Finally arrived to Stockholm...

The first place I visited when I moved to the “Venice of the North – Stockholm”?? IKEA, and I nearly had a heart attack. A cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll for €0.50!!

But being serious, this week I have met so many amazing new people and finally decontaminated my new apartment (well at least my room). But let’s get to the interesting stuff. I did a bit of sightseeing with a few new friends.

The studentkår (student union) gave a few extra tips on local venues and good areas for students. What’s the best way to meet new people you ask? Partying! Followed by Krispyrolls...

Week four in Göteborg...

This week was pretty much spent studying for the final exam. But on Friday night we had a few drinks and headed to a nightclub in Göteborg called “Park Lane”. It’s a classy venue but we managed to make the guest list and free entry! Again, the less that is said the better... Saturday we finally made it to the Göteborg wheel and took in the beautiful view of the entire city. We had a BBQ in Olaf, followed by a beer in the Kings Head, and said our goodbyes. Sunday was spent cleaning and packing for the big move to Stockholm on Monday...

Week three in Göteborg...

Special week in Göteborg as a Swedish culture festival was on as well as the music festival “Way Out West”...

Monday – After a bus ride and a bit of a walk we arrived at a beautiful lake “Skatås/Delsjön”. Here I swam in a lake for the first time. Again I thought it was super warm (18c) but the Austrians and Spanish didn’t agree...

Tuesday – We went to Slottsskogen which was a kind of petting-zoo/park. Wasn’t the most exciting activity on the course but the culture festival made up for it. I saw Jose Gonzales perform live at Gotaplatsen. He was crazy good. We strolled along the main street and saw so many street performers. There was such a good vibe in the city!

Wednesday – Up early for an entire day at Tanum and Vitlyckemuseet. For the history buffs, it was Viking carving site and museum. We even indulged in an authentic Viking buffet, complete with lingon berry juice.

Thursday – We planned for a visit from Borås students. In the evening checked out a few more events at the culture festival.

Friday – The Borås people came for a visit and a tour of the city student style. We swung by the city museum but as always ended up in system bolaget... After a few drinks at the guy’s apartment and another visit to the Rotary pub, we were ready for the nightclub. Berså was interesting to say the least, and the least will be said about it!!

Saturday – A few of us were a bit tired on Saturday so we took it easy. We headed to the city to see the Gothenburg ship set sail and after we went to a Michael Jackson inspired concert which turned out to be better than expected. Crazy talented people!

Sunday – Recovery/Laundry day!

Week two in Göteborg...

Monday – Universeum!! This place was unreal. We all turned into big children here, but if you ever visit Universeum it will be easy to understand why... We took an elevator to the top of the building and worked our way down. At the top we entered “Kulrummet” (the cold room) where we build a plastic igloo and some of us were even exposed to hurricane winds!! :O The further we descended in the building the warmer it got. We saw so many different creatures, from all kinds of reptiles to frogs, fish – even piranhas and electric eels. We wandered through the aquarium and reached the tropical rainforest. I was so warm in here (but I feeling warm was kind of the running joke of the month!) In the rain forest we had to guard our food, the monkeys were hunting!! We finally escaped the jungle and found our way to the playroom. Little children were viciously pushed aside by people in their twenties. Dance mats meant serious business!! Everyone was wound up after the activities so we all played some volleyball (or at least tried) to burn up all our energy.

Tuesday – It was possibly one of the busiest days in Göteborg so far. We had a full blown tour of the city; Älvsborg, Maritiman, Paddan and Liseberg. There is no way I can describe it all so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Wednesday – You would think that we would have taken it easy after the two hectic days previous?! Never in Sweden!! We were treated to a workout out at Fysiken. I don’t think I slept as well as I did on Wednesday night. I guess that’s what total exhaustion will do to you!

Thursday – How can one say they have experience experienced Swedish culture unless one has visited the Volvo museum? I bet you didn’t know that Volvo invented the seatbelt!!

Friday – Sjöfartsmuseet proved to be an interesting venue. It was a kind of mix between an aquarium and a ship museum. Even if you’re not that in boats, it’s still pretty interesting. That night we ventured into the city and found so many pubs that were pretty inexpensive by Swedish standards. Nice relaxing night.

Saturday – I spent the morning studying Swedish by a lake close to my accommodation. That night we ventured into the city again to the same pub road and tried out a few venues. The Kings Head was an interesting find, and the Borat-ish music was a nice cherry to the night!

Sunday – Laundry day!!

Week one in Göteborg...

I realise I have completely let this whole blog thing fall by the wayside, but it also means I was super busy living the life of an exchange student (to say its unreal is definitely an understatement!) Oh where to begin... Ok well my plane took-off from Dublin, Ireland at 9.15am and landed in Rygge, Norway. From there I caught a train to Trollhättan, Sweden,

followed by a bus to Göteborg and finally a taxi to my hotel for the night – Hotel Poseidon (really nice and pretty inexpensive with a lovely view).

The next day, everyone from the Swedish language course met-up, had a course brief and moved into our accommodation for the month. Classes would be in the morning and the group would have activities in the afternoon. The course really began on Tuesday. I’m going to skip the Swedish lesson here and just tell you about what happened each afternoon.

Tuesday – We went on a boat trip along the Göta Alv, sailed under Älvsnabben to Klippan, where we saw the Röda sten (red stone).

Wednesday – The group was formally welcomed by the international office and shown a wonderful PowerPoint presentation of Göteborg city. “Göteborg – We Love You!”. The course activities were finished pretty early so we decided to head to Saltholmen to catch some sunrays. I thought the water was pretty warm for the sea but I think some of the guys from the Mediterranean will beg to differ...

Thursday – We spent the afternoon exploring the Botaniska Trödgården. Entrance was free. Between the herbal garden and all the flowers we all smelt so good!

Friday – It was raining so heavily on Friday but Stina and Ing-Marie insisted on walking to Världkulturmuseet. This museum was very nice. Each level had a different theme, to name one “Destination X”. To cap off the night, a few drinks in the Rotary pub (what a special find for students!).

Saturday – Hard core card gaming session at my room. It sounds a bit on the dry side but we realised too late in the day that System bolagat closes at 3pm on Saturdays (a mistake we would never again make...). After a few hours some of us were itching for a beer so we headed to an Irish bar of all places close to Avenue.

Sunday – Laundry day!!

Last night in Ireland...

Ah it was so sad leaving everyone at home. Thanks for the great time guys, I had such a laugh!!

But I've arrived in Sweden and I'm really looking forward to the next year abroad. It will be epic... I'm going to try to keep these posts short and sweet. Maybe once a week or so – bear with me! :)

Preparation under-way...

Anyone who knows me has probably heard that I am moving to Sweden in a few weeks. I struggled to find a way to keep my friends updated on the places I see over the course of the next year without having to repeat the same story over and over on skype. Solution? A blog! I’d say I’m about 10 years late to the blog scene but I plan on keeping this as more of travel log than a blog. Just a kind of travel / sight-seeing update and all the trouble in-between…

For those that don’t know, I am now moving to Gothenburg in late July (in the next fortnight). I luckily got a place on the language placement course that runs until late August. I also have accommodation sorted in Gothenburg! I’ll be moving over to Stockholm after the language course and into accommodation that I was extremely lucky to get. And there I stall stay until June 2011 - with the possible exception of Christmas! Long story short I won’t see Ireland until then. I have already been chatting to some other Erasmus students, so we are all kind of touching base before we get out there. Really looking forward to it. That’s all on Sweden for now. Just making sure I’ve packed everything!!