Term: From 26th September to 1st October 2019
The more the definite term of our departure to the Czech republic is coming forward to us the more we began to plan our remaining weekends here in Oslo. It is almost clear that after our return to Czech we don’t travel to much to Scandinavia. It is not so close and from our ecological reasons, we decided to limit our flying. Petr still have enough days off from his continuous overtime so it was necessary to take advantage of it.
Looking at the map of Norway, we realized that we don’t have so much possibilities to go anywhere in a close distance, where we haven’t already been before. Of course, on the North, there is plenty of options but it is impossible for us, especially not with Matej. Anyway, in Stockholm lives two of Petr’s colleagues from work and in Göteborg we have another friend living there to whom we promised our visit. So it’s sure thing. It’s going to be Sweden.
Day 1
The journey between Oslo – Stockholm took around 5,5 hours. By train, where the seats were like a glued to each other. We couldn’t even fit the buggy there. It is true that our stroller is something like a Range Rover among cars (if we talk about the size). Petr really got sweat when he tried to unfolded it. He must even take off the wheels to get it into the gap between toilet and first raw of seats.
We ware mentally prepared that it will be really hard core journey. We have prepared all the tools we could have (tablet, mobiles, toys, books, coloring books)…everything. The main point was to survive this journey. Matěj was really great, but 5,5 hours is too much even for grown ups. We imagined that if we get up at 4:00 in the morning, he will be tired and fall asleep in the train. We only achieved that he was super tired and super angry. We ware reassured by a fact that we travelled with another father with two small kids all alone. Although, he took off the train one hour just before Stockholm. He was a hero in our eyes.
When we arrived to Stockholm, we locked our staff in baggage locker and we went straight to the city center to explore. We needed to asleep Matěj, he was really tired a needed some rest. And so do we. Fortunately he fall asleep after around 10 minutes of brutal crying 🙂
The city was breathtaking. We realized that Oslo is a kind of a village comparing to Royal Stockholm. While Matěj slept, we managed to see the town hall, go along the waterfront and go through the old town Gamla Stan.
We had to take a ferry to an island where the open-air musem was situated. We should meet there Petr’s colleague Jakob (from a work). He is on paternity leave with his kid now. So he took him with. The idea that our kids will be playing all together didn’t worked out by default. Each run his own direction.
mladý výletník Máma a matýsek dělají kravinky
The word „Skansen“ scared us a bit. During our stay in Norway we have visited lots of Skansens and after a time it become so mono-thematic. Anyway this one we enjoyed a lot. It was a combination of zoo, botanical garden, aquarium and old historical Swedish houses. Matěj woke up just on the way there. He loved this attraction. He could run and watch the animals. When he saw monkeys jumping in the first pavilion he didn’t leave.
When we said goodbye to Jakob, we ware pretty tired. We shortened the way to our hotel by metro. When we ware on the halfway to hotel, we noticed, Matěj does not have his fluffy George (Aťu). It is something like our travel tradition. Furious George seeking. We usually say that one day, when he will loose him it will be deliverance for us because Mr. George is quite disgusting (although, we wash him as much as we can). But at the moment it happens and Mr. George is really lost, we almost cry how sad we are. He is a kind of west coast to him. So we get separated. One went slowly to a hotel and the second tried to find Mr. George. This time we ware successful. We found him. Uff.
Jakob gave us a recommendation to stay at Stallmästaregården Hotel & Restaurant, which is situated by the Queen’s Garden and had wonderful view just into the nature. We didn’t have so much time to eat during day, so after our room arrival, we bathed Matěj and get hem sleep and after that we went to hotel restaurant for dinner. We ware both dressed in sports. Actually we don’t have any other different clothes with us, so we were a little bit ashamed when the waiter in a tailcoat asked us, if we just arrived from a gym :). So what? Hunger is a hunger and money are money.
We ended the day with a super dinner. We took over 27,000 steps and fell to the bed for our homeland.
Day 2
Lucky day, Matěj let us sleep until 8:00 AM so we get up relatively fresh this morning. We enjoyed a perfect breakfast with the view to the garden.
We had a great plans for this day. Around Stockholm (same as in Oslo) are beautiful small islands that belongs to Stockholm Archipelago, that you can visit by ferry. Our way reached to a harbor and there we will see which we are able to visit according to a time. It was perfect weather so we walk there. During this way we stopped on several playground to make it more interesting for Matej. He can’t actually sit in the buggy for a minute.
park around our hotel Boat trip Boat trip
When we came to the port, we found out that the shortest boat trip take 2,5 hours and that the way back is in the evening. We didn’t have so much time. So for the first time we decided to use sightseeing ferry and must say, it really surprised us. The round in Royal Canal around Stockholm city took around 50 minutes and thanks to a head phones we learn some things. For Matěj it was long enough, so he didn’t get bored.
We realized how great it is that the Stockholm’s background is so great. Lots of parks and small woods. Comparing to Oslo, we must say its more messy. But its probably because here lives much more people.
Although we chose only short cruise, we return much sooner than we thought. So around 13:00 we take off the boat and have plenty of time to join the climate demonstration, which we also planned but thought there is no chance to make it. Our other entourage also participated in this demonstration. Peter’s friend Fána.
Fána is Petr’s friend that temporarily lives here in Stockholm. Lunch time was approaching so Fána pulled us to a famous Swedish Kottbullar, which we couldn’t miss. There was also a talk about their well known dilapidated shark or what the Swedes used to eat, but we immediately rejected it 🙂
We went to a Mom’s kitchen. We wanted to take it away and eat it in some nearby park. To keep Matěj sleeping in the buggy.
Matýsek had some rest and after one and half hour of sleeping was ready enough to have some fun again. We walked to Gamla Stan. There is plenty of cozy streets. One can get lost there for a day. Ideally to find somewhere a playground. And we found it.
Thanks to Fána, we got to a places, where we would normally not come. The weather was beautiful and we had great views.
Some more pics of my boys from that nice day:
Daddy is smiling. He knew that some beers are are awaiting him in the pub
The day run pretty fast and around 18:00 we got separated. Boys walk me and Matěj to the Metro station. I went to the hotel to put Matěj sleep and wanted to enjoy some relax in wellness hotel. Boys went to the pub to talk about life and drink some local beers. They haven’t met for a long time.
Matěj had a bath and went sleep exemplary. I mean, maybe he didn’t, but I didn’t know about it, because I accidentally (as a super mom) turned off the nanny and come to check him after 2 hours. I was reading a book and drinking coffee, eating creme brulee at the hotel bar and wasn’t even thinking that something could be wrong. I leave out the idea about wellness because unfortunately, it was situated 400 meters far from hotel in some other building. It is not so good for checking the kid.
Daddy promised to return at 20:00 but it actually did not happened. He came around midnight. He messed up a bit at the entrance while he tried to find the doorbell, but it was quite cute :).
Karma is a bitch he pulled him a decent hangover the next day.
Day 3
The grey weather greeted us in the morning. We almost felt like in our home in Oslo. The forecast said that until lunch time it will be without rain and after that it will be a bit rainy. Basically just drizzle 0 – 0,3 mm of precipitation, which is nothing. But it would have worked only if it wouldn’t be in the Scandinavia.
We started our centre journey at our favorite playground. Matěj enjoyed this place in previous days. We ware leaving this place under heavy rain.
Ideal day for walking through museums. The first was muzeum Vasa. Probably the most famous and most tourist museum in Sweden. There is preserved warship, which was built by the king. It sail out from the harbor in 1628 and sank after only 20 minutes of its first cruise. It remained on the bottom for the next 333 years and thanks to sweeter water, mud and other processes, it preserved 98% of the original ship.
Then we continued to the technical museum (still in heavy rain). It was 2 km far from that one. Technical museum except permanent exhibition offers a special temporal exposition about robotics. We heard about it from Jakob. He goes there when his kid is sleeping.
The museum was completely aimed at kids. It can even enjoy the little ones like our Matěj and of course the older kids. It was a hunger who pulled us out from it. Despite the rain, we walked along the river back to the city. We have chosen a food hall there, that we saw the previous day.
We ended the city walk with another Kottbullars. Matěj was quite a bit annoying and daddy still has the hangover so we continued to our hotel. On the way we bought some snack for evening time and started mentally preparing for next 3 hours in train in the direction to Göteborg.
Day 4
We had a big plans for this day. Primary, to meet Petr’s friend and college from work Mikael and visit a rooftop bar with a great city view, Abba museum and some other popular things. Unfortunately, we have noticed that our train to Göteborg is leaving at 8:30 in the morning. So, we only had a time to had some breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then we hurried to the train station.
Under a term „train XP 2000“ we expected some luxurious super fast train with a children’s coupe, dining car and other stuff. Unfortunately our expectation was wrong. But we have to admit, that this train was better then the first one. At least, they offered us that we can keep our stroller in a first class coupe, where is more space, so we must not unfold it. It was actually a relief. Another advantage was, that we had a large table between our seats. Matěj could play on it. Every time, when we are sitting in a pub and having a good time, the time is running so fast comparing to sitting in the train and trying to entertain a small kid.
As soon we reached the Göteborg central station, our friend Mája was waiting for us. We caught her just before her moving out back to Czech rep. And, she unfortunately caught Matěj in a quite a bad mood – tired and crying. We wandered through the city for a while, thinking that Matěj will soon asleep. Wrong thinking. We even had lunch. It seemed that he had been hungry all the time. Thats probably why he had cried.
At a moment, that we decided to visit an entertainment centrum Universum, at this moment he finally fell asleep. We went back to the city centre because for us (adults) it doesn’t made any sense to go there. So we keep it for the next day and went to the centre.
We said goodbye to Mája around 17:00. She walked us to the hotel and than she went home. We settled in our new hotel room in Elite Park Avenue Gothenburg. The room was bigger comparing the one, we had in Stockholm, so Matěj had a lot of space for playing. Around 18:00, we realized how hungry we are. We found on google some thai bistro Moon thai kitchen nearby We wanted take it to go, but when we came in, we found out that this bistro is quite posh and we even need to wait for settling. We regret this choice for a while. We could take some salad from Coop and stay in hotel room. Anyway, it was one of the greatest thai food we have ever had. We also really admired the interior design. It was unique. Matěj was great. He liked the atmosphere either.
However this wasn’t over of our day. We all ware frozen and cold after those two rain days. Matěj went to a bad after dinner and we went to the hotel wellness. I don’t know if we ware lucky or whether the hotel wasn’t so occupied that day, but we ware there all by ourselves.
Daddy is sauning and mom is listening our mobile nanny
Day 5
In the morning we ware surprised by the sun behind the window. Matěj had cold so he slept until 8:00. After breakfast we headed straight into the entertainment Universum, which we have already mentioned. We haven’t seen such park even in Stockholm or anywhere else. It was combination of aquarium, dinopark, zoo, botanic garden, kids playground and education. Simply great!
And how else, after that, we ware terribly hungry. Real terrible hunger :). So, we stopped by an authentic burrito in Wrapped Burrito bar. I am not sure what we have exactly ordered because the menu was only in Swedish. It was good :).
Matěj coughed quite a lot and his eyes was completely glassy, so for the nap, we took him to the hotel room and let him sleep in a bed. Daddy had some presentation for Energetic colloquium, so it well met together. Matěj asleep around 12:30 and in the meantime we used the gym and went for a coffee.
Then we have just wandered the city until the evening. We wen to see the fish market, walked through some cozy historic streets which is Göteborg full of.
Day 6
Our last day in Göteborg and generally of our vacation. The train departed at 17:55, so we had plenty of time. We agreed at the hotel to postpone our check-out from 10:00 until 14.00. We wanted to let Matěj sleep again in the crib before the return journey.
During breakfast, I beg Petr for visiting Palmhuset again. We ware there in our first day here, but only outside, we were there after working hours. This time, we got inside. To be clear – just me. Daddy stayed outside with Matěj and played there. Anyway, he didn’t care much about it.
In the morning we visited probably the most beautiful part of Göteborg – Haga. Except the walk we also enjoyed a great coffee. Even though we tasted the greatest coffee in the city – Café Kringlan (We read that somewhere).
The sun was shining. It shone another light on that city.
From Haga we returned to the hotel. We all had a bath. Due to a time we put him sleep to the pram. Mom said her goodbye to a hotel by forgetting here her new functional jacket.
While Matěj was sleeping, we climbed up the hill over the city. There was beautiful view but also blowed a strong wind. We didn’t stayed there too long.
The last attraction of our trip was to the Natural museum. It would look quite morbid but Matěj become really enthusiastic from stuffed animals. They had a whole collection of all possible animals. And what was not stuffed, was conserved. We were here almost alone. So nobody minded when Matěj was running around, yelling and we followed him.
In the museum we rather bought some food before the train journey. It will takes 4 hours back to Oslo. On the way to the central station we have discovered a super playground. Pretty unique and interesting for kids all the ages.
In the end we almost run the train. We came just 15 minutes before departure. We quickly got some baguettes. It was better than nothing. We were glad because there was nothing in that train. No dinner coupé.
It was endless journey. Thanks God we had seats in a small coupe where was only one family with us. They also had a kid so they can play together and didn’t bothered anybody.
The holiday was really beautiful, but now we need one more week of holiday to relax. Matěj was happy to sleep in his own bed.
We will not even warm up at home and in 12 days, we travel again. This time to Denmark, to celebrate Matej’s second birthday. Hopefully, we’ll have some rest by then.
Last picture of autumn Goteborg.
