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Gothenburg: Day 1

Sleep was so good after having to wake up at 3:00am yesterday for our flight and late nights chasing the northern lights. We ended up just staying in bed and catching up on rest until it was time for lunch. It felt amazing to enjoy the much-needed snooze.

Once we got outside, it was a short walk to Steinbrenner & Nyberg - a fancy cafeteria with a variety of sandwiches and salads, as well as pastries, coffee, and teas. We had a healthy lunch (tea and coffee were complimentary) then headed to Haga to explore the old town.

Along the way, we saw the Saluhallen (a building with a fresh food market and food vendors/restaurants), lots of grandly-architected buildings, chocolate shops, clothing stores, coffee shops (including Da Matteo, a coffee roaster), and Gothenburg University. The city wasn't quiet, but it also wasn't overcrowded - there was enough space to feel relaxed and comfortable. All the European architecture and cobblestone streets gave a certain established, historical feel to the city. We passed the Kungsparken as we crossed the Vallgraven over to Haga - it's a park that runs between the river and the buildings near the university and adds more greenery in the middle of downtown.

We strolled along Haga Nygata, popping into shops we found interesting. There are a lot of coffee shops - a couple of them had giant cinnamon buns for sale, bigger than my head! A lot of stores also had Christmas items, but not much we saw that was made in Sweden, other than candies and chocolates. Funny enough, there was a store that had stuff from Japan - Hello Kitty, Ghibli, etc. The whole city is decorated in Christmas lights along the more popular streets, so there was a fun, festive feeling in the air.

Eventually, we made our way to Feskekörka - a fish market in an old historic building that looks like a church. Following a recommendation that said to eat at the restaurant there (Restaurang Gabriel), we sat down and ordered fish soup and a shrimp sandwich. Unfortunately, both were really salty so we weren't thrilled with the meal.

As a post-dinner activity, we decided to take a walk around downtown area and check out a local grocery store (ICA). It was interesting to find that a lot of the prices were similar to what we pay at home - with obvious differences in the specific products they carry. We found cloudberry jam, cookies from the Netherlands, ginger juice, buttermilk flavoured with berries, gender-specific tea (so weird!), and potentially better varieties of Haagen-Dazs ice cream (e.g. chocolate salted caramel). Another surprise - all the stores were closed around 6 or 7 even on a Friday night (the only businesses open were dinner restaurants and the movie theater). Given our options, we decided to head back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow I'm excited to check out Liseberg - the local amusement park that they turn into a Christmas wonderland every year!

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