First full day in Sweden. I slept much better than I expected on my first night. I read for a little bit after dinner but soon got very tired. My room was on the fifth floor of a building that housed a bar called Beerista on the bottom floor, so it wasn’t too surprising that I would hear occasional loud voices. I had my earplugs nearby in case it was noisy, but I crashed up pretty quickly, so didn’t end up needing them. I initially woke up at 3:30 in the morning, and it was already starting to get light outside! I soon drifted back off to sleep and was woken by the alarm I had set for 7 AM. I was grateful to have slept so well. When I woke up I could hear lots of shouts and cheers from what I learned was a sports field across the street. When I went out later, I discovered the Handball World Cup was taking place. I passed several uniformed teams of teenagers and their families heading toward the playing field. Later in the day I passed what must’ve been a losing team as the boys were all walking silently with their heads down, looking very dejected, a big change from all of the excited, chattering groups I saw in the morning.
After my morning meditation I headed down the hall to the dining room to get breakfast. It was a typical Swedish breakfast with a few different types of meat and cheese, a variety of breads, cereal and yogurt. I got some meat and cheese and toasted some lovely dense bread. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and picked up what I thought was a container of milk, but as I turned it over to pour it out, realized it was yogurt. There were three different containers of flavored of yogurt, I guess that’s what Swedes have with their cereal! Luckily, there was plenty of milk for the coffee, so I poured that on my cereal along with some raisins. There was a table full of young women sitting behind me, one of them was talking about her experience as child immigrating from Ukraine to the US. I came in on the conversation when she was telling the table that her brother still feels like an immigrant, even though he was only two years old when they moved to the US. Another woman talked about her experience living in New Zealand for a year and a half, I’m guessing she was originally from Germany. While she loved all the nature there she felt the cities were pretty ugly compared to European cities, which is funny because I always thought New Zealand cities were pretty nice compared to most US ones! I guess it all depends what you are used to. What a small world to be sitting in a B&B in Sweden, listening to a Ukrainian immigrant to the US and a German immigrant to New Zealand, and here I was a citizen of both the US and NZ. After breakfast, I got myself ready for the day and was able to leave my luggage at the B&B so I could wander around Gothenburg some more before catching my train in the mid afternoon.
I headed back to the train station, partly to see if I could find a path that was smoother for my return trip with my suitcase later in the day. The route I took the day before after I got out of the park was mainly cobblestones, which is definitely challenging with a roller bag. I did find a better route and got to check out more of the park too. It was great to feel a little more familiar with my surroundings. I was hoping to find some tourist brochures or other information at the train station, but there wasn’t anything, which I thought was surprising. I tried to use the Bankomat (ATM) to get cash, but my debit card did not work there. I realized I hadn’t seen any banks on my walks, which I thought was unusual as most of the time when I’ve been in the tourist areas of large cities, the banks are very visible as they often have currency exchange signs. I found a currency exchange place in the train station, though they charged a pretty hefty fee for providing Swedish kronas. I wanted to have some cash just in case I was somewhere that didn’t take credit cards or I had issues with mine. I checked out the beautiful rose gardens, then walked up the Kings Avenue, a street filled with restaurants and coffee shops that lead up to a statue of Poseidon in front of the art museum and symphony hall. On my way, I stopped to get some ice cream at a little shop that sold tourist items and candy. It looks like bulk candy is very popular in Sweden, I’m going to have to check that out at some point. I bought lots of postcards and was happy to learn the shop also sold postcard stamps. There aren’t separate postcard stamps for international mail, you just double the number of Swedish stamps that you would put on a domestic postcard, and add a priority mail sticker. The proprietor was very friendly and made sure I knew how to affix the stamps.
During my wanders on a relatively busy street, I passed a woman sitting on a bench with her partner, breast-feeding her baby. She caught my attention because she had her top pulled down, but had nothing covering her shoulder and breast, which is so different from the US where women try to conceal what they are doing when breast feeding. I was really happy to see that freedom to openly nurse in public without feeling the need to completely cover up.
I got in a workout walking up to an old stone fort, one of two that were established to defend Gothenburg hundreds of years ago. There was a great view of the city from the top and the Pilgrimsleden (Pilgrim’s path – part of the system trails throughout Sweden) went through it. The fort was situated just above the old part of town which had lots of great little shops and places to eat. At that point, I was ready to have some coffee and needed to charge my phone. I found a cozy café, got a cappuccino and settled myself in a corner with a view onto the street to write postcards to my family as my phone charged. I also used the bathroom as the only public bathrooms I had found so far all charged for their use. I soon became very grateful to have found the café when it started to rain, lightly at first, then it poured down for a while. I could see people outside rushing to find a place to take cover and then the café filled up with the folks who had been sitting in the tables outside as well as those who were walking nearby. It soon stopped raining and I was ready to be on my way back to the B&B to get my luggage.
At the train station I purchased my train ticket and because I had to go to the bathroom again, begrudgingly paid the 10 SEK (a little over $1 US) fee to use the toilet. I finished up my postcards and went to the track that I had been told my train would be leaving from. While the train announcements are broadcast in both Swedish and English, all of the written information in the train station is only in Swedish. There was a message in Swedish on the electronic sign at the track my train was supposed to leave from with the number 12 at the end, so I asked a young woman sitting nearby if that meant that the train was now departing from track 12 and she said it did. I was glad I had given myself plenty of time to figure out where to go. I found the right train and got myself settled in. It was a beautiful one hour ride passing several lakes dotted with houses, farmland, and lots of forest. The first stop was about a half an hour outside of Gothenburg and was obviously a popular destination as about half the car I was riding in emptied out at that point, which was great because it gave me my own window seat instead of being on the aisle, where I couldn’t take any pictures. I’m slowly getting used to hearing Swedish and other Scandinavian languages being spoken around me, recognizing only a few words here, I’m hoping over time I’ll be able to pick up a bit more. In my next post I’ll fill you in about the place I am staying.
