Göteborg
Well, hello again my friends. Welcome back to my lovely blog. I apologize once again for the delay in getting my photographs out to you, but that just comes with the territory of trying to see as many European cities as you possibly can while trying to maintain a decent average in school. So far, I would say that I am doing a very good job at both!!! Anyway, here are the pictures from a trip that I took with some friends to a South Western coastal city called Göteborg in Sweden. The city is very nice and is essentially the second city of Sweden. It is home to the Frolunda Indians of the SEL and many cool buildings, parks and a fabulous landscape. But before I get into the pictures I want to share with you some of the more negative aspects of my travels, in hope that those who are reading can learn from some of my mistakes. Thus, periodically I will be adding little tidbits to a section that I like to call:

Listen to Billy Boy: Rookie Euro Traveller
Lesson #1: If you are out with your friends and they want to go home from the bar in a city that you are not familiar in, do NOT stay out with friendly people that you have met at the bar by yourself! Always make sure that you have at least ONE friend with you at ALL times!!!
The reason for this rant is as follows. On my first night in Göteborg, I went out with my friends to a bar after we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant that I had found in my travel guide. We had a couple of drinks and were having a grand ol' time. Later on, my three other friends (Markus, Helena and Marlon) decided that they were tired and wanted to go back to the hotel to rest up for the 4.5 hr bus ride to Oslo the next day. Now, I was thinking about heading back with them, but two nice Swedish fellows convinced me to stay out with them and enjoy a night out on the town with them. Being inexperienced I thought; "whats the worst that could happen?" Well, let me tell you: the worst can happen, and it did. Now, the guys were very nice and were telling me about a new business they were starting (something to do with baby toys if I remember correctly) and how they were in town promoting it at a local trade show. They were buying me drinks and laughing and carrying on. It was great! Then......one of them started telling me a little bit more about himself. He went on about he never usually had luck with girls before and how he had his heart broken many times. Eventually he had enough, and one evening sought the comfort of two other men. And not in the "lets have a beer and talk about hockey kinda way." Needless to say, at this point I had NO idea what to think or do. For all I knew these two seemingly nice Swedish boys had plans for me that evening. Plans of which neither I or Cass would be happy with AT ALL. Anyway, I thanked them for the drinks and made my way to the other side of the bar and ordered a drink on my own. I thought I would be OK from then on. Wrong. I ended up meeting another individual who seemed very nice and was curious about my accent and where I came from. Now I didnt know this guy for very long since, he got kicked out for dropping a bottle of champagne on the floor. Since I was in his general area, I too was kicked out of the bar and was thought to be one of his friends. Outside the bouncers asked him to pay his bar tab. He couldnt. He told them that he had lost his wallet and all identification. I saw that the situation could potentially get very ugly, and to save myself of a beating or being involved in a very bad situation, I paid for the mans drink (or what I thought was a drink). To make a long story short, the bar tried to take off over $1000 on my credit card and ended up charging me $700. I had NO idea that this guy had run a bill that large. To make matters worse, this guy jammed on me and was no where to be found. Luckily, when I returned from Oslo, I was able to track him down and asked him to sign a contract for me promising to pay me back. Well, that was about three weeks ago and I have yet to see any money. So, the lesson here folks is quite simple: if I had a friend with me, the chances of me acting like a complete moron and paying for a strangers bill would have been slim to none. Stick with your friends, they can be your saving grace more than once!!!!

OK, enough sad stuff!!! Im not letting this kinda thing ruin my experience by the way. I still had a great time and dont regret any of my travels......

So, we flew into Göteborg on a cheap flight via Sterling Airlines. Once we got into the downtown area, this is the first building we saw. They call this the lipstick building....

This is just a cool shot of the river that they have going through the city....

A nice Church in old town....

From left to right: me, Marlon and Markus. Helena is taking the picture for us....

This is another Church. I have developed a love of taking pictures of Churches in Europe. LOL, it is quite easy to do since they are everywhere, and usually make for the most impressive photos.

Me on a mock Canadian Goose!

This is the view of the operah house from across the river........

We decided to take a little boat tour of the city. It took us through the river and out into the harbour. We found out that the 'river' was actually a water defense system that King Gustav built in order to keep the enemies out. The bridges in this water way are ridiculously low as you can see. They even have a bridge called the cheese slicer!!! We actually had to lay down in the boat just to get under it. The driver hit a wall as he was trying to go past LOL.

An old war ship left in Göteborg Harbour....

This is the view from a military base that sits a top one of the highest points in Göteborg. Just a nice view of the city....

Another one. Note the 'lipstick' in the distance....

This is the military building that I mentioned above........