As of this morning, I could officially say “good morning from Göteborg”! We were all very excited to get up and get going this morning to explore this beautiful city, but that still did not make it that much easier to get out of bed! But, we got up around 8:30am, got ready, and went to breakfast. The breakfast was really good! They had many different items to try – from yogurt to fresh bakery breads and rolls, homemade Swedish jams, liver paté, turkey, salami, ham, cheese, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, soft boiled eggs, pickles, pickled herring, fish paste, and fresh orange and apple juice with coffee and about 8 different kinds of European/Swedish teas. I love tea and I tried the “authentic” Swedish tea, and it was really good – kind of fruity, like a strawberry/orange/peachy flavor. I’ll have to buy some to bring home!
Then, after breakfast, I stopped at the front desk to buy a bottle of water, and I learned two things! 1. Sweden does not have normal American bottled water. First, you have to specify if you want it still or “with gas” aka seltzer water, then they have different brands that you can choose from that I have never seen before. 2. I also learned some more about the currency (Swedish Krona) and that they have 500 SEK bills, 200, 100, 50, and 20. Then, for the coins, they have 10 SEK coins, 5, 2, and 1. Makes it a little bit easier to figure out prices and the exchange rates and how to pay for things!
Then, we got on our three hour city of Göteborg bus tour! We had a really nice tour guide lady that spoke pretty good English, and we drove all around the city and were even able to stop and get out and take pictures at three different spots.
We drove around and the thing that really amazed me was the streets and the architecture. It is so unique and just stunning! If you want to see a lot of pictures of the streets, you can go to the “Göteborg streets” tab! Our first stop on the tour was at Feskekôrka, also known as the “fish church”. It was built and first opened in 1874, and it is still a really popular and super cool fish market that is very busy today!
From there, we went to the front of the Göteborg art museum which is at the top of the hill that the popular street called Avenyn is on. This is a really popular shopping, walking, and nightlife district. The art museum also looked really neat so we might try to go back there in a couple days and check it out!
Then, we went towards the more “high-end” district of the city and drove past all of their sports arenas, and then stopped at one of the oldest churches in Göteborg, which is German. This was called Christinae Church. It was right next to apparently the best chocolate shop in Sweden, which was unfortunately closed, and an old ammunition storage building for the Swedish army. It was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen and it has an underground cemetery built beneath the chapel, and in the very front of the chapel the tomb of one of the German generals is buried there.
From there, we then went to another famous church called Masthugget Church. It was on top of a huge cliff right next to the port by the ocean, and it was a very steep drive up there and then we had to climb a few rocks, but the view from there was absolutely incredible. You could see a panoramic view of the whole entire city.
After that, we went to our final stop which was the Haga district. This was really really cool and was a cobblestone street filled with various shops and cafés. And the best part: we finally got to try the famous Swedish cinnamon bun! It was bigger than my head and barely fit on the plate! Super different than a roll from Cinnabon, but very good!
After our stop at the café, we were able to go off and do our own thing, so 4 of my friends and I decided to explore the rest of the Haga district, and then we were so proud of ourselves because we figured out the public transportation system (with a little help from a Swede). So, we took the tram back over to the area that had the German church and went to the biggest mall in Scandinavia called Nordstan. It was very nice and impressive! The stores were very luxurious and the only American store we found was H & M because their headquarters are in Stockholm. The rest are all Swedish/European. We stopped at quite a few stores, another coffee shop, and a juice bar. The jet lag was definitely calling for some more caffeine at that time of day!
After all of that, we decided that it was dinner time and we went to a super neat restaurant called John Scotts Palace. The building is pictured below.
It was a restaurant/microbrewery where they brew 4 kinds of Swedish beer. We all had either burgers or fish and chips and tried some of the beer or cider that was made there! It was so good and very reasonably priced!
After that, we were so uncomfortably full, so we decided to walk back to our hostel to burn some calories. It is so nice because everything is within walking distance and it only takes about 20-30 minutes to walk anywhere, and the city is absolutely breathtaking at night with all of the lights and decorations.
Things I learned today:
- “Iron” is pronounced “I-run” and they cannot say a hard “J” and they add an extra consonant at the end of each word and they speak English but lots cannot understand me/us at all so you have to talk super slow
- The Swedish public transportation system is way easier than Chicago
- Swedish people either love Americans or hate them, there is no in-between
- Some words to describe Göteborg would be “boujee”, “trendy”, “luxurious”
- Swedes consume the most coffee in the entire world – like it’s literally a scientific known fact, they have about 10-15 cups a day!
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about my first full day here! Come back tomorrow to hear about our upcoming trip to the islands! Goodnight from Göteborg!
Nicole's Adventures in Sweden 