In November 2014 I took in a sneaky long weekend away with the lovely Kate and Andréa. After months of considering a girly New York Trip for some Pastrami on Rye (no idea if I like Pastrami. Or Rye. It just sounds like the sort of thing one should order in New York), we decided to make use of Andréa's apartment out in the lovely city of Gothenburg, Sweden, instead.
 |
| All. The. Steps. |
Gothenburg is a beautiful city with an airport that I can only liken to a car shed in the middle of nowhere. In addition to this Andréa had sold it well - she'd mentioned the hike up the steps to the apartment...
Wow, she wasn't kidding!
 |
| More steps |
And these are just the steps inside, there were three flights of steps outside just to get to the front door as well!
Once we'd settled in we headed into town the next day.
Gothenburg has a very efficient tram system and Andréa knew it well. We'd taken it when we'd arrived the night before so Kate and I were slowly learning the ropes too. Many of the tram routes take a loop around the city. After a day looking around the various offerings of Gothenburg we headed for our return tram.
Kate and I marvelled at Andréa's grasp of the city's public transport links, and commented on how confused we'd be navigating it, as we pointed out various landmarks that we could've sworn were the other direction to the apartment that we were now heading back to. And then we saw it. The face change on Andréa. She's a proud Scottish woman and you don't argue with a fine lady like Andréa... You trust Andréa.... You trust her command of the Swedish public transport system. You don't expect Andréa to take you the wrong way on said public transport system! But gosh, if she makes a mistake she likes to make it count! I saw her face drop as we continued to point out the seemingly similar-looking landmarks, as it dawned on her - and us - that they weren't just similar; they were the SAME landmarks. We were heading in completely the opposite direction to the apartment! But it's ok, as I said, most the trams do a loop so we'd just sit on the tram until it went back on itself until...
Oh wait.
The tram didn't go in a loop, it stopped at the 'end of the line' because another tram the other side of where we were was currently loading the return passengers for the ride back to the city. There was nothing to do but get off the tram we were on and hope we could somehow connect with the other tram. We raced across the grass (in the dark) to the other side but alas, we helplessly watched as not just one, but two trams (the one we'd just been on) departed from the other side of the station! We waited in the very residential area of Gothenburg for the next tram that would take us back to the apartment. It was a bit of a wait, a heck of a detour but such a funny experience. It's the mishaps that make the memories! The following day we took in some culture at an art gallery, watched some sort of protest and then headed to Gothenburg's equivalent of London's Winter Wonderland, Liseberg. It was very pretty and had a wheel similar to the London Eye with views across the night sky of Gothenburg.
 |
| Liseberg big wheel view from the nearby tram stop |
It looked very gentle and would be a great way to see Gothenburg from a different angle. What the picture here doesn't show is just how high this thing is - it's on the side of a big hill and as we got on, the carriage swayed from side to side. I'm not usually bothered by heights, but this thing was something else... Unstable, I think that's the word I'd use to describe it! We each sighed a breath of relief when we came to the end of the loop. Thank goodness, we could get off this wheel with our dignity almost still in tact.
Oh no, wait....
It went round a further THREE times! We were quivering wrecks by the time we got let off the thing! We stepped off, a shell of our former selves. After a great afternoon / evening enjoying the Christmas markets and the 'views', we decided we'd had our fill of adrenaline-filled adventure and headed back in search of the correct tram to take us to dinner and then home. This time we took the direct route.
In addition to the tram and Christmas markets, no visit to Sweden would be complete without a write-up of some of the fine culinary offerings the country has to offer.
 |
| A strawberry daiquiri - nom nom nom |
Cocktails - check. And super yummy.
Biggest cinnamon bun you've ever seen - check!
Meatballs with lingonberry sauce - check (of course!)
 |
| Giant Cinnamon Bun |
There were many other culinary delights had and I'd recommend them all. After a few days our trip was over, but it was a memorable few days with great company, great food and a generally great experience. I'll be back in future, I'm sure.
Thanks Andréa and Kate; so when are we off to New York??
