31 May 2018, Thursday
Today marks a milestone…it’s Day 31 of my trip and it means that this is the longest I have ever been away from home. My previous record was set in 2012, when I went on a 30-day backpacking trip around Asia to celebrate my 30th birthday. So it has been a full month since I left home and I’m less than a third of the way into my trip. Still feeling great and excited for what’s to come!
This morning, I checked out of Danhostel Copenhagen early and walked to København H (aka Copenhagen Central Station) to catch my train to Gothenburg (aka Göteborg). I arrived at the railway station at 7am sharp and proceeded to 7-Eleven to buy two croissants (29 Kr) and a cup of filter coffee (10 Kr) for breakfast. At 7:22am, my Öresundståg regional train 1020 pulled up at the platform and I hopped on, occupying the first available seat in the 2nd class carriage. There was no seat reservation for this leg of the journey.
The train departed Copenhagen at 7:27am as scheduled and made its way to Malmö C, crossing the sea via a bridge to reach Swedish territory. No one came on board to check my ticket or passport. At 8:07am, upon arrival at Malmö C, I transferred to an SJ 3000 high speed train 484 for the onward journey to Gothenburg. The train departed Malmö at 8:34am.
This train had reserved seating and it was a much more comfortable ride, with wide seats and generous legroom. The ride from Malmö to Gothenburg took 2 hours 21 minutes and I arrived Göteborg C at 10:55am, five minutes ahead of schedule. The entire train journey from Copenhagen to Gothenburg took 3 hours 28 minutes and I paid 296 SEK (S$48.04) for the ticket.
There is no time difference between Denmark and Sweden
Exchange rate: 10 Swedish Krona (SEK) = S$1.585
The first thing I did in Gothenburg was to buy a 24-hour public transport card (95 Kr/S$15.06) from the västtrafik office located outside the railway station. From the Centralstationen tram station at Drottningtorget, I boarded the blue-and-white tram number 1 (towards Tynnered) at 11:12am to my hostel. I am always fascinated by trams because we do not have them in Singapore anymore. Just like taking a bus back home, you’ll need to tap your transport card at the reader when you board and alight the tram.
After a short 10-minute ride, I alighted at Olivedalsgatan. I then walked for four minutes and arrived at Slottsskogens Youth Hostel. As it was too early for check in, I deposited my big backpack at the hostel before making my way out again. I only had one night in Gothenburg so I wanted to explore as much as I could.
Slottsskogens Youth Hostel
Address: Vegagatan 21, Gothenburg
Price: 250 Kr (S$39.94)/night for a 4-bed mixed dorm
Website: www.sov.nu/en/
From the hostel, I walked for 15 minutes and reached Haga. It is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Gothenburg with well-preserved wooden houses and cobbled streets. As it was 12pm, my first order of business was to find a good place for lunch. I came across a nice, cosy eatery called Caféva (click here) so I decided to pop in for a bite. It was still quite empty when I first entered but a long queue soon formed behind me.
In Sweden, there is an important concept called fika, which means making time for friends and colleagues to share a cup of coffee and have a small bite. Essentially, it is a Swedish coffee break, but its deeper meaning is to have a bonding session away from work so as to increase productivity and have better physical and mental wellbeing. It was probably lunch hour when I arrived, but from what I observed, many locals were having their fika as well. They were very relaxed and chatting happily with their friends over coffee.
In Singapore, we have a Swedish café and bistro called Fika as well (click here). I have dined there a couple of times, and the décor at Fika looks exactly like the one here at Caféva, so it is pretty authentic.
As I joined the queue, I didn’t really know what to get so I observed the other patrons. Most of them ordered the garlic-buttered bread with cheese and a bowl of pumpkin soup so I followed suit. It cost 80 Kr (S$12.70). It was the most marvellous pumpkin soup I’ve had in my life, it was so yummy! The homemade bread was so soft and delicious too. It was a very good lunch.
The streets around Haga were very charming, with plenty of cafés with outdoor seating and shops selling interesting items. I popped into the occasional store for a look but didn’t buy anything.
From Haga, I walked to the main boulevard of Kungsportsavenyn, commonly known as Avenyn. Trams ran through the boulevard, which was flanked on both sides by relatively branded shops, restaurants and a Hard Rock Café.
Even though the official temperature reading was 27 degrees Celsius, it was a totally cloudless day and it felt more like 35 degrees. It was scorching hot so I quickly went into Nordstan, the largest shopping centre in Gothenburg, to escape from the sun and enjoy the air-con. For my afternoon snack, I bought a banana from the supermarket for 8 Kr (S$1.30). That’s what I like about supermarkets in Europe – you can buy a single banana instead of an entire bunch. Perfect for solo travellers like me! At about 2:40pm, I took the tram back to Slottsskogens Youth Hostel for check-in.
Just because it’s a youth hostel doesn’t mean that only youths stay here. My roommate was an elderly Swedish lady and she was sitting in the armchair watching television when I entered the room. She told me that she was “from here”, which I interpreted as being from Gothenburg because she seemed to know the area and all the sights very well. From the way she laid out her belongings in the room, she also appeared to be a long-time resident at the hostel.
I was curious but I didn’t ask her why she was staying at the hostel even though she was local. When she saw me struggling to put the comforter cover on, she came over to help and she slipped it on with ease, as if she did this every day. She beamed as she proclaimed to me, “Everything is simple in Scandinavia!” Glad to see that she was so proud of her country and Scandinavian design.
The lady was very friendly so I didn’t really mind her company. It was just that I would have liked to meet other real backpackers instead, especially since it was billed as a youth hostel. But you can’t choose your roommates so it’s really a matter of luck.
For my last two nights in Copenhagen, I also had an elderly Swedish guy as one my roommates. He used to live in Copenhagen as he ran a business there. He was nice and friendly to me. However, last night, another guy checked in to our room and he took a shower in our attached bathroom quite late at night. The Swedish guy got pissed off because he was trying to sleep and the noise from the running water kept him awake. The Swedish guy scolded the other guy and threatened to call the police and stuff. It turned out to be quite an ugly scene but the other female roommates and I just kept quiet because we didn’t want to get involved.
To be fair, from my observations, the newcomer behaved quite shadily and I did get some negative vibes from him. I kept my eye on him and I was extra careful with my belongings when he was in the room. Thankfully, it was only for the last night and I checked out early this morning.
The point is, I prefer to stay with fellow backpackers in a hostel because we are on the same page so it feels safer. Backpackers are also generally more mindful of noise and tolerant of situations like taking a shower late at night, because we sometimes have a late night out and return to the hostel past midnight. But yeah, that’s one of the joys and sorrows of backpacking and you need a little luck to have good roommates sometimes.
After settling down my stuff, I headed out again at about 4pm. It was getting even hotter so I thought a dip in a swimming pool would be a great idea. I took a bus to Allmänna Badet (click here), a public pool located in the heart of the city at Frihamnen.
The 20m long, 8m wide outdoor bath is a natural pool with water from the Göta River. There is no chlorine used and the water quality is controlled by regular sampling to ensure that it is clean and safe for swimmers. Because of the small size of the pool, they limit the number of visitors to safeguard the water quality. But because admission is free, there was a long line to enter the pool. I was really hoping to take a dip but I wasn’t in the mood to queue under the hot sun, so I left.
Besides the pool, the sauna is the other highlight. In a nod to the area’s roots as an industrial port, the sauna’s façade is made of recycled rusty steel sheets, which reminded me of the zinc roofs of old kampungs in Singapore. The walls of the changing room (located in a separate building) are also made using 12,000 recycled glass bottles.
The sauna building had a very interesting shape and design. It stood in the river upon an anchoring device, previously used for vessels. From a certain angle, the sauna building resembled an elephant. You would never guess that it was a sauna if you looked at it!
I was still determined to swim so I headed to another swimming pool, Lundbybadet, located not too far away from Allmänna Badet. I paid 65 Kr (S$10.30) for admission. There was an indoor 25m pool and an outdoor 50m pool, but the outdoor pool was still closed because it was not officially summer yet (despite the high temperatures!). The indoor pool was quite crowded but at least I got to swim a bit. The water was cooling and it was very refreshing in the hot weather.
For dinner, I settled on a simple McDonald’s meal of chicken burger, hamburger and chili cheese tops, which cost 35 Kr (S$5.55). I wasn’t in the mood to spend money here in Gothenburg. It could have been the weather, or it could have been the fact that there was nothing much here worth spending on.
Gothenburg is Sweden’s second largest city (after Stockholm) but it is more of a university town and there are not many tourist attractions here. The reason why I wanted to spend a night at Gothenburg is because it is located midway between Copenhagen and Oslo, so I thought it would make a good stopover to break up the journey. In any case, Haga was quite lovely and I did have an excellent pumpkin soup at Caféva, so it wasn’t totally a wasted trip. Alright, it’s the end of Day 31, more exciting times ahead as I make my way to Norway tomorrow, one of my most anticipated countries for this trip!