The three Aussies headed off to Stockholm to catch a flight that evening, and I was alone in the city for pretty much the first time since I had arrived. I took the advice of one of the lads and hired a bike to explore, and set out to see the sights that Gothenburg has to offer.

With a map in my pocket and a bright red bicycle that Ritchie Cunningham from the TV programme Happy Days would have loved, I cycled around for about four hours, taking in the sights, first I headed to the Avenyn (Avenue) which is the main street in town. At the top of the Avenyn is a huge statue as naked as David in Florence, but I’d imagine not quite as impressive. In the same plaza lies the theatre. where they were building an outdoor stage for some future performance.

I headed out to the Gothenburg Stadium, which was slightly more impressive than the local pitches, but not before I got a glimpse of Gothenburg’s answer to the former twin towers. The trams are pretty cool as well, except for when you nearly get run over by one, as I nearly did.

I stopped at a local cafe for lunch and began to realise that I missed having people to speak to. If I’m honest I actually felt a bit lonely. I began to question whether I was cut out for independant travel and if I would be able to stand being alone for long periods of time in South America, thousands of miles away from family and friends. I locked my bike up and went for walk to think about what I was doing and if I really wanted to do the travel thing. After an hour I cheered up and realised that I was actually having a really good time simply wandering around, and it was inevitable I was going to get lonely at certain points and certain times. I am actually glad this happened so early and made me realise that travelling alone will not be a cakewalk. I also realised I was being stupid and that I should stop being a moron and get on with it!

After all the cycling, walking and thinking I was pretty tired, so I decided to take a seat for while. What better place to take that seat than in the middle of a busy square, where gorgeous Swedish girls were walking past. Very frequently. So that’s what I did…I watched a bevvy of beauties as they casually sauntered by. An excellent way to spend a few hours methinks.

A few hours later back at the hostel I met Nick, a cool French guy from Lyon who was also in Gothenburg for the weekend. We made plans to go out and sample the delights of the Avenyn (Avenue), which is where the majority of those hot Swedish chicks I mentioned earlier were headed for an evening of drinking and merriment. After a few cheeky vodka’s, we headed to the Avenyn and into a club called Excet. As we walked in we saw a sea of them, wall to wall beauties. I was reminded of that song by Studio B, “I See Girls”.

The rest of evening was spent dancing on one of the three levels the club was set out on, where people were crammed in like sardines. I don’t think I have ever been to a club that was more crowded, except maybe Newquay a few years ago, but thats another story.

We tried to enter another club, but failed as we didn’t have breasts and didn’t wear short skirts (the only people the bouncers were letting in were fit girls - damn I wanted to get into that club!) it was time to head off to the hostel, and call it a night. All in all a very good day.