Dreaming of Freedom

I cycled down the river and over the bridge to Hisingen to have a look around. I cycled through the houses up to S.A.Hedlunds Park and Slätta Damm. It’s a lovely wild area - hills covered in trees and Slätta Damm is a lake covered in water lilies. The Swedes really know how to make parklands for people to use.

On another topic - tip of the hat to The Archers and the brilliant storyline of the swap club and other attempts to make the fictional village sustainable. What a great idea - we should all set up things like that - in fact people have but now it’s achieved global fame on the Archers maybe other people will jump on board the idea. On a similar note the Norwich Swap Shop is still going strong. Visit it on Gentleman’s Walk on the 8th of every month between 10 and 4, to swap some stuff or volunteer your time.

For other useful things in Norwich you could check out The Greenhouse.

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I’ve just cycled to Gunnebo House. It’s an absolutely lovely eighteenth century house and gardens and I think the first of it’s kind that I’ve actually wanted to live in just because of its simple charm. The house is built in a clean simple neo-classical style and boasts a fully functioning organic kitchen garden that supplies the busy cafe there. It also has a formal garden as well as surrounding parkland, a stage for concerts and at the moment a somewhat dead looking Swedish maypole!

It’s about 10km outside Gothenburg and so only takes about 1 hour to cycle there and it’s a simple journey to make matters even easier. If you start at Liseberg, you just head towards Mölndal until you see a sign for Gunnebo.

The first thing you glimpse is the sparkling blue green lake, then the little sandy beach. Through the woods you arrive at the bottom of the drive and you can glimpse the white house and the beautiful white gated, grass bordered steps that lead to the house. It’s completely free to wander in the gardens but you do have to pay 70 ske to go into the house. There are toilets in the cafe and one near the house that non-one seems to mind you using if you’re not a paying customer. All in all it’s a golly good day out and if you’ve never learnt to cycle it is possible to get a bus or a tram out there and so it’s a little slice of heaven accessible to everyone.

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I’ve been spending yet more time in the Stadsmuseum and am looking forward to going back tomorrow. I’ve also had a look in the neo-classical Gustavi Cathedral which is breathtakingly decked out in gold and white, as well as the German Church on Norra Hamngatan. Museums and churches haven’t been my only taste of Swedish culture I’ve also been watching Sweden on the small screen including an Ingmar Bergman film (wild strawberries) and their beautiful wizz in the kitchen Leila Lindholm. Searching for the spirit of real culture I did attempt to go on Gothenburg’s Critical Mass this evening but sadly no-one else came.

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The other day K and I cycled down to Röda Sten(Red Stone). It’s an art gallery down on the water front. Unlike the places I usually frequent it isn’t free, in fact it costs 40ske in to get in. It was worth it as there was some interesting art work there, including an instillation created by Anna Sandgren called The Game.

Today I wandered down to the centre and discovered that there are
free tours at the Stadmuseum. Free city tours Wednesday-Friday 2pm and tours of the museum Saturday and Sunday 2pm.

Tomorrow is the last Friday of the month which means it’s the Critical Mass here in Gothenburg. I haven’t yet been on one but here are some pictures of previous ones.

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I cycled up to the Konstmuseum today. Most of the place is still being renovated but the 5th floor is due to open again on the 25th June and the 6th floor on the 2nd July so I’m getting quite excited about that. Meanwhile downstairs there is a good exhibition of Thomas Zornat’s work which I took to. He has a great style and I loved his misty window raindrop pictures.
I also went into the Konsthallen to look at the new exhibition entitled Tomorrow Always Belongs To Us. It’s pretty hardcore modern art but they’ve produced a great little booklet that explains where the artists are coming from and what inspires them, which really helps if you’re a modern art novice like me.

Meanwhile Gothenburg is grey and drizzly. Outside the seagulls are calling to each other and the elderflower are just going off and if I’m going to make another batch of elderflower cordial I had better go out to pick some.

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All K’s hard work has finally paid off and he has launched the first working version of his library look up website. Although the project isn’t finished you can now use it to search for libraries in London. Hopefully it will expanded one day to cover the entire UK. So if you’re looking for a library in London or a certain book in a London library then this is the site for you. Why not have a go.

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I’m currently watching the news about George Bush’s arrival at Downing Street and am disappointed but not surprised at the size of the anti-Bush/war/American foreign policy demonstration. According to the news the demonstrators are nowhere near Downing Street, instead held back by large police lines, and therefore unlikely to be seen or heard by Bush. A clear demonstration of (dare I say it) the lack of true democratic right to opinion in Britain.

It’s also sad to see how small the demonstrations have become over the last five years - I don’t think the numbers represent the amount of anger felt by people over the whole war charade nor the disappointment felt in the government. Many people are however confused about the situation as the reasons for war sold to them have changed every time one became an untenable lie. The success of ‘the great war sale’ has been down to that most effective weapon of all - namely the war propaganda pumped out by the media. Anyone in doubt about this should check out the work Media Lens have been doing.

Here in Sweden the war in the Middle East seems far away and I’ve been spending my days reading books by Bertrand Russell. The weather has turned again and it’s currently raining heavily. I’ve spent a very pleasant day baking cakes and other wholesome things. Yesterday K and I cycled with his friend up to Partille where we consumed pizza, non-alcoholic gooseberry pop and sweet Swedish strawberries.

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I went back to the Röhsska Museum today and wandered around looking at the beautiful objects. It’s such a nice little museum and it always makes me want to study art and design which is all the more tantalizing because the building is opposite the School of Design and Craft.
Afterwards I cycled around Gothenburg in the sunshine and popped into the famous fish market. From the outside it looks like a long low church. Inside the walls are lined with stalls selling everything from shrimps to scary looking fish. Apart from stopping to listen to a three man band do a rendition of the Beatles song - Can’t Buy Me Love - I cycled non stop along the beautiful cycle paths back home and discovered that the Esperanto Centre for Gothenburg is located really close to my flat.

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I spend some time in the Stadsmuseum on Wednesday was I was really impressed at the layout and design of the museum. A lot of the subject matter has explanations in English which is really nice if you’re incapable of speaking Swedish like me. A lot of time and thought has gone into creating the museum and it’s not at all boring or overwhelming like some. There is the most fantastic area for children to play in at the top of the museum which has to be seen to be believed - it includes recreations of rooms to play in. There seems to be a really sensible approach to children here in Sweden - you often find great play areas for them. In one of our local supermarkets there is a wooden boat for them to sit in and watch a tv showing children’s films. Outside most of the flats I’ve seen there are areas of grass and playgrounds for children. It’s as if children playing is a part of life here and not condemned to a designated area that you have to make a special journey to. I would recommend Gothenburg to anyone who has kids and is looking for a place to take them on holiday.

The Stadsmuseum is large and takes some time to go round so a couple of visits there seems to be the way to approach it. The is the fifth and final museum I have got into with my 40 kroner ticket (about £3.40). It’s ridiculously cheap - not just that it gets you into 5 museums with their free toilets and great displays but it lasts for a whole year.

Yesterday Keyvan and I spent the day in the Botanical Gardens eating a picnic and soaking up the sun - it’s the most gorgeous place in Gothenburg and I just can’t get enough of the place. It is as I suspected a lot quieter during the week and the only downfall is it’s lack of really nice toilets and a cute cafe - but then there are plenty of those to be found in other places - the closest possibly being the Natural History Museum.

This morning I have been negotiating the washing machine facilities here at our flats - it’s an incredibly interesting system - each day of the month has 4 time slots and using your special key you can move your designated lock to a free time slot. There is a host of washing machines and drying facilities all for free use of the occupants of this block. I’m dreaming of a day when we have something so sensible in England.

I put some pictures up yesterday from the last week or so but I have to say they are just snap shots because it’s hard to capture the feel of the place with just a camera.

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We had a pretty busy weekend here and so I’ve not done much exploring of the city. Saturday was the big move and involved spring cleaning the old flat before we left and then moving in to the new flat and doing all the cleaning, settling in and working out how to turn the tv on that that involves. Our new flat looks out over Gothenburg and is built into a hill. You enter the small looking building at ground level from pedestrian only paths and through beautifully maintained communal gardens. The back has quite a different feel - the building has that typical flat look common in the architecture here - and is several stories high. Looking out of the huge windows, that open surprisingly far, you get vertigo if you’re a wimp like me!

We can see over some of Gothenburg from the back - our claim to fame is that we can see the famous lipstick building. We can also see the cranes on the dock and the top of the ferry when it’s in! The absolutely best bit is the great wide view of the sky which is especially nice when dawn breaks or the sun sets. The area we’re in is called Masthugget and we’re near the famous church here. I’m told that the area used to be inhabitated by dock workers due to it’s proximity to the dock and gained it’s name that way.

I’ve been on a bit of an explore up the river and it’s pretty industrial in parts - Gothenburg is Sweden’s biggest port so lots of stuff comes through here including most of Sweden’s oil. I’ve also been checking out where all the cheapest supermarkets are nearby which is quite satisfying because Sweden isn’t cheap to live in. At the moment though it is so hot here that I’m actually hiding in the flat until it cools down!

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