Month: October 2019

Gothenburg

Every song or story needs a pause, a slowing down of the tempo in order to build up again. Gothenburg is that place for me. And it’s perfect that I have arrived in time for the weekend when everyone is ready to relax. Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, and while its attractions are not vastly different to Stockholm, what it does offer is a slice of real Swedish life that you won’t find in the capital. Being the weekend (and mostly sunny!) everyone was out walking with their family and their dog, enjoying fika (coffee catch ups) with friends, having a barbecue in the park, or finding a quiet place to soak up some sunlight. The city centre is compact and within 30 minutes I was walking through a gate from the botanic gardens into a nature reserve, through the forest, around stunning lakes, and finding my own patch of sunshine. So relaxing. And as the temperature has dropped to -1 overnight and during the day the cold is biting unless you are in the sun, I soaked up as much as possible. I’ve also added a neck/face warmer to my bag, and to my eternal surprise I have started wearing a headband. Not one of those bite into your head plastic alice-bands, and not a cool one like my friend Lissy makes, but a knitted practical fleecy one to keep my ears warm. Sigh.

A wee gem I found today is the Boulebar, situated on the canal behind the fish market. It is modeled on the parks around Marseille in France, where you can grab a meal or glass of something and play a game of boules (petanque) with friends on one of the indoor gravel courts, and is run by 3 friends who spent time backpacking in France and became smitten with the game, and they now have a chain of Boulebars around Sweden. So much fun! And they had crème brulee which is basically sunshine in a bowl 🙂 🙂

  • View from my apartment
  • The fish market is built like a church, these people love their fish!
  • Bike is the mode of transport everywhere in Scandinavia
  • Crème brulee 🙂
  • Barbecue pits are fixed by the lake
  • Winter-ready

Mamma mia

When I was a young girl in the 70’s I had long blonde hair and spent many happy hours dancing around our lounge, singing into my hairbrush pretending I was Agnetha from ABBA, and looking at the bubble gum cards I had collected of the band. So when I discovered Stockholm has an awesome ABBA museum filled with interactive exhibits I was stoked. The museum is amazing, fully digital and interactive with audio guides that let you hear from the band members as you move through the museum, sound booths where you can sing along, photo booths, a sound stage for dancing with the band (via hologram), music and memorabilia. For someone with a short attention span I was totally occupied for almost 3 hours, and bought a t shirt (and still have the songs playing in my head)! I even remembered some facts 🙂 Bjorn and Benny met at a folk concert when they both played with different bands, Benny was already dating Frida and then Bjorn started dating Agnetha. The girls did some backup vocals for the boys, and their voices were so in harmony that it became apparent that if they were going to be a band the girls would be singing and the boys would write. There are sections on Mamma Mia the movie and the band’s careers after they split, and the whole experience is very very cool.

It was a rainy cold day so I spent the rest of it hopping from museum to museum. Sweden do museums brilliantly, and there are plenty to keep you occupied. After getting my ABBA fix I called into the Spirit museum which is dedicated to their favourite beverage – Absolut Vodka. Next was the Vasa museum which houses a large sailing ship that sank in the harbour in 1628 on it’s maiden voyage. The King at the time had ordered the ship to be built with double decks to impress people and it was decorated with ornate Norse gods, lions and gold. Unfortunately building double deck ships was very new at the time and the ship builders were not confident it would be stable at sea and tried to persuade the king not to rush the work, but he ignored their requests and pulled the deadline even further forward (anyone working in a corporate will be shaking their head at this). The day came for the ship to launch, everyone in Stockholm came to watch, the ship made it about 1300m from the docks when a puff of wind caught the sails and it keeled over and sank. Several years later it was recovered and is now housed in a museum for everyone to see, and it’s quite impressive (the ship and the celebration of the ‘learning opportunity’). Meatballs were on the menu at the Vasa restaurant so I gave them a try and they were yum! Served with a creamy gravy that I’m pretty sure has fish in it, mashed potatoes, lingon berries and pickled cucumber. So good. Much better than the bland meatballs from IKEA. Also no idea why the Swedish chef on the muppets always had chickens – I haven’t seen it on a menu yet 🙂

  • The Vasa
  • The royal palace…fancy as and more gold than you can shake a stick at
  • The old town
  • George slaying the dragon
  • Salted licorice ice-cream, don’t try it, tastes BAD
  • Alfred Nobel was from Sweden and his will left funds for the Nobel laureate prizes in perpetuity (being announced next week I think)