How Not to Spend 24 Hours in Gothenburg

Arranging to stay with a CouchSurfing host in advance, I’d booked an evening bus to Gothenburg from the city of Linköping where I was studying using the German company FlixBus, who were new to Sweden and offering insanely cheap busses in comparison to the local competitor ‘Swebus’. I’d traveled up on the Friday evening and made plans to stay for 2 nights, which practically only amounted to one day as I left early on the Sunday morning. On the bus there I contacted my host to tell her I’d be a little late as my bus had been slightly delayed. She called me back shortly after however to tell me she wasn’t in Gothenburg but in Oslo! It seems there’d been some confusion over the dates, namely, for some reason I still cannot fathom, I’d entered the dates three weeks ahead from the current weekend. So I was now in the situation of having to find a place to stay for not just tonight but also for the next. The issue being however that it was now close to midnight, thus, as hopeless as it seemed at this hour, I immediately turned to CouchSurfing. I used all my free membership introductions on the website up there and then (Couchsurfing only gives you a certain amount of people you can contact unless you pay for the premium service), contacting copious amounts of hosts within the last few minutes of Friday evening there was. I received many rejects there and then and naturally, some didn’t reply as it was getting rather late. Thus, biting the bullet and becoming somewhat desperate, I turned to Hostelworld. I found a place called Slottskoggens Youth Hostel, located next to the park of the same name. I called them up and secured the last bed they had available in a mixed dorm, with the woman offering me instructions on how to get there.

I arrived at the Central Station in Gothenburg and was immediately faced with the dilemma of choosing from two of the same number trams heading in opposite directions. Furthermore I couldn’t make out where exactly you're supposed to buy a ticket for the tram. I climbed aboard ticketless, knowing that if it were the wrong tram, I’d have to wait on the cold streets of the city for a little while longer. Fortunately my intuition was correct and it was the right tram, and I arrived at the hostel after essentially hitchhiking the tram within approximately 10-15 minutes, all in the while watching the inhabitants of Gothenburg take to the town on a Friday night from the comfort of the tram, as though I were on some moving portable anthropologic zoo.

Places To Stay

The price for the hostel came to about 240kr (£24) until they added an additional 60kr (£6) for bed sheets, which are obligatory apparently unless you happen to bring some. It was probably the cheapest and safest option I had available to me at this time, and thus with some reluctance I coughed up the 300Kr. Personally, I wouldn't stay here again unless I was desperate (as I was in this situation), and perhaps I'd opt for another nearby hostel such as 'Göteborg Backpackers' which was fully booked by the time I'd checked online.

The room was tiny, with no windows and I was sharing with three other people. There was only one person still awake by the time I got in who was now sitting on her laptop, typing away furiously at the keys, aided by a nauseating blue light projecting from her screen. I was to sleep on the top bunk adjacent to her, in full view of her screen and within range to hear her bashing the keyboard to pieces. This wasn’t to be an issue however, not when in comparison to the guy snoring on the bunk below her, whom to this day I’ve never found or heard a louder person at snoring. I was  ready for bed - I was completely exhausted, but the sound of the guy’s snoring paired with the blue light provided too much stimulus to instantly fall asleep. Soon, the keyboard warrior eventually put her keyboard away and thus with the absence of the blue light permeating the room, I now assumed I’d fall asleep with ease. How wrong I was. There was no interval in the snoring coming from the guy on the bottom bunk and as it turned out he now had a companion snorer in the form of the keyboard warrior who’d managed to drift off with some apparent ease. It was practically a snoring contest, though there was only going to be one winner if it was such a thing as the guy was a worthy champion. It wasn’t simply due to the fact that people were snoring that made it such an uncomfortable night, the room was particularly stuffy which seemed bizarre as the streets of Gothenburg on the way here had been so cold.

I decided to throw some headphones in to drown out the sound and fortunately this seemed to do the trick, as I found myself dozing off to the sounds of an Audiobook I’d downloaded called The Will Power Instinct. The title of which now seemed somewhat ironic as it certainly seemed as though it took some will power in this instance simply to fall asleep! I woke up early the next day due to the sounds of the other inhabitants of the tiny room - including the champion snorer who I now got to give the evil eye to – getting ready to leave. I stayed in bed for a few hours but could but couldn’t manage to fall back asleep and in due time woke up. I’d received a message from another Couchsurfing host who was willing to host me for the evening. I accepted her offer and checked out nearly an hour late (12pm) and decided to head for some breakfast. Being on a budget, and needing shopping as it was, I headed to Lidl, which was conveniently located around the corner. I stocked up on a couple of essentials and bought some bread, peanut butter and bananas to make a sandwich. I headed to Slottskoggen Park where people sat on the grass basking under the Scandinavian Autumn sun. I sat on a bench, eating my sandwich, with some passers by making friendly Swedish comments to me as they watched me construct my sandwich out of my shopping bag. I nodded politely in agreement and used a false laugh - what exactly do you say in a situation like that – ‘Ja?’ I scoffed down my sandwich and dove further into the park.

Places of Interest

The park was huge, with lots of tiny lakes dotted around and even an animal sanctuary and zoo. I continued to walk across the fields and eventually ended up in the nearby Botanical Garden, which was across the road. The Garden was also huge, with arrays of beautiful flowers from all across the world. It was a surprise how so many exotic species of plants could survive in a place with such a mild climate. As I made my way through the garden and up to the nature reserve and Japanese garden however, there were signs that highlighted how the plants had came to survive, and it was largely due to the rocky hills and forests that surrounded them. Gothenburg hadn’t stricken me as a particularly ‘green’ city up until this point, in fact it had a rather industrial charm, managing to strike the balance between city and town almost. Granted, it had its districts where a few trees and parks were visible, but for the most part these two areas were by large the two ‘greenest’ parts of the inner city.

I’d happened to stumble across a Reddit post by a British user who was in a similar situation to me and happened to only have 24 hours in the city. There were some areas I’d left out due to time/budget such as Archipelago, which required getting a boat to. There were also some spots they recommended for some top views of the city, the last of which I managed to visit:

• Ramberget
• Masthuggskyrkan
• Skansen Kronan

Locals had recommended he visit an area called Haga Nygata (Järntorget District) for a coffee as well as to check out some of the local churches and buildings. There were mainy restaurants, coffee shops and bars located arond the area, which all had their own individual kind of quirkiness to them. One bistro in particular stood out by the name of Hemma Hos, where many locals had decided to brave thefairly cold evening and sit outside over drinks and food. Arguably the most lively area of the city for bars in the evening has to be 'Anda Långgatan' however, where most people head to on a Friday or Saturday night or even for a midweek drink.

Not to shy away from the suggestions of Reddit users however I took to the local Haga area, stumbling across some ‘ruins’ called Skansen Kronan, which had some awe inspiring views of the city and reminded me a little of Calton Hill in Edinburgh.  I continued to explore the area somewhat thoroughly before settling down in a small Café aptly named ‘Le Petit Café on the corner of the street. I ordered a herbal tea for 29Kr (£2.90), sat down amongst the comfortable cushions aligned on the seats and relaxed until I was forcibly made to leave at 8pm, when the café abruptly shut. I could’ve perhaps spent the rest of my time in Gothenburg on those cushions had they not asked me to leave. With the tea now warming my belly on this cold Nordic evening, I headed back on to the streets, waiting for my Couchsurfing host to get back to her place. When the time came I made my way to hers on the other side of town called Liseberg.

My German host made me feel incredibly welcome in Gothenburg and I was incredibly thankful to her for stepping in to save me. She told me how she’d surfed a lot of times in the past and now felt the time was right to start hosting in order to give something back to the Couchsurfing community! As it turned out I’d been particularly fortunate, as she had only realized I needed a place to stay after checking one of the ‘Last Minute Couchsurfing’ groups I’d managed to post in the night previously. It was a true testament to the spirit of Couchsurfing as well as to the spirit of Gothenburg. It's a city that can be explored fairly well in 24 hours, which is made incredibly accessible due to the omnipresent tramps and buses.