It’s safe to say that Sweden has been experiencing something of a ‘moment’ in recent years, along with its fellow Scandinavian neighbours. With the glut of Swedish grisly TV thrillers, rye-bread-selling bakeries and eye-wateringly expensive interior design shops, ‘Scandi’ is an oft-used prefix in the UK these days.
And yet, I like to think I was ahead of the trend (for once in my life). Trips to Copenhagen in my early teens, to visit friends who lived there, cemented a (somewhat idealistic) view of Scandinavia as a heavenly place to live: full of clean streets, enchanting natural sights, buses that ran on time and, of course, a delicious Sunday brunch that revolves around a curried chicken open sandwich.
As I grew older, I (begrudgingly) accepted that the region does, in fact, have some problems. Racial tensions, high levels of depression and alcoholism owing to the long, dark winter days, and £7 pints. But nevertheless, any chance to go, I take it. This time, such an opportunity arose with a particularly favoured travelling partner, who I’d previously visited Stockholm with. Lured in by cheap Ryanair flights we decided on a last-minute ‘why not?’ weekend away to Sweden’s second city: Gothenburg.
Touching down into the tiny airport, I instantly remembered one of the reasons why I so love Sweden, and Scandinavia generally. The light! It’s like golden hour, but 24/7 (here’s a brief explanation of golden hour, but essentially, all you really need to know is that it’s the ideal light conditions for hella-instagramming!) We arrived at around 2130, and it was dusk, of a sorts (more on this in a later post) – it felt like golden hour2; everything bathed in a gorgeous amber light that made everything look around 10x more aesthetically pleasing than usual.
From the airport, we jumped on a Flygbussarna bus which cost around SEK 79 and enjoyed the 20 minute-or-so ride to the central station (or, in Swedish, centralstation… I know: if all Swedish was like this I think I would pick it up quite well). From there, we easily caught a tram to Göteborg Prinsgatan stop on Linnegarten where we were staying nearby.
We found our accommodation on AirBnb, a charming little one-bedroom flat on the fourth floor of a 19th-century apartment block situated towards the upper end of Nordhemsgatan. A steep hill up to the block and no lift meant some excellent exercise for us as a bonus! The owner, Caroline, was on hand to meet us and we invited her for a celebratory ‘we’re on holiday’ drink with us in her beautiful apartment. This is what I love about using a site like AirBnb when finding somewhere to stay: the chance to meet ‘real’ people and live like a local rather than in a faceless hotel chain. Invariably you meet some really interesting and kind-hearted people, as well as get the best local tips for places to visit.
Caroline definitely exceeded our expectations with the latter. We were only in the city for 48 hours but she gave us a wealth of ideas as to what we could do with our limited time. With no time like the present, she offered to show us round some of the nearby bars on Andra Langgatan (Literally, ‘Long Street’). We headed out, the sky still not fully dark at 11pm, excited to be able to start getting to know Gothenburg already.