Sidestory: Northern Lightning ~ Malmö & NFC Day 3

21-Feb-2025

Today starts with something very exciting: Laundry! The Airbnb I'm staying in has a shared laundry room in the attic, and you have to book it in advance. Regrettably, my host can't give me a booking lock sine she needs hers and each household is only allowed one, so I have to improvise.

I did actually plan to do laundry at the midway point, which would be tomorrow or on Sunday, but since both the early slots for those are already booked, I make do with today. I am fairly certain I packed enough extra underwear that I'll be able to make it through with that. Anyway, the laundry room is actually quite well-equipped, with two washing machines, a tumble dryer, and a drying cabinet. It's all in Swedish, but thankfully these machines are Miele, like the ones I have back home, and Swedish is close enough to German that I can make out the relevant points.

I actually also have to provide my own detergent, which is, like, really inconvenient, because I have to buy a whole bottle of Skona Kolör- & Vittvätt Med Mild Doft av Morgensol just for one load. Oh well, whoever  does  the next  load of laundry will get lucky.
 

As I head out, I note that it's apparently forbidden to park bikes and mopeds in the ground floor hallway. Guess that makes this bike trailer legal.

 

Today, the weather is warmer, but also a bit drizzly. Still, I think I prefer this to the cold of the last few days.

Once again, my strays to and from the NFC today look somewhat like this:

First, I come across an artful display of utility boxes painted as one snake.

Today, I walk past the southern side of the Rörsjökanalen, which is still mostly frozen over.

I also walk some distance past the S:t Pauli kyrka, which is a perfectly hexagonal church.

Here's one of the aforementioned Pant holders in action. 

I come past the Davidshalls Bron, which is a very interesting place. For one, there's several cat sculptures on either side of the bridge on  the opposing shore.

Next, there's these shoe sculptures on the bridge itself.

And then there's the Disgusting Food Museum. For some reason, there aren't any restaurants near that.

After that, I enter the Slottsparken, where I notice someone dropped some letter "H" in the river and wonder why. Does that mean these are the "H of Wonders"?

There's also an old-fashioned windmill here.

Also, the Malmöhus, which is an old fortress with its own moat.

And  here's some fish stalls, with little houses attached.

Plus whatever in Lerra that is.

This road here has speed bumps in front of the zebra crossing, forcing cars to slow down there.

And this may or may not be a playground, or training devices.

Also, some places apparently run crazy discounts for the NFC. This is so good that I'm getting suspicious.

And then, I'm back at the NFC again. With this drizzle, there aren't many furs outside, but there's still a few.

The first and very enjoyable thing that happens once I get there is that I get sucked into a hour-long cuddling session with a snuggly red wolf/saber-tooth tiger hybrid named Troug for over an hour.

After that I stray around the con for a bit, discovering the Nerdmarket, where they sell all sorts of stuff, from keychains to action figurines to board games. By the way, today is open house day, where people who are not furries (yet) are invited in to visit. Many come, from old to young, and especially the children love it! These might very well be the next generation of furries.

Beyond that, there's aforementioned jam corner with the piano, which is manned at most hours.

Here's another  poster for an event going on today.

Afterwards, it's lunchtime already, so I head over to the Malmö Saluhall once again.

There, I run past a selection of finest cheese.

And then settle on a tasty avocado bowl. I like avocado! =^,^=

Back at the Clarion, I make a place tour video of the site.

I also run into a poster for a concert by the Over Worked Animals.

And also run into a pair of big raving standees of Mausie and Iris.

After that, I head to the con store to throw out some money invest in some memories. And while I'm at it, I also donate 1000kr. (~90€) to this year's charity, the Dýrahjálp - an animal welfare organization from Iceland. You can read up on them here (and also donate if you like). At the time of me writing this, 165,630kr. have been raised. You can also get all sorts of cheap little stuff and lottery tickets at the charity booth, but I for my part am just asking for a small, cheap Omamori in return. Those are Japanese good-luck charms.

 

Afterwards, I head over to Valhalla, and on my way there I actually see the infamous shuttle bus that never comes while you're waiting for it and takes almost as long as walking for once.

And here's a place tour of Valhalla:

There's a bathroom here (and also at other places) that has been gender-neutraled.

I've wanted to hit the Dealer's Den at one point to to sink some more money invest in more precious souvenirs, but right now, the queue is a bit too long for my taste.

Instead, I kinda sorta accidentally wander right into the charity concert by THE SNOwOFLAKES. You're supposed to have a ticket for that, but no one checked me at the entrance, and since I just donated I think five times the ticket price to charity for that and only asked for a small 50kr. Omamori in return, and tickets were I think 200kr. each, I'm morally good since I could have gotten four charity concert tickets for that. Anyway, they're playing many cool anime songs from my childhood, like the  openings of  Dragon Ball Z, Digimon and Wolf's Rain.

 

After that, there's a SOUP reflection meetup where all the SOUPs are invited for some cupcakes and tea, and the SOUP manager asks everyone how their experience as SOUP has been thus far. I for my part am very happy, and that sentiment is shared by all the other SOUPs as well.

After that, I notice that the queue to the Dealer's Den has gotten significantly shorter, and since I have some time on my paws now, I decide to brave it. In the end, it takes me about half an hour to get in.

And here's what I walk out with (also including the stuff that I bought at the con store earlier).

Afterwards, I  hit the Arcade again, where I see that someone has brought out a game of BattleBots. That game is all about mastering the wonky controls, and then trashing your opponent's robot before yours get trashed. Trashing here means that the bots have many loose clip-on parts, and your goal is to get them off your opponent's robot.

I also run into someone who  is wearing the same CMYKitsune hoodie as I, but with the inverted color scheme (you can turn it inside out to invert the colors, like one side has a purple fox on a cyan background, and the other has a cyan fox on a purple background, and so on).

Next, I have a bit of time on my hands, and let myself get SOAPed into helping into the arcade once again, since I'm already here and all. This time around, I look after the VR stations, where people can play the game BeatSaber. That game is pretty dynamic, especially at higher difficulties, where the movements of the players trying to keep up become a blur.

Since that's a stationary job, one of the tails running the arcade eventually brings me a can of Loka Crush Hallon, which is a raspberry-flavored soft drink.

From helping at the Arcade, I transition seamlessly into helping setting up the Tekken tournament in the nearby Theater Stage. This  includes lugging over PCs and controls, arranging tables on the stage, assembling monitors, getting everything to run, and so on. And just to make it more interesting, we have to get all of it done in a single hour. Fortunately, there are plenty of helping paws.

  

After that, me and Gratiskralle - a bat fur and fellow SOUPer with whom I was working together in the Arcade and then Tekken Tournament setup these last few hours - head back to the Clarion, making our way through a copse of scooters somewhere own the line.

There, we pick up our final SOUP rewards - the two of us both having accumulated enough time to  make it all the way to Lv20 now,  which nets us an NFC cooling bag and a balaclava, along with the satisfaction of being A-Rank SOUPers now.

I also take note of this. Can anyone  make any sense of that?

We quickly drop by the garage to drop of Gratiskralle's loot, and as we do we come by one very furry car.

 

We then head out for some dinner, and since I'm still curious about that charity vote from day 1, I want to try out the MAX  Burgers. My verdict is: Very affordable, not bad, but I'd say about the same level as McDonald's or Burger King in terms of taste. We also get harassed by a young male with middle eastern  roots trying to pick a fight (shame on him for making his people look bad), but we are able to shrug him off without much issues.

Since I'm  pretty much already halfway back to the Airbnb at that point and it's getting late, I decide to walk back from there afterwards, passing the Sirius-Orden and an interesting light installation  along the way.

 

 

And that's it for today. Tomorrow is the second-to last day of  the NordicFuzzCon, and I am very much looking forward to that because here's two very special events then. But I'll tell you about those tomorrow. Until then, stay tuned, and be of great cheer! =^,^=