"A nice place to grow up in" a Göteborg Travel Page by Sjalen

Göteborg is Sweden's second city and always painfully aware of it - some locals hate Stockholm citizens with that feeling that only a nation's second city can have. Despite this, a great mix of city bustle and small town friendliness has made it famous as Sweden's friendliest city for years. With its broad river and west coast location, it is Scandinavia's largest port and because of this you will find the best selection of fresh food here, including much more fresh fish than in Stockholm of course. You will also find many industries depending on logistics such as Volvo, SKF ball bearings and others, even though many of the famous shipping yards have had to close or only repair ships rather than build new these days.

Nowadays, Göteborg is therefore not at all an industrial city as such but more a logistic centre. No grim environments or tall chimneys at all! Instead you have a huge amount of green areas, archipelago and loads of sport and culture. The main childrens' theatre is world famous in its genre and I don't know how many football teams currently play in the national leagues. The city has risen from being wrecked during the 2001 EU summit and keeps on hosting world events after already hosting the World Athletics Championships, European Football Championships, Equestrian World Cup finals etc.

I moved here when I was ten years old and in the beginning I found it fascinating to live in such a big city which I hadn't done since leaving Stockholm at the age of four. Then came a long period when I didn't understand the city at all since I came from the East Coast which they make fun of in Göteborg, thinking that they live on the "Best Coast" where the water is saltier than in the brackish Baltic Sea. I also found it quite a rainy place compared to the East. But then came college and all the fun with pubs, clubs and such. This is when I realised that Göteborg is probably Sweden's most expat friendly city too. Everywhere you go, you meet British people who seem to have stayed on and on here and well...I suppose it's only natural since it's called "Little London" in Sweden, facing the west as it does and with a ferry to England, and plenty of Scottish influences in its history. There are also ferries to Denmark and Germany and you cannot help feeling that maybe the locals are right and that you ARE more in the middle of world events here compared to the rest of Sweden :)))