Gothenburg, day one

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).

Göteborg

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.

Göteborg

Göteborg

Schiphol

Göteborg

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.

Göteborg

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.

Göteborg

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

Göteborg

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.

Göteborg

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

Göteborg

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

Göteborg

So many kinds of milk!

Göteborg

Göteborg

Göteborg

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.

Göteborg

Göteborg

Göteborg

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!

Göteborg

“Göteborg”

“Göteborg”

“Göteborg”

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.

“Göteborg”

“Göteborg”

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.

“Göteborg”

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.