I slept in late my first morning in Gothenburg. It's hard to say whether I haven't fully adjusted to the time change, or whether I've adjusted perfectly well and am on a California schedule (go to sleep late, wake up later). In any case, it's not the best situation out here because we only have so many daylight hours. I enjoyed free cereal and tea at the hostel before walking out with no particular goal to see what I'd find.
Gothenburg is a beautiful city, much less busy than Stockholm and with more nature areas. I passed by Liseberg (an amusement park), the Gothia towers, Universeum, and kept walking until I found myself at Trädgårdsföreningen, which is a huge garden with many beautiful greenhouses and sculptures. I spent hours following the trails and walking through the greenhouses, and I felt that it was one of the most beautiful places I've been.
By 5:00 I was super hungry for dinner, but all I could see were very pricy restaurants, other than McDonalds and Subway. I was so hungry that I considered eating there, but decided at the last minute that I was budgeting well enough to eat a nice meal now and then. I chose a restaurant on the main street and pointed to something on the menu, which suspiciously lacked prices. It turned out to be a beautiful fish fillet (halibut, I think) served with a creamy dill sauce and tender roasted vegetables. It was the best meal I've had since I left home and filled me up completely. I held my breath when the check came, worried about how much it would come out to, and it turned out to be the equivalent of $13.50! I took the hour walk back to my hostel feeling fulfilled, happy, and warm despite the very cold weather.
Back at the hostel that evening, I face-timed with my dad, then my sister. The wifi at this hostel isn't great so I had to do it in the common room, but there was no one really around and it was great to talk to them. No one else checked into my room that night or any of the following, so for the price of a shared dorm room, I had the place all to myself. Still I didn't sleep so well because of the cold, and when my alarm went off in the morning I sat up and promptly smacked my head on the top bunk. Then I went back to sleep until I had properly overslept again.
After having the leftover salad from my first night in Gotheburg and a cup of coffee for a free breakfast, I decided to brave the train to go to the botanical gardens. I always get nervous about taking public transportation in new cities, because I have a tendency to get lost in any situation, and stepping on the wrong train is an easy way to get extremely lost. Luckily, the transportation is extremely straightforward here, and it was a straight shot to the park.
This botanical garden is one of the largest in Europe at 500 hectares, and I walked around most of it. Of course, nothing is in bloom at this time of year, but it was still gorgeous and I enjoyed it regardless. My favorite moment was climbing way up in a tree, finding a large branch comfortable enough to lie on, and looking up at the multicolored autumn leaves set against the backdrop of a bright blue sky. My friend Diandra had warned me that any Swedish person would consider me crazy to climb a tree (apparently that's not something adults do here), but I've never cared much what the general public thinks of me, and this day was no exception. After I came down from the tree I warmed up with a delicious hot chocolate (really though, why does everything taste better in Sweden?), then set off walking back to the train.
The train stop was not particularly close to the garden, and it had been a nice walk in the daylight but was somewhat unnerving at night. The guy I bought the hot chocolate from assured me it was safe, that nothing bad ever happens here, but I still felt nervous as I crossed under bridges and past parks. I was relieved when I finally made it to my train stop, and took it back to the hostel.
At the hostel I made pasta for dinner, and I was joined by the guy who had helped me get my key that first night. He introduced himself as Adrian from Armenia, and initiated a conversation that flowed without interruption for 5 hours straight. When I realized it was midnight, I excused myself to my room and fell into another fitful night's sleep.
On Saturday, which happened to be Halloween and my last day in Gothenburg, I decided to head out to the southern archipelago. I took the train for an hour and the ferry for 45 minutes to get there, but transportation is cheap out here and cost under $3. The island I explored has a population of several hundred people, but most don't live there year around. The landscape was gorgeous, towering with beautiful boulders, various berries, sea-lavender, and to my delight, CATS!!! At first I wasn't sure if they were relatives of the Lynx or if domesticcats because these things were HUGE. But they were super friendly and I got my fill of kitty love there :)
I headed back toward the ferry an hour before it was due because I could see on my google maps that I was at the polar opposite end of the island. I wasn't sure how to get there, and at the time it seemed like a good idea to follow the water's edge around the island back to the ferry landing. As I climbed and leapt from one boulder to another (as if I were trained in parkor), following the perimeter of the island with no homes or humans in sight, it occurred to me that if I hurt myself out here- say, slipped from a rock and broke my leg- it would be a very long time before anyone found me, especially given that no one knew I was coming out here today.
I wondered how long it would take anyone to realize I was missing. Maybe it would be my Norwegian host wondering why I never arrived in Oslo, or the hostel in Gothenburg wondering why I never checked out. Perhaps my family would start to wonder after a few days why I wasn't posting anymore and why they hadn't heard from me in a while. It wouldn't be difficult to locate me with the GPS on my phone, but I came to realize that next time I venture to do something like rock climb on an island with few human inhabitants, I'll feel more secure knowing that someone knows where I am.
Other than this particular adventure, I've been pretty good about letting someone know where I'll be most of the time. Any time I go out with I've text my roommates back home where I'm going, who I'm with, their facebook link, and when they can expect me to check in. It makes me feel safer that someone knows where I am, and I am also learning to really trust my gut and follow my instinct to not get in so many risky situations. I feel very self reliant and independent out here, and I believe that keeping my loved ones back home in the loop is just another indicator of how I've learned to keep myself safe.
Of course, after writing all that, I took the bus in the wrong direction to get back to my hostel from central station, after the archipelago. My first clue might have been that the bus said it was going to "Angered." It may as well have been going to "Frustration." But google maps is a godsend, even without internet it will always show me where I am, and when I'm moving it shows that on the map, so I quickly realized I was going the wrong way. I got off the bus and waited twenty minutes in the cold for the right bus, and made it back to the hostel in good time to make pasta dinner. You better believe I'm sick of pasta by now, but I've saved quite a bit of money by cooking instead of eating out all the time.
I've had an amazing time in Sweden, and am excited to head to Norway tomorrow!