So Tuesday was our last day in Göteborg *sad face*. So after we checked out of the hostel, we made one last walk around the city to go to some places we hadn’t seen yet.

Our first stop was Skansen Kronan, which is a little fortress on a hill. We didn’t actually go in there, but we did enjoy the view over the city you had from there.

On our third (or fourth?) walk through the Haga Nygata, the Kawaii shop was finally open so we just had to go inside!

Next stop was Göteborgs Konstmuseet. Good thing about this museum: it’s free for people under 25. Bad thing about this museum: you can’t take a handbag unless it’s smaller than an A4 piece of paper. Anyway, so since I had to leave my tote bag in a locker, I didn’t have my iPod with me to take pictures, so I can’t really show you what it looked like from the inside, but they sure had a lot of very nice stuff. I especially liked this painting by P.S. Krøyer (the Danish painter I wrote about a few months ago).

After the museum, it was time already to head back to the hostel to pick up our luggage and then take the flygbuss to the airport.

I still can’t get over how beautiful everything looks from a plane window. (By the way, I actually didn’t notice the rainbow on this picture until I was looking at the pictures. We were flying over the rainbow!) Anyway, I think these trips to Sweden are always over too soon, so I’m hoping I can go back some time soon. If you enjoyed my this travel diary (read the previous posts here), stay tuned because tomorrow I’m going to post a video! :)

Pictures 1, 2, 4, 5, 9 by Bert.

Gothenburg, part five! On Monday, we didn’t exactly know what to do, but we decided to go to the Majorna district, because we had heard it was nice, but when we got there it turned out it wasn’t actually that interesting (unless we missed something – in that case: please let me know what’s so nice about Majorna!) We walked around Karl Johans Kyrka, which looked nice, and then we went into this store called Ebbes Second Hand and I checked out the book section, but I didn’t buy anything because I had already bought so many books the day before.

After that, we walked to a square called Stigbergstorget and we checked out this record store called BenGans, which might look familiar to you if you’ve seen Känn Ingen Sorg, a movie about a Swedish singer called Håkan Hellström (I also wrote a blogpost about it, here). Funny thing: I actually bought a Håkan Hellström cd there! :)

Then it started raining, and we decided to have our lunch at the hostel. Afterwards, Ken took a nap and Bert and I played a card game called spit (in Dutch it’s called zenuwen, which means nerves) and we just sat inside having a nice time while it kept raining outside. For the first time that week, I really felt like having a cup of coffee, and I searched the entire kitchen for coffee but without any luck.

Around six in the evening we thought it was time to get out of the hostel and have some dinner, and we found this nice Mexican place called Tomtoms Burritos. I really liked the interior, and the food was really good (and at a good price too!) And then it was time to head back to the hostel and pack, because we would leave the next day.

Pictures 1 and 4 by Bert.

Part four of the Gothenburg story! We woke up pretty early on Sunday to continue the shopping trip we started the day before. For someone who’s living in a country where nearly every store is closed on Sunday, it’s such a nice thing to go on a shopping trip that day! According to the weather app it was going to rain so I left my beloved Birkenstocks at home and wore my white Converse instead.

I don’t know if you’ve seen them before, but these are the blue trams of Gothenburg. I like trams so much more than the metro, because at least when you’re in a tram you can do some sightseeing. Still, we decided not to take the tram because it was a nice morning for a walk, and what’s the point of doing a city trip when you don’t want to walk a little bit? :)

Just on our way to the shopping district.

So I didn’t exactly snap a lot of pictures when we were shopping, but if you’d like to know what I got, go check out my haul video!

When we were done shopping, we went to the Röhsska Museum. They had an exhibition about Picasso’s ceramics (did you know Picasso made ceramics, ’cause I didn’t!) and one about the history of design, which was pretty nice to see. I always think it’s nice to go back in time just a little bit. They had a lot of furniture, but other things as well (they even had an iPhone there, which I thought was pretty weird). Oh and the best thing about this museum? It’s free for people under 25!

Just chilling at the silver exhibition.

When we were done at the museum, the rain had finally kicked in, so we decided to look for a nice café to sit and maybe play a little Boggle. We ended up at this cosy café in the Vasagatan, which was called Frank’s coffee. I got a chai latte, and it was really nice to sit there while it was raining outside.

Making myself feel at home.

Afterwards, we decided to have dinner at this Korean restaurant called Yammy Kitchen in the Andra Långgatan, which was just the best! I had the noodles with grilled vegetables, once again, and they tasted really good. For desert, we all shared some banana yaki (deep fried banana with syrup and sesame seeds) and tempura ice-cream (deep fried ice-cream), which was delicious! And the staff was really nice too.

Stay tuned for part five, which will be here soon! :)

Pictures 1-5, 8 by Bert.

On Saturday, we decided to visit the botanic garden, which is located at Carl Skottsbergs Gata. It was so big that we didn’t get to see the entire garden, but we did see the greenhouses, where all the tropical plants were. I really like tropical plants, and so do Bert and Ken, so we did enjoy ourselves.

At the greenhouse, there were a couple of different rooms, all with a different temperature and level of humidity, because the plants there naturally grow in different parts of the world, so they’re used to different climates. The first room we came into was the tropical house. It was quite warm and humid in there, and every now and then we felt a mist of raindrops falling on our skin. I saw a gigantic banana plant, and I thought it was funny because we have a small one at home.

At the orchid house

One of the orchid houses was filled with carnivorous plants. I always think they’re kind of scary, although I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I think they could suddenly move (which the probably do when an insect crawls into them), and in my mind plants are not supposed to move.

The cactus house! I think this might be my favourite house because I just think all the cacti and succulents look so beautiful together. I love all the different textures, shapes and shades of green.

You can find more information about the botanic garden and the greenhouses here.

Pictures 2, 5, 8, 9, 11 by Bert.

Day two in Gothenburg! On Friday, we had a bit of a lie-in to recover from a long day of traveling. This was the view from my bed. Each one of the bunk beds had a little net where you could put all of your essentials, and a socket. So handy! After freshening up a little and putting on some clothes, we went to the kitchen to have some breakfast. The cereal we had bought turned out to be quite tasteless (we should’ve known, because the packaging said fullkorn – which means wholewheat– and utan tillsatt socker – which means no added sugar). Next, we went to the supermarket to get some bread for our picnic.

Our view

We decided to go to the southern archipelago that day, so we took the tram to Saltholmen, where you can take a ferry to the islands.

“A bike.”

We went to the Pressbyrån to get some new tram tickets. Good thing: tram tickets are also valid on the ferries, so you don’t have to buy a separate ticket!

Saltholmen

We took the ferry to Asperö, which is a small island with about 400 inhabitants and, according to the magazine we read at the hostel, a child-friendly bathing spot. I thought it sounded like a nice place to go :)

We made a little walk on the island, and then we had lunch at the beach. It was soo quiet there! There were lots of rocks, too.

Sunbathing on a rock is not that bad!

We played UNO.

Even though it was not that hot, I still wanted to take a quick dip. The stairs were covered with slimy plants (sorry if I ruined the idyl there) and the water was ice cold, I still managed to stay in there for about thirty seconds. Haha! :)

As the sun started to set, it started to get a little chilly and we decided to go back to the city. The sunlight in the woods was so pretty.

On the tram.

On our way back, we stumbled upon this beautiful church, which was called Oskar Fredriks Kyrka.

“Ken opening the door.”

We made a little walk in the city before dinner. As we were walking through the Haga Nygata, we saw this shop called Kawaii (which means “cute” in Japanese) with lots of kawaii stuff in there.

We had dinner at an Asian place. The staff was not very nice, but the food was delicious (I chose the noodles with grilled vegetables!) and we still had a nice time.

Stay tuned for part three! :)

(Pictures 3-6, 10, 12-14, 17-20, 22, 25-27 by Bert, picture 8 by Ken).

So I went on a trip to Gothenburg with my brother Bert and his boyfriend Ken. I had never been there before, so I was really curious to see what it would be like. Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, and it’s situated on the west coast of Sweden, at the Kattegat sea. Fun fact: when I first started learning Swedish, Göteborg was one of my favourite words (just because of the way it sounds).

We woke up in the middle of the night and after a quick but cosy breakfast (my dad even got up, even though he had to go to work in the morning!) my mom was kind enough to drive us to the airport. We took a plane to Amsterdam first (never thought I would ever take a plane to the Netherlands!) and even though the flight was delayed a little bit, we still made it in time for our flight to Gothenburg.

Schiphol

I like taking airplanes: the wonderful blue skies, the fluffy white clouds, the strange feeling of not having your feet on the ground, seeing countries from above, like on a map. And it’s just incredible how fast a plane can take you from one place to another. It’s like, I hop on a plane in cold and grey Belgium, and poof, I’m suddenly in a different country, surrounded by people speaking my favourite language in the world.

When we were almost there, I saw lots of small islands with little (or at least they looked that way from above) houses on them.

At the tram stop. The Ferris wheel is from Liseberg, the amusement park.

We took the flygbuss from the airport to the center of the city (if you’re ever flying to Stockholm or Gothenburg, Flygbussarna are a great way to get to the center of the city: it’s super easy and relatively cheap), and then we took the tram to our hostel. Another tip, if you want to take the tram in Gothenburg, tram tickets are for sale at Pressbyrån.

We were staying at the Backpackers Hostel, which was super cheap and close to a nice park called Slottsskogen.

After checking in, we went to the supermarket to do some groceries.

So many kinds of milk!

It was three in the afternoon already, and we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast (which was about ten hours ago), so we decided to have a picnic in the park. The weather was super nice, and I had two bagels and a kanelbulle (cinnamon roll). I was so full after I finished that! We just chilled in the park for a while, feeling really lazy while enjoying the sun and the things around us.

In the middle of the park, there was a little zoo that you could visit for free. There were horses, sheep, mooses, deers and peacocks. I enjoyed it!

We found this place where you could see the Älvsborgsbro (the bridge on the picture). I climbed on a stone to take a picture of it.

In the evening we met up with Anna and Viktor. I met them in Leuven last year, and they had just moved back to Sweden. We walked around in the park a little bit more and talked a little Swedish and a little English (because Bert and Ken don’t speak Swedish). We also saw some seals and some penguins! We also saw LOTS of people working out (not just running, but also doing aerobics and some other really acrobatic things). Ken kept saying how he had never seen so many people wearing leggings in one day.

We decided to have dinner at a Greek place in the Linnégatan, and talked a little bit more. It was so good to see them again, and we had a really nice time. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel, and after taking a nice shower and posting some pictures on Instagram, we went to sleep. (Can you imagine how well we slept after a twenty-hour long day?)

I’ll be posting the rest of the story soon, so stay tuned! :)

Pictures 6, 11, 13, 17-20, 22 by Bert.

Hey guys, I’m going on a trip to Göteborg (or Gothenburg) tomorrow! So excited, because it’s been a while since the last time I was in Sweden. I’ve never been to Göteborg though, so if anyone has any tips (shops with clothes, books or just little gadgets, good places to eat, or just nice places to chill), please let me know!