RecentPosted by Alissa Wed, December 02, 2009 02:36:02Plenty of excitement at night now, with the Liseberg Park open for Christmas. The park claims to have 5 million Christmas lights. I think I believe them, for so many of the trees are wound entirely in fairy lights. It is really the place to go if you don't want to stay indoors for the evening. If you don't want to go in, though, seeing as it costs 70 crowns per entry, you could take the Hotel Gothia lift up to the 23rd floor. There's one special panoramic elevator which you can take up--you'll get a great view of the whole of Liseberg (and much of Gothenburg) from there. It's really amazing. While I'm at it, I'd mention also the old fort by Haga and the top floor of the Konstmuseet for good views of the city. The former gives you a wonderful 360 degree perspective (well worth the climb up the steep and narrow stone stairs to get there) while the latter gives a view down the main axis of the city, Kungsportsavenyen, all the way down to where it ends. You can even see the hills in the distance on a clear day. Unfortunately the windows are rather dirty...
Here are some shots from a night walk down the avenue to the Opera House. At that point we got tired and took a tram back.
Götaplatsen
Poseidon and Konstmuseet in the background
Lorensberg Teatern
Surely this does not need a caption. If you don't know where it's from, better start looking out for it.
The shopping area (yeah, I forgot the name of the street).
The Opera House. The quay which the Opera House is on makes for a pleasant walk away from the crowds, as it is not well known and away from the shopping area and there is little of interest, unless you are an admirer of boats and the sound of water gently lapping at concrete embankments.
The cacophony of logos at the back of Nordstan.
RecentPosted by Alissa Wed, December 02, 2009 02:15:52So I went on a hike to the lake at Stora Delsjön, the big lake just southeast of the city centre. This was about a month ago. Don't expect it to look anything like this now...Though I think the evergreens will be as awesome-looking as ever.
It's the same place and the same trees, but I changed the camera settings so that it picked up the rusty colour more in the first picture, and the brilliant yellows in the second one. But really, you just had to be there to take in all the different shades of fall.
Baby Christmas trees. At least we think so. They were found sprouting in a pine forest, so my friend and I figure that they're pine sprouts.
Pinnacle of a young pine tree, which was about the right size for a Christmas tree. Plenty of them around the lake area. I thought I might go back later to decorate a few for Christmas...
RecentPosted by Alissa Thu, November 05, 2009 01:47:24Yet another technical post, for the first-time visitor to Gothenburg. Things I wish didn't take me a whole week to find out and understand.
The transport company in Gothenburg/Göteborg is known as Västtrafiken. They run all buses, trams and ferries in the city (except for Flygbussarna, which is a separate shuttle bus service between Landvetter and City Airports and the city centre). The company has a nifty website which allows you to plan your travel route here.
With a monthly passcard (Kommunladdning Göteborg 30), the cost of transport here is comparable to other major cities in Europe--not too bad. The monthly card gives unlimited rides on buses, trains and ferries for 325 SEK/month for students and 425SEK/month for adults. There are plenty of options for the charge card, including a three-month pass, with a slightly higher discount, or passes which include larger regions of west sweden, so that it is possible to commute to the city from outlying areas.
Alternatively, you could just charge the card with money (a 50SEK deposit is required for this kind of card); tickets for single trips cost 16.50 SEK, and allows you to make additional trips within 1.5 hours.
Without the card, though, costs are astronomical. You could buy a ticket by SMS-ing the code GV to 72450, using a Swedish prepaid mobile phone card from operators such as Tele2 or Comviq. It costs 21 SEK and allows you to travel for 1.5 hours.
A day ticket and 3-day ticket (unlimited rides) are available, which cost 65 SEK and 130SEK respectively.
Detailed descriptions of all the ticket choices seem to be available only in Swedish on the västtrafiken website, unfortunately. I've tried to give an accurate description of the more useful choices available. You can always quiz the cashiers for more information, and there's usually an information van outside Central Station, where the staff patiently answers the most exasperating questions you can come up with (I know, I've tried).
Tickets can be bought at the västtrafik stands, 7-11 or pressbyran (the Swedish 7-11). However, the convenience stores don't sell all the different types of tickets.
* * *
The truly cheap long-term option of course, is just to cycle. Gothenburg is a very compact city, and indeed, it is possible to walk across the central areas of the city, from the start of Kungsportsavenyen to Centralstationen within a half hour (by cutting through ForeningensTrädgården, I must qualify).
RecentPosted by Alissa Wed, November 04, 2009 10:55:32I know I haven't posted much, so here's an additional short post to make up for it!
Visit Gothenburg's Museums.
Top attractions:
1. Konstmuseet
2. Varldkulturmuseet
I haven't visited the Natural History Museum or the Maritime museum yet. Soon, hopefully.
It a glorious autumn day today, after many days of grey sky.
It's taken a whole week to mentally adjust to having the sun set before 5pm. To this equatorial resident, who sees 12 hours of sunlight daily the whole year round, this is a strange and new thing. I hear that everyone gets a bit depressed about it, though. Strangely enough, I was told that the myth of the highest suicide rate being in winter is untrue. It it in spring, when the season changes over and those who became depressed over winter feel may feel even more so because of the contrast between their inner mood and the change in the season which brings new life and, one would expect, joy. But the expected joy does not come and life then becomes even more unbearable. Well, this is what I was told. I am not sure how true it is. But it is an interesting thought, that it is important to follow and respond accordingly to the seasons.
With the onset of winter time, most attractions have closed. The Maritiman's last day was November 1st, so my friend and I went out to take a look, before heading to the Stadsmuseet (City Museum). Here are some of the boats out in the harbour, some of which are part of the Maritiman. It's a museum of floating ships, I suppose I should add. It's just by one of Nordstan's four exits...not sure which one.
Behind this ship is the bridge to Hisingen and the peculiar Lipstick Building (not it's real name). The name of the ship is Viking, but of course it's not a real Viking ship.
Still not a real Viking ship. But a nice model of one. From modelshipmaster.com
The fragments of a real Viking ship can be found at the Stadsmuseet, though, along with other interesting relics of the region's past. Unfortunately the enigmatic descriptions leave much to be desired. They seem to have been written by an archaeologist rather than a historian, for the signboards do not impart any coherence to the exhibitions--although they are full of random trivia about the functions of objects and the habits of peoples. This is not actually an uncommon occurrence in national museums, though--I find that many museums set up exhibitions with an assumption that the visitor already knows the basic history of the area. Which of course we know next to nothing about.
I like the Konstmuseet, Gothenburg's Art Museum much better--have already been there three times, in fact. There is a superb view of the Aveny to be had from the windows on the top floor. Today seems like a good day to enjoy that view, as the sky is bright and full of puffy clouds. Remember to take in the artwork as well! There's a lot to see there: several works by Flemish painters, a rather large baroque section (I don't really like the pastel colours and the flamboyant dressing), a very big painting of the body of King Charles XII being carried home from Norway (I am told this is known to virtually all Swedish schoolchildren).
It looks small here, but the painting fills a whole wall. I like the way the flag and the cape unfurl out to the open sky. The hunter who stands head down in respect has shot a great bird which used to rule the skies. But now only the inanimate things display a pathetic grandeur, like the cape and the flag billowing in the unfriendly wind that causes the caped soldier to reach up to his hat, as if to hold on to what little diginity is left in the ignominy of defeat and the loss of one's king.
RecentPosted by Alissa Wed, November 04, 2009 10:19:23
A clear autumn day is to be highly valued, the supply of them being so low at the moment...
So, just to cheer myself up, I post an autumn morning shot off the ferry at Turku (åbo in Swedish). Turku is Finland's second largest city (I think)...anyway, it is the old capital of Finland, before the Tzar moved it to Helsinki (invariably pronounced Char by my Finnish friends). The highlight there would be the Turku Art Museum which currently houses the Kalevala artworks exhibition, ongoing till 10 January. It has all the major pieces of Kalevala artwork collected from the various museums in Finland. I had been puzzled not to find any artwork on the Kalevala at the Ateneum, Helsinki's main art museum, but now I know that it's been collected at Turku in conjunction with the 160th anniversary of the publication of the Kalevala. I strongly recommend a visit, if you're taking the Stockholm-Turku ferry to get to Finland. It's very cheap for students, about 3 euro compared to the horrible prices for museum admission in Helsinki.
Anyway, although I started out about Autumn, the picture has reminded me of my time in Turku and the Kalevala exhibition. The Kalevala deserves a few words, because a nationally adopted myth tells a lot about how a people call themselves a nation. It is interesting that the Kalevala is one of the latest oral epics to be transcribed. It was published only in the nineteenth century, and there are voice recordings of the singers of Kalevala stories. Compare this to the existence of only a handful of known manuscripts of The Oddysey and the Iliad, Greek epics dating back to 900 BC.
The Kalevala is a Finnish oral epic which originated from Karelia. As far as I can make out, that's some area between Finland and Russia--and mostly lost to Russia during the second world war. I was told this by my host in Turku, whose parents were apparently Karelian refugees. In an attempt to express Finnish-ness and find a national spirit, Finnish artists turned to the Kalevala. Many of them made research trips to the Karelian songlands to find out about traditional Karelian life and Karelian landscapes.
My favourite artist of the Kalevala is Akseli Gallen-Kallela. He depicted the myth with the most dynamism, and many critics felt that he had portrayed the spirit of the Kalevala.
Defending the Sampo, Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Hmm...maybe I should have gotten a larger picture.
The centre of a myth, if it is to be interpreted for nationalistic purposes, is about the indomitability of a people in the face of what threatens them. In this case, Väinäimöinen of Kaleva must defend the Sampo, a powerful object, from being taken by Luohi, the Mistress of the North.
What the artists leave out of their powerful depictions, though, is the not-so-consistent backstory. The Sampo had originally been given to the Mistress by none other than Väinäimöinen himself, in return for her daughter whom he wanted to marry. I think she eventually marries Ilmarinen, the guy who forges the Sampo. I'm typing from memory here, don't have the time to do research. So forgive any errors. But check out Forging the Sampo : this article has the painting by Gallen-Kallela and a more detailed---and accurate--discussion of the myth. Anyway, when Väinäimöinen hears of the prosperity that the Sampo has brought to the Mistress's land, he decides to go and get it back, with the help of some of the other characters. The Mistress is really just vengefully reclaiming her treasure. Was Väinäimöinen a thief as well as a hero? *
The question is perplexing, because a myth does not really have a straightforward interpretation. It always digresses, and gets reinvented by its storytellers, so when it is compiled (and even the compiler, Elias Lonrött, added his own stanzas to link the various cycles together), it is not necessarily consistent. To interpret for nationalistic purposes means re-inventing the myth yet again for purposes other than the original one.
* The story of Väinäimöinen ends when he leaves the country after a new child-king is crowned. The child-king is born of a woman who eats a berry, rather like the Virgin mother and Christ (the Kalevala was still developing late enough for the Christian influence to show). The woman and child who displace the old man and his values is a very interesting image, but the portrayal and the participation of women in the Kalevala is really a whole other essay... I will just say for now that it is interesting how the men all get into trouble from wooing and winning maidens, like Lemminkäinen, who drowns in an attempt to capture the Swan of Tuonela (realm of death?), one of the tasks set for him in order to win a daughter of Luohi. His mother heroically resurrects him by collecting the pieces of his body and sewing them together. Another figure of interest is Aino, who drowns herself (commits herself to the water spirits) rather than give in to Väinäimöinen's lust.
What started as a post on a clear autumn day has turned into a discussion of the Kalevala!
RecentPosted by Alissa Fri, October 16, 2009 10:39:21I was woken up by worrisome glugging noises at night. It took a while to realise that they came from the radiator, which has started working now that temperature is down to zero at night. I'm used to the constant humming of the air-conditioning, not the intermittent clicks, groans and gurgling from this intemperate, old-fashioned radiator.
I haven't posted for some time because I was in Finland. It seems to be full of pine trees, and according to my hosts, of älg which are very dangerous to crash one's car into. Unfortunately, no one has ever managed to teach älg how to cross the road.
In comparison to Gothenburg, Helsinki is a more modern city--this, mainly because it only became the capital city in the early 1800s. It was literally built from scratch, designed in neo-classical style by a single German architect, Carl Engel. Of course, many modern (or modernist) buildings have been built since then--notable landmarks would be the Finlandia Hall by Alvar Aalto, pioneer and genius of modernist architecture in Finland and the relatively new Kiasma (modern art museum).
That's Kiasma's (approximately) northwestern facade. I didn't visit Finlandia Hall unfortunately. Finally got my camera to capture a blue sky. It's generally been grey when cloudy or suffered from white-out in overly bright skies.
1. Seller of fish products at the annual fish market fair, Market Square. There are boats lined up all along the quay, as well as stalls, each selling pickled fish things, limppa bread (not sure of the spelling, but it's svartbröd, basically).
2. Back alley: universal rest-area for cafe staff
3. Overcast sky, view from Domkyrkan.
4. Lion's head, statue of Alexander II at Senate Square.
Anyway, to justify this post as being about Gothenburg, here's some travel advice:
there are a few ways to get to Helsinki from Gothenburg. Easiest, but not the cheapest, is the Blue1 flight. There are other flights, of course, but Blue1 is the budget carrier that flies this route. Do tell me if you know of others. Otherwise, there's train to Stockholm (95-900 SEK, depending on when you buy it) followed by ferry to Turku (Viking, Silja or Seawind lines) and then another train to Helsinki (23euro). That would take approximately a day and a night, but is worth it if you plan to stopover in Stockholm and Turku anyway.
RecentPosted by Alissa Fri, September 25, 2009 20:14:04From the Gothenburg Archipelago.
It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees.
All times I have enjoy'd
Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
That loved me,
and alone;
on shore, and when
Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea.
I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world
whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
~ extract of Ulysses, by Lord Alfred Tennyson
RecentPosted by Alissa Thu, September 17, 2009 00:36:44What follows is very technical information about food
shopping. I know it’s pretty boring, but I’m going to have prospective exchange
students quiz me on all kinds of things once I return, so I thought I’d write
it up and direct them to this site instead of having repeated conversations
about groceries, universal adaptors, and other mundane stuff. So…
During my first week here, several people told me Willy’s is
the cheapest supermarket. But others said ICA is the cheapest. So my kitchen
buddy and I headed out to ICA Maxi and Willy’s at the Vasbergsgatan tram stop
(tram 2 and 4) in order to compare prices. What did we find? That both are the
cheapest, but for different items:
# ICA Maxi sells the cheapest fresh vegetables. Prices of
fruits were not much different from Willy’s.
# Willy’s sells the cheapest meat and dry food items,
especially anything with the brand “Eldorado.” Eldorado is consistently the
cheapest brand for packed food in the supermarkets here, and it is stocked by
Willy’s supermarket. Willy’s also stocks
cheaper garlic and potato varieties than ICA does.*
* Disclaimer: Prices may vary seasonally. Prices were
compared on 31 August 2009.
Before coming here, everyone quivers about the price of
food, and how high the cost of living is in Sweden. Food is expensive, but can
be kept to 6-15SEK per meal (as opposed to 60—150 SEK outside) if you know how
to cook with the groceries here. It’s even cheaper if you can survive on muesli
and salads. What’s cheap, or what’s comparatively normal in price?
# Dairy products: milk, yoghurt and cheese (only certain
varieties like Gouda), but not eggs.
# Meat: Hotdogs and meatballs. Blood pudding, certain types
of ham, and bacon. Basically, any kind of processed meat which uses the gristle
is cheap (this is true for meat anywhere). Chicken costs a lot more than it
does in SEA countries. I like to think that the chickens here have a happier
life, though, and I don’t mind paying for that (hopefully they do have better
lives).
# Seafood: So far I have only seen frozen “panganasius” fish
fillets, whatever they are. Seafood is otherwise terribly expensive here,
despite Goteborg being a seaside city. The Räkost, which is some sort of spread/dip
with shrimp flavor, is probably the closest I will get to eating shrimp here.
# Carbohydrates/Staple Food: Very few varieties of cheap
bread. Look out for them. Rice and Chinese-style noodles are imported and are
very expensive compared to back in good old SEA, but my friends and I got it
anyway. Eldorado does have 5kg packs of rice, and it’s cheaper than the rice at
the Asian food stores. Haven’t tried it though, so I can’t testify to the quality.
Pasta and potatoes are the cheapest alternatives, at 10 SEK/kg and 6 SEK/kg
respectively. Learn different recipes for these before you come over. You won’t
regret it!
# Seasoning: Fresh herbs and bottled herbs are cheaper over
here, for the western varieties like dill, thyme, oregano, parsley, marjoram,
etc. Asian spices and your Chinese medicine shop herb mixes are almost
non-existent. It is possible to find light soya sauce and something called “wok
sauce” at the supermarkets.
Other useful tips:
# Look out for the jamförpris
price on each price tag in addition to the actual price. This gives you the
price per kg or price per litre, which tells you the actual value of the item. Jamförpris allows you to make a more
accurate comparison between different brands offering the same product.
# In most large shops, you will have to pay for your
shopping bag. Either bring your own shopping bag, or pay for the first few
shopping bags and reuse them wherever you shop.
# People are very friendly. Ask other customers/supermarket
staff for translations of items you are unsure of rather than end up buying the
wrong thing, which has happened to me a few times.
# Debit and credit card are almost universally accepted.
They may require a signature and alternative ID card for verification, or just
your PIN.
# Some words to know:
Ris—Rice
Smör—Butter
Mjölk—Milk
Socker—Sugar
Vetemjöl—Flour
Bröd—Bread
Kött— Beef
Kyckling—Chicken
Bankomat—ATM machine
Yay, that concludes the first Grocery Shopping Guide for the
average, constantly hungry, middle class Gothenburg student.
