It’s time for my second installment showcasing the awesome thrift shops here in Göteborg!  Are you as excited as I am for this?  You should be 😉

The Store: Emmaus at Linnégatan 9  Phone: 031-7753540

The charity itself is not religiously affiliated like the Salvation Army, but is motivated for social change.  According to the Emma’s website they stand for “solidarity, sustainability, democracy, pluralism and human rights – both in Sweden and in other countries.”  Feel free to check out the site; regardless of your preferred language.  They have an “In English” option that I found very helpful.

This thrift shop is located near the Järentorget tram.  The neighborhood is very young and hip; which is reflected in the store’s merchandise.

Emmaus is just one block away from the tram stop and since it is a hub, many trams stop here.  Notably, numbers 1, 3, 5, 6.  There are also numerous buses.  Basically, most routes wind through this area eventually.  The tram stop is also adjacent to Haga, the old town, which means there are a lot of quirky shops and restaurants with high quality goods.  In Emmaus I’ve found that also translates to slightly higher prices; but you do get what you pay for here.

At first glance, I knew I had to visit this shop.  The window displays are fun and funky; and it is open until 7pm during the week.  My stateside friends, please understand that most places in Europe close earlier than we are used to, so these hours are amazing.

Opening hours are:

M-Thurs: 10am to 7pm
Friday: 10am to 5pm
Saturday: 12pm to 4pm
Sunday: Closed

This shop primarily stocks clothing and shoes.  The clothes are an eclectic mix of truly vintage and 80’s vintage.  The shoes and purses are predominantly leather.  I mention shoes because this shop has an entire room of shoes!  An entire room…that’s some expensive real estate in this area to be devoted just to shoes.

As a woman who has never turned down a biscuit, I also feel compelled to mention a reasonable plus size section, which I rarely see in thrift shops.  There is also a decent maternity section, which was also a nice surprise.

The toy section is my son’s favorite section and he happily found several toys that I agreed to bring home.  Guilt over keeping him 3 weeks in temporary housing with no toys was wearing on me that night…

Alas, there is no dedicated furniture section, but they do have some vintage lamps, random wall art and quite a few kitchen items (plates, cups, etc…).

So, what did we bring home?

• 2 fully functioning Bob the Builder construction toys
• 1 semi functioning Bumblebee transformer toy
• 1 women’s sweater
• 1 crazy wood carving (I HAD TO!!!)

Total damage? SEK 260, roughly $31

Awesome wooden troll

As you can see, we got a lot less stuff than at the previous store and it was quite a bit more expensive.  I’m still pleased with the purchases because the toys gave me a bit of peace at home and I was borrowing way too much of the hub’s clothes while mine were in storage.

Emmaus is definitely worth checking out if you want something fun and unique.  I would probably avoid the toy section as I think you can do better elsewhere, but the household “dustables” are fun and the clothes are all in great condition.

Altogether a worthwhile shop to check out.  If you aren’t in Göteborg and just want to learn more about the charity itself, check out this site.

Until next time…

Is that not an amazing title? We have a home! A place to hang our snow suits and fall asleep at night; in our own beds! Amazing, eh? I would love to take credit for this and say it’s because of my Jessi luck (horrific things happen and then everything works out for the best)…but I’m not sure I can. At a stretch I think I can say my luck has been passed to Raymond; because his misfortune led to our great fortune. Here’s a little about that…

As many of you know from this blog post, the last time we tried to move into an apartment we were all sick and things went very awry. What you may not know is that my husband had a work trip that night to Stockholm that also went awry. Somehow, his train tickets were reserved in the wrong order so he had to get new ones. In addition to that, partway to Stockholm, he realized his hotel reservation was for the wrong city. This resulted in him not getting any rest until late in the evening and going through his meetings very ill the next day.

Fortunately for all of us, one of his co-workers felt terrible for him and took it upon herself to help in the best way she could. She offered to help him find an apartment. More specifically, she offered to let us tag along when she went to look at an apartment that she thought would better suit our family. That meeting went really well and we are now the happy tenants of a quirky building in a quiet neighborhood.

Thank you Lisa!!

The apartment doesn’t tick all of our boxes, but newly arrived expats can’t be too choosy. Here’s what it doesn’t have:

• Two bedrooms
• Bathtub
• Washer hook up

Here’s what makes it work:

• Clean, functional laundry room with two brand new washers and a new dryer
• Heated air drying room (this room is off the hook crazy and I love it)
• Locked buggy parking for strollers
• First floor entrance with clearance for American size furniture
• High ceilings
• Lots of windows
• Recycling just across the street
• Large indoor assigned storage
• Accepts cats!
• Fun light fixtures
• An owner that we met who acknowledges that we can sign a sublet in his building

As you can see, the pros outweigh the cons. Of course, we will have to buy some sort of portable tub for the boy. He will wreak havoc if showers are his only option. Suggestions anyone?

After spending the entire day unpacking, I have to say that the energy in our new place is amazing. The small one was in an amazing mood all day and I was insanely productive. We almost slept over, but that would have left our cat home alone and that’s just not cool. After very little discussion, we’ve all agreed that effective tomorrow we will fully move over to the new place (cat and all). We had intended to stay in our temporary quarters until things were fully unpacked, but our bodies yearn for comfy beds and frankly, there is just something very cozy about the new place. The decision to move tomorrow was unanimous.

I’m very thankful this apartment came our way. It was the only place we visited after the previous apartment fiasco that our son actually loved. He never wants to leave, which says something for the energy of the space. Thank goodness for amazing new friends who help us find our way 😃

Until next time…

I’ve decided that as part of this blog it is my duty to help people learn about the different charity shops/thrift shops available in Göteborg. When we first arrived, I was stunned by the cost of everything! That led to some intense internet hunts; which provided a few leads, but not a ton of in depth information. These intermittent and ongoing updates on the cool discount options we have in this fun city will hopefully fill that void for other bargain hunters in the future.

The Store: Salvation Army Majorna at Jaegerdorffsplatsen 4

Majorna (pronounced Muh-Your-Nuh) is the neighborhood and Jaegerdorffsplatsen 4 is the address. Don’t ask me to pronounce that address.

This Salvation Army shop is located just off the Jaegerdorffsplatsen tram stop; which you can reach with the #3 and #9 trams.

I was blown away by this shop. From the outside, it is unassuming; then you get inside and it is crammed with goodies. Over two visits I have purchased:

– 1 awesome iron (Husqvarna) and 1 functional ironing board
– 2 small bookshelves
– 1 large bookshelf
– 1 leather love seat
– 1 side table
– 3 soup bowls (pictured here)

How much did I spend? Altogether, including the delivery fees for the furniture, this whole lot cost me less than $70. Not only that, when our apartment fell through, they agreed to hold onto the furniture for me. Phenomenal, right?

What I did not get:

– 1 awesome gold velvet couch
– 1 amazing peacock tapestry

The elusive Peacock

How much would I have spent? Roughly $66. Why didn’t I get these? Well, this store is only open Thursdays and Saturdays. I saw the aforementioned items on a Thursday morning. They were gone when I went back on Saturday with the hubs to confirm that he would enjoy a gold velvet couch.

Lesson learned, if you see something you like at this shop, snap it up! It goes fast. Please enjoy the amateurish photo of the awesome peacock tapestry shot from my cell phone on the sad day I did not buy it…

If you are in Göteborg, I wholeheartedly endorse this place. The people are friendly and the finds are eclectic and reasonably priced. Plus, they deliver for a flat rate of SEK 150, which is roughly $18. You can’t beat that.

Until next time…

One would think that with a household comprised of two sick adults and one sick toddler that we would have woken up this morning in a bit of a foul mood. Not so! The toddler was ecstatic because today the truck came to deliver his toys to the new apartment. The adults were happy because today we got keys to the new apartment. Or so we thought…

Moving day started quite well, with our relocation liaison arriving promptly and taking us to our new place. Our first walk through had been rather hurried and we had forgotten to check many details.  This second look showed some cosmetic defects; but overall it was an excellent choice. The movers even arrived a bit early; leaving hope that we could all eat a meal together before my husband needed to go to Stockholm for business.

Alas, that meal was not to be.

Halfway through the unloading, cursing was heard from the stairwell! I thought to myself that nothing was really so large as to warrant cursing and peeked out towards the doorway. There was a man there and he said rather abruptly that he was the owner and we had no right to be there. Thinking he was joking, I laughingly greeted him and said we were his new renters. He adamantly denied it.  At this point I realized he wasn’t joking. Thankfully, our relocation liaison came out and conversed with him in Svenska (Swedish). It wasn’t a pretty sight. He seemed bent on intimidating the woman. Finally, he stormed away. She made many phone calls and spoke with him again. He left. She made more phone calls. Eventually, we had the movers reload everything for return to the warehouse.

Alas, it’s just not meant to be

What happened here? Well, in Göteborg there is a housing shortage. As such, there is a long wait list to be eligible for first hand rentals (renting directly from the owner). Most new arrivals need to obtain a second hand rental; or sublet. This is perfectly legal and accepted. Prior to seeking renters, the lessee contacts the housing board and gets permission to rent out the unit. Once that is obtained, they advertise for tenants; the tenants sign a lease with the original lessee, and everyone goes about their business.

So, what went wrong? According to the lessee, there was a verbal agreement with the landlord. At the time of the incident, the landlord denied any knowledge of new tenants. It’s difficult to know which version is accurate, but something definitely went wrong. While we waited, the lessee did contact the housing board to get written permission, and the landlord has since given his permission directly to the relocation company for us to move in.

Will we? No. While housing is scarce in this city; it’s never good to move into a situation with an unpredictable landlord. More so one who was comfortable being very loud and inappropriate in front of a small child. Don’t worry, my husband did quickly remove our son from the building; but there were a few moments when the man was inadvertently blocking the doorway and leaving was not an option.

Where do we go from here? The relocation company is having our temporary accommodations extended and our storage will also be extended. This week we restart our house hunt! Thankfully, my wonderful friend called the charity shop that was going to deliver the “new to us” couch on Thursday and asked them to delay that delivery. Hopefully not for too long…

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and am thankful that something so calamitous happened when the truck was still half full and the relocation liaison was still present. Hopefully this means something even better is on the horizon.

Until next time…