Last modified: 17 June 2023

Tere!

Gothenburg is called the second biggest city in Sweden. It is quite far from Stockholm and more like close to Denmark. Although it is called the second biggest city, if you compare like Tokyo vs. Osaka, or New York vs. Los Angeles, etc, you might get disappointed. However, there are still several places to visit for tourists. Here I introduce 7 places in Gothenburg that you might enjoy, where I went in March, 2022.

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Table of Contents

     1. Botanical garden
     2. Skottsskogen
     3. Gothenburg Museum of Natural History
     4. Oskar Fredrik Church
     5. Skansen Kronan
     6. Haga district
     7. Inom Vallgraven
     8. Amusement park: Liseberg
     9. Bohus Fortress
     10. My personal opinions (as of 2022)
     ★Summary

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1. Botanical garden

This botanical garden has been established based on donation. I went there at the end of March, and considering the month with the climate (in Japan), people might imagine there are lots of colourful flowers, but you know, here is a Scandinavian country, of course there was nothing.

However, the area is pretty vast. Some parts were under construction, but it seemed there was a Japanese garden if possible to access.

I reckon that I could enjoy various plants and flowers in summer, staying there for a longer time. By the way, I am writing this article in May, 2022, and I have been in Tallinn since 2017, but I have still not been to the botanic garden in Tallinn yet.

However, in May 2023, I could finally visited the Gothenburg Botanical Garden in a lively atmosphere!

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It was brilliant as every flower bloomed so beautifully! There is also a cafe in the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, which I mention in this article.

I wanted to donate this time, but I couldn’t find a donation box or anything. It appeared that I had to ask a store clerk near the botanical garden’s entrance, but it was impossible for me to do so as I have a communication disorder…

The Gothenburg Botanical Garden leads to the woods, where is very few people if you go there. If it’s dark, it’s scary. Since there are lots of trees, as a traveller I felt insecure though it was still bright during the day time. I didn’t see any big animals like bears though. I only saw little birds. As there were some feeding boxes for birds, people go and walk there, it seemed.

2. Skottsskogen

Skottsskogen is located in the opposite of the botanical garden. It’s a super vast park.

There was a small bush maze too. (I enjoyed it, but I’m pretty sure, it was for kids.)

I saw something like a small waterfall in the map of Skottsskogen, and wanted to see it, but it appeared to be there only in summer as there was no green, no water.

I think it would be fun to have a picnic there since Skottsskogen is very large. Also you may get satisfied just by walking around there.

3. Gothenburg Museum of Natural History

Gothenburg Museum of Natural History is located in the area of Skottsskogen. No admission fee is required. The displays were too real and creepy at some point (because of my imaginativeness). There are a number of displays of animals in real sizes, and I thought “they seem to be about to move”’.

By the way, I like a series of movies called “Night at the Museum”.

4. Oskar Fredrik Church

I was walking around the hostel, and accidentally found some nice church, which is Oscar Fredrik Church. It looked great so I took a picture.

I realised, however, I prefer castles to churches.

5. Skansen Kronan

Skansen Kronan means “Crown Sconce” in English, and appears to have been built in the 17th century.

Skansen Kronan is located on the top of the hill next to Haga district. (It felt like a mountain since I have lived in Estonia for a while, where there is basically no mountain.) The incline was pretty steep, and since I have got used to the topography of Estonia, it was hard to reach there.

Some cannons are outside, and when Skansen Kronan was built, it is said that there were 23 cannons (according to Wikipedia).

The door of Skansen Kronan was open, so I wanted to sneak in, but I thought: if I got shut from the outside, I couldn’t go outside. Therefore, I didn’t go and see the inside. (How imaginative…)

There was a group of primary school kids with a couple of teachers for a fieldwork of a history class or something. Also the local people seemed to use that area for walking with their dogs.

Since Skansen Kronan is on the top of the hill, I was able to look out over the whole town. There are also bushes and trees around Skansen Kronan, so maybe in summer the view is covered, but I was happy to go there and see the view.

6. Haga district

I also went to Haga district. It was still 10 am when I went there, so there were lots of stores and shops which were not open yet. Stereotypical souvenir shops are in Haga district, where you could buy postcards and magnets with the designs of Gothenburg or Sweden.

I used to buy postcards (for myself) and magnets (for my family) wherever I travelled, but I thought perhaps I should stop this collecting habit, so I didn’t buy any this time. I would consider this decision as a new chapter of my travel history from 2020’s (although 2 years have already passed).

By the way, I always and also collected stamps of the places that I went to in the last pages of my passport which I could never reach even by spending 10 years. However, I stopped this as well. Within the Schengen area, you cannot get entry stamps, so I often get stamps at information centres, but I gave up looking for an information centre in Malmö, and I realised I couldn’t do it completely, so I stopped. On the other hand, I also think I could continue this tradition.

7. Inom Vallgraven

Inom Vallgraven area is located in the north of Haga district. Inom Vallgraven looked more modern, and seemed like a shopping area. There was a market though it wasn’t so large, but there were restaurants, cheese shops and butchers. In the tea shop there, I found lingonberry-flavoured chocolate of Malmö’s brand, which did not seem to be sold in Estonia. I think it cost 30 SEK per 100g. (Before this travel, I asked my boyfriend whether he had something he wanted from Sweden, and he was like “What are Swedish things that we can’t get in Estonia lol”, so I told myself “Alright, then I’m gonna find something Swedish that we can’t get in Estonia lol”. That is why I was looking for something Swedish while travelling.

In Inom Vallgraven, there were fashion brands that you don’t see in Estonia, or shops that sell only products with liquorice. (Once you enter this shop, you smell only liquorice. I found one branch (?) shop in Haga district too. I’m not a fan so I didn’t buy any, but I do believe my Dutch friends would love them.)

8. Amusement park: Liseberg

In order to learn Swedish, I had used an app called HelloTalk, where I met a Swedish-Syrian girl. We went to an amusemen park called Liseberg (/liseberi/)! Liseberg is not open every day, so if you want to go there, check their opening days beforehand.

She bought two tickets: for me an for her. It cost 395 SEK (around 34 EUR at that time). The price also varies, depending on the date and season.

Liseberg has lots of attractions from roller coasters to spinning attractions! However, half of the attractions in Liseberg are for kids, so there were both many adults and kids in Liseberg. There were some shooting games as well.

Plus, I had been used to queueing in Universal Studios Japan and Disney Resort Tokyo, so I felt very comfortable to wait in Liseberg as the waiting times were so short! On average I think it was 30 minutes. Though it was a Sunday and public holiday, and I thought there were a number of people in Liseberg when seeing the queues in front of the gates, perhaps because of many attractions, we didn’t spend a lot of time for queueing, and rode various attractions.

I recommend a ferris wheel in Liseberg as you can see the town of Gothenburg and take a break.

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Also we went three round there for some reason. 😂

I was a bit surprised how teh Swedes “queue”. Some Japanese people would feel a culture shock there, I guess because we queue more properly, not randomly.

Lastly, keep in mind that spinning attractions might affect your semicircular canals. (Although I din’t vomite, I needed a break time once in a while 😂)

9. Bohus Fortress

The Bohus Fortress is located a bit far from the centre of Gothenburg, and yet you can go there easily by taking Gothenburg buses.

I had not known about the Bohus Fortress before. When I asked chatGPT where to go in Gothenburg, and it suggeseted me the Bohus Fortress. 😂

A ticket for an adult cost 120 SEK (around 10 EUR at that time). It was a reasonable price, and it was worth it as the Bohus Fortress was quite big.

The opening hours vary depending on the season, so check their website in advance. You might also need a translation machine because the website is partially not translated to English.

If you have noticed my interest when travelling, you might guess something. Certainly the Bohus Fortress also had a chamber of torture or something. However, it was so dark though I went there at 11 am, and I was too chicken to go in the chamber, and there was no one around me, so I gave it up… I wanted to see the inside tho!!

The Bohus Fortress has some small attractions for kids, too.

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Whilst I was not able to complete the entire mission, I was satisfied enough with going there.

10. Personal opinions

This is an extra story, but while I am travelling by myself, I usually listen to music with my earphones. In both Gothenburg and Malmö, I had a pair of earphones while wandering around in towns, but I didn’t use them at all.

I listen to music for fun or preparation for a convert while travelling/being outside, but the biggest purpose/reason is to shut out the sounds from outside.

I have ASD, and I am hypersensitive to sounds and voices with difficulties in handling some types of sounds.

I get overwhelmed with the sounds of a hoover, traffic (especially on a rainy day), a coffee machine and so on.Therefore, when going outside, to “get rid of” the sounds of outsides I listen to music, and yet in Gothenburg and Malmö I didn’t need to do.

In the case of a hoover and a coffee machine (for example, in the office), sounds are inevitable, so I just bear with it. Besides, in such a situation, I cannot have a proper conversation because I cannot distinguish the sounds and people’s voices. (This means that I hear all the types of voices and sounds at the same level. For instance the sound level of a hoover is 5 out of 10 in a room, the voice of a person who is in the same room is 5 out of 10 as well.)

In Gothenburg, when walking along the tram lines, and it was running beside me, I felt uncomfortable with the sounds, particularly from the old model of a tram. However, as I didn’t walk on such streets that often, I was alright.

Of course there were cars on the roads, but I felt there were less cars than in Tallinn, and I felt fine in a huge street.

Even in Tallinn the earphones are a must-have item for me, so I got the impression that I could live more comfortably in Gothenburg than in Tallinn.

★Summary

In conclusion, those 7 places are where you could go in Gothenburg!

However, I believe I went to only the centre of Gothenburg, and I wished I could have been to the northern part beyond the river, or an amusement park called Liseberg with friends. In addition, I believe these 7 places can be recommended to especially those who have a budget-trip plan (although it doesn’t mean that those who have more budgets shouldn’t go.)

Aitäh! 🙂