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Göteborg Day 12 - 23-June

Exploring the city
The following morning in Göteborg. First I have a breakfast, it just like any other breakfast you get at a hostel. Though here they also serve caviar. Caviar is not expensive in Sweden, I join a swedish couple for breakfast and they encourage me to try some of it (hoping I wouldn't like the taste). Well the taste is not bad (watery and very salt), but I rather have cheese sandwich.

Today I have all day long to do a proper visit to the city. The walk from hostel Stigbergsliden, which is not situated in the city-centre, is not that long. And every part of the city has a small centre itself with a square, shops and nice buildings, so the walk towards the centre is quite pleasant. The main streets are very broad, in the middle of the road the trams are driving. On each way of the tram rails you have a 2-lane road, a separated cycle path (2-way) and a broad pavement. Crossing such a street usually can't be done in 1 way.

If you walk around the city you will notice the majority of all buildings are quite new and not very nice to see, they look functional and fit in the industrial image of the city. But hidden between all the modern buildings you will also find old buildings and quite pleasant squares. And the numerous busses, cycles, trams and cars give the city a very vivid character. It Everybody is on the move here. Around the area of the central station there are 2 large squares, the drottingtorget and the nordstadstorg. I need to visit the Tourist information to get a decent map of the city and that Tourist information is located on the nordstadstorg. At the railway station I find out that there is only 1 square, the other square is actually just a shopping mall and in the middle of it, the Tourist info is housed.



A kiosk shows the headlines of 3 Swedish newspapers. The left 2 newspapers report about a confrontation between the Italian and Swedish football players last night. The newspaper on the right (well, more a gossip magazine) reports "Drama of seconds, 32 pages about Swedens way to the quarter finals". Many other newspaper only show the headline 2-2.

The whole area around the station has a lot of covered things. The bus station for instance, people wait for the bus inside, and when the bus arrives (outdoor) it parks in front of the building nearby 2 doors in the building. There are also covered walkways over the main road giving you a nice view over a large construction site where they are building a large tunnel for the highway. In a few years this main road will go underneath the city. Those doors open and people can leave/board the bus without having to stand outside. Right now in the summer that is quite a pity but I can imagine that people will be most pleased with this building when it is winter and freezing cold outside. In the shopping centre I not only find a decent map but also a supermarket. Though I know there are 2 supermarkets only a few blocks from the hostel, I decide to buy something to eat over here. And naturally it doesn't fit in my backpack so I am going to have to drop some things over at the hostel. While walking I decide to walk around the power plant, it doesn't look like people are actually working over there, but still I cannot imagine why they should have placed the building in the city. I decide to take a picture of it (see 22-june) but I keep it to one picture, somehow I only want to make pictures of nice things.

In the hostel I meet one of the australians and we both take another small walk around the town, this time not the centre but the other side of the city. Here an old castle with a large golden crown on top of the tower, right on a large hill. The quality of the stairs is as old as any other medieval stairs though they must be a lot newer. The view over the city is very nice, and from here you can see a lot better that Göteborg is quite hilly. Down the hill there is an old town-centre which looks very norwegian with old wooden houses and cobblestone streets. Completely different from the rest of the city and just like other nice places, it is hidden away properly.

A big golden crown on top of a castle, the building is a museum nowadays.

Clouds start coming in and it is slowly starting to rain, as I am quite tired I decide to take it easy the rest of the day and decide to rest a little bit more and have and eat a whole pizza for 40 SEK, in Stockholm I paid the same for 2 slices.