Great Göteborg

Göteborg is the second biggest city in Sweden and although I haven't yet had an opportunity to visit Stockholm I have has a chance to see Göteborg.

Just over a month ago there were tickets for sale for a day trip to Göteborg. 400 SEK got you a return bus trip, a stop at the zoo to see a moose, a city bus tour, free time, and entrance into a pub.

After quite a beautiful bus ride into the city we stopped at a city park called Slottskogsparken which has a small zoo including a moose. Yip! I am officially a little more Swedish because I have seen a moose. They are huge! Most of the ones we saw had already lost their antlers but I was amazed at how long their legs were! That was pretty cool. And teh garden surrounding the zoo was pretty beautiful.

Unfortunately we didn't have much time to spare and we were quickly told to get back on the bus. I guess this is to be expected when doing an arranged tour...you are there on a set schedule and have to do what you are told to.

Then we drove around in the bus looking (albeit through the window) at some of Göteborg's top attractions including Lisebeg (A popular amusement park), Maritiman (the world's largest floating ship museum); the Opera House; as well as two soccer stadiums and a giant ferris wheel near the harbour. Then we stopped off in old town (I think it is called the Haga District) which has been around since the 1600s and walked around its quaint streets until we climbed up a massive flight of stairs to reach a vantage point which gives one of the best views of Göteborg. After a good amount of photos it was time to head back into the centre of town and then we had a couple of hours of free time to do as we pleased.

Unfortunately by this time museums and shops were either already closed or about to close so myself and some friends opted for walking through the streets, grabbing some brunch and just enjoying the city atmosphere. It was great!!!

Then at 20:00 it was off to a bar which thankfully had reasonably priced drinks (by reasonable I mean 35SEK for a glass of wine or draft of beer) and I really started to enjoy myself. There were drinking games, good music and I was meeting people from all over the world including Switzerland, France and Iran.

The biggest mistake of the evening, in my opinion, was leaving the bar and heading to a club. we had to pay for entrance to the club on the bus so by the time I realised I didn't want to go I was told it was too late. Once in the club they wanted more money for our jackets, etc to be stored. NO way! I paid 100SEK entrance and now they want money for coats as well. Hectic. Then we go upstairs and the drinks are all like 80SEK +. So by now I am really getting bleak...my happy vibe from earlier began to disapear so I decided to go get some food. I was then told by the people at the entrance that if I leave, I leave, and if I want to come back in I have to pay again. WTF??? No stamps....URG! So now I was really really bleak so decided to say screw it....I left the club grabbed some grub and waited for the bus which wasn't too bad. I should have known better, I am not a club person.

Other than that I have a fantastic day and I can't wait to go back to Göteborg on my own where I can go some of the other sites including the Natural History Museum which has the only stuffed blue whale in the world!

Drunken Woes....

Taken from http://geoventurer.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/sweden-surprises/

When I found out that I had got a scholarship to go to Sweden several stereotypical images flushed my mind! I thought that I would soon be living among some freakishly tall, beautiful, blonde people who like to drink beer and vodka, go on nature walks, as well as occasionally dress up as Vikings.

Well, sorry to disappoint but there are not as many blondes as you might expect....in fact I would say that there is a good mix of many hair types including pink and orange! There are some people that tower over me (although come to think of it thats not too difficult) but for the most part people only seem marginally taller. And yes, they do sometimes dress up at Vikings and more often than not this is at drunken parties!

And that's what I wanted to talk about...not drunken parties per se but what makes them drunk....yip, I want to talk about the good old booze!

Taken from http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?PostID=4525771

Sweden is famous for Absolute Vodka, which is brännvin (literally "burn-wine"), that is, it is distilled from fermented potatoes or grain. Long ago, people used to make their own brännvin and some still do it today although, from what I hear, it is highly regulated.

Sweden has massive tax on its alcohol (Vodka is 40%) and it is under a government monopoly. That is, only the government is able to sell and distribute alcohol above 3.5 %. This explains why it is so expensive to drink in Sweden.

If you want to get an ordinary draft in a bar you are looking at paying between 50-60SEK (R55-R65) and you could end up paying just as much for a 'special' bottled beer! Crazy right? I mean in South Africa you would pay R20 (25SEK) for a draft and in South Korea you would pay even less, 2000Won (R12, 15SEK). So drinking in Sweden is expensive business and I'm not quite sure how some students manage to go out four times a week and get wasted!

Well, I guess they get smashed because they drink before they pitch up at the party (pre-parties are VERY popular! It's no wonder why). Alcohol in the state owned bottle stores, Systembolaget, are cheaper than restaurants and bars but in comparison to the rest of the world it is still pricey. For a mediocre bottle of wine you are looking at paying about 100SEK (R120).

And it is so unfortunate that it is that expensive because Lund has some awesome little pubs and bars where you could see yourself slowly slipping into a drunken stupor if you didn't have to watch your wallet steadily burn a hole through itself.

Now the beer you buy in bars is generally of a really good quality! I don't know if you can say the same about the beer you buy from convenience stores. Convenience stores are allowed to sell drinks that have a volume of under 3.5% and once I bought Eko-Beer from my local grocery store! It was horrible! Bleh! One the first sip, your like, Mmmmm, that's not too bad, but, by the time you get halfway through the can you feel your throat closing up and refusing to have anymore! Anyway! Don't drink Eko-Beer!!

Ok, so now I have been blabbing for a while...but now you know a little bit more about the drinking situation here in Sweden. So have some sympathy! When you are out tonight, raise your glass and have a drink for me and maybe through some bizarre form of osmosis I too will get drunk!!!!

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Avl%C3%B6ningsafton_-_R%C3%B6sta_ja!_1922.jpg

Random Ramblings

I have been stumped about what to write about. In all honesty...I have been busy with class stuff mostly!

However, there are some changes that are happening. Firstly, it is starting to get cold! Last weekend the weather was randomly spectacular (apparently Swedish summer weather), the temperature was over 20 degrees Celsius, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and all in all it was just glorious! Needing to get away from the books for a while I hopped n by bicycle and found a spectacular little road that was lined by green fields and I just enjoyed the awesomeness of riding in the fantastic weather and beautiful scenery. I had a feeling that was a good weather send off...I knew it was going to start getting colder thereafter. And it has...with wind chill factor is has been about 9/10 degrees Celsius.

Considering how quickly things are going to get cold I decided to visit a neighbouring city, Malmö, this afternoon! Malmö is the third biggest city in Sweden and it is gorgeous. Being Sunday, there weren't many attractions that were open but I found myself just randomly strolling through streets and admiring the clear skies and great architecture. In South Africa Sunday's buzz with shops and activities, I was surprised at how quite and closed everything seemed in Malmö... However, several clothing stores start to grumble open at around mid-day so I did a spot of shopping. I finally bought myself a pair of pants for gym so there is no more putting it off! Yip, I will be joining gym this week (another change).

In the next two weeks I will be finishing my first course and starting my second. At the moment I am writing and studying like some kind of psycho. The paper I am writing counts for my entire mark for this course so I guess I'm a little nervous about it! On top of that it is the first paper I am submitting for grading at Lund and I am scared of how I will be graded! eeeek! "The first cuts the deepest", right?

Anyway, I can feel that these are just random ramblings as I really have nothing concrete or of incredible interest to tell you!! But when I do, you'll be the first to know :)

The language mismatch

OK, so anyone who has ever tried to learn a new language knows that it is no easy task and plucking up the courage to speak this new language is terrifying.

I'm not terribly good with learning languages. I can barely speak Afrikaans (a well known language in South Africa); Oliver's (my boyfriend) family is German and over the years my ear for the language has developed but my ability to speak it is still shocking; and lastly, after living in South Korea for a year I was able to master a few basic phrases like hello, yes, no, how are you?, where is the toilet?, etc but even after a year speaking the language was no easy task.

So I have been in Sweden now for a month...how is my Swedish panning out? Well, I start formal lessons from the 31st of October so I have been doing self-study at home off of the internet....my vocabulary is getting better but my pronunciation needs a lot of work...which became apparent when I tried to read for some of my Swedish and Danish friends who were mystified by what I was trying to say and were in fits of laughter by how I was trying to say it.

Well, anyway...On Friday for lunch I went with a friend of mine, Nina, to buy a Kebab. Before I ordered I confidently said to her that I was going to order in Swedish....

I step up to the counter and say ein Kebab, the man starts speaking to me and I realise I understand what he is saying (I'm blown away....wow...my home studying has really paid off)...he is asking me what sauce I would like, I hear sharf which I know to be hot and I quickly stop him saying sharf in reply. He then repeats the order back to me and I say ne (which is yes in Korean). Realising my mistake I quickly say yes in English and then step aside waiting for the order to be made and I start giggling at my mistake...Nina then asks me why he was speaking German to me. Confused I realise that I had order ein kebab instead of ett kebab and the very well spoken kebab man had been speaking German to me which is why I understood what sauces he was listing....so much for my at home study lessons.

After that Nina and I were in fits of laughter....we couldn't contain ourselves. Keeping in mind that placing the order only took a few brief minutes this post barely does the situation justice....I was throwing around little bits of other languages and some how I still got the right order.

This wasn't the first time I got languages confused and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last....

Just wait till the next time someone gets me drunk or I'm overly tired, or I'm just not paying attention...they are going to have a poorly speaking Swedish, Korean, German, Afrikaans English person on their hands....

Bicycle, Bicycle, BICYCLE

"Why won't you let me ride my Bicycle, Bicycle BICYCLE", a famous lyrics from a song by Queen pops into my mind regularly while I am in Sweden. Not only because it is a ear worm and when I hear it on my PC it is invariably glued to my brain for the next couple of days but also because there are so many of these two-wheeled inventions darting and cruising around Lund.

Sure, its' not the bicycle mayhem of Amsterdam or Copenhagen but I have never lived in a place before where a bicycle is actually the main mode of transport. I see men in suits on their way to work, and women dressed to the nines with high heels and all happily glide along without messing up their perfectly done up hair.

Another way that you know that they are serious about bicycles here is the range of bicycle attachments and contraptions you see. There are the three wheeled covered bicycles for when it's raining, bicycles with baby seats, bicycles with baby carriages so that your kid doesn't get wet when it decides to rain (which is apparently a lot).

Taken off the website babyology

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Beyond the contraptions it's the skills you witness. I can barely keep my handlebars straight most of time (which is evident when you consider that I had a mild crash the other day when a kid and I connected and I was left with several bruises). But, people here have some mad skills. They are off their seats before the bike stops seemingly standing next to it while they guide it into a parking spot, they smoke, sms, and even hold umbrellas all while going a lot faster on their bikes than I could even hope to be on a bright, sunny day with no wind and both hands on the handlebars.


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Now I don't have any photos to prove these things to you because I feel like a bit if a turd whipping out my camera at every little thing that makes me go ooooh and aaaah but I promise you it's true and pervasive and I hope that before I leave Sweden I would have mastered the ability to park by bicycle in a fashion that is a little more elegant than my current heavy handed manoeuvring that makes me look like a bull in a china-shop.

Some sort of fool!

Ok, so this isn't a personal attack against myself or anything but I must admit that I can do some pretty stupid things...put me in a different country when small, seeminly mundane things baffle me then you are bound to get some surprising results.

It all started with a bottle opener, yes, a bottle opener. I bought a can of sweet corn (mielies back home) but have been avoiding opening it because of the peculiar tin opener I have. Needless to say I tried several times to twist it around the can and puncture it but to no avail.

So just the other day I was speaking to my new found friend Nina about my little dilemma. She comes from Denmark and says she finds using these openers much easier. She then carelessly told me to push it in and pull it along. OK! So it's that simple I thought...I was just being silly, right?

So that night I decided to face the dreaded can and, no, it was not that easy. All I ended up doing was puncturing the can until it looked like something that had been left in a scrap yard. After a little while of puncturing holes in to I joined the holes to make a bigger whole (which was still quite small relatively speaking) and poured my corn out. What a mission!

So that was my one foolish moment and no I have not yet figured it out so until I find another opener to buy (which I have been looking for but this style appears to be the national favourite)  I will avoid tin food! Sounds fair enough. The next foolish moment, caused me a little more pain.

Because it is so dry here...with winter approaching and the change of season etc I noticed that my skin was very dry so I went about trying to buy some body cream. So standing in the isle I pick up a bottle of cream and off I go. Now let me explain my skin is very cooperative, it gives me no hassles and makes very few demands of me so I usually use body cream for my face as well and I have never had any issues.

So after my shower I decided to put some cream on and while rubbing it into my arm I realise that the cream takes forever to rub in and a little stretches very, very far! Weird, must be a Swedish cream-thing I thought! So after a couple of days of using the cream on my body and face I realise that the skin on my chin is getting very dry. URG! So in an attempt to counteract the dryness I put even more of the body cream on my chin, seems logical. But it burns a little and the condition worsens, eventually I begin to feel self conscious of it so I head off to the pharmacy and I got a non-perfumed face cream. So now I have my remedy!

Then this morning I am about to put on my body cream (the first one I bought) and realise it says "duschcreme". I stop! Doesn't dusch mean shower or something? OMG! I've been rubbing liquid soap into myself for the past week thinking it was cream! What an idiot!! No wonder my chin decided to go red and hate me!! What a fool!!

And to top all of that on my way home today I realised I have absolutely no idea how to put the light on my bike on!

So yes...I am some sort of fool!

Let the madness begin!

Ok, so classes started this week and I can officially say I forgot how demanding studying can be. It's only been one week of class and I'm already running around like a crazy women let loose on a pig farm.

When I saw our schedule, which has two lectures a week and a seminar I thought that this would be easy peezy! Not because I'm being all overly confident but because during my fourth year at University in South Africa I had five courses each with two or three lectures a week. So when I saw that in Sweden at a Masters level you tend to only do one course at a time I stupidly equated that to mean I would have hordes of time to engage in all of the other cool things happening on campus.


You see, I have been given reading, but not just a little bit...each week we have hordes or material to wade through before the lecture. For next week Tuesday we have 12 chapters of a book to get through. Phew! And to top of all the madness as class started I also started meeting people, fancy that!

So with all this work to do what am I doing today on a gorgeous Saturday in Sweden. Staying home? Nooooo, I'm actually about to hop on a train and head to Copenhagen which is only half an hour away! And what will I be doing tomorrow you ask? Tomorrow I'll be reading like a demon...I'll be reading so fast the pages will be on fire ( I figure this is the better attitude to have...) As long as I have a mid afternoon nap to re-charge my batteries I'll be all set and ready for Tuesday. Nap!? I know right...but they are actually one of my little loves in life....mmmmm.

So this was just a very very quick entry to say that things are officially underway. Class has started and now it this time to step up to the plate and prove my worth. But it is also time to start to get to know my surroundings a bit better and in the coming weeks there are some cool things coming up. Unfortunately I won't be able to partake in all of the events, one because there are simply too many of them, two I need to make time for studies, and three some of them tend to be a bit pricey. But when I do go to one I will be sure to let you know what weird and awesome things I have been up to

Alrighty but I better start getting ready for my daytrip to Denmark...I'll let you know how it goes!