http://picasaweb.google.com/Jriverol/01sweden#
I really wish I had done this sooner, but oh well, I guess now is better than never. My memory has gone slightly blurry.
I approached the whole vacation over there completely blank. I only knew I was going to go to one place, and I figured I'd roll with the flow there. I was fairly right in that approach, The problem was, I didn't decide to hop around sooner. Goteborg, Sweden could've been handled in 3 days, tops, and I could've had my fill. I was basically there for about 8.
I really should've stayed at a Hostel, looking back now. I would've had more freedom to come and go as I please, I could've met people that would've probably talked in english more consistantly around rather than just spout out a few lines here and there. Oh well. I still got my jollies roaming about and I learned enough lessons to make the next European trip much more fun and efficient.
From top left to bottom right, (emilie picking me up, emilie and her friend drinking while waiting for a bus, emilie and her two roommates, and emilie and her mom. Emelie was the gal I was staying with. Nice gal, with the occassional short temper and the fastest walking legs I've seen. I had to run occassionally to keep up with her walk.
Goteborg has fantastic tap water. Really delicious shit. It tops our bottled water. I really couldn't get enough. There's like a small hint of sweetness or something. Maybe it was all in my mind. That would be kind of weird.
They also have a fantastic public transit system. From the buses to this non-underground metro line. I kept forgetting it's name. I think frustrated Emelie with that. The fact that I didn't put that I coudln't remember certain swedish words. Swedish is completely alien to me. From remembering street names, with their weird arrangment of assorted letters to just words that was crazy long and with sounds I've never heard put together, where it doesn't sound like a language more than just someone fucking with me. I think it's the words that still sound like english but are spelled all freaky and pronounced slightly different is what makes it sound like someone just fucking with me.
inside one of the overground metro things.
Anyhoo, most of the metro systems sort of went by the Honor System so everything I paid for the ticket and they didn't check my shit, I did go quite a few times without paying in sweden, though so that leaves me pleased. I played the dumb tourist when some metro workers actually checked my metro card to see if it was stamped. I was only playing half dumb because I didn't even know how to stamp it, at that point. In the end, the city's small enough to walk anywhere and back in a day, if you chose so.
I'm going to throw a few randoms up with descriptions.
down one of the shopping alley things in the major part of town.
One of the many cute swedish gals I had conversations with. She was a bartendress at the Mediocre Festival they were having. This Old swedish fucker pushed me and cut in like when I was trying to get beer. Pulled a real asshole move. He then muttered something about having been waiting for half an hour or something. He was fairly well dressed. Come to think of it. Most of the city looked well to do. The only people that didn't were the Turkish. They're pretty much like Sweden's mexicans. Doing all the shit work, looking a little shabby but with the strong family bond thing.
This was the first person I really had a good conversation with on my trip. He was from Denmark and also felt out of place in Goteborg. He gave me instructions as far as where to go, once I was in Coppenhagen and his intel was actually really handy. We sat around and drank KillKennys for a few hours and talked about art and other shit, mostly how the swedes are way too straight laced and "uppity". No one was proving me wrong, at this point.
I like the fighting tension of this statue. Two dudes with knives going at each other. I think if I remember how the story's finale right, they end up making out or something. Maybe I just assumed that by the frosted tips of their hair.
These two gals were hammered on the street and really festive on the way home. They started talking to us and the tall one was showing me the cut on her leg. If that's her way of hitting on me, I can tell you right now that I'm into it. Booze Brutality. Bring it.
The guys over there like doing snuff and chewing tobacco and shit over there. To add some comedy, I guess it's also called rape. I guess it does rape the gums with flavor. Disgusting flavor. Total hick move sweden. Classy.
Speaking of Classy, let's not forget the ladies. Two words. Box Wine. They can't get enough of it. This was on the street. I really have to applaude Europe's tolerance for drinking in public. I had some myself. It wasn't bad. Sweden's alcohol laws are weird and shitty, actually. One, outside of a bar, you can only buy booze from a designated liquor store before 2-3 pm and it's expensive as shit. Then they close. There is a lot of favor for really light beers and fruity concoctions. This goes for both the guys and gals. Made me feel like a total alchy with my talks of whiskey and vodka and shit.
I just enjoyed this lil piece of advertising.
Another one of the cute gals I chatted up. I really wish I took a better picture. This one was a vegetarian and really the conversion felt really forced at first and then sort of smoothed out. I really don't recall much of the details now. It probably wasn't very interesting and I was probably lost somewhere in her eyes or some shit.
some bird pics
This pear cider was actually pretty tasty and went well with the meal I was eating. I believe it was some sort of steak. Oh right, here it is:
That shit was banging.
Some sort of building. I can never tell what the fucks what. in Germany I walked into this bad ass looking building not know what it was, and it's either a bank or a hospital. This place though, feels bigger.
I never really got much into talking about the people of Sweden. They're a little cold and standoffish by nature, that is until you get them drunk. After that it seems like they get aggressively social. There was one guy that was practically spitting on me with excitment as he was asking me about how I like Sweden. I threw my little monologue about the water and public transportation and left it at that. It was a little hard to make friends from strangers in other words, but it happens at least briefly here and there.
Almost all of them talk english really well. Some without much of an accent at all. It made me wonder why they did very little of it when I was around it. Especially with Emelie and her friends. It made for a lot of moments where I'd be in a group and just have them chatter away, not one thing understood by me. I'd ask on occassion what was the conversation about, but eventually, I just let it ride, and wait for instructions.
While I'm sure a lot of the good looks might be natural, there 's certainly a lot of work put in to maintain the good looks the swedish are know for. A lot of work and maintanance. The words Metrosexual certianly come to mind with the guys. I thought it was a little much, but no, the swedish ladies seem to love that overdone boy band look. I was certainly out of my element as far as any attempt to attract any ladies here with my "unkept" features.
I remember upsetting emelie and her friend for making this face as they took the picture. "Why are you making that face?" Like it was a total asshole move. I just responded, " I thought it would look funny." Oh yeah, that was another thing. I wasn't feeling much of a sense of humor over there. Like flying bags of poop at a brick wall. The wall doesn't like the poop, and I felt like I was wasting perfectly good bags.
I guess I'll add more if I remember it. It's 2:37 am and I'm tired as shit.
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