skåne Travel: Half Day Trip

The back walkway / path of Naturum Vattenriket

Spring Semester is finally over for me! For the past few days I've been doing nothing aside from intricately and madly planning travel over summer (more to come, promise!) - which entails staring at my laptop screen and obsessively chasing down accommodation and flight deals for 8 hours a day. I am so over planning and organising and thinking - the perfect remedy? A half-day trip out in Skåne, back to Kristianstad! (Think back to the Culture Tour way back in January!)

It's beautiful here in summer - Kristianstad is about 1 hour away from Lund via train, and you just get to glide past all these pastures and idyllic looking farmsteads (I passed bovines and sheep!) seeing all the summer flowers pop up too. I can't believe I've actually gotten used to the cold weather, it hit 22C today and I was just sweating away wearing long jeans.

Naturum Vattenriket is the visitors centre for the small parkland area. It's the best place to get souvenirs, their gift shop has a lot to offer if you look - and there are some fish and watery creatures who live inside too. The place offers film screenings of the local wildlife and a biodiversity documentary, both screenings going for 5-6 minutes. You can borrow a backpack that has a bird-watching booklet (in Swedish), some information sheets on the birds/wildlife and a pair of binoculars for free from the reception desk, if you wish!

Then just take a wander out the back - where you can just let go - I ended up just mindlessly walking along the wooden path but meditating at the same time, just enveloped in the sound of birds and their chirping, calling and singing.

How gorgeously tranquil does this look?

Little look-out point with some information about birds - and adorable sculptures!

View of Naturum Vattenriket from the lookout - pretty sweet aye?

Spotted: sleepy Mallard ducks! <3

Careful on the walking/biking trail - there are snails just casually doing their own thing in the middle of the path, so be careful so as to not step on them

Lunch:

I'll be honest: I struggled a little thinking of places to go in Kristianstad that were guaranteed vegan. When I checked out Google Maps a lot of listings said "good vegetarian options" rather than vegan. I swung past Cafe Miro on recommendation from Google but to be honest, their vegan option was pathetic: vegan toast with avocado and tomato, at SEK99. I'm not paying SEK99 for toast!!

Thankfully, Djurens Ratt put together this thrifty little lifesaving guide for vegan-friendly places to go eat in Kristianstad.

I was craving Asian food - so I headed straight to (the chain restaurant, also located in Helsingborg) Khai & Mui for a buffet lunch! It's SEK99 for all-you-can eat and endless refills. There are delicious vegan options (you'll fill up fast haha) and for non-vegans there's dessert (soft-serve ice-cream station you can gorge on as well).