Location: Walk on Linnegatan from Linneplatsen (north side) to Prinsgatan intersection.
Duration: about 10”.

We arrived to Gothenburg late in the afternoon. After getting into our house we ventured out to get some food. We walked down the hill to the intersection at Linneplatsan. I felt very disoriented, not just from the journey to Sweden but from the many sources of transportation here.  Bicycles passing in each direction, cars from all directions, people walking and pushing strollers. Trams and buses across the street.

A young woman was hit by a bus as she crossed the street.

The sound of the impact was frightening. It is difficult to understand how a body can make that kind of sound. We heard it and then turned to see what it was. There, the young woman was lying on the tram tracks just in front of the bus.

Linnegatan reminds me a little bit of other cities. A bit of the Upper West Side in New York, a little bit of the Back Bay area in Boston. I like streets that feel like they have a start and an end, here linneplatsen is perhaps the start, the gateway to the park, where the world of the automobile begins again to assert itself. Jarntorget feels more like the people destination. The street is socially about watching the people who traverse it, while sitting in one of the bars or the cafes, on which ever side the sun is shining.

7 Eleven seems much cooler here than in the U.S. Maybe that’s because in the states you have to drive there, that makes it the destination, makes more it mundane. Here, it ‘s got music, a place to sit and drink coffee, it’s much cooler.

On our first visit, we were drawn to the Creperie on Linnegatan. Maybe it was a little bit of Paris transplanted, cheap eats – it could be just a snack, it could be in place of dinner. Near the bar scene yet not part of it.