Now, it is 1:30 am on 7/12/2015. I could hear people cheered and screamed out of the window of our hotel room. A dozen houses are located next to our hotel, so Danes might have a big party in this early Sunday morning.
In the morning on 7/11, we checked out at Radisson Blu Scandinavia in Goteborg, picked up the car in nearby public parking garage.
My original plan was to stop by Gamla Ullevi to buy a shirt of IFK but missed the exit on the road. Stopping at the traffic lights, I noticed Ullevi across the street of the old one. Eurocup 92 final was played at Ullevi but I didn't have a chance to watch in person because I wasn't in town. However, Swedes didn't get into final, so most of the spectators were Danes and Germans in the stadium.
We hadn't gone to Liseberg yesterday but definitely would go today. It is also on the way from Central Station to our next destination - Copenhagen. Driving through the local route, we arrived at the parking lot by the park in 15 minutes.
Many people came to the park, so we had to wait for 20 minutes to get into it. It is a Disney-like theme park, which is very popular in Scandinavia. Walking through the park, we could see more than 95% of the total visitors were Scandinavians, though I couldn't tell how many were locals. A great deal of attractions are roller coaster type, my son has feared taking it since childhood. I had encouraged him to do it every time we went to the theme park such as Disneyland, Disney World because he may have a girlfriend in future who loves doing it, and when he has kids, he will have to take them to do it. At Liseberg, he still didn't want to do it, so we sat in the game room for quite a while to play racing cars.
It approached lunch time, there are a dozen restaurants and cafes in the park. We eventually went into a cafe to buy sandwiches and drinks, then went up stairs to sit to eat. I ordered shrimp and my son ordered ham, both were very good for a quick lunch. Coffee in Europe was smaller than Starbucks as everyone knows but enough for me today.
I definitely wanted to buy a souvenir in Goteborg, so went into a gift shop. Anything else weren't very representable but a shirt with "I Love Goteborg" on it was the one I bought at the end. It's a bit small for me but not too bad. Paying at the cashier, I used my debit card again, Pin code worked very well, so even coming to Europe more often in future as I plan, I don't need to add chip and pin onto my current credit card.
Walking to one of the corners in the park, I found a theater where concerts might be performed each night during the summer. I took a seat to sit down to imagine myself as a fan watching the concert, but immediately stood up because I could feel the chilly water soaking my butt. Oh, I forgot it was raining earlier in the morning and this chair happened to unfold then.
Paying 100 Krona for the parking at the meter, we had planned to stay until 5:00 pm. Since my son didn't want to take any rides, we walked out of the park at 2:00 pm. It is a nice park, especially for the locals who don't have chance to go to Disneyland.
Driving onto E-6, we were leaving Goteborg for Copenhagen. I have never figured out which city in Scandinavia is the most memorable, Goteborg or Stockholm? But I know, I will come back for sure. While driving, I explained to my son in Mandarin that Central Station probably is the city center of each major city. Since we will visit Malmo when we come back to Sweden, I told him that Central Station in Malmo is very close to Lilla Torg where I planned to have a lunch or dinner. In my memory, you can walk around the entire city, though it is the 3rd largest city in Sweden. I still plan to take a picture in front of the neat hotel I stayed in 1996 if I can find it.
Getting through a section of E6, I heard my son's comment on the layout along the road: It is very similar to that in States. It reminded me Great Plains.
The gas meter in the car showed half tank, I decided to pump it at a Shell probably 100 kilometers north of Malmo. 13.25 Krona per liter, it cost me 500 Krona to fill up. I just listened to my comment in this video clip, did I say 500 bucks? it is hilarious. Were it true, I would be bankrupt. Again, I used my debit card to key in the pin number, it worked out perfectly. Since we wouldn't have chance to stop eating something before we checked into the hotel, I entered 7-11 attached to gas station to buy two sandwiches and two bottles of water, then drove away.
We finally drove on Oresund Bridge, How splendid it is! As I shared several times before, last time when I traveled from Copenhagen to Malmo, this bridge hadn't been complete, so I had to take ferry. It is so convenient for the people between the two cities and two countries to commute now. I didn't have a chance to stop on the bridge to take a picture but would do it when we come back. Before getting onto the bridge, I paid 375 Danish Krone at toll booth, it's not cheap but might be because of this bridge.
I booked a hotel room at Park Inn close to Airport instead of in the city, so it's pretty easy for me to drive to the hotel and we checked in quickly. The receptionist was a trainee but explained everything to me very professionally and clearly. The only thing I had been struggling in this trip was paying for parking when staying in a hotel in the city because it seemed the instructions on the machine and others' explanations never matching the realities very well, but this one would work out completely. Taking a ticket when you drive in, paying at the machine before you drive out, then put the paid ticket into the slot when you drive out at the exit.
We went down to the restaurant after 6:00 pm, the waitress came out to ask us if we just came from airport with vouchers for the buffet. She told us later on that a group of 43 guests would come to eat. We sat down at a table and learned the menu first. Though cocktails are ordered after dinner in general, I reversed course, ordered one with strawberry for my son, another White Russian for myself. It's the first cocktail for my son in his life. He liked it so much. While waiting for the entrees, I ordered a draft Carlsberg, the Danish brand I drank a lot in 90s. My son was a little bit inpatient to talk to the nice waitress because he was hungry, I reminded him to pay attention to his tone. The waitress spoke very fluent English, and told me his father living in Portland and a sister or someone else I didn't catch very precisely living in Olympia, the capital of our Washington State. She said a lot of English in her life because her boyfriend lives in Minnesota.
My son went back to the room first, I was waiting for the check to pay. When standing up to leave, the lovely waitress wished me enjoying the stay in Denmark. I told her it's my third time but the last one was 19 years ago.
Going back to the room, my son said he was thirsty and went down to the lobby to buy the drinks. He actually brought back two canned Carlsberg...
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