First Full Day in Gothenburg

On my first full day in Gothenburg, I started at the central train station (Centralstationen) to find a “Bureau de Change”, as it is called in English
As I was told by my friend, the banks are to be avoided for changing foreign currency, because they charge you a high commission. My best option was to find a Forex branch. I had actually seen one upon arrival at the airport, but was scared away by their “ostentatious” window posters. Anyway, the branch at the station was, if possible, even more ostentatious, but the staff were friendly, efficient and helpful in cashing my Traveller’s Check.

Now that I had dough, I made a few stops at some small stores inside the station, but only bought a small pocket book at the Pocket Shop chain, since I didn’t want to carry too much stuff with me for the rest of the day. Also thinking that I could always buy the same books at the Pocket Shop in the mall I was going to later on. (how foolish)

Then I crossed the road to that mall, called Nordstan. There I went to numerous stores, had lunch, etc.

My biggest find there was the Books & Media sale they had at Ahléns, a large and stylish department store, where most products are out of my budget range. But in the Media dept., I was so lucky as to find a whole wall named “low priced”, where I bought almost all the Swedish movies I could find. 6 DVDs in total, which is after I had put back one because I felt too greedy. But hey, since I’m only there every 4 years, 6 movies isn’t TOO bad, is it?

I stayed at Nordstan until about 4 o’clock, before heading home, since I wanted to eat at home first, before going to the concert that night. For dinner, I went to the market / shopping plaza at Olskrokstorget, just one tram stop before home. There I was so lucky to find a fish stand (not very surprising in Sweden), who had a few ready meals that looked delicious. After much deliberation, I chose the “Wokked Prawn Rice” and a piece of “Warm-smoked salmon”. Both turned out to be excellent, even if the rice was a bit too oily.

More about the concert in another blog entry.

More details about my shopping spree are under the link below:

Welcome to Gothenburg

Wednesday I arrived in Gothenburg in my dream country Sweden. When checking in at Schiphol airport, guess who I ran into: fellow blogger Paul de Bruin and a few orthopaedic research colleagues, who were on their way to a conference.

After a smooth flight of about 75 minutes. I was welcomed by the sign above. Since Sweden is in the EU, I didn’t get a stamp in my passport, unfortunately. Since Landvetter is a really small yet international airport, I was at the baggage claim area in just 2 minutes, and had my luggage after just another 2 minutes, after which I walked to the Flygbuss bus station in 3 minutes.

The Flygbuss took me to Korsvägen (slightly outside the city center) in just 20 minutes, where after just 1 minute I was greeted by my friend E. who had just come from work. Then we went to her house, where we caught up on everything that had happened in the past 4 years in which we hadn’t met.

American Splendor

Saw American Splendor at Lumen, Delft’s “Art House” movie theatre. I found it a refreshing movie, about the life of a comic book author, Harvey Pekar, who made comic books about his own life. Meta-meta-life, so to say. And intermixed with the fictional Harvey Pekar, is a documentary / interview with the real Harvey Pekar.

Apparently this American Splendor comic book series was significant in the American Underground comic book scene. Not having grown up there, I know nothing about it, but it didn’t stop me from liking the movie, because it was made with a lot of humor. And it’s also refreshing to see another side of the US, not the usual Hollywood glamour & glitter.

Definitely recommended!

Booked for Sweden

Today, I booked a ticket to Sweden, woohoo! Although I want to go much more often, somehow I end up going once every four years. I was there in 1996, 2000, and hopefully in two weeks, I’ll be there again. Since I still have a lot of holidays left this year, I feel I should use them.

Unlike the last two trips, when I went to both Stockholm and Gothenburg, this time I’m only going to Gothenburg. But it should still be great fun to go there again, since I’m visiting two half-Swedish half-Indonesian/Dutch friends. And it will be a test to see if my hip will be able to carry me all the way there…

Now to brush up on my Swedish, which has gotten worse in the past few years of not having used it actively. Talar Du engelska?