Lay of the land

We went on a private bus tour of the city with a wonderful tour guide, Grenalda. She took us to see the Fish Church, which is where they had TONS of fish. They named it the Fish Church because the building looks like a church and they have lots of fish. 

Then we went to the town square; the courthouse and statue were under construction. She took us to the oldest building in Goteborg. She said that the building isn’t open for people to go inside, except for around the holidays they have a market inside. Then in the same “square” there was a chocolate shop where there was big pieces of chocolate and different types of licorice. The storeowner let people try the most popular licorice called, Haxvral. The translation of Haxvral is witch scream—this is because when you eat it you scream because of the taste and you make an ugly face like a witch.

Next-door from there was a leather store; the man working was making handmade leather goods. The colors he was using were bright and beautiful! You could get custom made belts, purses, wallets, briefcases…pretty much anything you could imagine. We also went to a handmade glass store, where the employee was making the glass products right in front of us.

The next place we took the bus to was to see a statue of Poseidon, the art museum, and the city theater all in a square. We saw a statue of Victor Hasselblad; the statue was called “I Am Camera”. He was holding a camera in his hand because he invented the world famous Hasselblad camera. His cameras are the ones that took photos of the first moon landing and are still on the moon.

Then we took a trip to Haga—an area with lots of shops and cafes. We stopped at Café Husaren and had the largest cinnamon rolls and coffee.




Our last stop on the journey was to the church on the hill near our hostel—it was absolutely beautiful! The views of Goteborg city were breathtaking because you could see for miles. 

Alycia, Megan and I (roomies)

I ended the day by going to an Italian restaurant next to Da Vinci (the restaurant we ate at the night before) with Megan, Paddy, Becca, and Katie. We were able to order half plates of tortellini pasta--it was delicious! We learned from our waiter how to say "tack sa mycket", which means thank you very much. Afterwards, we went out to explore the city night life. It was a great time! We met some friends who showed us how to use the tram system and told us about what life is like living and going to school in Goteborg. And on our walk home it was snowing; it was like a winter wonderland. We had a snowball fight with our new friends on the way back to our hostel.