To Gothenburg from Stockholm

From Stockholm, unfortunately and shockingly, not a single Bla Bla car ride was advertised to head to Sweden’s second biggest city of Gothenburg. The platform apparently exists in the country but few are using it. When I asked my Swedish friend about it and explained the concept, her response was… “uh I don’t think many Swedish people would like other people…strangers…being in their private space like that.” An interesting cultural insight for sure. Anyhow, this left us with no choice but bus or train so naturally we hopped on a six-hour Flix Bus to save some cash to arrive to the opposite coast of the country, many which claim is the best in a familiar east coast/west coast rivalry. 

Not surprisingly, the Central Bus Station, immediately connected to the train station, as it should be, is very well organized, clean and modern. The bus station is so organized, they even offer a place where you can pre-print your baggage tags if you’re heading to the airport.

There are also three supermarkets inside so we were able to score plenty of discounts for our day of meals ahead. This chicken wrap, broccoli/dip and salad was $7.50 for the three items, which supplemented what we’d already packed. 

Climbing aboard the upper floor of our first ride, of two, which would be continuing 18 hours all the way to Berlin. Fortunately, we got off at Jönköping and changed to another to head further west in Sweden. The two tickets for about six hours on a Flix Bus were $88, which is still cheaper than some of our rides in Bosnia. 

It was here we indulged on our first cardamom bun, thanks to Jesper who had sweetly picked it up for us at the bakery that morning. Other indulgences you can get on a Flix Bus now include Pilsner Urquell, which is the same 2.50€ price as water. This bus must be heading toward Czechia to restock at that rate…

Well 😝 I’ll use the stairs. We don’t like you either….

Returning to the Ek Home in Kulavik

Upon arriving in Gothenburg, we were picked up by a familiar face we last saw eight years ago, when we had just begun our nomadic existence…Anders. I met Anders and his wife, Tina, while managing their swim and tennis club in North Carolina in 2003 and am so grateful to have stayed friends with them all this time. If you saw our last post, you probably saw we stayed with one of their kids in Stockholm as well.

Anyhow, Anders took us to their beautiful home in Kullavik, about an hour south of Gothenburg, where we again stayed four nights in the Villa Ekekulla. Last time we visited, it was mid-July…the pride and joy of Sweden. Little did we know that this visit, one month later, would already turn the land into a dreary and drizzly mess….🤣

Yes, Tina has actually named their home after a Pippi Longstocking reference.

Despite the rain, Kullavik was still as picturesque as ever with the undulating rocks, fishing shack boxes, and colorful boats bobbing on the North Sea.

Anders and we, standing in the exact spot where his daughter, Julia, got married in 2021…one of many revised and rescheduled COVID weddings.

Also, we were just in time for blackberry season, which littered the trails around their house alongside a few isolated lingonberries, popular as the sauce served with Swedish meatballs. Note: we learned that lingonberries plucked and eaten directly from the bush are quite mouth puckering. The sauce itself must have sugar added to it.

Standing on this site near their home, which was once part of a World War II coastal defense system, built to protect Sweden from a possible attack from the sea. Sweden remained officially neutral during the war, while Nazi Germany invaded neighboring Denmark and Norway in April 1940.

And while we were all doing this, our hostess with the mostest, could often be found whipping up our next meal. Tina made some homemade hummuses, one with beets which were absolutely mouthwatering, as well as my request and a Swedish favorite…open face shrimp sandwiches. Fairly, she made us do most of the work for these, because you can’t come to Sweden without sacrificing some shrimp. I was just relieved I didn’t have to slurp up any crayfish heads on this visit…

Oh yes…Tina and I have come a long way!

On another outing, Greg and I went up to a nearby nature reserve and island called Stora Amundö. On the 4.5k loop, we saw dozens of tiny froglets, the first of which we almost stepped on. According to our Seek app, they were actually “European Toads.”

The landscape was classic Swedish west coast with smooth granite cliffs and rocky coastline. 

And the area is not just for gazing at. Based on the multiple ladders dropping into the water, there are also several swimming opportunities.Not that we’d want to 😬

Nope. The water was absolutely loaded with Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, which is one the largest jellyfish species in the world, said our Seek app. The bell can get up to 2 meters in diameter (6-7 feet), but these were significantly smaller. And yes they sting. They are found in the cold, boreal waters of the Arctic and common in the area around Scandinavia and the English Channel. 

We’ll stick to the trails…😅 Plus, it was starting to rain. Enough to draw multiple expletives out of us.

Later that day, Tina announced we were ordering pizza for dinner! Oh yay! Pizza party. Just like the swim and tennis club days….But she said this would be SWEDISH, not crappy Papa John’s, pizza. Swedish pizza, we soon learned, was loaded with vegetables and shrimp, at least for them  No surprise. One even had curry, and bananas on it as well. It was surprisingly….tasty! 😋 

On thing we didn’t have to eat in Sweden  was snails. Thank god. I will never put one again in my mouth again after getting so sick in Vietnam. However, we did find a quite juicy one right outside the door one morning. Couldn’t believe how chunky he was! He was also appreciative I wouldn’t be eating him!

Another night, Tina whipped out another crowd favorite…a soft serve ice cream machine and all the toppings. You’ve GOT to be kidding me?!? It wasn’t robotic like the one at IKEA which made it ever better. I was in control of my ice cream again. In this world of technology, this made me incredibly happy. 

Knowing we would soon be heading to even more expensive Norway, we stocked up on a few more expensive groceries items before we left…. $37 for this pile, which felt comparable to US prices. 

A Day Trip to the Seaside Resort of Varberg

On one of our days in Kullavik, Tina and Anders whisked us one hour south to the quaint seaside resort and spa town of Varberg, which was actually Danish for centuries until 1645. Today it features a well-preserved medieval fortress, historic bathhouses, and the remarkably preserved remains of the Bocksten Man, a medieval man found in a nearby bog in 1936. 

One interesting site in Varberg is the Cold Bathhouse, or Kallbadhuset, which was dropped directly into the sea in 1866 in a Moorish and Turkish-inspired style. The tradition goes back to the early 1800s when cold seawater became associated with health and spa treatments. 

Today you can still plunge yourself…naked…in your respective gender separate sections, into the icy sea waters underneath before roasting yourself in the sauna for about $9. Greg and I decided next time we come back, we’d have to take advantage.

The marina at Varberg is a perfect indication of Swedish life. Speaking of, Anders said he might be interested in buying a boat himself one day. Considering I’ve never been sailing, this itself might twist my arm to return in our designated 8 years.

From the pier, the historic bathhouse in the foreground and the fortress in the background. Oh, and, in case you didn’t get it from the photos…it was pissing rain and f’ing miserable outside…exactly the weather we try and avoid in our nomad life. 😅

Of course, it doesn’t stop Tina…a true Swede…from having fun, as we headed up to the fortress. 

Inside the fortress, there is a museum ($9) including two notable things….the aforementioned medieval man and this…button…known as the “Incredible Bullet Button” 

According to the plaque story goes: “The reign of Karl XII (1697-1718) was the last long period of war in Swedish history. It was a tough time for the Swedes. The wars cost many lives, taxes were high, and severe diseases were rampant. At the same time, myths about the king spread. Since he survived many battles without getting hurt, some believed he had supernatural powers and was ‘bulletproof.’ According to folklore, the only way to get the king would be to use something from himself which had the same kind of power. On November 30, 1718, Karl XII was killed at Fredriksten fortress in Norway by a shot to the head. A legend says that the bullet was a brass button from the king’s own uniform, filled with lead. The Swedish soldier Nordstierna from Oxnevalla is said to have taken care of the button but later threw it away on the advice of his priest. According to legend the Swedish people were so worn out by the wars that one of the king’s own soldiers killed him to put an end to the fighting.”

And here lies the Bocksten Man, a medieval man who died around 1350-1370. He was rediscovered in 1936 in a nearby peat bog, remarkably preserved complete with clothes and hair. The research has shown:

• He was around 35 years old when he was impaled in the bog. 
• He was approximately 171 cm (5’7″) tall, right-handed and had shoe size 41. 
• He was generally healthy and had not done much hard physical labour in his life, most likely an upper class man
• His clothing and hairstyle show that he was aware of the fashions of the time.
• He lived in the Varberg area during the last year of his life. 

Where have I seen that hair before?!🤔 His clothing and shoes, incredibly intact and identifiable. Completely mind-blowing.

The outside of the fortress, which is much older than in looks, was constructed between 1588 and 1618, when Denmark was trying to turn it into a state-of-the-art defensive installation. The slightly amusing part….it was completed in 1618 as one of Europe’s most modern fortresses… and then never actually had to fight another war. 

The town of Varberg, as seen from the fortress and an island off the coast. We’re still narrowing it down, but that does NOT look like somewhere we’ll be looking for real estate…

Other scenes around the fortress. 

Moving on, thanks to Atlas Obscura, we found ourselves at the Lenin Bath (Leninbadet), which is located in the basement of the Hotell Gästis. This spa was built in the hotel’s 18th Century wine cellar vaults with about 75,000 cobalt-blue tiles, deliberately modeled after a real bathhouse in St. Petersburg where Vladimir Lenin reportedly bathed. 

So you might be asking why does Varberg have a Lenin Spa? The owner of the hotel, Lasse Diding, went to the original Lenin Bath during a trip to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1983, which eventually inspired him to recreate it underneath his hotel. And he clearly went all in with Lenin busts, portraits, historic objects and Soviet-era imagery. 

We got lucky to have a brief tour by a kind worker in the hotel, but normally it costs 200 SEK ($20) for hotel guests, or 300 ($30) for non-guests, including a bathrobe, towel and slippers. 

Continuing our tour of the town, we found Varberg Church. In front of it, a statue titled “Kopparmärra,” or Itinerant Peddler. It represents a traveling merchant who was once found peddling backpacks filled with textiles, handicrafts, and housewares to sell in early Swedish trading history.

In other statues, we discovered “The Woman With the Handbag” again through Atlas Obscura. In 1985, this Polish-born woman, Danuta Danielsson was photographed hitting a neo-Nazi with her handbag. Rumors swirled she was an elderly Jewish concentration camp survivor. Nearby a tree is accessorized with handbags in solidarity with her.

From here Tina and Anders took us to her favorite “tropical” locale called Brittas along the coast. The beach theme with Bob Marley drifting through the air on such an abysmal day was a bit of a creative visualization exercise, but it certainly gave us some nostalgia of our time spent on the Washington Coast. Probably similar to the Washington Coast these days, here Greg and I shared a fish and chips for the eye-watering price of $24. 😅

Borrås Skåra Slot Canyon

Our final stop in West Sweden on this trip was a particularly enjoyable one: Borrås Skåra. During this 30-minute miniature wilderness adventure, Anders, Greg and I roamed through a lush forest before encountering a startling and dramatic mossy fissure splicing the earth.  What felt a lot like a slot canyon to us, at about 2 meters wide and 10 deep, was an ancient rock expansion thought to have been created by powerful meltwater associated with the last Ice Age.

And it’s definitely not something we expected to see in Sweden! At the end of the fissure sits a supposedly doomed and wedged boulder. According to local folklore, it’s hanging from an invisible silk thread and won’t fall until the last person on Earth walks underneath it. 

From the top, you could have no idea what lies below, until you get right up to the extraordinary edge.

From the forest that surrounds, you’d also have no idea the wondrous little anomaly that awaits. One thing is for sure…Sweden has some phenomenal natural attractions. Thanks again to Tina and Anders for making our stay so special.