Dreaming of Freedom

It’s been a whirlwind of a time here. Mum has been staying for a few days and we explored the city - parks, museums, nooks and crannies and the Southern Gothenburg Archipelago. The later is truly lovely - it’s a collection of little islands - for the most part free of cars and dotted with houses and surrounded by bobbing fishing boats, sailing boats and yachts. We cycled out to Saltholmen to catch the ferry, bicycles and all and then cycled round the islands.

It’s pretty easy to get across to the islands. You can get tram number 11 from the city centre right out to Saltholmen. Ferries leave regularly so you can just turn up and hop on one. If you’re more of a cyclist you can cycle out there and take your bike on with you although they may charge you 10 kroner (about 80p) for each bike and they’ll only let you take them on if they have room. We didn’t get charged or turned away so I guess that’s when it’s busy. You can see people from the mainland taking all sorts of things across with them and there are a variety of transport options on each island depending on the size. My favourite was Asperö because the inhabitants use wheelbarrows to transport their stuff from the ferry home. You can see them as you stop off there, all leaning against one another waiting to be used.

We stopped off at Styrso, one of the larger islands and cycled around getting a feel for the place. We’d read that cars weren’t used on island so we were disappointed to find that there were vans and cars driving around - however there weren’t many and lots of people were using bikes or golf carts as well as mopeds with huge trays stuck on the front. We saw this ingenious vehicles being used for everything from grannies to babies, from wheelbarrows to shopping and we came away determined to have our own! We cycled over the bridge to Brännö - a smaller island with a noticeable fishing community and cycled round until we found a little spot by the sea where we could look at the jelly fish and marvel at the people swimming. There seemed to be a real sense of community on the islands from the little we saw although from what I’ve read the population doubles in the summer months. Other interesting facts about the island - they were apparently used from Holmgangs or duels by vikings/Norsemen about 1000 years ago.

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The weather is lovely again and on Sunday Keyvan and I went to the Botanical Gardens. They are absolutely fabulous. I’m not an expert on the different species growing there but the place is really pretty, it smells good and there is plenty of grass for people to sit down and enjoy the space. They are also the most interactive gardens I’ve been too, I think you get that sense from the variety of little paths and stepping stones to walk on; tunnels to walk through and little hills to climb up. At the far end of the garden there is a mini valley with steep rocky sides, a short climb allows you to enjoy a view of Gothenburg. For the budget conscious it’s good to know you can wander round the gardens for free because the entrance fee of 20 kroner is voluntary. A trip inside the hot houses will however cost you 20 kroner. It was pretty busy on Sunday as it was so sunny but I guess that the hoards as well as the queues in the cafe are significantly less during the week.

I’ve also finally finished my first short story. It’s still in a considerable rough state and I’m pretty sure it’s not good but I still feel as if I achieved something!

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I walked up to and around some of Slottsskogen yesterday evening. I came across the birdhouse or Fågelhuset to discover a variety of birds as well as some Humboldt penguins which are pretty much an endangered species. I wandered up the hill to find the rest of the zoo. It’s completely free and you can see a variety of animals including moose and deer. Despite the fact it’s always interesting to see animals I can’t really shake the feeling that it’s unjustified and cruel to keep animals in captivity. It seems that others share this view too and there is actually a campaign to close the zoo down.

Apart from my wholesome walk to see unwholesome practices I spent a good part of my day working on the Norwich page on my website. It’s looking a little better now.

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It’s been so cold here that I’ve spent at least a couple of days wearing jumpers and shivering. We had lunch with Swedish friends on Sunday and over the moose and potatoes they told us about Swedish weather and how there was snow in the middle of Sweden. Apparently the changeable nature of it is to be expected. If it’s this cold in summer I can’t even imagine what winter would be like.

Staying in the Swedish vibe I went to the Maritime Museum and Aquarium today. It’s a great place to take kids as there are lots of models of ships, a fun pirate ship area to play in and tables to eat a picnic on. There is also an aquarium with lots of fishes, coral and sea horses. It feels cruel to look at them in their glass cages but fascinating nonetheless.

Rachel emailed about her time in South America checking out the biofuels situation there. It’s an informative read if you have time.

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Last night Keyvan and I braved the cold (and boy was it cold our hands were actually freezing) and headed into the centre to Klubb Populär at Storan. The club was cozy with red curtains and a disco ball hanging between chandeliers. Joyti’s friend Mattias was DJing and I have to say his music was pretty fun to listen to - Indie music Swedish style. There were two bands playing - one of which was Elenette and the other Palpitation. Elenette were really good fun and the crazy dancers in the front rows obviously though so too, unfortunately my lack of Swedish stopped me digging the lyrics - but this is definitely one band you want to jump to. They have some interesting things to say about gender and they say it in a analytical philosophical logical way that’s hard to follow if you haven’t studied enough. Despite this it’s refreshing to know that bands have actually got something to say. For pictures of the night visit my gallery.

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I finally went to the design museum here it’s called the Röhsska Museet and it has an interesting collection of stuff from the last 3 hundred years. I spent a good hour or so wandering round and got a chance to watch some of the film Surplus: Terrorized Into Being Consumers which was showing. Somehow just going to the museum made me come home and spend a few hours on my novel. I also felt creative enough to put up my new Gothenburg page

Today we’re going to see an exhibition of some art and design work by first year students today which should be interesting. I’m also hoping to nip into
the Maritime Museum and Aquarium - which is supposed to be Gothenburg’s most popular museum.

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The weather turned cold on Monday and it seemed like the Gothenburg honeymoon was over but a change back today has restored my faith in the idea of a long hot Swedish summer. Apart from nipping into town and cycling to the sea I’ve been very busy the last couple of days grappling with CSS, html and embedding maps. I’m going to put up a new page on my website soon so you can see what I’ve done. I doubt anyone is going to be impressed!

We’ve just been to watch a film at the Global Studies Department at Göteborgs Universitet. For a few Wednesdays at 6pm students are showing free films. Today we watched Sophie Scholl. A film I was expecting to be like ‘The Wind That Shakes the Barley’ but it was quite different. Instead of using violence to make you sob, it was thought provoking - it making you think about how individuals should act when they perceive that the government is wrong.

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We have found a lovely flat to move into next month. It’s got a fairly good view of the lipstick building and is in a idyllic residential area. Each L shape of flats surrounds a little area covered with flowers and hosting a miniature playground for children. As it would appear is usual for blocks of flats here, each resident has a key to a laundry room where washing machines and driers are laid on for the residents free of use. It’s a one bedroom apartment and the bedroom and sitting room look out over the city of Gothenburg. The kitchen faces the other way but is also particularly nice as it leads on to a balcony overlooking the said flowers. Enough extolling the virtues - we’re off to sign the papers later. Blocket has been the website that facilitated all this flat hunting.

Although we have been busy flat hunting we have still found time to sit in the candle lit cafe in Konstmuseum and eat the delicious homemade food there.

We have also been indulging in a spot of tec stuff as Keyvan has kindly updated my wordpress so this site is now up to date. I’ve also started creating a whole new gallery to replace my rather grim old one. It’s only got a few pictures on it so far. He has been busy as always working on his code and I have even started on the promised novel.

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It’s been a busy few days. We’ve been mooching around Gothenburg city centre, flat hunting and cycling out to the coast. We’ve even remembered to take Keyvan’s camera out a couple of times and here is one of my favourite pictures of a tram on Avenyn.

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Those of you who take an active interest in such things will have noticed that I’ve been learning some CSS in order to make my website look a little better. Under K’s kind tuition I feel I have made some headway and although the website isn’t radically different it’s a little improved.

There has been more glorious weather in Gothenburg and we’ve just been out flat viewing. If you’re looking for places in Sweden then Blocket is the website to go to it’s the equivalent of gumtree and you can find everything for sale or rent on there. The flat was near Liseberg the big theme park here - we’re saving our trip there for another day so we sat outside on a little white bench underneath a very old tree and breathed in the scent of the hyacinth which was very nice.

On the way back I stopped off in Götaplatsen to go to Konstmuseum although as it’s undergoing renovation there isn’t much to see. I nipped next door to Konsthall only to find out that I’d been in the other day by waling through from Konstmuseum.

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