Sunday Aug 18, Göteborg, Sweden
On Sunday I went to a mass in Polish at 1 pm. It was packed. Packed. I had to put my bag between the kneeler and the pew and had to kneel around it. I had the readings on my phone, so it was reasonably possible to follow the mass. Afterwards, I lit a candle for my friend that requested it because she has Swedish roots.
I went to the Fish Church to see this place for myself. It was closed. What kind of church is closed on a Sunday? Weak. It was a neat building though.
I got a kebab plate for the third (at least third) time from the same place close to the circus tent (dance fight tent). The big show for the day was the RIX FM pop concert at the main stage by Poseidon again. A guy and a gal came out and did a mix of mostly pop/dance songs. Stuff like "I don't care", "Get lucky", and "Little talks". It was really funny to hear the guy sing in English, because you could really hear his accent coming through, especially on "Get lucky". They came back on once more between other acts, but weren't very interesting because they were just covers.
The big crowd-pleasers were the famous Swedish pop stars. Apparently a few were from Swedish Idol (one winner I think). You would totally think they were Americans until they spoke to the crowd. It seemed like every person said "Gothenburg" slightly differently. But it always sounded something like "yoo-TE-boorg!" (but like a soft te, not how you'd say "tee").
The first band was State of Drama. Totally emo rock band that was decent. Their first song was funny, "You loved me for money, but you made me hate you for free!"
The next guy was a darker skinned, fairly thin guy named Oscar. He just sang about love songs and the kids loved him. It was funny to see all the young Swedish kids loving their pop stars.
There was a white guy called David (possibly last name Lawrence) who dressed in a snappy beige suit (no tie) and had some solid dance moves and begged us on a chorus to "put your hands up in the sky!" It was funny how all the songs were in English and had absolutely no clever or original lyrics. He held one of his dancers hands and did and assisted flip, so that was cool.
There was what I thought was a middle eastern guy who seemed to sing in almost a Puerto Rican style. He had like 5 women in big dresses that didn't seem to look middle eastern but for some reason I felt like the sound was a mash up of middle east and Puerto Rico. The dancers had big huge gold fabric from their dresses to their arms that they could wave like arm flags. It looked neat.
There was another, more raunchy heartthrob kid who sang about taking off his and her clothes and grabbed his crotch a fair amount.
I only saw one girl and was disappointed by that. She sang a duet with a country looking guy who was actually just a pop singer. The duet was kinda soft and told how now that they were both sober, they can't be together and she should leave. It was pretty lame. Her solo song was forgettable.
It really started to rain hard but thankfully I had my umbrella. It stopped and I left when two rappers came on. They were decent, but I wanted to plan my trip to Stockholm. I did see this neat statue on my way back to the hotel. I'm sure it would be super popular in the states.
I got hella frustrated by how full ALL of the hostels were in Stockholm for my time and decided to stay in Gothenburg one more night to make sure I planned my trip to Stockholm properly. I love being able to stay when I want and go when I want, but I got so pissed off that all these hostels are full. That just goes to show you need to plan better. I am not planning on staying after The Knife concert because of my lack of planning and my lack of meeting people. And, it will be a long time on the road. It'll be nice to get back to real life. Just, not yet!
Monday Aug 19, Göteborg, Sweden
On Monday I switched hotels for the fifth time I think. Turns out this one was a way longer walk than I thought. I couldn't check in yet, so I went out. I went to an indoor deli or market where every stall almost looked the same. A nice looking little place with tons of meats and cheeses on display. So many things looked weird but good. Some shops were bakery types. I got a plate of Swedish meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes, a salad, and lingenberries from a small shop. I'm pretty sure the meatballs were just frozen from Costco, but man, they were hella good and I wish I had a plate of that right now. The mashed potatoes were super good, too. The entire plate was only 59 SEK ($9). A guy came up and just asked for mashed potatoes in English and the guy just gave him a huge plate. The (I think) American guy said oh, I have to pay you for this. And the guy reluctantly accepted.
I was about to leave when I saw a fruit and nut shop. I had the guy make me a trail mix with nice big dehydrated strawberries. He walked over the other side of his stall and asked if I like olives. I said that I mostly just liked them on pizza, not by themselves. He said, to enjoy olives you need to first eat feta cheese, good feta cheese, then immediately eat the green olive. He gave me like three rounds of this. It was really tasty. He said you have to eat this for 6 months, maybe a year before even trying black olives. "Where you from, America? Oh no, they don't have these good green olives there. These special." Then he took a few green olives, lime juice and "good" olive oil and mixed them together. He said this is when you are drinking wine or beer. The feta is for no drink. He reminded me at least three times not to eat black olives sooner than 6 months after eating green olives. I probably had 7 free olives and a decent hunk of feta from this guy. It was awesome and totally not requested. I am not sure where he was from, but his skin was darkish and he was bald with black hair and I believe a goatee and had a nice belly.
I then went to the cathedral. It was massive and right in the middle of the city.
I went back to the Fish Church because it was on my way to my next stop. It was open but much smaller than I thought. And only one stall was open. Bummer. I wanted to see a bunch of huge cods.
Then I went to this old watchtower which was all that was left after one of the oldest strongholds in Gothenburg. This is the watchtower with a golden crown at the top (I believe they said it was wooden, though).
It provides some great views of the city.
Next was the Gothenburg Opera because I am an opera FREAK and I must see all the opera houses in the cities I visit. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the Oslo Opera. But it was on the water and had some good views of the channel and a permanently docked ship that was converted to a hotel (not that it's a completely original idea). Here's the Opera.
And here is the ship with a huge tower being built behind it. I wish I knew the story of it, but I like the look of it.
I will miss Gothenburg. It's a terrific city that's easy to navigate with reasonably priced food, awesome girls, tons of shopping, and great proximity to nature. It doesn't feel very old or classic, but I love it. Almost everywhere you go, they are constructing new roads and buildings. I saw three guys assembling a new brick walkway out of granite I think. It was funny to see because although you can tell it looks new, it gives off a centuries old vibe. They just take these maybe 4 or 5 inch cubes of granite and do some trial and error to see if it looks good and then pound them in. It does make walking kind of a pain, though. The walkways are not smooth. No one minds but tourist me, I suppose. And no one really stays to the right or respects walking lanes. I had to weave a bunch and felt like, dude, you just cut me off. I'd always be looking for walking lanes, and they were so inconsistent. Also, people cross the street where ever as long as it's clear. Few people pay close attention to the walk/don't walk signs. Until next time, Jooteboorg!
No comments:
Post a Comment