Our first international trip in 2025 was to Sweden. Not having the pressure of visiting a country for the first time and not knowing if we’ll ever come back, we decided to enjoy whatever comes our way in a slow mindful manner. That also allowed us to learn many interesting things about the country and indulge in its lifestyle. We’ll talk about fika a lot in this article. But first things first, our impressions from visiting Gothenburg, Örebro, and Kopparberg.
The purpose of our trip to Sweden this time was attending a training course on the topic of educational escape rooms. So you can imagine we spent a lot of time indoors, for which we compensated arriving two days earlier to explore Gothenburg, then utilizing our free time from the training to see Orebro, and always finding ways to be at least half an hour outside each day in Kopparberg.
We caught unusually warm January, which meant that we took a break from snowy and frozen Bansko to warm up in Sweden. Sun was with us only during 2 days of the whole time, but we still managed to enjoy views and walks outside. And as we all know, fika doesn’t care about the weather.
Gothenburg impressions
Arriving late enough to meet many people on public transport, coming home from Saturday evening out and not too late to grab our falafel dinner and head straight to the hotel. We only knew that Gothenburg is a university city, and we were yet to learn how beautiful this place is, how friendly the people seem to be, and that it’s the hometown of Volvo.
Our exploration was led by a few articles mostly focused on the best spots to watch the sunset, although the cloudy and foggy day would make this endeavor meaningless. We started walking towards the Skansen Kronan (wonderful fortress with great views over the city), then went to the picturesque neighborhood Haga, then took a glimpse on one of the channels and the old Fishing market (Fiskekyrkan), then headed to the Vallgraven following the canal, searching for moss on the trees and admiring gorgeous architecture together with constructions sites covered by graffiti that tell stories.
We checked out the Gothenburg Cathedral and stumbled upon a big protest , then it was time to grab some lunch, visit the lovely yard of Bagih Kronhuset and meet a friend for a coffee. Later we almost walked to the Gothenburg’s Opera, and followed the waterline to observe the night lights of the harbour. We crossed a bridge or 10, got a bit cold because of the nasty wind but appreciated the dry weather we had to explore Gothenburg in a day with 25 thousand steps.
Örebro impressions
If you have a few hours to explore Orebro, like we did, we suggest that you focus on these 3 places and include as much fika as you can.
- Örebro Slott (Orebro Castle) – this riverside castle is the majestic landmark of the town. It used to be a prison and a royal residence and there are guided tours if you want to visit the inside. From outside it’s marvelous and a great thing to walk around.
- Wadköping – walking down the river from the castle, you will reach a village-style attraction with an open-air museum, craft shops, bakery, and others, and a typical artefacts from the Swedish cultural heritage. It’s lovely to explore and walk around, check out the artisan shops and crafts in the making, and of course – indulge in fika.
- Orebro Water Тower – you can take the free lift up the water tower (which doesn’t serve its original purpose anymore) and enjoy not only wonderful views of the surroundings, but lunch or fika at the Svampen Skybar.
There are many wonderful places to stop by and look around or taste really tasty food around Orebro, so keep in mind that a few hours in this town probably won’t do it any justice.
Kopparberg impressions
A small town, used to be known as a mining town (its name comes from copper) and nowadays it’s known for the Kopparberg cider and the brewery producing it. While it’s definitely a quiet place, we enjoyed being there so much! The Kopparberg wooden church, the tidy houses lined up in picturesque streets, there was definitely some village charm that made us fall in love with it. There’s also a wonderful forest nearby which provides opportunities for hiking, barbeques, and of course outdoor fika!
We can’t describe the magic of this town with words, so here’s the bird eye view of Kopparberg! And here you can check out our Reel.
General impressions
- FIKA is big in Sweden, and as excited foreign visitors we even overindulged in it. Honestly, cookies, cakes, vegetables, crackers, dips, snacks, Swedish balls, coffee, tea – it’s easy to get spoiled when you have this twice a day! But fika has the potential to solve many if not all world problems, so why not do it for the sake of humanity?
- If you own a Swedish ID card, then supermarkets are 24/7 open for you. You just slide your card, enter, get whatever you need, check out, pay and go. How cool and convenient is that? It seriously got me thinking how I can get a residency…
- Sweden seems to be very inspiring place to create music! Think about famous names like ABBA, Europe, Roxette, Swedish House Mafia, The Cardigans, Ace of Base, Avicii, Robyn, Vikingarna, and more, and more… We hadn’t realized that we’ve been surround by so much awesome music coming from Sweden!
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About your stay, we can recommend the Göteborgs Mini-Hotel in Gothenburg as a good base for your exploration of the city.
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