GOTHENBURG (SWEDEN)

Following a most enjoyable 2 weeks in Stockholm I decided to visit Gothenburg and the regions of central Sweden just for a few days whilst I waited for my SCANRAIL pass to arrive in the post from the UK. The train trip to Gothenburg was fairly uneventful and despite there being some nice scenery, the rain managed to dampen (excuse the pun) my mood a little. I found Gothenburg to be a reasonably interesting city although it was quite different to Stockholm and gave off much more of an industrial vibe. The shipping port and harbour were like Stockholm, the centrepiece of the city although nowehere near as picturesque. However, I got a good view of the city and harbour area on a short boat cruise along many of the canals winding their way along the streets in the city centre. Also, as a half day trip I visited an island fortress which contained maritime history and a number of old cannons and artilleries used to defend Sweden from the Danes. The role play style explanation put on by the staff at the fortress made for an interesting history lesson of the region. Around the harbour I visited a number of interesting museums, including the extensive maritime museum and I also managed to get some good views of the city from one of the tall buildings on the harbours edge.

At the time of my visit to Gothenbur, the 'Gotha Soccer Cup' was also being played. Essentially this is the largest junior soccer tournament in the world and it meant there were literally thousands of 14-18 year olds walking around the city making a nuisance of themselves. Furthermore, the lack of accommodation available in the city meant I was forced to stay in a relatively expensive YMCA hostel a fair distance from the city centre and which was run by a bunch of crazy Russians...

On my return to Stockholm I stopped briefly in Linkoping and then took a bus to the small towns of Motala and Vadstena. The scenery around here was fantastic and I managed a number of great photos of the rolling plains filled with different grain crops, wildflowers and cute little red houses. I also managed a good look around the famous castle in Vadstena but unfortunately stayed too late and wasn't able to find both there or in Linkoping. In an act of desperation I continued onto the slightly bigger Norrkoping, but was again met with the same problem. In the end I was forced to sleep on a bench near the railway station for a few hours and then wondered around the city between 5am and 7am before taking a train to Stockholm. Following another fun filled weekend in Norrtalje, I gathered my stuff and headed off on a train from Stockholm to Oslo. Along the way I made a quick stop in Orebro, just for an hour or two and whilst there wasn't alot to see in the town the castle and nearby cathedral were quite impressive.

Unfortunately, I cannot complement any of this verbal description with photos because my camera and IPOD were stolen from my hostel in Oslo. However, my memories of these places are still strong and won't be forgotten in a hurry.

STOCKHOLM (SWEDEN)

Escaping the heat of Madrid and a quick stop in London, I continued accross the globe to Stockholm in Sweden, where I spent two fun filled weeks hanging out with my sister and catching up with friends of ours. Throughout the entirety of my visit to Stockholm the weather was absolutely amazing with the sun shining all day, every day from almost 3am in the morning until 10:30pm at night. The extremely long days were somewhat of a luxury because it enabled me to achieve a hell of alot in a single day. Furthermore, in addition to the warm weather providing a nice relief from the overcast days I experienced in London, the 25 - 30 degree temperatures made it ideal for enjoying various water activities such as sailing, swimming and of course wakeboarding.

Stockholm as a city is probably one of the most beautiful and interesting locations I have visited in my life. Somewhat like Sydney, the centrepiece of the city is the harbour, however Stockholm has alot more water than anywhere in Australia, an occurrence arising from the fact that the city has been constructed across many islands in the archipeligo just off the Swedish mainland coast.

I found the old city (Gamla Stan) to be particularly beautiful and really enjoyed exploring many of the interesting museums in the area. I particularly liked the Vasa museum, which was dedicated to the 17 th century warship (the largest of its time), which was built and then sunk after travelling only 300m along the harbour because ballast calculations had been stuffed up by the King trying to make the ship bigger, without having the proper engineering knowledge. I also managed to get some good views of the city from Scandanavia's highest building (155m), which gave me a good idea of the city layout amongst the different islands. During my time in Stockholm I also managed a trip to the island of Vaxolm, just north of Stockholm and a trip to see Shakespeare's 12th night (in Swedish - as if it wasn't complicated enough in English !)

Having my sister Hanna with me for my 2 weeks in Stockholm was definately a highlight of my trip not only because I hadn't seen her for almost 6 months, but also because of the great number of local contacts she had developed during her exchange year in Stocholm during 2001. I think being able to interact with a great number of local people and having the chance to 'enter into their lives' has given me a very different view of Stockholm compared with that experienced by the normal backpacker. Probably the best example of this being the case was my opportunity to spend a number of days further out in the archipeligo on the small Högmarsö. As one of only about 100 people staying on the island, this provided a fantastic chance for me to just relax and enjoy the magnificent surrounds. During my stay here the weather was so good and when I wasn't wandering around taking photos I was enjoying swimming, sailing and wakeboarding in the baltic sea, with the low salt content of the seawater being an extra icing on the cake.

Finally, I also managed a number of outings with friends of Hanna and myself to experience the Stockholm nightlife. Despite beers being so damn expensive (~$8AUD), these were also very enjoyable, with a particular favourite ploy of mine being the consumption of beers in combination with 'snussen', a tobacco substance which is placed between the lip and gum, said to provide the same kick as smoking 7 cigarettes at once without the health issues. Needless to say this was a pretty wild experience for a non-smoker like myself.

Photos 1-6: Stockholm harbour - busy with summer activity.
Photo 7: Hanna 'force feeding' me beer, when clearly this was not the best option.
Photo 8: Henrik, Carl, Fredrick and myself.
Photo 9: Hanna's idea - everyone was required to have a potato in the photo. Hanna held hers, Henrik ate his and I decided I would listen to what my potato had to say !
Photo 10: More photos of the group plus a few randoms for good measure.
Photos 11-16: Scenes from the archipeligo. Wakeboarding and numerous boating adventures around Högmarsö plus an amazing sunset photo.
Photos 17-19: Night out with friends in Nortälje.

MADRID (SPAIN)

As just a 2 day stopover between Rio de Janeiro and London, I found Madrid to be an interesting enough place, without providing anything trully spectacular. Whilst I was there the weather was extremely hot and as such I took the opportunity to take 3-4 hour siestas during the middle of the day so as to avoid walking around sweating my bollocks off. I found it quite interesting to visit Spain after having spent such a long time in South America and to compare the two, given that many spanish influences were passed onto countries such as Argentina, Peru, Chile and Bolivia from the spanish colonists. Despite similarities between these 2 regions, I did feel that the spanish were not quite as open and friendly as their latin american counterparts and perhaps considered themselves too sophisticated to be concerned with tourists much. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed my brief visit to Madrid and during my time there I managed to look around a few museums, one of the city cathedrals and the royal palace. Probably my lasting memory of Madrid was the sight of people eating and drinking outside from about 5pm through to almost 10pm at night, something that I had noticed in South America but definately not to the same extent.

Photos 1&2: Royal Palace and the Cathedral.