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Gothenburg, Sweden |
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Too much to see. When
will it end?
Jan 8 - Not sure yet!
Gothenburg was fabulous fun, yet again. I’d been checking
the weather forecast to see if it would be snowing – I really
wanted it to snow. But apparently Sweden had had an unusually warm
winter. Our mate, Jessica, said she had been performing regular
snow dances to encourage it but it wasn’t looking good.
She picked us up from the airport and we went back to her place
for a while then headed into town because there was a frozen water
fountain begging to be skated on. It had even started to snow for
us!!! When we got to the rink there was some middle eastern music
playing and a marquee was up near by for the Iraqi elections. Music,
ice and snow – what more could I ask for. Everyone hung around
for a little while but then got bored because I was the only one
with skates. The boys went off to have a beer in the oldest pub
in Gothenburg and the girls went off to shop for dinner which left
me to enjoy the ice on my own for a while. An Iraqi man started
speaking to me in Swedish, laced heavily with an Iraqi accent, and
was most pleased when I mentioned I was Australian and in town for
a quick visit. He wanted me to teach his young daughter how to spin
but she was too shy to move! She just stared at me with huge brown
eyes. He welcomed me to his country and shook my hand. He walked
away with his friends telling me have a wonderful stay in his town.
We went back to Jess’ place to start our evening of entertainment.
Damian and Jess got the beer and wine flowing and prepared dinner.
Louise had brought two huge whole smoked salmon down from Bullaren.
They were massive. It was a brillant dinner. We ate loads. Sarah
turned up, who we haven’t seen for years and we all had a
laugh singing Irish songs and playing recorders. We had our fill
and moved onto the Sky Bar for a quick beer. Marvelous views of
a snow covered Gothenburg by night. Then down to the legendary Dancin’
Dingo bar. It was packed solid. Apparently it was pay week and everyone
was out. I remember dancing around a lot and taking loads of photos.
We ended up in a kebab place with a bouncer on the door and a huge
line outside. Bit like London – everywhere closes at the same
time so there are masses of people in the streets, the difference
being it was about 4 in the morning, not 11 at night. We crashed
at about 5ish I think.
Damian had made a fantastic breakfast. Bacon, eggs, tomato, toast,
the lot!!! David was absolutely rooted and wanted to go back to
bed but I wanted to go back to the fountain for another skate. It
wasn’t snowing and there wasn’t any music but there
is just something so inspiring about skating outside under a beautiful
blue sky. It’s fantastic!
We happened to see Tadek’s fiancé, Karin, in the departure
lounge. We’d met Tadek years ago in a bar in Viet Nam. But
he was in Iraq working and she had come to Gothenburg to visit her
friends. We hadn’t seen her for a while either so great to
catchup on their wedding plans. And that was Gothenburg… |
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