It was just a week ago that I arrived here, in Göteborg (which, in Hungarian is pronounced as "Jöteborg", just a sidenote for whoever would come here) to an airport were there is approx. one flight every hour (so we had to walk from the plane to the only building in sight to catch the only bus going from there to the city :) ). I'm not going to write about everything, just the moments that struck me the most. So no list of "my impressions" on the city, country, people, work, weather (gosh, this is not the UK!), food, drink, etc, etc.
The weather: It's so close the the UK, both geographically and weatheracally, that I have to start the list with it: it's, just simply said, fucking cold for a summer, after coming from the sunny 30+°C-s to the rainy and windy 15-20°C-s. I had a quite hard time to get acclimatized to this kind of "summer".
The food: expensive and good. On average it is 2-3 times more expensive than in H, and it's good, just as good as the hungarian food. And I can buy pre-baked and frozen pancakes in the ICA (which is like Interspar). :) And if I have a lunch menu, then all the salads, coffee, tea, drinks (even beer) is included in the menu!
The city: very bikeable and clean. There are bike routes everywhere (I mean, next to all main roads) and most houses have some bike racks next to the door. I was considering buying or renting one, but since I'm not that as waterproof as Swedes are, it has no use for me in rain, and it would took some hassle to get one. If I'll come ever again, I'll have one for sure.
The archipelago: You can take your bike free on the boats to the islands, and you can also use your ticket to get to the islands in front of Göteborg. Amazing for me, who never traveled on a boat with the city pass. :) The islands are interesting stuff: no cars are allowed, so everyone bikes or walks; there are tiny villages on huge islands, the rest is mostly nature reservations; the inhabitants go to work to the city by commuting by ferries; and a lot of houses have air conditioning, which implies to me that Swedes might work best under 25°C. :)
The housing: In the room where I'm staying, every furniture is from IKEA. All of them. Just like in the shared kitchen, with the exception of the appliances, which are mostly Elektrolux stuff. Back in H, the IKEA stuff were the sign that someone paid attention to style and quality, it was surprising to see that here everything is from there.
Overall: It feels like USA in small, European edition, where people care about their health (tons of runners, bikers, swimmers, etc), speak international English (everyone speaks it, I didn't meet anyone in a week who couldn't talk at least some basic English, but most of them use it just as if it were their primary language), eat good food and have a cold weather.
(Pictures to come later, Picasa is slow at uploading for some magical and erroneous reasons)
