From April 19-21st, my two Italian friends, Greek roommate, and I set out on a random adventure to Gothenburg, Sweden. What we experienced there was nothing whatsoever what we had previously expected, however it made it one of the most memorable trips of our lives. I can't begin to explain it in this blog, so I suppose it's just going to be one of those things between us and whoever is willing to sit down and listen to all the craziness. I'll tell you everything else that went down, as far as the impression of the city and our daily adventures throughout the weekend that we spent in this cold northern European land!
We set out from Pisa, and although it was burning hot here in Italy, we had to force ourselves to layer with plenty of clothes in order to survive once we arrived at night in Sweden.
So we arrived at our Couch Surfing host's house...and the first thing we notice is that his decoration is empty milk cartons on the wall, in chronological order. Seems like clockwork orange to me!
Then there were more outside on the porch...
Oh, and on the fridge there were magnets spelling out "Got Mjolk," basically "Got Milk" in Swedish.
Just when you thought there wasn't quite enough milk...
We ventured out to the city the next morning after we arrived, and wandered around the town. We had made a Brazilian friend named Fernando that was staying at our hosts house the previous night, so we decided to spend the day with him. He gave us the most lovely company! Unfortunately, we had to be awake at six am to get out of the house with our host...so we spent the first two hours half asleep in McDonald's trying to wait until the rest of the world woke up.
Once we were finally a bit more awake, we left McDonald's to figure out where to go next. We truly had no idea what to do, so we kind of just roamed around the city center. Oh and may I mention that there are NO free public bathrooms within the city...you even have to pay to use it in McDonald's! That made our lives just a bit more stressful, especially when using their currency system...the krona.
As we began walking through the town, it began to rain...accompanied by a little uncomfortable wind. This made walking around rather uncomfortable, so we decided to find ourselves another cute little place to hide in and get warm drinks.
By the way....we found a 7-Eleven......in SWEDEN. I was absolutely ecstatic...however they didn't really have our delicous slurpees that I ever so desired. What's 7-Eleven without slurpees?!
I really enjoyed the architecture of the city...much like I do basically all of northern Europe! Carola read that all of the roofs in Sweden are made differently, so we found that particularly interesting.
Our group picture trying to look cute in the rain while feeling extremely wet uncomfortable at the same time...success?
We took advice from a local to head to the old district in Gothenburg, which was practically all made of wood. While it isn't really that old, they call it the old part since much of the city was burned down by fires. It's most definitely a charming little part of town that gives you the feel of the old western part of towns in America!
We found ourselves in this little adorable caffè in the middle of the old part of town. I loved the flora wall decorations inside and the fancy chandeliers..it was such an elegant little place to stop for a drink!
These pictures below pretty much sum up our relationship....being deliriously tired and defrosting tends to have these effects on you.
The typical Carola face and my Italian hand expressions...kodak moment.
Most attractive picture of all time.
So much love for my Greek roomie!
Finally, the rain stopped and we were able to return to the world outside of coffee shops. Although we really had no idea where we were going, we just didn't seem to care.
The part of town that reminds me particularly of San Francisco...
We stopped at this little food place to get the typical Swedish dish, or as Carola calls them "Le polpette d'Ikea" in English "Ikea Meatballs." For those of you that don't know, Ikea comes from Sweden, so the restaurant inside sells these babies to honor their culture through food. It was the most interesting combination of flavors, but I definitely was a fan of it! You get a plate of little meatballs covered in gravy, then mashed potatoes covered in a berry sauce, accompanied with tomatoes, onions and lettuce. Not as out there as the Haggis in Scotland, but still a peculiar little dish.
The next day, our host took us out to experience the town through a locals eyes. The first place that he took us was a huge candy shop right next to the port, with just about everything you desire. After circling the place about ten times, we finally gave in and got a bag to indulge in it all ourselves. It took me about two weeks to actually finish it, but it was all just delicious. I also got to get two chocolate bars that you can't find in Italy, one mint flavored, and the other cookies and cream! It was like a bite of home...just delicious.
We went from there over to the port to take a ferry around the city, but we couldn't help but stop on the huge patch of grass for taking in a little sunshine.
In front of this giant ship that they save for conventions and what not...we were under the impression that we were finally going to get to go onto a giant looking pirate ship. Unfortunately, it wasn't open for tourists :(
Waiting for the ferry, we stopped on the mini pier and took in some more sun...although it was cold out, it was finally nice to actually have some rays rather than continuous rain!
Armido looking all James Dean and shit...
Words can't describe how much I love this picture. It just explains so much..
STARFISH
Oh how I love them...
Once we got on the ferry, it gave us surprisingly beautiful views of the city! The only moment that I resented the sun for ruining what could have been a beautiful picture.
It was basically a traffic ferry, so it took people to all kinds of stops around the city. But it was still entertaining to just get on it and sit at the top and have a mini tour of the city from an outside perspective.
This statue represents a woman calling out for her missing husband who was in the navy at sea.
Che triste!
Carola getting her damn panorama pictures...
Once we got back on land, we went for lunch and got burgers at a random little joint that spoke no English...we were lucky that we were with our host, or else it would have been a mess. After that, we took a very long walk back into the city center, of course stopping along the way to get the most random but lovely pictures of us all.
I don't really know to this day what the hell they were wanting to look at on the ground...
Let's just say my friends are crazy :)
Carola feeling like a beast on top of this "very high" tree trunk
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Siamo forte.
Amici per la vita <3
Me being Katerina's boyfriend. No big deal.
Poor Armido..who speaks no English. He saw this poster and got excited, thinking it was publicity for some zoo. Talk about falling victim to horrible publicity! I begged him to just put his face beside it and smile...as he did. And he just so happened to put the most perfect creepy smile on. I will forever be in love with this picture. Can't help but laugh every time I see it!
Talk about that amazing architecture...cazzo!
Having a moment in front of Poseidon. We are just always in our own little world.
Alright, how could you be a tourist without taking the mature pictures of holding up the statue's penis? Just not possible. Sorry guys.
Armido slowly making his way into our picture..
Annnnd there he is.
Seriously though...our host went crazy with the photo shoot.
After that, we went home and prepared an Italian meal for our host since it was our last night. We had Spaghetti Carbonara, a wonderful dish...although the bacon there was much different so it gave it a different flavor. Oh well, we tried :) Then, we all got ready to go out on the town for our last night there.
As I forgot to mention, we were always unable to pay for the tram because they have these stupid little machines who only take the krona coins or cards, but the thing is the krona coins are worth NOTHING so you basically have to have over 20 of them to even pay for a ticket. Our cards would all not work because they weren't Swedish cards, so we were pretty much screwed. This is Carola's "nothing suspicious is going on here" face. Thank goodness it worked the entire time.
This is Armido's "somebody spilled beer on my pants" face. Lovely.
We met up with our friend Fernando and went to a nice little bar where we had to blow the rest of our kronas, and we had a ton. So we each got big beers and a couple tequila shots to finish it all up. A great way to end the trip!
Yeah, another picture that explains so much. Can't you just see the uneasiness in my eyes?
Love love love <3
After the bar kicked us out when it closed, we figured it was time to go home since we had to leave rather early the next day. So we stopped and took one last photo shoot with Fernando!
Post shot after some random guy running through our picture..
And then all of our sad faces because we were leaving our dear friend..until next time!
The rest of the adventures of that night will never be written down on a social network, that's for sure. But it truly goes down as a night in the books that I will never forget. We have the strangest memories to share for the rest of our lives...and it's certainly one that will be told to our kids! Oh lordy lord...
Gothenburg, thanks for the crazy ass incredible memories that are ingrained in my head forever. Sweden, you are lovely but could be less expensive for student's sake...but we still hope to see you again in the future :)
