Okay so a bit to catch up on. My last day in Stockholm was pretty much uneventful, just had a cycle around Djurgarden. The island is nice and full of museums, I went into the Nordea Museum planning to go on to Vasa next but to be honest these museums are really not my sort of thing.
(Nordea Museum. It was better on the outside I felt.)
It was almost a shame to leave Stockholm. On one hand I was all Stockholm'd out as I had pretty much seen and done everything there is (within my interests and patience) to do. Then I had also familiarised myself with the City quite well and in Sodermalm I found some favorite places to eat. This really nice Malaysian guy who has been in Sweden for 30 years now owned this little coffee shop and would always give me a jumbo cuppacino for the regular price...maybe because I said we are practically neighbours? Then there was this place called Dragon Sushi where I could get a really good and filling meal and a relaxing area to eat too, where as some places when you sit outside were practically on the road.
(Some local beggars after my meal in Sodermalm)
So, next day I get up early to go to Hertz hoping for a snazzy little Volvo to head over to Gothenburg...I ended up with a Kia Cee'd. After I had done the deal, I realised it was a manual as well, normally not a problem if I didn't have to drive on the wrong side of the road. Getting out of Stockholm was easy yet stressful, I felt like the right hand side of the car was hanging off the side of the road ready to hit anything I pass, and I tried to take off in 3rd gear...twice.
(The little Korean missile)
Once on the motorway (E4 to Gothenburg) I got a chance to just get comfortable with the different setup.
Driving here in Sweden is really nice in comparison to Australia. People use the overtaking lane to overtake and then slot back into the right hand side, where as back home people will just pick a lane and sit in it regardless if someone wants to go past you or not.
(Little delay outside Jonkoping. Stopping traffic and allowing a segment of traffic to drive on the one open lane.)
It was a pretty uneventful journey over to Gothenburg. Took me roughly 5.5 hours with two toilet and red bull breaks. Once in Gothenburg it was a bit of a nightmare trying to find my way to where the student housing office was. Renting the car was a more expensive option to get to Gothenburg but wow am I glad I did it, I would not have gotten to the office had I not. There was a slight issue that I was supposed to go somewhere else to sign the rental agreement first before picking up the keys. Luckily they let me just have the keys and told me to sign the agreement the next day.
So, after getting to the block of apartments it took me ages to even see where the door numbers where located. The numbers are small little stickers on the corner of the door frame, I was looking for at least 10minutes. Anyway, at least when I opened the door it was a pleasant surprise to see the room. It's actually quite nice and I have a little kitchenette with four hotplates and a little oven and a pretty decent size fridge - actually it's pretty big considering it's just for one person.
(Impossibly difficult door numbers to find)
(Got pretty much everything here apart from a laundry)
It was bliss to be able to sleep in a room on my own. After three nights in that hostel in Stockholm, I was getting a bit tired of other people's company even though most people were quite nice. I actually met another person from Perth in the hostel, he was there for a day but then he was off to travel through Russia and down to Asia and then eventually fly back to Australia.
I haven't really had the chance to see Gothenburg properly yet as I've just passed through it to give the car back to Hertz and go get my rental agreement signed. It's defiantly not as beautiful or impressive as Stockholm is but it feels like a nice place to live. There were times in Stockholm I felt like I got in the way of people because I wasn't walking fast enough for them, Gamla Stan was the exception but that island is a tourist hotspot so I guess the locals keep out of there then?
So far I've managed to buy some bedding, get a descent food shop and sign up a gym membership just around the corner. Right now, it's looking pretty gloomy outside, grey skies with some light rain. I guess I might head down to the University and pick up my student ID and familiarise myself with where the Social Sciences faculty is and the best way to get there. I want to buy a bicycle realistically since the public transport system, while incredibly efficient and frequent, is terribly expensive. I'm gonna have to find a used bike since this store close by sells bikes at around 4,500kr (maybe $600) and they are pretty basic too. I may also try and open a bank account today here, I have no idea how much I am being charged using my Australian debit card and since everything is going through as Credit transactions over here it takes a while for my balance to update.
Overall, everything is going well. There does appear to be some form of laundry war going on since someone was kind enough to remove my washing from the dryer to replace it with one towel. I will learn the rules of this game and crush whoever did this like a puny American ant under the boot of mighty Stalin.
(Bye KimmyYong, it hertz to give you back!)
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