My last day in Gothenburg; today I am off to see some sights and enjoy some more Swedish fare.

Strömmingsluckan

I woke up a little late and bought a 24hr transport pass and went straight to lunch (or brunch) at a food truck called Strömmingsluckan, located in Inom Vallgravem, at a small square on Magasinsgatan. They're known for their herring but I purchased a Havets wallenbergare (it's a fish cake but the Swedish name doesn't directly translate to ‘fish cake’ :). The fish cake consisted of cod, haddock, pollock, prawn and salmon. It was served with mashed potatoes and a danish remoulade sauce.

The fish cake was quite good, I didn't feel like I was eating a tonne of filler at all. The mashed potato was ok but again, I don't really like baby food consistency mash. The remoulade, something I've never had before, was delicious! It tasted like pickle and mayonnaise. 7/10 #ipinion

After lunch I walked east towards Avenyen and found the official Gothenburg tourist information shop. I went inside hoping to find some postcards. I spotted the prints below but unfortunately they did not come in postcard size :(

Göteborgs konstmuseum (Gothenburg Museum of Art)

Then I took the bus down Avenyen to get to the Konstmuseum, which is known for its collection of Nordic art. I found it to be an interesting museum as it housed both modern and more classical art. The museum wasn't very big but it was a good way to spend 1-2 hours. My favourite painting from this museum was Hip Hip Hurrah! It was such a great painting, the artist really depicted the joy in his subject's faces really well. I felt like I was right there with them, standing in the sun watching them have a good time.

Göteborgs Stadsmuseum (Gothenburg City Museum)

After my visit at the Konstmuseum, I went to the Stadsmuseum via bus. The Stadsmuseum was located on the Stora Hamnkanalen, along with many other important historical buildings. The museum itself is located in the original East India Company building which was built in the 18th century.

The museum was rather interesting and went through the history of Gothenburg, from the beginning (17th century) to today. There were many artifacts displayed from all periods, including every day objects from days gone by, clothing, full blown recreations of how people arranged their living spaces and art. There was also a big section about the Vikings. This is what's left of the Äskekärr viking ship:

Amazingly, this is the only exhibited viking ship in the whole of Sweden. There are not many places you can see Viking ships because very very few of them survived. I will later see more Viking ships in Denmark!

Brogyllen

I was hankering for a snack after visiting the city museum. Across the canal from it was a cafe, Brogyllen. It was a tasteful looking cafe with very full displays of pastries and bread. I decided to snack on a Swedish classic, the prinsesstårta (princess cake).

The princess cake consists of layers of sponge cake, raspberry jam, cream and covered with marzipan. Simple enough right? Well unfortunately, I didn't like it very much. Maybe because it wasn't super fresh, maybe because I didn't like the marzipan topper. There was also too much cream for my liking. SEK 44 = AUD 7.04 - this was quite expensive. 5/10 #ipinions

Research

I decided to use my 24 hour transport pass to its full potential and went out to suburbia. I took a bus to Frölunda, which I had read was an ok suburb to live in. I got off the bus at Frölunda Torg (Square), which was a sizable shopping centre. I had a walk around the shopping centre then walked out randomly to the streets.

The area I stumbled across was very quiet. Not a whole lot going on.

Slottsskogen

I took the tram from Frölunda Torg to Göteborg Botaniska Trädgården tram stop. Slottsskogen is Gothenburg's main park space and it was huge. There were quite a few people out and about, exercising or just spending time with their families. I was here to just enjoy the scenery and to have a look at the zoo. Yep, Slottsskogen has its own zoo (which only takes up a small portion of the park). I saw a good variety of animals but to be honest, I was a bit dubious about their living conditions.

One lonely seal :(

These penguins squawked soooo loudly. But look at some of them pairing off and cuddling.

There were also lots of farm animals exhibited but they're not that interesting :p

I had walked through quite a bit of Slottsskogen and headed for Göteborg Klintens väg tram stop to take a tram back into town. On the way, I saw many colourful houses:

They were all shaped very similarly, all two storey houses looked like this and all single storey houses were quite uniform, except for the colour in which it was painted in. I liked how colourful they were! I suppose you had to stand out when all the houses pretty much looked the same.

I noticed the tram I was on was very empty, despite it being quite early in the evening.

Smaka

Again, I had googled for a restaurant offering traditional Swedish fare. I found Smaka (in English: ‘Taste’), which was close to Gothenburg University. It was quite a trendy spot and the waiters were friendly.

For dinner I had “Venison top blade with stewed morels, potato and Västerbotten cheesecake and a sea buckthorn and rosemary sauce” (In Svenska: Hjortinnanlår med stuvade murklor, potatis & västerbottenostkaka samt havtron & rosmarinsås). That's a direct quote from the menu. I'm not even sure what half of those things are, but omg, Västerbotten cheesecake! I had to have it. Venison is always interesting as well. SEK 265 (AUD 42.4)? Well, YOLO lol, no worries. Poor wallet.

The following came out from the kitchen:

Ok so it turns out morels are a type of fungus/mushroom and sea buckthorn refers to the sea buckthorn plant's berries. You can see the stewed morels on the right there in some sort of white sauce. On the left, we have a potato and Västerbotten cheese cake, so it was more like a gratin with lots of Västerbotten cheese than an actual Västerbotten cheesecake (which is actually like a quiche but starring Västerbotten cheese, I had googled it last night). Finally on the bottom we have the venison with the sea buckthorn and rosemary sauce.

The Venison was sooo soft and tender. It was great, wasn't all that gamey at all. The sauce went well.

The potato and Västerbotten gratin (which is what I'm calling it, because that's what it is), was not too bad, it was cooked well but I was let down by the taste of cooked Västerbotten cheese. Unfortunately, when cooked (or melted?) it lost a lot of its depth.

Again, conflicting flavours were about on my plate. The stewed morels didn't really belong at all.

It was an interesting meal, I was a little bothered about the cost and a little let down overall. But the venison was good, don't get me wrong. Cooked well. 7/10 #ipinions

Final thoughts on Gothenburg

• Food has also been quite good
• Nice city, but not one you would visit over and over again
• Livable city I suppose. But seemed really quiet