anotherdaytoexcel

[anotherdaytoexcel]

Skuudle Skuudle

On December 5th 2019, Maj and I set of to explore the bitter cold city of Gothenburg, Sweden. We had no expectations for our winter weekend, (mainly as our flight tickets only cost us £40 quid) except Christmas markets, great food and a good time!

We reached our hotel, Hotel Avenyn, late Thursday night. I guess we weren't expecting much from hotel as we had seen the pictures before we booked, but we surely didn't expect to have a quadruple room - (yes our room had 4 beds) and a corridor full of toilets. We debated whether we should change, but our lazy bums did not allow us!

The next day, we set off into the Gotenborg city towards Universeum. We found that you can pretty much walk everywhere in this city - infact it would be quicker to walk than wait for an Uber (clearly Uber in Sweden is not as popular as it is in the UK). Universeum is Scandanavia's largest science centre with 7 levels. The first one we went to was the rainforest - and it literally felt like we had stepped foot into an actual rainforest, so much so that we couldn't stand the heat and had to come out and take our coats off!

There were rooms with random health facts and puzzles which test your memory and quickness. There was a quote which stood out to me the most, which I cant remember word for word, but it was about stress and pleasing everyone. We live in a life where we are constantly on the go with social events at least every week. - but this quote reminded me that it is ok to say no sometimes.

We spent about 2 hours here and decided to feed our bellies with some traditional swedish food at a restaurant called - . Little did we know that this cute family owned restaurant was only a stone's throw from our hotel! As soon as we entered, we instantly felt a sense of festive spirit as it was very cosy and welcoming. The staff didn't speak great English - but Maj downloaded an app where you can hover over the menu and it will translate for us! I ordered the steak with vegetables and Maj had the swedish meatballs - both meals were absolutely divine! The meat tasted so different to London, definitely more organic!

Later that evening we walked towards Lisberg, what we had come to see!! The amusement park was filled with Christmas markets, trees and lights! Probably one of the best Christmas markets I have been told (tbh I can only compare it to winter wonderland Hyde Park). Most of the rides were still operating and I could not wait to get on them. I practically had to drag Maj to come on a rollercoaster with me!

Lisberg were also showing 'A Christmas Carol' on ice which we went to see. Despite the rain and the fact that the musical was in Swedish, we enjoyed watching the show! We then took stroll through the Christmas markets and treated ourselves to hot chocolates!

I really fancied an Italian that night, so we walked towards an Italian restaurant from the amusement park. It was about an 8 minute walk. This cosy restaurant was called.... As with most restaurants in Sweden, the atmosphere was peaceful and calming, providing us a safe haven from the downpour outside. The food was yet again...amazing! One of the best Italian restaurants I have been too which is not in Italy! We ordered the antipasti board between us for starters and I had a delicious truffle mushroom and chicken pasta... and it was...mmmmm absolutely divine! After our scrumptious meal we went back to the hotel wndb

On Saturday November, we decided to go explore what was around our area. we first went to the 'Markethall' which was indoors packed with cheese, wine, meat and pastries! Not sure if it was because it was a Saturday, but this was place was rammed with people buying their local produce!

and have a fika! Fika is the Swedish concept of having ' a cuppa' with a sweet pastry.