Off to Denmark!

June 9, 2012

We were up early this morning to ensure we caught our ferry to Denmark on time.  J was apparently up half the night, probably due to the fact that he slept all day yesterday!  We ate our last continental breakfast in Sweden and checked out of the hotel before the walk to the ferry terminal.  The walk was only 2 km, but with all of our luggage, it was exhausting.  I kept trying to think of ways in which I could have reduced my load, but couldn’t think of anything that would have helped in a significant way.  Anyone have any useful light-traveling tips?  When we finally arrived, we boarded the ferry without any problems and found a comfortable corner to stow our luggage and set up for the three hour ride.

Being that we were again on a ship, J soon set off to explore every corner of the boat, breathe the sea breezes and feel the wind in his (half-inch long) hair.  I checked my email with the free internet and guarded our large pile of luggage.  Eventually, a family came to ask if they could sit down, and I said that they could, but indicated that my husband was also sitting with me at the table.  At first, just a mom and son were here, but then the husband and another son arrived.  When I indicated again, politely, to the husband that my husband was joining me, he said “Yes, but he is one person, not three!”  I thought that was bit rude!  I wasn’t trying to reserve the whole bench, only one place, but apparently there was a significant misunderstanding.  Then when J didn’t return for nearly an hour, I think this family was really annoyed with me.

By the time J returned loaded down with snacks and most importantly, lingonberry liqueur, from the on-board boutique, the rude father had disappeared, leaving his kids and stuff nearby.   I left J guarding our belongings and went on a short walk around the ship.  As J had said to me, it really was more of a floating casino or entertainment centre than a ferry!  There were slot machines everywhere, a large restaurant, ping-pong tables, oversized chess boards, kids activities and a huge boutique, which was about 40% booze.

By the time I got to go on my walk, we were out in the Baltic Sea, and I couldn’t see any land on the horizon.

It was a little cool outside, but it wasn’t raining.  After looking outside and spending a few leftover SEK on the slot machines, I returned to our seat where the rude father had finally returned and wedged himself in next to J, so at least I didn’t look like a complete lunatic, imagining that I had a husband!

I read my book for the rest of the boat ride.  When we arrived in Denmark, we took a very long walkway out of the ferry and over the road to a plaza where we found a bank machine to take out some Danish Kroner.  We dragged our heavy suitcases along what we thought was the right road for about 10-15 minutes, until we found the bus station where we planned to catch the bus to Hjorring (our next hotel).  It was too bad we didn’t get a chance to explore Frederikshavn, where we landed in Denmark, but by that time I was exhausted and hungry.  I just wanted to dump our bags, so we boarded the bus and had a relaxing 40 minute ride to Hjorring, a small inland city.

The hotel we booked is in an older building, but the rooms have been renovated, and our hotel room must be double the size of our room in Sweden!  It is also close to double the price, so it is probably for the best that we are only spending one night here.  The service was extremely friendly, the room is clean and the location is ideal– a very short walk from the bus and train stations. 

After dropping our bags, we found the train station to check that we had the schedule right and the correct tickets, then found a hole-in-the-wall pizza shop where we purchased two pizzas and a 1.5L bottle of pop for 110 DKK, about $19.  It is enough food for lunch and dinner, so definitely a bargain!  After scarfing some pizza down, J laid down for a nap.  I was ready for some quiet time after the raucous ferry ride, so I didn’t mind relaxing in our spacious hotel room for a few hours.

I woke J up in time to watch the Netherlands – Denmark UEFA match.  After the game and before bed, we went out for a short sightseeing walk. The town was clean and quiet with beautiful old buildings and churches, plus many large fountains, sculptures and art installations.

 

The Great Laundry Swindling of 2012 (and other stories)

June 8, 2012

Today we slept till about 8 am.  J was in a hurry to get out and about, but I was in a much more leisurely mood.  I managed to hold off J’s anxiety till about 9 am when we headed down for breakfast.  I tried a few different food combinations today– I always try to take advantage of the free food, so my tray was loaded down!  I was slowly making my way through the mountain of food, but J was toe-tappingingly anxious to go.  He went back for seconds to avoid staring me down as I sipped my hot chocolate, but finished those before me as well.  As I was taking my last swallow, he was off and running, so I gathered my tray and put it away with food still in my mouth!

What was J so excited to get started on?  Well, since we arrived, we’ve been rewearing certain items of clothing in rotation, but the advisability of this rotation system had finally worn out– we needed to do some laundry!  The hotel had advised us that there was a service a few blocks away, so we gathered our dirtiest belongings and put them in a bag.  We toted them there, and after some confusion, they said they could do a load of laundry for us today.  It is pretty expensive (225 SEK – over $30!!), but there are apparently no plain old Laundromats here, because Swedish landlords are required to provide laundry for their tenants!  What a great law, even if it is causing us some inconvenience.

After disposing of our delicates for the day, we walked to a well-known “character” area of town, Haga, which is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Goteborg.  There were several cafes, second-hand shops, antique shops and clothing boutiques lining the cobblestone streets.  On the top of a very tall hill in Haga is a former fortress which is now used as a restaurant and event hall.  I saw it from the water on our boat tour, and was determined to take a closer look, so we climbed the very long flights of stairs up the steep hill to see it up close.

From the top of the hill, we had spectacular views of the city from almost every direction!  It was a stunning way to see the city, and we were so happy we made the effort.

When we were on the top of the hill, we noticed that the Fyskekyrka (literally, Fish Church, but really a famous seafood market inside a building shaped like a church) was very close by, so we walked down the hill and across the canal to take a look.

The building is pretty, and the inside is very interesting with beautiful light, but the seafood smell is overwhelming (especially for a fish-hater like myself) so our walk-through was pretty quick.  However, it was really neat to see all the different types of seafood and fish available for sale.  There were whole flatfish and crayfish and crabs as well as whole fish looking like they were frozen in time with their eyes and teeth still there.  The shops also sold fish that was already prepared for cooking and there were a few restaurants inside the Fyskekyrka, but it was too close to breakfast to stop for a snack.

We wandered in the sunny weather along the canal back towards our hotel area, and Josh wanted to stop at the grocery store for some items to make a cheap lunch so we could make up for the expensive laundry.  On the way there, a migraine set in, so we hurried through the shopping and made a beeline for the hotel where J laid down for a nap.

J spent most of the day sleeping off the headache, so I caught up on my interneting and after a walk, picked up our laundry, which suddenly cost double the originally quoted price.  So our clothes are clean, but at the cost of a new pair of pants!  I felt like I had no choice but to pay the exorbitant fee, so I handed over my credit card.  When I returned to the hotel with our clothes, my husband was emerging from his migraine-induced sleep.  We spent the next couple hours re-packing our bags in preparation for  the trip to Denmark tomorrow. I didn’t tell him about the laundry cost for a few hours, because I was afraid of triggering a different kind of headache!

Dinner tonight was being hosted by the conference on an historic steamer.

We walked in the pouring rain to the meeting place and then to the waterfront, where we boarded the old ship and picked a table.  J and I seem to have the uncanny ability to disappear or seemingly discourage others from talking to us at every social event, so we ended up at a table alone.  It could have been romantic, but we didn’t eat until about 9 pm and my blood sugar was pretty low by them (read: I was super grouchy!).  We were offered wine before the meal was served, and after accepting, about 10 minutes later, we were asked for 100 SEK for the two glasses!  We hadn’t expected to have to pay, since the meal was already paid for, so we scrounged together a bit of cash and then used credit for the rest.  Lucky we’re leaving Sweden tomorrow!

The menu offerings were fish and vegetarian, so J chose fish and I chose veggie.  I eventually ended up with a vegetarian meal after refusing several women who kept bringing me fish.  J’s meal was a large piece of unknown fish covered in a shrimp-filled cream sauce.  There were potatoes brought to the table in a separate bowl for us to share.  When my meal arrived, it was two huge slabs of quiche, one filled with carrot and asparagus, and the other with cheese.  There were also well-steamed carrots and asparagus (overdone in my opinion, but I’m no connoisseur).  I thought quiche was a rather hilarious vegetarian choice– isn’t it made almost entirely of eggs?!  Luckily I am not really a vegetarian!

The boat ride lasted over three hours.  We sailed out of the Goteborg harbour and through a large rocky archipelago.  Many islands were seemingly uninhabited, but as we got farther out, some housed small communities of summer homes.

A few islands had a lone house on them.  As we got out into the open ocean, we could see tankers and freighters making their way through the Atlantic.  As we headed back to Goteborg, the sun was setting and we got some great pictures of the ocean, islands and sky.

J managed to get a little tour down into the engine-room of the ship, which you could tell thrilled him to bits.  That man loves to be on ships! He couldn’t wipe the smile off his face the whole time.

Back in Goteborg, the rain had stopped and we walked back to the hotel.  When we checked in several days ago, they told us that there was free coffee and tea in the lobby, but we never investigated.  Since there was no dessert on the boat, we looked to see what was in the lobby and found some pastries and hot chocolate!  We took some of each and went to our room, where we soon fell asleep.

 

Marstrand and Magnificence

June 7, 2012

Miraculously, we both slept until the alarm went off today, so I think we are on our way to recovering from the jetlag!  J had his presentation first thing this morning so he was up quickly.  After answering a few e-mails, he was off to the university.  I had a leisurely morning– I finished the last ten pages of Middlemarch, had a long shower and a relaxing breakfast.

Just after nine, I walked to the Central Station and hopped on a train on my way to Marstrand, an island in the northern archipelago– about 40 km north of Göteborg.  I transferred to a bus in Ytterby, where a whole class of teenagers boarded with their teacher.  They were also headed to Marstrand, so when we got to the ferry terminal, we all boarded the ferry together.  The ferry is a passenger ferry only (according to guidebooks), but in reality, a few work vehicles and vans must be allowed on the island, because two vehicles were on the ferry and I saw quite a few such vehicles on the main drag of the island.

The crossing is only two or three times the width of the Fraser River, so the whole ferry ride is only about three minutes long.

Thankfully, when we got to the island, I was able to lose the noisy bunch of students and set out on my own.  The main drag of the street is all cobblestone, much like Göteborg, but it is all harbour, so there are boats moored on either side of the crossing.

There are a few restaurants, shops and cafés and the buildings across the harbour are perched haphazardly on rocks, which is reminiscent of Newfoundland.

Eventually the street trailed off into a hiking trail in the woods, so I took that path.

It took me all the way out to the tip of the island facing the Atlantic, and through a famously tall and narrow passage that must have been less than two feet across.

It rained on and off during the hike, but it wasn’t cold.  The trail sort of petered out on the rocks and it may have restarted somewhere further, but at that point I’d been hiking for about 45 minutes, so I turned around and headed back to town.

After wandering the narrow, steep cobblestone streets, I found a very, very steep road leading to the Carlsten Fortress, the major historic site on the island.

As I was heading up the road, I thought that this must be the reason that so many student groups seemed to be visiting the island.  When I got to the fortress, my suspicions were confirmed!  The grounds of the impressive stone structure were crawling with students of all ages, and there was a lot of Swedish yelling all around me.  A few little ones tried to speak with me, but when I told them I only spoke English, they didn’t know what to say!  The tour of the inside of the fortress was 75 SEK and I only had 115 SEK left for lunch and a few postcards, so I saved my money and took pictures of the outside of the fortress.  If my husband, the military history buff, had been there, we certainly would have taken the tour.  As it was, I was content to take some pictures and walk the grounds.

Before my hike, I noticed a cute local café where several people were sitting outside having their morning coffee.  After my exploration of the centuries-old fortress, I returned to that café, enticed mostly by the smell of baking from a few hours earlier.  I got a delicious brie-filled bunwich (making it five meals of bunwiches in a row..) and a blueberry pastry, which was also tasty.  I read my book while I ate and dried out from the rain.  After picking up a few postcards, I headed back on the ferry and then took the bus (packed with the same noisy school group in addition to another slightly younger, slightly quieter school group) all the way back to Göteborg.

I came back to the hotel where J was waiting in pre-afternoon nap mode, watching Asterix and Obelix in Swedish.  Shortly after my arrival and an exchange about his presentation (which went well) and my trip, he fell asleep.  As I mentioned, I really do stir up excitement in my husband!  Following his short nap, we went out for a walk.  We stopped for another one of my favourite chai lattes, and shared a chocolate muffin.  Then we spent some time shopping in a large department store, which had everything from fabric to household goods, luggage, clothing and stationery.  I found a pretty coil notebook for myself, and some capri tights for a good price.

We stopped at the hotel for a quick change of clothes and to drop off our purchases before we walked to one of the main city squares to meet with other conference attendees for a wine reception being held by the city.  There were a couple of delicious salads, plus rolls, wine and beer, so we treated it like dinner (and thankfully breaking my bunwich streak).

The reception was held in a stunningly beautiful old building that was completely ornate.  The floors had intricate wood designs and the two-storey doors featured inlaid wooden panels.  Two and three-tiered chandeliers hung from the ornate ceiling by velvet ropes.  The walls and columns seemed to be made entirely of marble and the ceilings were likely 14-15 feet high.

I tried to chide J into networking with his colleagues, but he wasn’t feeling very outgoing, so we stopped for ice cream at McDonald’s and walked towards the hotel.  It was warm and calm outside, so the water of the canal was calm and we got a few beautiful pictures before turning in for the night.

 

Exploring Göteborg: highbrow touristing and low class eats.

June 5, 2012

What a full day!  It is amazing how much one can accomplish when you wake up at 4:23 am!  We got dressed in a very leisurely fashion.  My husband, J, tried the shower first and was incredibly impressed with its separate pressure and temperature knobs.  He’s already planning our ensuite reno with the design features from this Swedish bathroom… I hope he isn’t disappointed with the availability of these particular fixtures in Canada when the reno becomes a reality.

I watched Golden Girls episodes with Swedish subtitles, then got dressed.

We ate the continental breakfast just after 6.  It was impressive, with several different meats and cheeses, brie, fresh vegetables, cereal, hot chocolate, yogurt, eggs, bacon, buns, sweet breads, etc.  Much better than the typical continental breakfast in Canada, but I wished there were more fruits available than just apples and oranges.

After breakfast, I decided to join J on his walk to the university campus where the conference was being held.  It was supposed to be about a half-hour, but after a few detours, it took more like 45 minutes on the way there.  The walk back was much more efficient!  The streets are cobblestoned and the walk goes past a 19th century church in an old district called Haga.

There is also a very steep path through the woods up to the top of a hill.

By the time I got back to the hotel, not much was open yet, so I spent an hour relaxing and reading my book.  When I headed back out, I wanted to see if I could find the Central Station, since I want to take the train from there tomorrow.  I found it, and then wandered through the inner city exploring.  I found a mall, and stopped for a chai latte at a coffee shop.  I was nervous about only speaking English, but is apparently not a problem–everyone just switches to English once I start speaking.  The chai latte was absolutely delicious, and I spent another hour relaxing in the coffee shop reading in a comfy leather chair.

Finally, the shops opened and I spent some time browsing, then walked to a different area of town where the Goteborg Konstmuseum (art museum) is located.

I arrived just a little early, so I walked around a block or two taking pictures and then went in.  The museum was full of school groups, but once I got upstairs, things were quite quiet and I really enjoyed the whole museum in relative peace.  The special exhibit was a comparison of the works of Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, with similar artists from the same time periods, but I really enjoyed some of the classical Scandinavian art more.  I bought some art postcards to send, then took my time returning to the inner city for a cheap lunch at McDonald’s.  The McChicken sauce was different, as was the Diet Coke, but still tasty.

J and I had agreed to meet at the hotel around 2 pm, but he caught up with me on the way there.  We spent an hour or so relaxing at the hotel, then decided to head back out for a boat tour of the canal.  This tour goes under several low bridges that criss-cross the canal, and we learned a lot about different architectural landmarks in the city.  Although it was a bit pricey (300 SEK or just over $40 CAD for the two of us), it was worth it to get a view of the buildings and see the landmarks in the harbour.  The water levels were high, so we actually had to take an alternate route, avoiding the lowest of the canal bridges.  Even on the alternate route, we had to duck down on the floor of the boat to avoid hitting our heads when we went under the “haircutter” bridge!  It was a lot of fun, and there were only seven of us on the tour. (That’s our tour guide there on the floor of the boat!)

After the tour, we went to look at a church built in the 1600s, but it was closed by that time.  We meandered back towards the hotel, but stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few snacks.  The grocery prices seemed a lot more reasonable than the restaurant prices.  We brought our pastries (an apple turnover and a pain au chocolat) and ate them back at the hotel.  We also bought a chocolate bar called Plopp, a delicious chocolate and toffee concoction which led to some enjoyable and immature jokes.  J had a nap and I relaxed till nearly seven, when we left for a wine reception for the conference.

The wine reception was held at a different location on the university campus, but it was still about a twenty minute walk.  It was outside, which was hilarious, because it was windy and maybe 15 degrees C outside, at the most.  At first, J was feeling shy, but we eventually met some interesting people from England, Japan and Germany.  J seemed to make fast friends with an important figure in the heritage academic community – a professor from England who is colleagues with J’s supervisor.  After several glasses of free wine and almost no food, we headed home and stopped for some Burger King dinner.  It was after ten by the time we were back at the hotel and eating, and J fell asleep shortly after he ate.  I stayed awake and read for a little while, but then went to sleep.