We barely slept much before we need to wake up for our flight to Stockholm. Pre-booked a cab (300kr for 2 pax, shared cab) to take us to the airport just cos it was so early, but you will be surprised it’s a full flight early in the morning

Bye Kiruna

Pre-ordered a breakfast set onboard SAS airline as well, since food is not included and we need breakfast to get our day started

The bread was warm and soft, should have taken another piece! Ha

We had to catch our train from Stockholm central station which takes us to our next destination, Gothenburg, another city in Sweden

At the Arlanda airport train station

We figured the Arlanda express will bring us to Stockholm central station in no time but the limitation of buying your tickets through the machines is you need your credit card pin, which both of us don’t have it on us. #sosmart And you have to go back to International terminal (T5) to buy the tickets over the counter while we were at the domestic terminal

So eventually, we got a kind Swedish to buy it for us ^.^ (300kr for 2 pax)

Arlanda Express

The train comes pretty quick. Just note which side you will be getting on. One way leads to the city, the other way goes to T5

20 minutes later..

At the foreign exchange cos not enough money. Ha

We were pretty ahead of schedule so we wanted to see if we could change to an earlier train but it was fully booked. Ended up chilling at Espresso House since we had plenty of time to kill

Cream Cheese Bagel with Mocha Hazelnut Latte, Chocolate Muffin with Hot Chcolate 131kr

The bagel was surprisingly good, should have bought the plain one instead cos the bread was nicer than the filling

And we were finally on the way

The host told us we could walk from the Central station and it would only be a 20 minutes walk, but she didn’t tell us the streets of Gothenburg were pebbled (and uneven) and dragging luggages through it will be a little difficult and tiring..

Finally reaching our airbnb half an hour later after being lost and saved by a celebrity. Well, she claimed she is a police officer that goes on show to educate the public about crime :O

Our apartment located next to an Indian restaurant

We were walking in rounds, up and down the steep hill on pebbled ground with our luggages until the host came around to find us. Lol

Anyways, here’s home

Living room

Kitchen

Our tiny room

This airbnb felt more like a home, as compared to the previous one. We had a small room but we can use anything in her house (even cook) and our host was very friendly and conversational

So we rested and head off for dinner in search of a restaurant recommended by our host known for their seafood, Sjöbaren located at Haga

Haga church

Streets of Haga

But unfortunately Sjöbaren was fully booked even though the host told us reservation wasn’t needed. Oh man, so for those of you who want to try this place, perhaps you can try reserving

We ended up venturing around the area of Järntorget and came across this restaurant called Taverna Averna, which had a white guide 2015 sign plastered outside. We took a peep and it looked decently crowded, so we went in

And this is where we had our dinner for the night even though only the bar seats were left

It’s a pretty nice place. The restaurant has high ceilings, prettily decorated with lots of unique frames

A whole selection of alcohol

Somersby cider

Fiore di melo 98kr

Dark rum, Amaretto, Apple Juice, Citron, Sugar

We got a cocktail to share, just cos the bartender kept making drinks infront of us and we were so intrigued by all the cocktails. This cocktail tastes wintery, sweet and has a nice apple aftertaste

Penne siciliane with salsiccia, garlic, chilli, tomato, leek, forest mushrooms & grated goat cheese 155kr

The friend was craving for pasta and chose one that sounded the most appetizing to her. The penne was nicely cooked, complemented with the pork and mushrooms that had a good flavour to it

Crayfish-filled witch flounder with scallop, tomato sauce & dill flavour reed potatoes 215kr

This was delicious. The flounder was rolled up with crayfish filling, which was smart and something different. You can taste the sweetness of the crayfish filling with the well cooked fish meat, on a bed of zesty tomato sauce

This is really good

Milk chocolate panna cotta with salted caramel icecream and brown butter cream 115kr

They actually forgot our dessert but the bartender make it appear in record time. lol

The panna cotta wasn’t quite what we expected. It felt more like brownies with icecream. Hmm, nothing amazing honestly

I was glad we stumbled into this restaurant located in an old auction house. This bistro serves mainly Italian cuisine, with a Swedish twist. It was an accidental find but we left pretty satisfied with rather good food, drinks and a cute bartender but do note this is a cash-free restaurant

Taverna Averna

Tredje Långgatan 7, 413 03 Göteborg, Sweden

Took a day trip to visit the southern Archipelago the next day, located about 35 minutes away from our airbnb, which involves tram number 11 and a ferry to the island. We were surprised when we stepped onto the streets cos it was a pretty foggy day

Bought a 1-day ticket (85kr) from the 7-11 nearby

It was an interesting experience taking the tram cos what we witnessed was, some people don’t pay when they board. So we got confused to whether we need to tap the card, and later we learnt from our host that well technically you can try not paying as long as you don’t get caught. Wah, awesome

You can take a ferry (using the 1-day ticket) to the island from Saltholmen ferry terminal and we chose to visit Styrsö and Donsö, the 2 biggest islands. Weather was pretty bad that day with the sky filled with lots of fog. It’s like visibility is so bad you cannot see anything more than 100m

Take the one that says 282, it will drop you at Styrsö

Onboard

Blueberry muffin, Coffee 60kr

The muffin was cold, so I only got one to share but it turned out pretty good

The boat ride was pretty quick with only 1 stop in-between and sooner than we know, we have reached Styrsö! Well, it’s supposed to be an island with incredible scenic views overlooking other islands..

But because of the stupid fog, every scene looks like they are taken out of a haunted island

I can totally imagine scary music playing in the background here

So eventually we made our way to Donsö hoping to see nicer views, which is a walkable distance away. The two islands are linked via a bridge so it makes sense to visit the two together

But it ain’t any better

I was getting damn sian honestly. But luckily, a small part of the sky cleared for about 15 minutes so we were following where the clearing was

Boat houses at Donsö

Under much better weather

Blue skies!

But still with an enormous amount of clouds

And since we missed the boat back from Donsö, we decided to walk back to Styrsö to catch the ferry from there instead

Here’s the bridge linking the two islands

Everything looks better under blue skies

CAN YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?!

❤ for sunshine. heh I think I never appreciate the sunshine so much

I think the islands sport some pretty good pictures in clear, bright weather. Honestly, it’s quite pretty but if you happen to bump into bad weather conditions, don’t even bother going there. I think it is a waste of time in bad weather conditions, like seriously. If you don’t have other plans for the day, make a new plan

#adviceoftheday

And here’s the ferry schedule for those interested

So we made our way towards Långedrag for lunch which was just two tram stops away even though it was already close to 2.30pm. We were famished given our last meal was a shared muffin and so we mistakenly walked into GKSS for lunch

Can’t wait to eat!

But it turns out GKSS serves of the best seafood meals ever. Click here to read about my review

We went back to Haga next to get the famous enormous cinnamon bun, like it’s so famous the the tourist in Kiruna told us we have to go and try

You cannot miss this place

It’s the only place with all the cinnamon buns displayed

But the pastries inside all look so tempting as well

Cinnamon Bun 50kr

Okay you can’t really tell here but the bun is bigger than my face. It’s so huge that the two of us couldn’t finish it. The bun feels more bread-like with sweet cinnamon evenly spread

I’m not quite sure what’s the hype about cinnamon buns in Scandinavia. It’s like they come in different sizes, taste and texture. But I think in Gothenburg, it’s more of the size than the taste that drives the crowd here

Cafe Husaren

Haga Nygata 24, 411 22 Göteborg, Sweden

We made our way to Avenyn next, which is the main shopping district in Gothenburg but it looked damn awfully quiet. I was like ‘are we at the right place?’ The design was inspired by Champs-Élysées in Paris, which well, er, I’ll leave it to you to decide

Imagine Orchard road, like this

So anyways we wanted to catch the sunset from Heaven 23, a rooftop restaurant/bar famous for its view overlooking the city so we made our way there in hasten speed

Heaven 23 is located at Gothia Towers

But! it was closed for renovation, ohmygod

We ended up exploring some more parts of the city and catching the sunset from ground level instead

Gothenburg Central Station

Felt like the shopping streets here is even prettier than Avenyn

Fish Church

Indoor fish market, shaped from a Gothic church. How interesting

Such pretty colours

To close off the night, we visited Tredjelångatan, supposedly a less hippie area lined with many local pubs. And bar hopped into a random bar filled with Liverpool fans to watch the match of Liverpool vs Man City. The atmosphere inside was contagious, regardless of race, ha

You can hear the collective cheers, gasp, sighs and awkward silentness. I have to say, it was a fascinating experience for me

So this rounds up our short stay in Gothenburg while we made our way towards Bergen, Norway. I was bumped I didn’t get to try Semla, a pastry that is only available from January to March in Sweden and the friend wanted to have her princess cake. So we were hunting for it at any cafes we passed by and we eventually found it at Stockholm airport (while transiting to Bergen)!

Semla 49kr

This was strange. It was like eating dry and hard bread with very light cream and a small almond paste in the middle. It was rather sweet for me

Princess Cake 49r

Sweet cream cake with very very sweet fondant layer. I thought the semla was sweet enough, this was worse

To think that we were so excited hunting for the pastries, they didn’t turn out as great as expected. Oh wells. So I ended up eating the biscuits from the host cos I couldn’t take the sweetness of the desserts

Biscuits from our kind host

Perhaps of the weather, I felt like I didn’t enjoy Gothenburg as much as I thought I would. It’s a nice little city, with not much sights to explore but we thought the architecture is more ‘old town’ than Gamla Stan in Stockholm. Food is probably the only highlight and we had gone with the intention to eat and eat, even though it doesn’t feel all spectacular. Still, it was a good experience and had probably won more brownie points from me than Stockholm

Next stop, Bergen

Click here to read on Finland – Helsinki & Rovaniemi, Home to Santa Claus

Click here to read on Sweden – Stockholm & Kiruna, Swedish Lapland