Driving in Sweden and couchsurfing

After 4 wonderful days in Copenhagen, I almost wanted to call myself a local due to my knowledge of the rail systems and locations of the major sights and landmarks. I even gave direction to a few “tourists”. Man, I felt like such a pro after that. Alas, it was about to end. Yesterday was the day we moved on and continued our journey. I woke up a little before 6am so I could pack up, clean the apartment, and walk to the Orestad metro station for the final time. I boarded the train with my fully stuffed backpack, duffle bag and newly acquired Bilka shopping bag full of leftover rolls and other food we had purchased for the apartment and didn’t get around to eating. I had to take the journey back to Kongens Nytorv to meet Erika at the metro station for our trip to the Norreport station, switch to the S line, and take the train into Central Station to catch our connecting train back to Malmo. We had an exciting day ahead of us! We were driving to Goteborg. Rather, I was driving to Goteborg since Erika doesn’t know how to drive Standard. That’s Manual for all you Americans. Or stick-shift for all you non-car people. We took the train to Malmo and searched out the Avis office. I had reserved a “Volkswagon Golf or similar” class and was really hoping to get a VW. I like them. Instead I got a Toyota Auris. Not a Yaris. They have that here and the Auris is an entirely different car. A little bigger than a Yaris. It was a cute little car. Standard transmission, probably 100 horsepower or less. Hatch back. Comfy seats. I liked it. We got loaded up and left Malmo for Goteborg… if we could find our way out of the parking lot.

Driving in Scandinavia isn’t too bad. Drivers are polite, even nice. The speed limit is MUCH slower than in the US and there tailgating isn’t much of a problem here. The signs on the other hand… It took me a while to figure out what intersections I had to stop at or just yield. To be honest, I never figured it out. I just watched out for traffic and if a car was barreling towards me, I waited. Not a bad strategy if you ask me. Then we got to the issue of reading street signs and the map. We didn’t have GPS and really had no idea where we were when we got the car. I wasn’t about to use my iPhone due to International data rates ($19.95 per MB). Think of that as the equivalent of paying $20 a minute for a phone call. We made the mistake of not asking the AVIS guy how to get to the expressway. Thank goodness the car was rented for the entire day and not by the hour because it took almost 45 minutes to find our way out of the city. And that was only because of the help of a very nice DHL delivery man. But once we hit the expressway, I dropped the hammer on my little Auris and off we went. I had my iPod and I bought an iTrip before I left so we listened and sang along to the Jersey Boys Soundtrack all the way through. After an hour and a half or so, we decided to stop for a snack and restroom break. Thankfully, there are more McDonald’s here than on I-5 so we stopped in at a Micky D’s (or the American Embassy as they call it here). This McDonald’s backed up a truckstop so after using the restroom at the McD, we walked next door to the truckstop to see if they had any snacks for the rest of the trip. This truck stop was the Neiman Marcus of truck stops. They had the largest chocolate selection of any store I’d seen so far in Scandinavia. A fresh pre-made salad selection, fruit, etc. It was awesome. So if you requested chocolate (*cough* Tracy *cough*), your chocolate came from the truck stop on the E6/E24 expressway between Malmo and Goteborg Sweden. We got a few items each for lunch then ate in the car before heading off for the second half of our drive.

Google maps quoted Goteborg as being 3 and a half hours away from Malmo. It barely took us 3 including the aforementioned trip to Micky D’s and getting lost in Malmo. But once we reached Goteborg, I had absolutely no idea where anything was. I actually almost drove straight through. Erika had fallen asleep in the passenger seat and I was trying to drive and read a map at the same time. I finally tapped her on the knee to wake her up and ask for help. She sat up and looked at the map we had picked up in Malmo. Of course Goteborg wasn't really detailed on the map so I exited the expressway with the intention of turning around since I was pretty sure after a few more exits, I would have been heading OUT of Goteborg. I got back on the expressway and followed the signs that pointed me back towards Malmo. I then decided to exit again and try to find a gas station to ask for directions or buy a map. I saw one off to my right so pulled in. Erika let out a laugh and pointed and I looked over to see that the gas station had only pumps. No service station. Luckily there was another gas station across the street that I knew had a service station so I turned the car around and turned left thinking the gas station had an entrance on the right side. Wrong. I actually was supposed to go straight at the intersection THEN turn left at the next little street to take me to the gas station. We proceeded to zoom right past it with a concrete barrier between us. Me cursing at it. Where did the street I was on take us? Back on the expressway. In an AMAZING act of fate, I took the next exit and Erika exclaimed "I see railroad tracks! That's a good sign!" We followed those tracks a few miles and the next thing we knew, we were in front of the Goteborg Central Train Station. The navigation Gods were looking out for us for sure. What are the odds of driving into a strange city, getting lost, accidently getting back onto the expressway, exiting again and ending up where you were supposed to be? Little did I know this was just one of the many things to happen to us over the next few days that would be in our favor. 

The problem is once we got into the city, we realized we were DEAD tired and had 4 hours to kill before we were supposed to meet our couchsurfing host Janice. The tourist info center was across the street from Central station in the mall so we drove over, parked, and walked into the mall to get a map and find out where the Avis office was so I could return the car later in the day. Once we had that squared away, we looked at each other and really didn’t feel like doing anything. So what do you do when you’re pooped, in a strange city, with a rental car? Go back to the parked car and take a nap of course! So we went back to the car in the shopping center parking garage and took a 2 and a half hour nap. I only slept for about 40 minutes but Erika slept the entire time. We woke up feeling SO much better so we returned the car then went about in figuring out how to get to the Chalmers tram station to meet Janice at 6:15. We went to buy tram tickets and while we were inside a fight broke out outside amongst 2 groups of teenagers. It was a group of super short Italians against a group of super tall Swedish. I’d actually call it a tickling contest rather than a fight since they kinda just ran around chasing each other swinging their arms like they were swimming. It was funny to watch though and good entertainment while we waited to buy our tickets. One guy got it pretty good when his idiot friends ran off and left him alone against about 6 of the Swedish kids. He ended up with a bloody face.

We bought our tram tickets and made our way to the Chalmers stop to meet our host, Janice at 6:15. The problem was she wasn’t there at 6:15. Or 6:30. Or 6:45. I spent most of the time confirming my previous observation that Swedish women are prettier than Danish. Yes, it has been confirmed. Finally, at about 7, Mikael (pronounced Michael), rode up and introduced himself and told us Janice was running late with work and that she’d be by shortly. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, Janice came running up. She was actually Cantonese, from Hong Kong, but studying in Sweden because education is FREE in Sweden. Yes, you can get a Master’s or PhD in Sweden for FREE. She led us back to their campus apartment to get us settled in. Her place was small, but cosy, and had a spare bedroom with 2 mattresses on the floor. They were actually VERY comfortable. As soon as we got there, she began making dinner for us, but admitted she wasn’t a very proficient cook so I stepped in and took over. I made a fish stir fry with spinach and carrots and served it over noodles seasoned with soy sauce and sesame oil with a little garlic chili sauce. It was pretty good if I do say so myself. Everyone seemed to enjoy it (they ate it ALL!) and Janice was thrilled she didn’t have to cook. Janice was a great host and a lot of fun to talk to. Erika and I turned in around 10pm since we were just bushed and after a super fast shower just to get refreshed, we passed out on the mattresses on the floor ready to wake up at 5am to get back to Goteborg station to catch another train to Oslo.