i Sverige

Hej!

I just got back from a spur of the moment weekend in Gothenburg, Sweden. I decided to go at 11:30pm Thursday night, booked the bus and a youth hostel, and set off after class at 4 on Friday. I managed to convince an Australian friend to come with me and we spent the whole trip there trying to take pictures of the road signs, which was almost impossible at 90km/hr! We were hoping there would be some sort of excitement at the border, but all wee could see was the road signs changed colour. No passport stamps this trip!

We arrived at around 8 and headed into the central train station to sort out where to go and get some dinner before we made the trip to the hostel. It was so exciting to see the prices! I think many Aussies who go to Sweden think it's expensive, but it's so cheap for us after being in Norway! Particularly exciting were the alcohol costs, we could actually enjoy a glass of Swedish cider for less than $10 AU!!!

Gothenburg is quite a big city, filled with canals and very wide streets. There are not many cars on it, buildings don't tend to be that tall, many of the streets are cobbled, and there are trams everywhere. It's hard to say where the main part of town is as the city is so spread out. But its definitely quite a busy city with people walking around everywhere.

We made it to the hostel and unpacked our stuff and almost immediately got invited to a party from a group of Germans and American girls and guys. Having just arrived, we thought it sounded fun. Wow, what an experience. Firstly, we got to the party and there was a big line to get in and a guy on the door stopping people getting in. We were just about to give up when we saw a window, accessible from an external fire staircase. Up the stairs and stepping inside the window and we were in the party. Once inside we found out that things were not strictly legal, as they were selling booze which they had imported cheaply from Germany. We got a bit concerned when we saw a police van outside the window, but we were the only ones who seemed concerned, and after the organisers chatted to the police and stopped the music for a while, the party started again in earnest. Then Bob Dylan came on and the crowd went wild. For some reason, 'Like a Rolling Stone' saw everyone on the dance floor, singing and dancing their hearts out! When I said I came from Adelaide, everyone knew it because of a TV show, The Flying Doctors. They all started quoting lines and discussing which characters came from Adelaide!!

We stayed with our new American and German friends (who had been on exchange in Cork together) and when we decided to go home later we all travelled in a group. Gothenburg has an amazing public transport system- trams, buses, ferries run all hours of the night (the last tram is at 4 something am and the first tram of the next day also at 4 something am!) and are very regular. The route map is insane, there don't seem to be any patches of the city left unserviced by at least 2 public transport options! All this in a city of around 500,000 people.

The next day we set off quite early for such a late night, and headed out to the Maritime Museum. Being a large port in Sweden, maritime history is quite significant and the museum had some great exhibitions, all bilingual and even a small aquarium section showing Nordic and tropical fish. Best of all, if you are under 25 you get free entry. In fact, we went to 4 museums in Gothenburg and did not pay to enter any of them (even the adult price is quite reasonable and is often less than $10AU for a season pass.

After the maritime museum and a lunch of real meat we set off to the World Culture Museum. This is a relatively new museum and is free for everyone. It had very well presented, completely billingual, comprehensive exhibitions, including a bollywood exhibition where you could make your own bollywood dance and play singstar bollywood; an exhibition on women's rights around the world; an exhibition on every day people who are doing something to change the world (eg gardening guerillas who plant gardens in public spaces); an exhibition on girls learning boxing in India and an exhibition on Peruvian fabrics and pillaging of graves in the world. Visiting these two museums, its easy to see why Scandinavians are considered to be so well-educated. Both had children's sections where kids could play as well as innovative display styles eg the peruvian cloths included a large, round white tent in which patterns from the cloths were projected on the walls inside.

We headed back to the hostel for a brief snooze, then set off again for dinner (under $20AU- so cheap!!) and decided to head into town for a drink in an Irish pub. We chatted to some Swedish guys there who had decided, whilst drunk, at 7am that morning that they were sick of the fashion-conscious Stockholm. So they got on the first train they saw and 5 hours later (having had no sleep) ended up in Gothenburg, with no plans. On arrival they happened to see a poster and discovered their old school friends were playing in a band concert that night. So they contacted them, got on the free list and were heading off to the concert after we met them. After they'd arranged the concert, they still had some free time, so exhausted they went to see the longest movie they could find so that they could sleep. So they've now seen bits of Australia the movie! They were planning on spending the night in the train station then heading back to Stockholm in the morning!

We had an early night and then set off today to the Gothenburg City Museum. This museum was housed in a building from the 1700's, the East Indiaman building (named after a company associated with the spice trade). This museum, another museum free for under 25's had more innovative, rich displays, including parts of Sweden's only surviving viking ship, a display about human settlement, a detailed history of Gothenburg, an exhibition about modern day Gothenburg and Swedish manufacture and an exhibition about the hundreds of chairs the museum has collected!

We left the museum at lunchtime and set off on the tram to what was probably the highlight of my visit to Gothenburg- an apartment located in the suburbs that had been completely decorated in 1950s style, from the wall paper, bathroom and childrens bedroom to the kitchen cupboards. It was run by a small group of elderly local citizens who opened it for 3 hours every week. It's in a normal apartment block, and we almost thought we had the wrong place when we arrived and saw what we thought was a party of elderly people! But the minute they heard we were Australian, they were so excited that they gave us a special tour of the place, proudly showing off the treasures they had found for it (including the genuine 1950s wall paper found for sale for 300SEK ($50AU) per metre in a modern day department store, the shower that came from someone who lived in a nearby apartment block and had not updated and the preserved fruits in the kitchen cupboards) and trying really hard to speak to us in English. They opened the place 11 years ago and have searched all over the city for the treasures within. Not once did they ask us for money, they did it because they loved it. There was a donation box on the wall, but noone referred to it, and though we gave a donation it was definitely not expected. The place was full of people reminiscing and I think by the time we left every single one had been told we were Australian! As we left we were sent off with fond farewells, and they all thanked us for coming to Sweden and coming to visit the apartment! The museum is open every week for 3 hours and teams of about 5 volunteers attend, explaining the different objects to people, showing them 50s money or magazines, and just chatting to the visitors. They even have a phone book from the 50s in which people were finding their friends or family!

After the museum we headed back into town with a few hours free before we had to catch the return bus. Freezing in the rain and snow, we found a huge department store which had aa massive centre square. The square had a large crowd and music playing, and as we squeezed in we saw there was a group of older man performing dances to rock and roll songs. After this display, large groups of kids did gymnastics displays, tumbling, flips and all sort of jumps. This department store was huge, but had repeats of the same shops - 3 H&M's, at least 3 McDonalds, all within about 50-100m of each other. It certainly entertained us until we caught the bus back to Oslo, arriving home about 9pm.

All in all a great weekend! It's interesting going to Sweden, my Norwegian has improved and so I was able to see how similar Norwegian and Swedish are. And of course, I got to buy cheap chocolate and other products to bring back into Norway! The only thing I didn't like about Gothenburg was that many attractions are closed or on very reduced opening hours this time of year, for example some of the museums and the Liseberg amusement park are not open in the winter.

I hope to put up photos from the weekend soon, as I am going away for a week on Wednesday, on the Hurtigruten!

Best Wishes,

Anneke