Gborg station start of the sites.

The start of our new adventure was to begin from one of my favourite places in Göteborg, the train station. I think it is a great place just to snap away as people aren't really surprised by cameras and well, it is good to blend in and not look all paparazzi sometimes. It is times like this I wish I had forever to just stand there and snap away rather than have a town to see, food to eat, and beer to drink. But, someone has to do the tough things!

For some reason I really like this picture, is it the boots, the masses of cases or the longing in her eyes?

The names Moo, Marty Moo. Licence to be revoked

Picture of a photographer, klasyczny

Face and face

I love the guy in the wig, looks like a German Schlager singer

What do you mean you don't have a ticket?

Someone hates it when you just gotta match!

Bling

I think the best thing about any form of travel is actually the simplest thing, that you just get to see something you haven't seen. Just something to stimulate your old noggin and to let you appreciate that things can be different but, it doesn't mean good or bad, just purely different. 

Ernest Hemmingway once said “Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up." I don't think travel just broadens the ass or arse as I would say nor just the mind, I think it opens the latter to show you that the world functions in so many different ways. Sometimes with seeming ease, other times with huge difficulty. Whether it is the girls of Göteborg all wearing converse shoes, with white shirts and shorts. Or something more obtuse, but equally important, such as acceptance of different nations into another. It is all there in Göteborg, and we found it in the microcosm of the train station.

Life - it is indeed good. 

On the way to G-Borg

So we left the lake all sad and glum,
Waiting to see if Gborg would have sun.
The ride was smooth and we got seats,
And the boys enjoyed their whisky neat.

The happy crew

Await the train

Angry Coopers Ginger ale

Jackie ChanChan

Pepsi

The Mart

King of the Mallards aka Champ

My boy

Coops content

News paper time

The neighbours

Whats the time champ?

ChanChan thinking.... maybe

Pepsi struggling with a children's crossword

Swerving in Sverige, Getting Garth to Göteborg

So we took a week up in the place which sends us here in Poland weather. Sweden, yes the home of IKEA, ABBA and Volvo from the modern to the annoyingly catchy to the just plain boring. So we hoped to enjoy all of these things. I hadn't been to Sweden since 1998, and those were the days of backpacking hostels, cheap beers, staring at the blondest of the blonde secretaries of Stockholm in awe, and staying in the beautiful southern areas around Ängelholm and Båstad. This time we were off to Mariestad and Göteborg to catch up with some FUCCers. No I am not swearing, it is old boys from one of my spiritual homes, Flinders University Cricket Club. The FUCCers do get around the world. At present, as far as I am aware, we are in Ireland, England, Poland (of course), USA, Canada, all major cities in Australia, and obviously Sweden.

So, we set sail, or rather flight, to Göteborg. The second biggest city in Sweden, and home to the aforementioned Volvo and the Liseberg amusement park. Funnily enough, we never got there. Basically, as we were heading for Mariestad which is a small city on the Lake Vänern which is the largest lake in Scandinavia, largest in the EU and third largest in Europe. Which is about twice the size of Luxembourg.

Miss Em getting gas bagging away

The thing you notice about the Swedes is that blonde is really blonde

Plenty of bikes at the station

The sun is glowing, as is EmEmEm

Time for a lie down as we wait for the train

Long legs and stumpy shadows

This was one of the very few girls in Sweden that wore heels.

The Polish girls would be shocked!

The city of Göteborg all laid out in map form

The geologist nerd came out in me, I loved that the train station floor has fossils in it. Most people just think they are weird chewing gum constructions. Not I, I was walking around looking down for the first time in a long time. Details people!

Look at them, so pretty!

This one got chopped for the tile. But, it is still cool

You just have to love some parts of being a science nerd I think these are some form of Nautiloid but hey, it has been a long time since my world in the rock lab.

So we jumped on the train to Töreboda full of sunshine and hope

 Next stop after some fascinating place names like Floby was to be Töreboda, sometimes referred to as Tora Bora. Happy times ahead.