Gothenburg!

AKA Göteborg!

I've been there now! To the city of... well I really don't know much about what this city is about. I haven't read up on its history at all, but I know it's a seaside city, of historical stature, with a big port and stone buildings, that I roamed around for a day yesterday.

It seemed to be a nice place.

Most restaurants had a lunch alternative with fish fresh off the market too, which Stockholm does not! I tried Bror & Bord (Brother & Table - though in meaning it's more like 'good friend and place to sit'), and would recommend it warmly. Affordable yet great food, generous servings, fresh salad, bread, butter and coffee. Chocolate too. And the cleanest bathrooms I've maybe ever seen in a restaurant! Plus hospitable staff.

One thing you commonly hear here about Gothenburg is how kind and courteous the people there are - to the point they've had issues with crime and violence, since they've welcomed in basically anyone, and it's true!

The welcoming part, I mean.

You might run into some pretty tough-looking guys on the streets, and so many redheads I'm wondering if this particular port is where most of our Viking descendants assimilated, yet if you happen to interact with them you get all but the cold and callous call-outs you'd expect. They're nice. Don't judge manners by the banners, as they say.

Though I assume I also fortunately didn't run into the wrong people.

I get the impression Stockholm's still way worse, but what do I know after but a day here. People did seem to be staring at their cellphones unusually much though, walking around without looking up at all, that surprised... considering how social they seem to be otherwise even with strangers.

The sidewalks were different too. Almost all were in cobblestone, with lines of larger, smoother rock in the middle. Oldskool, yet with a flare for the ergonomic, modern and more easily walkable.

I bought home some locally brewed Två Feta Grisar (Two Fat Pigs) beer as a souvenir (for my parents - I'm not a fan of bitter brews), made good use of the free WiFi on the VR trains - first time traveling with them too, and had a good five and a half hours to eat and explore the city.

Here's a glimpse:

The one thing I probably knew Gothenburg for the most before this was Liseberg, of which you see a part beyond the fence above.

It's the biggest theme park in Sweden, and main rival to the one I've been going most regularly to thus far.

I was surprised to learn it's actually located smack-dab in the center of the city - even though it boasts an area of over 20,000 square meters! Which makes no sense, because Gröna Lund is supposedly 38,000 square meters, and should be way smaller, so what's actually measured here must be somewhat off...

I didn't actually visit the park, just saw the sights from afar. Will probably spend a full day there eventually with nephew & co.

Chalmers, the Gothenburg equivalent of Stockholm's KTH, is a well-esteemed establishment of education I happened to catch a glimpse of while strolling over Johanneberg, a random part of the city you can climb across. If you want exercise head here: The roads go like a rollercoaster.

Kind of like Liseberg! The whole city's pretty hilly. They haven't just flattened and paved over everything like they have in Stockholm.

The Poseidon fountain's apparently a landmark here. It's right by the City Theater, City Hall, City Concert House, and City Library. All pretty large and impressive feats of architecture, but not so large as you'd expect maybe considering how large this city really is...

The City Theater also has an almost turquoise colored brick wall across one side. Moss. Humidity seems higher here too.

There was a lot of construction work going on, and a lot of walls like this.

Street art, that I assume is meant to provide incentive for artists to get creative by more legal means. There's surprisingly little graffiti otherwise! You see more tags in Stockholm than you do here. You barely see any!

Here's the cast iron greenhouse in the maybe oldest properly maintained 1800-era park in Europe. They boast an assortment of exotic palm trees year round, and a collection of rose bushes that'd rival... well, anyone. Was it the most diverse rose garden in Europe? Something like that. It's not a big park, but a nice one.

No dogs allowed - I don't think I have ever seen that sign in a park before!

I finally made my way to the bay too, after roaming random streets for around 20 km and starting to feel the onset of blisters on my feet again. Gotta get some better walking shoes...

There are some notable old ships docked here, like the last remaining one from the Stockholm America line that was so popular for a while.

If there's any downside to this place it may be a lack of accessible public toilets. They're not free, for the most part. And it's windy, though that's no surprise considering the closeness to the coast.

Otherwise the people seem considerably more friendly than they do in my current habitat. They actually make way for you when you're disembarking the train. They actually get in a single file on the sidewalk when passing. For the most part. Imagine if we all were as civilized as these guys...

Gothenburg also doesn't have quite as much Gothic-style architecture as I thought it would - though why would it! The translation's way off. The more literal translation would be 'Göte's Castle'. Or fortress.

There is one of those here that I've yet to see, quite a walk away...

Good trip. I didn't set my step record (that's still Barcelona, as far as I've measured) but done walked quite a bit!

Gothenburg: I'll probably go back here eventually. It's pretty cheap to trip.