Would You Like Fries With That?

Back in the only country of this tour that I have actually visited (and lived in) before – Sweden. Except, as agreed by Peter and Christine today at lunch, I think I did it backwards. We all agree if you’re going to visit Sweden, you should go to Stockholm and if you want to live in Sweden, well then you should go to Gothenburg (Göteborg).

Göteborg is the second biggest city in Sweden but it industrialised quite late as a port city so the ‘old town’ just isn’t old by European standards. 1621 to Stockholm’s 1252 if you will. That doesn’t mean the old town isn’t worth checking out, and it certainly has the recipe right: cobblestones, canals, bicycles and boutiques. There’s even a few plaza squares with fountains.

But the vibe hit a bit different – there were so many thrift shops, escape rooms, cute cafes and gyms that I was feeling quite like I could easily find myself living here. Plus once I got my barring’s the city’s easy to navigate. But there’s not a lot of ‘must do’ things for tourists in town. Good thing the Swedes have perfected the thing I like to do most in town – fika – or coffee and cake.

Walking hundreds of kilometres by now with a cross body bag has resulted in the kind of neck and shoulder pain that requires a full body twist to do a shoulder check for cyclists, trams and Europe’s silent killer – electric cars. Having done so many of these my abs were getting concerned I asked a waitress where’d be a good place for a massage and she delivered the goods – Hagabadet.

Hagabadet is a bath house in the trendy suburb of Haga (but you would know that from the basic Swedish you remember).

I booked a massage and was given a pass to the bathhouses to enjoy while I waited for my appointment. Ah, bliss – traditional saunas, four different temperature magnesium pools, a foot soak, red light therapy, and these kind of bizarre rocking chairs that made me a little bit seasick. And then an hour of classic Swedish (think deep tissue) massage.

Just needed to duck up the road to one of the thrift shops and buy a swim suit because despite having three with me, they were all back at the hotel and I wasn’t wasting time going back for them. So me, in a very loud yellow number have been in enjoying living like a local in Göteborg.