48-hours in… Gothenburg
Ok so for my second instalment in this series I wanted to cover the city in which I am currently based: Gothenburg - and talk about the first weekend that Evie arrived here.
Now, a pretty niche objective here… In 48 hours you must: act like a tourist but live like a local, show your girlfriend enough of the city to give her the ropes to navigate the rest of the week alone and tick off some touristy things in the mean time.
How did we go about it?
What we did… and what/where we ate!
First up, we booked a boat tour. A great way to see a lot of the city, soak up some history and cruise about for two tours. This would take up Sunday morning, but first we had to fill Saturday.
We got in to Gothenburg airport about midnight after a long journey; two flights and a very very short connection time. Literally running the length of the terminal! At that time of night, all you want is to get home as quickly as possible so we Uber’ed it BUT it’s actually really easy to get between the centre and the airport. You can get the Flygbussen, which takes 30 mins and will depart/arrive from the bus terminal right in town opposite the massive mall, Nordstan. It’s only £20 for a return so really reasonable and very efficient.
So after a very late night and a lot of travelling, we slept in a bit and then took a stroll through the neighbourhood to the ferry terminal, stopping on the way at Alchemisten(The Alchemist) to have some brunch (who are we kidding? It was lunch time). Definitely recommend this cafe; great coffee, lovely people, yum food (vegan sandwich was so good) and cool decor. Also Free wifi.
Following our little date, we took the free ferry across to the city centre to explore some more. You can tell it’s free by the green flag with Gratis on it flying on the side.
From here, we meandered towards one of my favourite sustainable shops in Göteborg, called Thrive, stumbling across a vinyl store on the way. Gothenburg is a great city for mooching and strolling through, particularly with a coffee and Fika in tow. We pottered around for the next few hours, including finding a shop that was originally from Liverpool… Pop Boutique!
Lunch/dinner was then on the cards, so Olivia’s on the avenue was our restaurant of choice. Highly recommended, the food was amazing (asking for pizza without cheese is becoming a favourite of mine).
Next on the agenda was an impromptu ice hockey match. The first of the season and Evie’s first, which did not disappoint. Ice hockey is big in Sweden and Gothenburg has a great stadium. The vibe is always really energetic, fun and super supportive - lots of chanting, singing, stamping and clapping from the die-hard supporters. Sadly the local team lost, but it was a close 4-3 result, and lots of Oohs and songs from the crowd (Sidenote: I love how the fans mingle, it is a really safe space and everyone is there to enjoy it). Plus in one of the intervals, some children started playing which led Evie to comment on the “cute little goalies!”.
Post hockey, we stumbled into the cinema to use the bathroom before thinking about heading home, until we randomly decided to go watch the film Bullet Train, which included Evie asking the usher is the film dubbed in Swedish… a sensible question, but it was just subtitled in Swedish, even the bits spoken in Japanese and Spanish, so we had no hope for some of it.
Sunday…
Today Evie and I had our boat tour planned from the city centre, but first we had to have brunch! We went to Brunchoteket, a stone’s throw from the start of the boat tour and really good, classic brunch style. The vegan pancakes were fluffy like a cloud.
The tour was full of interesting facts and gave a useful bearing and insight of the city. We had to constantly duck between very low bridges and beams, it’s amazing practice for the limbo. Seeing the buildings from the water gave an amazing perspective of the city, looking at all the architecture. Here are a few of my favourite photos from the place!
We then went to Nordstan, the mall and shopped for dinner at Lidl (here’s the living like a local bit). With food and bargains from the infamous Middle of Lidl under our arms, we caught the bus home before heading out for some beach volleyball training at the local gym. The evening involved some cooking and chatting with family on FaceTime.
Some tips for travel and living like a local in Gothenburg:
Trams/buses
This is the cheapest way to travel the city but you need the app ToGo Västtrafik to get the tickets and for the travel planner. It’s much better than Google maps for the public transport system and is really easy to use.
E-scooters
You’ll see lots of scooters around town, as in many European cities now. You need the app to use them so download Voi or Tier to get started.
Alcohol
It’s spenny. In bars, restaurants, cafes. No getting round it. But if you wanted to have a bottle of wine for the air bnb or bubbly for the room, you have to go to Systembolaget (system company) to buy it. This is like an Off-license or a supermarket that only sells alcholol. Yes it’s pricier than home as they don’t do deals but if you look around you can find one that isn’t too far from what you’d pay in the UK.
