gothenburg

i have been many times to gothenburg. one of the first times was on the occasion of alan and åsa's wedding where i had arrived by ferry from fredriksberg in denmark, in freezing cold february (who the hell gets married in february in scandanavia?). the whole night, i stayed awake in mcdonalds, keeping warm, watching the other homeless folk doing the same, and in the morning, i had tried to hitch to vanernas in -4 degrees... freezing my bollocks off, getting nowhere fast. in the end i took the train. 

long dark nights are not the best for hitching, so i didn't even think twice to hitch that night. instead, i did a stint of busking in the centre, called up alan to see if he had the contact for pia and jimmy, friends i hadn't seen in years. unfortunately, he and åsa had also lost touch with them. plan b: the bus station. seemed like a good idea, i rolled out my mat and sleeping bag, even had a power socket nearby to charge up the mobile. i was just settling down to kip when the security comes and says that they will close up in 15 minutes. damn. i packed up stuff, and walked into the cold night once more. it was around 1.30 a.m. plan c: yep, another stint in mcdonalds. the same one like 20 years ago. of course, the decor had changed since then, (and the down & outs too!) but probably the coffee was still the same. they kicked us all out at 4, and so i traipsed back to the bus station, which was just opening up again.

out came the mat and sleeping bag and i got around 3 hours of precious sleep before security comes to tell me to pack my stuff and go. perfect alarm, cos it was around dawn and light enough to start hitching. it was only a 20-minute walk to the hitching spot at ullevi motet, not the best place cos there wasn't any place for the cars to pull over. one car stopped and he was not really going my way. a traffic warden passed me and asked how it was going. i just shrugged and said "bad". "yes", she said, "and your colour doesn't help". didn't i just know it. i changed place to a couple of other junctions, but they were much quieter. i went back to ullevi. after 3 hours, i gave up, and went back to the centre. did some busking, it was a bit slow, but steady. i went to the bus station to enquire about the bus, but it seemed expensive. of course, it was friday, they hike up the prices! i tried at the train station, and i could get one for 260kr, still expensive but cheaper than the bus."but that's the price now, it will change later". i counted my money, and was 15kr short. i went back to do some busking and was getting really nothing, fretting that that ticket was now probably more expensive than the bus. but from nowhere, i got a 20kr note dropped into my hat. after patiently finishing off the rhythm, i ran with my pack and drum back to the station, and tried for the ticket. "that'll be 390kr", he said. "no way! i was told it was 260kr just 15 minutes ago". he checked his computer, and asked the woman i saw before, and finally he found the cheap ticket for me. what a relief. so with ticket bought, i had a couple of hours to kill, and found a good busking spot, and was really enjoying drumming for the people. who, in turn, showed their appreciation by a steady stream of drops into my hat. which motivated me more.... the train got into malmö, i got some munchies and coffee, got the ticket to copenhagen which was now a total rip-off seeing as there was no choice but to take this toll bridge over the oresund. i asked about the ferry which i used to take in the past, and was told that it had been discontinued ten years ago. i got chatting with one guy on the train, or rather, he got chatting to me and proceeded to tell me of his troubles with his mum not telling him about her past, seeing as he had mixed heritage etc etc. i gave him a sympathetic ear, relieved that the trip to the main station at copenhagen was a short one and so i didn't have to hear his whole tragic life story.