Colorful Göteborg

This weekend my friend Ondrej and I went to Göteborg, Sweden for a quick visit. Neither of us really knew what to expect, especially on such a short trip. It turns out that we timed our visit just right because we found crisp fall weather, autumn leaves, blue skies, and an extremely beautiful and friendly city.

The city is built on the Göta river, several miles in from the sea. The city spans across both sides of the river which is still a very active, industrial port.

People get around town on the tram, which runs all the way out to the seaside, with connections to ferries out to the archipelago.

With a 24 hour tram pass, it is also possible to ride any of the ferries through the islands, which are quite extraordinary. They are covered in tiny cabins where I'm sure people spend entire summers, swimming in the clear water, kayaking, and sunbathing on the rocks.

This island is Styrsö, one of the largest and most populated islands in the archipelago.

Since it is very difficult to bring a car to the island (ferries are passenger only) islanders get around via these cute motorized bikes, with large trays in front for transporting children, food, supplies, etc...

The islands were covered in berry bramble, which was mostly a colorful combination of rose hips and blackthorn. We saw many families out picking blackthorn berries, and coming home with buckets full for making a special liquor. There were also many people scavenging huge bags of mushrooms, though I was never sure what variety they were finding.

One of the busiest places on the island was the recycling station/junkyard. It seemed like as many people we there to find treasures as were dropping stuff off.

We started hiking out to the unpopulated end of the island where there were brilliant views across the water. While we were hiking, Ondrej realized that our fellow hikers were also from his hometown, Prague, so we joined forces and made some new friends.