Gothenburg: Confessions of a Teenage Tram-a Queen

We arrived to catch our train from Oslo to Gothenburg only to find that the platform was packed with teenage girls.  As one man commented into his phone, with his delightful British accent, “I am on a train with LITRALLY every girl in Oslo right now”.  Ash figured they would be less annoying than teenage girls in Canada given that they would be speaking Norwegian… no such luck – turns out that all teenage girls speak the universal language of singing Justin Bieber, shrieking loudly, and playing some game called 'Big Booty' that involved a combination of clapping, singing, and screaming.

Where we stayed: STF Gothenburg, a hostel/hotel located in between the train station and major square Kungstornen and a short walk from Haga, the old village area.  Our room was probably no more than 200 square feet but gave us a true compact ikea feel. The hallway to our room was covered in forest wallpaper with bird sounds chirping over a speaker system. The staff were friendly and the main floor had a cool vibe.  All in all, a good find.  

What we ate and drank: We tried to fit in all the food that Sweden’s food capital had to offer during our short visit.  We started with a giant cinnamon bun – bigger than our heads! – from Café Husaren in the old area of the city called Haga.  Ashley ate a mountainous pile of cholesterol (ahem, shrimp) on a tiny piece of bread which allowed her to check off the famed shrimp sandwich of Sweden.  JD’s first solid food was some overly salty ribs from a place we don’t recommend.  Our main Swedish dinner consisted of Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and mashed potatoes and a beef and vegetable pasta flavoured with truffle oil.  We tried to find a pub from Britt’s online list called Brasserie Ferdinand – after a bit of a walk, returning to our hotel to ask the front desk for directions, and then still couldn’t find the pub supposedly located only a block away.  So we then asked a local person who told us it had closed down years ago.  We did find a local pub called 3 sam rum where we enjoyed local Swedish beers Vegh (or Vecht, we’re not sure).  We also tried Falcon, Norrlands Guld, Melleruds, and Dugge, concluding that beer in Sweden tastes kind of like beer everywhere else.  JD still felt fairly awful and didn’t enjoy the food as much as he would have liked but we all saved some money on food so hey, silver lining. We’re hopeful he’ll be able to enjoy the culinary experience of Bergen. 

What we did: Everything that Gothenburg had to offer, except go to Ikea. We walked around the quaint area of Haga with its old city charm, hiked up to a Fortress, took in the sights and smell of the fish market, and went out the island of Styros in Gothenburg’s Southern Archipelago.  On the island, on which only 1400 people live and no cars are used – only cool electric bikes or golf cart-like things – we hiked up to Stora Rios, a lookout point with a 360 degree view of the islands and Gothenburg.  On our hike we also saw what looked like dog poo but turned out to be a photo-worthy slug and almost gave ourselves a heart attack stopping short of a toad. Thanks to toad photos we also got some mosquito bites.

Lessons learned:  Doors close VERY fast in Sweden. When switching trams en route to the ferry dock, the doors snapped shut, separating us with JD on the train and Ash and Britt freaking out on the platform.   Luckily another train was right behind and we all met at the next stop. On the way back from the ferry dock a tram door smashed open, crushing Ash’s arm and bag of leftover food, leaving bruises and dripping shrimp sandwich juice.  And Ash didn’t have a chance to dip her toes in the Arctic Sea because the three were rushed onto a ferry going back to Gothenburg rather than to the next island stop with the metaphorical door slamming shut as the boat sailed away from the island. 

Most rebellious point of the trip: When we took the tram for free after we couldn’t get our non-European credit card to work… (gasp!) To be fair, we did eventually buy a full day pass so we didn’t really ride the tram for free – but it felt risqué in the moment. 

Some questions for Bergen…

Will we be attacked by any more transit systems?

Will we learn what a fjord actually is?

Will we have our Frozen movie moment before we leave Norway?

Stay tuned!