TRAVELING to SWEDEN!

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I have been up since 4:45today on my rooftop here in New York a cup of coffee in hand sunrise in thebackground you know what that means normally when I start a video on myrooftop it's the start of a travel series my name is Eric Conover and I ama world traveler who lives here in New York City in this video I am travelingfrom New York to Sweden my first time ever in Sweden with that this is thestart of the Sweden travel series a quick twelve hours later and I havearrived in the centre of Gothenburg a city in West Sweden over the next week Iwill be exploring the historic and beautiful coastline of West Sweden andcelebrating at my first ever midsummer this travel series is in partnershipwith the Tourism Board of West Sweden the city of Gothenburg and Volvo CarsUSA for this road trip around West Sweden we needed a solid car now Iwasn't aware of this before this trip but if you live in the United States andyou purchase a new Volvo they have an overseas delivery program that willactually fly you and a friend round trip to Sweden to pick up your brand newVolvo including a place to stay in Gothenburg by the factoryso of course the first thing we did yesterday when we arrived was go to theVolvo headquarters where we got an exclusive tour of the Volvo factory wegot to experience every single aspect of the car building and assembly lineprocess it's one of those things you know seeing the inside of a modern carFactory it's a very unique experience that notmany people get to see the level of pure detail that goes into something like acar which we use so heavily in our daily life without even realizing it a bigpart of the reason I came on this trip was to experience this overseas deliveryprogram firsthand after the factory tour we picked up our Volvo xc60 which is ourvehicle of choice that we will be using on our road trip through West Sweden themission on our trip is simple to fully experience and immerse ourselves in theculture of a country that we all know very very little about on this trip I'mnot solo I am joined by the one and the only mr.

Mike Shaffer and manager JerryI'm the first man but first things first we are starting this video series herein Gothenburg with the top things to experience in the city you're probablythinking to yourself where is Gothenburg so the city islocated on the west coast of Sweden it's relatively small and it's bestexperienced by foot my initial thoughts were that it's a very relaxing cityespecially compared to Stockholm or a few other cities that I've been to inEurope start the day off with a fika which is basically a Swedish term forhaving coffee and some sort of snack a sandwich or some sweets one of the mostpopular coffee shops in Gothenburg is de Matteo we're here right now and they'reknown for their coffee and for these guys right hereit's a traditional cinnamon bun but it's made with sourdough so it kind of givesit the extra oomph they have the Roasters right in here they have all theburlap sacks with all the beans and they're super nice they know theircoffee here so and you know Mike chef who knows coffee when you come to Westsweet innit you're gonna have a lot of fish for lunch I highly recommendrestaurant Gabriel at the fish church yes the fish church which is a MarketHall that only sells fish and seafood it's called the church because well itresembles a church as we found out later on this trip respect of the sea andfishing our traditions that run deeply in West Swedish culture we are about togo meet the owner of the restaurant Gabriel and I heard he's a pretty coolguy hi guys my name is Johan mom born and raised in Gothenburg two-time worldchampion and shucking oysters that's right the two-time world champion inshucking oysters and in the land where fishing rules all one would say he's apretty famous guy since it's almost midsummer celebration we had a shot ofschnapps and harun fish on a flatbread with some garnish which actually tastedamazing it was my first time ever trying heron about along with a traditionalfish soup by far the most famous attraction in all Gothenburg is theamusement park the park opened in 1923 and is one of the most visited amusementparks in Scandinavia Mike decide to try to win a prize and play some gamesthe bus failed pretty miserably I don't have many vices in this life besidessweets con candy is my kryptonite and I've stuffed my face with cotton candyand right across from the amusement park is one of the most unique places andI've seen in all my travels we just got to our hotel we had no idea this waseven here there is a pool on the 20th floor of the Upper House Hotel wherewe're staying it looks straight down that is the highway below me we are in aglass box swimming pool on the top of this hotel you don't realize that youare in a see-through pool until you look down and you see the traffic on thestreets below you and very very cool amazing views of the parkingfor dinner the dining in Gothenburg is incredible indulgent treat yourself tosome fine dining it we're going to a Michelin star rated restaurant what areyour thoughts about my outfit do the talkingwould you look at this studs outfit you do look very nice Jared your thoughtsfirst time never been to a Michelin star restaurant before very excited bigfoodie you could talk about my waistline we are in the restaurant but I'm nottrying to vlog in here just because it's very fancy but look at our food so farGothenburg is the Gateway to the islands of Western Sweden there are over 8, 000islands off the coast of West Sweden and they are the place to be norm in summercelebration it is just about eight o'clock in the morning we are going tocatch a ferry to the islands and it's pretty amazing all the major cities inSweden are ghost towns during midsummer this is the night before we left thestreet was empty now if you don't know midsummer is arguably the largestholiday in Sweden I mean everyone celebrates midsummer to experience atraditional midsummer that's that's the main reason why we came out to Sweden weare actually celebrating a very traditional midsummer with a family whois kind enough to let us join in on their celebrations which you will see inepisode 2 of the Swedish travel series and with that I will see you in the nextvideo where we celebrate midsummer.