Sweden

In our new found sense of tourism, myself, emma, neil and morten decided to take the 4 hour train ride to Gothenburg in Sweden. Gothenburg is the second largest city in sweden with half a million people, behind the capital Stockholm.

The scenery itself on the way to sweden is amazing, and Gothenburg is a beautiful city, very much of the scandinavian ilk, with stunning architecture and beautiful parks...it is also a favoured destination for norwegians, as sweden is considerably cheaper than norway. We were visually amazed when we were only charged £4 per pint of beer!

Weather wise it was sunny/cloudy/hot/cold/dry/wet, but w still had a great time, and managed to do most of the touristy things, despite not one of 5 book shops selling the lonely planet guide to sweden..but if you wanted to go to the solomon islands, well...you were in luck

It is a beautiful place, but i think i prefer oslo more. Oslo is more compact, less spread out, but quite similar i guess as both are coastal cities.

Was nice to be back in oslo...

...except on my local train home, there were about twenty 14 year old 'girls' who play for the West Ham girls football team (they all had west ham tracksuits on) who were a bit panicky as they didnt know where to get off the train, so being a nice guy i helped them, and told them which station they needed (mine as it happens). during conversation, i mentioned that i was a sheffield united supporter (sheff utd were relagated instead of west ham on a legal technicality...and we had less points..but that's by the by)...to which the 'well spoken' (ahem) 'girls' started to give me abuse and started to chant 'your shit, and your going down'....hhmmm nice...it was like giving a gremlin food after midnight...i left on the other side of the station.

great weekend though

Homeward Bound

View from the train going home, and the second picture was taken just coming into Oslo

All Things Swedish...

We set ourselves a challenge on the train, that we had to photograph everything that we know to be a stereotype of Sweden. And we just managed to complete our list before boarding the train home. This list is:

1. ikea

2. abba

3. volvo

4. h&m shop

5. swedish porn (unfortunately this was the closest to that one we got)

6. swedish meatball sandwich

7. blonde haired women

mission successful

Definition of Irony

it's a lighthouse boat (i kid you not)

...think about it

Sunday

Went on 30 minute boat trip to an island fortress off the coast of Gothenburg, which was used to defend the city from attacked from the Danish (the country, not the pastry...food fights weren't invented til the Bugsy Malone film came out).

Saturday Night

Cheesy cheesy nightclub with the worst music ever! (of course we danced)

Eh?

This made me chuckle, it was on the outside of the lift in the hotel. Now ive seen some weird signs in my time, mostly in japan, but this one may take the proverbial biscuit...and dunks it in your tea at the same time...

answers on a postcard

Vikings with Lipstick

Well, the boat was called the viking, and the building was called the lipstick, on sunday we went to the top of the lipstick building and saw Gothenburg from the top floor viewing room...it is also the ugliest building in the world

More Gothenburg

We came, we saw, we conquered...

castle overlooking the city

Hage

uber cool area of Gothenburg

Gothenburg...random architecture

can't help feeling that the grandeur of the building was somewhat undermined by the 'crazy golf' course just outside

Train to Gothenburg

oh how the conversation never stopped flowing, on that fun packed 4 hour train ride to gothenburg.

those of you who have seen 'wheres wally' may find a gag in these pictures somewhere...

The most expensive round of drinks...ever!

Went out with few mates last night, for no particular reason other than i wanted to try out a restaurant in a place called Grynelokke, which used to be a 'rough' end of town, but is now full of trendy bars and restaurants.

Now, Oslo is one of THE most expensive places on the planet, seriously, normally about £7 per pint of beer ($15), We ended up in a cool little bar, that apparently serves the best mojitos in oslo, and for some reason that seemed to make sense last night, we were buying in rounds. And i'm not exaggerating when i say that a round of drinks last night came to £75 ($150)!! between 8 of us....cripes

pictured, and many making their blog debut, from left to right...: Fun-time Frankie (Houston Texas), Dave (Sheffield!!), Neil (Scotland), Emma (Manchester UK), Morten (Oslo), Alex (Devon UK), Johiris (Caracas, Venezuela), Me (with the most ridiculous fake 'my lips are stuck to my teeth' smile ever...im seriously thinking about retiring from smiling altogether...im just no good at it)

Stabæk

Stabaek are my designated football team in norway, due mainly to the fact that my mate morten supports them. they are an oslo team. you kinda have to adopt a team whereever you go...selangor in malaysia, albirex in niigata, and so now stabaek in oslo. i saw 'our' first game this sunday on tv in the pub...we are currently top of the league in the top division, now this is new to me... no team i have ever supported have been top of the top league, and they have lost only once this season (summer season).

needless to say we got hammered 3-0...i may never be allowed to go again...sorry morten

Sunday

yes...mountain biking again! more same same photos of the forest and hills around oslo.

the fireplace is taken from a hytte, a norwegian hut thing that are famous in norway. its where we stopped for a bite to eat.

one interesting fact, is that the paths we use to cycle down, are turned into cross country ski runs in the winter, and you can ski over the lakes when they are frozen over...roll on winter!

Telemark Canal - The 8th Wonder of the World...kinda

The telemark canal is billed as the 8th wonder of the world...this caught my eye when trying to find somewhere interesting to fill my weekend...i mean...the 8th wonder of the world is a pretty amazing claim...i had to see it. now the bit i missed, and quite an important bit, was that it was considered the 8th wonder of the world when it was built. this is a significant piece of information, as the telemark canal was built in 1861...hhmmmmm now, im sure it was pretty impressive 146 years ago...but by todays standards..... the canal is 105 km's long and was blasted straight out of rock, by 500 men working for 5 years. it also has some amazing locks that guide boats down the ascent/descent. now, in all fairness, it is a very very beautiful place, and shows some of norways many stunning views...just not sure it belongs up there with other 7 wonders of the world. we only went part of the way, for about 2 hours (it takes 11 hours to do the whole thing) now, during a conversation of the way home, did you know that there are actually 6 different '7 wonders of the world' lists? modern day, ancient, man-made, natural, medieval....and another one. kinda dilutes the whole thing in my mind...oh, and last week they announced a new list of 'the 7 wonders of the world'...one contender was the golden palace in kyoto...which is was pretty ordinary if you ask me...anyway, we had a nice day out

Theres a joke in there somewhere...

during our descent down the locks (which takes a while), we may have gotten a little bored. morten asked me to pose for a picture with the ships bell...now, even i thought this was too much of a contrived 'blog photo' so for 10 minutes we took turns in trying to be funny...honestly, 10 minutes and these are the best we could manage...comedy, certainly not my strong point. be distracted though by the other pretty pictures

The 8th Wonder of the World

The locks that take the boats up and down the canal