This entry however is focussed on my recent trip to Sweden. I went to attend a Winter School in Göteborg. I was there for five nights and the temperature was about what I expected. It’s spring, but we had days where the low was -6 C. The highs for the week were probably around 2 or 3 celsius. The killer was the windchill though, I had to wear a scarf to prevent it feeling like my head was going to freeze off my neck. The best (most interesting) photographs in the album are of the city. We spent one evening as the guests of the city mayor in an opulent palace with magnificent chandeliers. It was quite a surreal experience.

The Winter School was being held at a private university called Chalmers which is where we spent the majority of our time. It was a really quite nice place, lovely campus with bright open spaces and a lovely dining area. The only thing I’ll say is everything was incredibly expensive compared to back home, but I think that was partially me not having the exchange rate completely sorted. It also wasn’t a fault of the institution, prices were generally rather high everywhere we visited in the City. There was a distinct lack of eating establishments as well; we wondered if maybe we’d come during the off season… if cities have off seasons.

For one of the afternoons we were able to escape to look around the city centre. The place has a massive shopping centre full of shops I’d never heard of which I thought impressive. It also has a beautiful harbour with a number of interesting permanently moored boats. There was a tall mast ship named Viking which was being used as a hotel and restaurant. Also along the front was a maritime museum with interesting naval vessels, including a submarine. Sadly the museum wasn’t open so I could only look at them from the side, it was still a nice walk and out in the sunshine the cold was much less uncomfortable.

Much of the rest of that afternoon I spent wandering around the historic buildings and marveling at the architecture. The city was actually very interesting in that respect, lots of incredibly impressive buildings, which for the most part I have no idea what they did. The photo album contains quite a number of shots of architecture in the area, perhaps I got a little carried away but I wanted to take with me a proper feel for what the city was like. In some ways I wish I’d taken my SLR with me, but on reflection I think leaving it at home for University trips is the right thing to do. I get worried enough about my suitcase, let alone a camera bag.

So that was Sweden, if anyone has any questions about the place I’ll do my best to answer them.