Atlantica - 01.05.2007, Qupperneq 38

a t l a n t i c a 37
He described something melodic yet punky and
named a couple of other local bands like Silver
Bullet and The Knife.
We chatted for a half hour. Almgren was keen
on visiting Iceland, where he had been following
bands like Sigur Rós. And I asked them about
their name, which Almgren said had its origins in
a sort of alchemy – the fact that both artists came
from quite different musical backgrounds. He
paused after his official explanation.
“It rolls off the tongue and it sounds dark but
not evil,” he concluded. “And we’re like that.”
Like, you’re not evil?
“Yeah,” he responded. “We’re really dorky, kind
of cuddly guys.”
Take a touristy canal cruise. – Lorraine
It felt small. Palli and I were strolling along the
narrow paved streets of Vrängö Island, the third
and final stop on Route 3 of the regular boats
which ply the narrow waters at the mouth of the
Göta älv river southwest of the city. The quiet
timber houses with red corrugated roofs clustered
together, separated only by the narrow bikeways.
I wondered just how small it was. We stopped
a middle-aged woman on her bicycle to ask about
population numbers, but she wasn’t sure.
“Lena!” the first woman cried to an acquain-
tance who was cycling by. “How many people
live here?”
“Three hundred and eighty three,” Lena called
back cheerfully (and with unexpected accuracy),
and continued on her way.
The tree-lined and somewhat rocky island is
popular in summertime with city folk who come
to lie on the beach and swim in the sea or stop at
the sole café. Malin Johannsson, a 17-year-old who
lives on the island, estimated that more than 3,000
tourists visit Vrängö each summer.
At only a half-hour ferry ride from Gothenburg,
many of the island’s residents commute daily
to the city, their cars parked permanently in the
parking lot by the city’s main loading point; cars
aren’t allowed on Vrängö itself.
There’s only one shop on the island and it’s
closed daily between noon and 4 pm. The only
other entertainment seems to be the spartan
mini-golf course down by the sheep field, where
seven anemic green strips of turf with yellow-
and-red wooden railings have been dotted with
various bumps, curves and wooden obstacles to
create the challenge. Malin told me she mostly
hangs out with friends in Gothenburg, but living
in Vrängö is fun “in the summertime.”
As I approached the ferry docks to return to
town, I noticed the dozens of bicycles perched in
tidy rows waiting for their owners to return. Not
a single one was locked. The only “security” was
the occasional plastic bag tied around a seat in
case of unexpected rain during the day.
Universeum, near Liseberg, is a rainforest indoors.
Birds fly free inside the huge building. Not an ordi-
nary museum…. – Ida
I started shivering as I ascended a few floors
in the glass elevator at Universeum, a relatively
new science and technology museum located on
the same grounds as the Liseberg amusement
park. Why hadn’t they heated the elevator, I
wondered?
GothenburG a
People had grabbed their take-out sushi, noodles in
boxes, and prawn salads, and were sitting
on the edge of the canal, their feet
dangling over the water.