Gothenburg - Day 2

The hotel buffet breakfast is sensational. We fill up on eggs, bread, muesli, yoghurt, everything. Plenty of fuel for all the culture and exploration we plan for today, starting with the Universeum.

Its raining as we walk up the iconic Avenyn; not that impressive, although it is 10am on a Friday,

The Universeum is highly rated, so we figure its worth checking out. We start with the "climate zones" tour, starting at the top floor in the Polar section. You slowly descend into the different climate zones where they have created an immersive experience that makes you feel like you are in different parts of the world, with relevant fauna and flora in each section. Its done very well. The highlight is the rainforest section at the end; very humid and wet and featuring sloths, and toucans flying around!

The highlight for Jeff was the Visualisation Lab where they focus on explaining how important visualising and interacting with data is. There are interactive screens everywhere with cool datasets to explore that all work seamlessly. There is a full scale model of Gothenburg where you can overlay various datasets and see the impact on the city, like traffic, increasing sea-levels and visualising how the sun light hits the city etc. We need one of these at the NSW government.

After a few hours our heads are too full and we head off for a fika across the road before jumping on a tram (can't figure out how to pay, so we treat ourselves to a free ride) to Slottsskogen, the big park of Gothenburg.

Its huge and very pretty. We aim for the Säldammen (seal pond) where there are 5 seals in a pretty big tank. Not the best enclosure for them though, its pretty bare.

We head further into the park and find the (free) open-air zoo which is a much better setup for the various Nordic animals, such as deer, moose, goats, pigs and sheep. We do a big loop of the enclosures and walk through the park back to town. This park used to be deer-hunting ground, but now its a great escape for people in Gothenburg. There would be endless running loops and areas to explore.

We come back to town through the suburb of Linné, meaning we have covered most of Gothenburg now. We go through Feskekörka, an old church converted into an up-market fish-market, with people dressed up drinking white wine with their fresh toast skagen. Too fancy for us today, how about some Subway to go?

We pick up our washing (it better have come out brand new, the amount we just paid for it), head back to the hotel and get a bunch of admin done for the next week of the trip.

Closing thoughts on Sweden

Nothing is over-done or rammed down your throat in Sweden; everything is chill and low-key. Maybe this is coming from a culture of lagom, "just the right amount", where what is "suitable" is fine. Quite a different culture to some of the real "western" countries.

Fashion and style in general is simple, but effective. You can tell the clothes are good quality, but they are not loud. Same with hair cuts; nothing makes you want to stare. Not much "tits and lips", maybe because they don't need to!

There seems to be a lack of diversity around though, especially in Stockholm. Everyone dresses and looks very similar. Not a lot of colour in the hair, or tattoos. Everyone seems rich. Probably because they are. And to be fair, we didn't get too far out of the city. Gothenburg was obviously slightly more down to earth in these aspects.