Gothenburg

Dan:

Gothenburg

During our trip we decided to rejig part of it a little bit. Initially we planned to leave Stockholm near 11 in the evening via a night train, but we decided we didn't want to risk loitering around the city with our bags on if our host needed us to leave early, so we decided to take a morning train to Gothenburg so we could have a look around for a few hours, then get on the same night train much earlier.

We dumped our bags at the left luggage then headed out. We grabbed a map from a small tourist info centre and planned out a walk that would take up the time we had. After initially getting a bit lost when looking at the rather industrial harbour, we finally found the main strip and had a nice stroll around the city. We had a look around the older area and grabbed a Mcdonalds before heading back to the station.

Impressions? We were quite glad that we hadn't stayed in Gothenburg for a few days as we had previously considered before the trip. There were only a few areas that looked nice and the rest of it was a bit meh. You also had the same pricing situation as Stockholm, only without the grand appearance in every direction. The streets are also filled with people asking for money, often coming up to when you're trying to have a sit and persistently asking regardless of me saying that I don't have any change (which was true). It seems EU laws allow people to come from poorer countries such as Romania and there is no law against them begging, and with the Swedish economy being so strong the currency is much better than their home currency so you can see why they are doing it. The problem is you never know who is in genuine need of help, who is making a living out of it and who is possibly being exploited by some sort of crime organisation.