Family in Sweden - Day 7 - Gothenburg

A walk along the Göta river was still missing and that was what we did, taking both sides of the river in the same day.

Ainda não tínhamos dado um passeio à beira do rio Göta e foi isso mesmo que fizemos, nas duas margens. 

We started at the lipstick building (the red and white building in the pictures), where the Viking, an old ship turned into a restaurant is moored. 

Começamos no edifício do batom (o prédio vermelho e branco nas fotos), onde o Viking, um navio transformado em restaurante está ancorado.

From there we followed along the river, passed the opera house (building in the picture above) and ended up at the Maritiman museum. The Maritiman museum is quite especial as it doesn’t have regular exhibitions, but instead the visitors get to visit several different vessels, both inside and outside, including a ship, a destroyer and a submarine.

De lá seguimos ao longo do rio, passámos a casa da ópera (edificio na foto acima) e acabámos no museu Maritiman. O museu Maritiman é bastante especial, pois não tem exposições mas os visitantes podem andar dentro e fora de várias embarcações, incluindo um navio, um destróier e um submarino.

Submarine from the outside (top photo) and the Gothenburg cranes from one of the boats (bottom photo).

Submarino do lado de fora (foto acima) e os guindastes de Gotemburgo vistos de um dos barcos (foto abaixo).

The highlight of our visit was definitely the submarine. Getting inside was a bit scary but visiting the interior was really interesting. I can only imagine how it feels to be inside one under water, for hours or days, as everything was very tight and claustrophobic. 

O destaque da nossa visita foi mesmo o submarino. Entrar lá para dentro foi um pouco assustador, mas visitar o interior foi muito interessante. É tudo muito apertado e claustrofóbico e imagino como é estar dentro de um e andar debaixo de água durante horas ou dias.

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Inside the museum - all the vessels are connected so the visitors can easily go from one to the other. Some of them were quite large and we would have lost track of where we were, if it wasn’t for all the signs put by the museum. 

Dentro do museu - todas as embarcações estão ligadas para que os visitantes possam facilmente ir de um barco para outro. Alguns deles eram muito grandes e teríamos andado perdidos, se não fosse pelos sinais colocados pelo museu.

A few hours later we left the museum and had a picnic lunch by the river. Afterwards we took the ferry and crossed to the other side of the river to walk on Eriksberg, one of my favourite neighbourhoods in the city.

Poucas horas depois, saímos do museu e fizemos um piquenique à beira rio. Depois apanhamos o ferry e atravessamos o rio para o outro lado, para andar em Eriksberg, um dos meus bairros favoritos da cidade.

Stena Line has daily connections to both Denmark and Germany. The cruises are giant.

A Stena Line faz ligacões diárias à Dinamarca e à Alemanha. Os cruzeiros são gigantescos. 

A reflection that I liked on one of the windows.

Um reflexo que eu vi e gostei numa das janelas.

Eriksberg used to be a shipyard where ships got built and fixed. The giant crane is still standing there and is part of the landscape, of the now modern and trendy Eriksberg. After a long nice walk enjoying the river views, we took the ferry back and stopped at Röda sten (it means red stone) art museum. We walked a bit more around there and even got to see some deers in the little forest behind the museum.

Eriksberg costumava ser um estaleiro onde os navios eram construídos e arranjados. O guindaste gigante ainda está lá e faz parte da paisagem, do que é agora um bairo moderno e trendy. Depois de um passeio longo e agradável à beira rio, apanhamos o ferry de volta e paramos em Röda sten (significa pedra vermelha), um museu de arte. Caminhamos mais um pouco por ali e até conseguimos ver alguns veados na mini floresta atrás do museu.

As a joke someone painted a stone red just next to the museum and it is now also part of the landscape. Eriksberg crane can be seen on the other side.

Como brincadeira, alguém pintou uma pedra vermelha ao lado do museu e agora também faz parte da paisagem. O guindaste de Eriksberg pode ser visto do outro lado do rio.

At this time, the sun was almost setting but it was to cold to stay and appreciate the golden hour, so we went back home. Besides that, we had already walked quilometres and we were looking forward to some sitting and a warm cup of tea. 

A esta hora, já o sol se estava quase a pôr, mas estava demasiado frio para ficarmos a ver o pôr do sol, e por isso voltamos para casa. Além disso, já tínhamos andado tanto que já só queríamos sentarmo-nos e beber um cha quentinho.

Family in Sweden - Day 6 - Gothenburg

Continuing our tour in Gothenburg we visited Universium, the science centre and museu, which is right next to Liseberg, the amusement park (closed during the winter) and the Gothia Towers hotel, a landmark of the city. 

Continuando o nosso passeio por Gotemburgo fomos visitar o Universium, o centro de ciência e museu, que fica ao lado de Liseberg, o parque de diversões (fechado durante o inverno) e o hotel Gothia Towers, um marco da cidade.

Liseberg

Gothia towers

Universium has a lot of different rooms with science related games and exhibitions, mostly for the little ones but also enjoyable for adults. One of my favourite parts is the tropical exhibition with plants, birds and other animals from tropical areas, having a much higher temperature and humidity than the rest of the building. 

O Universium tem várias salas diferentes com jogos e exposições relacionados com ciência, principalmente para os mais pequenos, mas também interessantes para adultos. Uma das minhas partes preferidas é a exposição tropical com plantas, pássaros e outros animais de áreas tropicais, num espaço com temperatura e humidade muito mais altas que o resto do edifício.

My dad and sister in a cycling competition, to see who could cycle more in 30 seconds.

O meu pai e a minha irma numa competição de bicicleta, a ver quem andava mais em 30 segundos. 

My dad, a great austronaut... / O meu pai, esse grande astronauta...

After playing around a few hours in universium we had lunch in a nearby bakery (the most spicy Thai soup I’ve ever eaten!) and then headed to Slottsskogen, the city park. Winter is not really the best season to hang around in the park, but there’s an animal park inside, with goats, sheep, deers, elks, to name a few, which is worth a visit.

Depois de brincarmos durante algumas horas no universium, fomos almoçar a uma padaria ali perto (a sopa tailandesa mais picante que já comemos!) e a segui fomos para Slottsskogen, o parque da cidade. O inverno não é bem a melhor estação para passear no parque, mas há um parque de animais lá dentro, com cabras, ovelhas, veados, alces, para citar alguns, que vale a pena visitar.

Ducks / Patos

Deers / Veados

Elks / Alces

I like this park and I think the animals are happy there. They live in natural conditions and have a lot of space to run around. To be fair, I don’t need to go to the park to see the animals. It has happened several times that I crossed paths with deers or hares on my way to work and elks appear sometimes in the neighbourhoods close to the forests looking for fruit, especially apples. Sometimes they eat the fermented fruit that’s on the ground and get a little bit drunk. That can obviously be dangerous as elks are quite large, but it’s usually ok and they go back to the forest.

Eu gosto deste parque e acho que os animais são felizes lá. Eles vivem em condições naturais e têm muito espaço para correr. Para dizer a verdade nem  preciso de ir ao parque para ver os animais. Já me aconteceu várias vezes cruzar-me com veados ou lebres a caminho do trabalho e os alces aparecem às vezes nos bairros próximos às florestas à procura de frutas, especialmente maçãs. Às vezes comem a fruta fermentada que está no chão e ficam um pouco bebedos. Isso pode obviamente ser perigoso, já que os alces são bem grandes, mas geralmente não há problema e eles voltam para a floresta.

More deers, ducks and penguins and a sea lion below. 

Mais veados, patos e pinguins e um leão marinho em baixo. 

The park animal is quite large and on a hill, which means a lot of walking up and down, and we were all got tired and cold, so we called it a day and we went home. It was a full day, especially a day full of animals, first tropical and then Nordic. Very different for sure. 

O parque dos animais ainda é bastante grande e fica numa colina, o que significa muita caminhada para cima e para baixo, e depois da nossa visita estávamos todos cansados e cheios de frio, por isso fomos para casa. Foi um dia cheio, especialmente um dia cheio de animais, primeiro tropicais e depois nórdicos. Muito diferentes com certeza.

Family in Sweden - Day 5 - Gothenburg

Gothenburg was of course a big part of the plan, that we left for later when we wouldn't have the rented car anymore. The sun was shinning but it was still quite cold (it had snowed the day before), so we explored the city combining indoor places with some nice walks in the centre. 

Gotemburgo fazia naturalmente parte do nosso plano, mas deixamos para depois para quando não já não tivéssemos o carro alugado. O sol brilhava mas continuava a fazer muito frio (tinha nevado o dia antes), então exploramos a cidades combinando lugares fechados com alguns passeios nas ruas do centro.

Gothenburg's canal 

Tradgårdsföreningen, the city gardens where we visited the green houses.

Tradgårdsföreningen, os jardins da cidade, onde visitamos as estufas.

Greenhouses / Estufas

The tired visitors enjoying the sunshine and some rest.

Os visitantes a aproveitar uns raios de sol e a descansar.

Feskekôrka, which means fish church in Gothenburg’s dialect, a fish and seafood market.

Feskekôrka, que significa igreja do peixe no dialecto local, uma mercado de peixe e marisco.

Haga’s church / Igreja de Haag

Gothenburg’s canal with the theatre in the background.

O canal de Gotemburgo com o teatro ao fundo.

Saluhallen, the food market / Saluhallen, o mercado de alimentos

The tea shop, my favourite. There’s a whole wall full of cans with different flavours of loose tea herbs. Among my favourites blends are “lovers dream” and “roiboos teaser” (both with a base of roiboos) and Gothenburg’s blend with black tea. I have, of course, many to try still.

A loja do chá, a minha preferida, onde há uma parede inteira cheia de latas com ervas de chá de sabores diferentes. As minhas misturas preferidas são “sonho dos amantes” e “provocação de roiboos” (ambos com base de chá de roiboos) e “mistura de Gotemburgo, com chá preto. Claro que ainda tenho muitos por experimentar.

There’s many other shops as well, selling meat, fish, fresh pastas, sauces, snacks, bread, cakes and others. There’s also several restaurants both inside and around the building. The restaurants always have a lunch menu and it’s a great place to eat delicious and fresh food at decent prices. 

Há muitas outras lojas, que vendem carne, peixe, massas frescas, molhos, lanches, pães, bolos e outros. Há também vários restaurantes dentro e ao redor do prédio. Os restaurantes têm sempre um menu de almoço e é um bom sítio para se comer boa comida com ingredientes frescos a preços decentes.

We finish off our first day at the city by visiting Haga, one of the most popular neighbourhoods, known for its cosy cafes and unique local shops. The tour of the city continued the following day and I will post about it in the next post.

Terminamos o passeio do dia pela cidade na Haga, um dos bairros mais populares, bem conhecido pelos seus cafés acolhedores e lojas de comércio tradicional. A visita continuou no dia seguinte, mas escreverei sobre isso no próximo post.

The dress

Gothenburg, August 10th, 2016

I wanted to write this today because it is fresh in my memory and I do want to remember the details. I will not publish this post just yet, but it will be published in the right time.

We planned a summer trip to the UK and Ireland. Firstly, I would go 3 days to Edinburgh with Johan. From there we would go to Belfast, in Northern Ireland, where his brother would join us and later on we would go down to Dublin, in Ireland, where we would run a half marathon. Johan lived in Edinburgh for 3 years. It was nice to go back as it brought us, more him than me of course, a lot of good memories. We have been engaged for about 8 months by now, but we are planning to have the wedding only in 2018. I was never too much of a girly girl and I had no idea what kind of dress I wanted to wear in my wedding party. All I knew was that I did not want to be a traditional bride. No white dresses, unless they had some really cool and different design. No long princess-like dresses. Nothing expensive. Somehow, I always felt I would rather spend big money on a nice trip than on a dress that I would only wear for half a day. With that in mind I thought it would be a good idea to just look at different models, colours, options to start figuring out what would I wear. Edinburgh seemed a nice place to start. I have always enjoyed shopping in the UK and since I was there I decided to have a look in some shops. 

It was Monday morning. We were walking towards Princes street, the shopping street, when we passed a shop with gorgeous and colourful dress-up clothes. There was a particular skirt + top combination that caught my eye. Johan, walking a few steps ahead of me turned around and said "you liked that, no". I was very impressed. The boy who never notices anything, had not only noticed there was something there but also that it was something that I liked. After some moments of hesitation we decided to go back and enter the shop. They had really gorgeous outfits. The materials were lovely and the colours adorable. That particular one on the window was just beautiful. I did not try it on. It would probably make me fat.

We went to Princes street and looked for dresses the whole morning and part of the afternoon. Nothing was to my taste. Everything was too normal, nothing seemed special enough. And the damn outfit in the window did not let go of me! In the end of the day I told Johan I wanted to go and try it on. The shape of the skirt made me think that it would not make me look good, so I could just as well go and try it, to get it out of my system. I tried it on. The lady working there was really nice and lend me some matching heels to see the full effect. As I stepped out of the cabin into the big mirror I loved it. It looked gorgeous! Johan loved it too. Very well... now I was thinking about it even more. We went back to the hotel weighting the pros and cons of buying that outfit. The biggest disadvantage was that the wedding is only in 2 years and my taste can change in the meantime. I wanted some girly opinion as well, to see if I was not completely crazy. I sent two pictures to my sister. She hated it. The colours, the shape, it was not me at all. Am I crazy? 

I checked that the same shop existed both in Belfast and in Dublin, and that gave me a full week to think about it. When we got to Belfast, we had to wait for Johan's brother in the bus station. There was a shopping centre just about 10 minutes from there and Johan suggested that I go there and see that they did have the same outfit. They did. On the window. I fell in love with it again. It was also then that I got over the pain of the fact that my beloved sister, who I adore so much, was so much against it. Assuming that it was a too big shock for her, a more traditional girl, that I would be wearing something colourful in my wedding, I emailed the photos to 2 friends. One of them works in fashion. The responses couldn't have been more positive. They both told me it was gorgeous and it fit me well. Whether that would still be in fashion in 2 years was questionable but they also told me that something beautiful would always be something beautiful. Every time I passed near that shopping centre I went near the shop and looked at the window. I didn't want to rush. I would wait until Dublin.

We got to Dublin around lunchtime. We ate something, picked up the start numbers to the races and wondered around. We ended up very near one of places I knew they had the same shop. I told the boys I wanted to go in and I would try it again. They came with me. On the way there I remember passing by a bus stop in which the next bus was going to a place called "Bride st.". No I did not want to make my decision based in signs from bus stops. I tried the same outfit. I loved it again. I tried different tops but the original one was still my favourite. I decided to buy it. D. also said that since it was not that expensive and not that eccentric even if I changed my mind in the future I could still wear it in another occasion. And I bought it! I bought it! There, in that very busy crossing in Dublin, wearing jeans shorts and a t-shirt, accompanied by the groom and the brother, I bought my wedding outfit. This was really unexpected. I never thought I would return from my trip with my wedding outfit.

I am not known for doing things in the conventional way, but what's conventional anyway? I have met so many different people throughout my life that no matter what I do or how I do something it will always be normal to some, out of the ordinary to others and probably a bit crazy sometimes. Still, I did not expect to go against tradition this much. I am enjoying the feeling of being different though. 

My dress is not a dress. 

It is not white. 

It is not long. 

The groom was the first one to see it.

My mom has no idea I bought it.

My sister doesn't like it (but she has only seen it in 2 pictures, so there's hope).

I bought it together with the two least fashionable men I know.

It doesn't matter whether people will think I'm not a proper bride or that I do not look good enough. It doesn't matter because I love it and it is what I want.

Every time I look at it I know that it's beautiful, that it represents me and that I do want to use it in my wedding party. I am sure of that now because today, as I tried it at home, in the quietness of my bedroom I felt like a bride for the first time.

That's also why I had to write this text today.

Gothenburg - my 5 favourite places - Newbie

Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, the capital. Gothenburg is a city that doesn't have an obvious beauty, but its slowly grows in you the more you get to know it. It has soul. A special atmosphere. It's enchanted. 

In my latest article for the Newbie I wrote it and my favourite places in the city I now call home. 

To read my article click here. Enjoy it!

Gunnebo, a baroque manor house near Gothenburg