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Outside the Rio nightclub and RFSL Center in Stockholm.Photo: Ed Walsh |
I was in Gothenburg, the San Francisco of Sweden, and I just had to know.
After talking for some time with a couple of gay men from Sweden's West Coast city and the country's second largest city after Stockholm, I asked the question.
They said they had never been to San Francisco.
What, I asked, did they think of the city based on what they had heard about it.
"I have the impression that all the people there are like the Village People," said Jonas Olsson, who runs Gothenburg's popular GaysStraightt2hell monthly gay and lesbian club. "Like a giant music video," he added.
Nodded Gothernburger Nicklas Hultman in agreement, "I see muscle boys in hot pants going down the street on skates."
You may not see the Village People in Gothenburg but you will see a gay-friendly community with many gay venues, albeit on a smaller scale than Stockholm.
Gothenburg's official Web site likens the city to San Francisco. It has its own Golden Gate Bridge, the Alvsborg Bridge. From a distance, the bridges look strikingly similar. Gothenburg also has a popular gay club named after San Francisco, Club Castro. It began three years ago and meets every other Saturday on two party floors. Like San Francisco, Gothenburg draws a lot of tourists from its own country. The city is home to Sweden's most popular tourist attraction, Liseberg, its version of Disneyland. The city also has open tram cars that look very much like San Francisco cable cars. If you want another reminder of San Francisco, check out the city's Palm House – it's a dead ringer for Golden Gate Park's Conservatory of Flowers.
Stockholm
But unlike San Francisco, no one would ever accuse Gothenburg of being the gay capital of Sweden. If the country has a gay capital, it would be Stockholm. Sweden's capital city and its suburbs have nearly 2 million people and more than enough population to support the most gay venues in the country.
About 9 million people live in Sweden. It is a little bigger than the state of California but has only a fourth of its population. About one out of five Swedes live in the Stockholm area. Sweden's official tourist Web site boasts that Stockholm is the gay capital of Scandinavia. In 2008, it will be the gay capital of Europe when it hosts the 2008 EuroPride celebration, an annual event that moves from city to city in Europe each year.
Despite Sweden's image of being very liberal, it is one of the most socially conservative countries in Western Europe. For example, in an apparent effort to discourage drinking, bars are not allowed unless they are also restaurants. And while prostitutes openly advertise in gay and mainstream papers in Paris and London, you will find none of that in Stockholm. The editor of Sweden's gay newsmagazine, QX, told the Bay Area Reporter that it simply is not allowed. Jon Voss said that if he were to allow such ads, he could be prosecuted as a pimp under Sweden's laws.
In keeping with the social reserve mirrored by the government, Swedes tend to be shy and circumspect but at the same time very friendly to strangers when approached. And everyone speaks English. They are taught it as children and some of the most popular prime time television shows are American, presented in English, with Swedish subtitles.
Gothenburg nightlife
You may have never heard of it, but "schlager" music is huge in gay clubs throughout Sweden. Schlager is very upbeat Abba-ish bubble-gum pop sounding music that is popularized by the Eurovision television song competition. The program is wildly popular in Scandinavia.
Sweden is the perfect European stop for nonsmoking clubbers. Smoking in bars and restaurants was banned on June 1. If you've ever been to a big gay club in Paris or London, you know how uncomfortable smoke can make a crowded nightclub, not to mention stinking up your limited travel wardrobe. Ireland also recently banned smoking in bars, but whether the trend will catch on in the rest of Europe is an open question.
Gothenburg's only permanent everyday gay bar is Greta's, as in Garbo, Sweden's patron gay saint. By the way, like most gay bars in Sweden, Greta's is mixed. About 30 percent of the Greta crowd is lesbian. Lollypop is a popular Saturday night venue. The aforementioned Castro Club meets every other Saturday. The SLM leather event meets once a month. The GaysStraight2Hell party is a huge event that meets on the first Saturday of the month. It usually draws a mixed crowd. Queer is another large party that meets monthly, on the last Friday of the month.
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People dancing aboard the Patricia party boat in Stockholm. Photo: Ed Walsh |
Stockholm nightlife
Stockholm's gay scene has something for everyone but is a lot smaller than most people assume. The week starts off with the Sunday night tradition at Patricia. It's a four-level boat docked in central Stockholm that doubles as a restaurant and bar. People often eat first and stay for the party that gets going around 11 p.m. Patricia is straight except for Sunday nights.
The Rio restaurant, bar, and nightclub is downstairs from the RFSL Center, Sweden's LGBT center. Rio is gay all the time. Its huge nightclub is open for dancing Thursday through Saturday. A gay American couple owns it. By the way, San Francisco is represented in a brochure produced by the RFSL center. It uses an illustration of a group of young lesbians in front of the Golden Gate Bridge as a symbol of gay youth pride. Another American connection in Stockholm can be found near the Mariatorget subway station. The Side Track restaurant and bar is named after the most popular gay bar by the same name in Chicago's Boys Town neighborhood.
Connection is in the Old City, on the Gamla Stan Island, where Stockholm began more than 750 years ago. The nights for Connection are Friday and Saturday. The tiny Mandus bar is near the Royal Palace in the Old City and provides another old-world backdrop for Sweden's modern gay scene. Stockholm's oldest square, Stortorget, has a gay rainbow flag thanks to the popular gay coffee house, Chokladkoppen.
Torget is another small but popular restaurant and bar in the Old City. It's near the Gamla Stan subway stop. Nearby, you will find the Lino Club, the Old City's largest gay venue but open only on Saturday night.
The Bitch Club is a very popular lesbian venue but it happens only a couple of times a year. For details, check out the QX Web site. The site includes a lesbian section. The Roxy restaurant, on the south island of Södermalm, is lesbian-owned and a popular hangout for gay women and men alike.
By the way, if you want to meet a Swede before you get there, QX also runs the country's most popular gay chat forum through its www.Qruiser.com site.
The only bathhouse in Stockholm, Vega, opened this summer. The bathhouses were ordered shut down during the start of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Political winds have shifted in Sweden leading to a green light for bathhouses to reopen. Stockholm already has a handful of adult book and video stores that operate as sex clubs. But unlike the sex clubs in San Francisco, they are allowed to have private booths.
Accommodations
The upscale and historic Berns Hotel is in an exclusive district of Stockholm just a short walk from the main train station. It's managed by an openly gay and dashingly handsome man, Joachim Olausson. Okay, he asked me to say that. At least the dashingly handsome part. Olausson has emphasized to his staff the importance of being gay welcoming. Rates there start around $280 (prices in this story are in U.S. dollars based on recent exchange rates) but Olauuson noted that hotel prices at his and other hotels are often discounted by as much as 50 percent from mid-December through January and late June through mid-August. That's because the business and convention business is slower over those months.
The gay-friendly Rival hotel is around the corner from the Side Track bar. It's owned by Benny Anderson of ABBA and its front desk manager, Stefan Saager, is a gay man. Saager told the B.A.R . that the boutique hotel is a favorite of gay people who appreciate design. The Rival is at its gayest during Pride weekend in August when the manager estimates that about 60 percent of the guests are gay. Rival rates start around $250.
The Clarion is Stockholm's largest hotel with 532 rooms. The gay-friendly and very upscale property opened just two years ago and features $750,000 worth of artwork displayed throughout the hotel. Its rates start around $240.
The Nordic Light Hotel is famous for its design scheme that changes five times a year. Some rooms feature a "light bed" that allows guests, with the flick of a switch, to change the color of the lighting around the bed to suit their mood. The Nordic Light is across the street from the famous Absolut Icebar in its sister hotel, the Nordic Sea. Weekend rates at the Nordic Light start around $150 and weekday rates at about $277.
For gay folks on a budget, there are plenty of options. Rooms at the gay-run Pensionat Oden guesthouse start at $75. For those who don't mind sacrificing creature comforts to save a buck, there's the Hostel Bed & Breakfast, just a block from the Rio club. The rate for a dormitory room, including breakfast, is $24. A single room is $48.  There is a mandatory $6 charge for sheets unless you bring your own sleeping bag. A front desk clerk told the B.A.R . that the hostel is popular with gay people who drive in from other parts of Stockholm on Sundays to go to the Patricia club and then need a place to crash afterwards. She added that the hostel was packed with gay people during the Pride weekend.
Accommodations in Gothenburg are less expensive than Stockholm. You can stay in a three-star hotel in Gothenburg for about $75. The celebrity favorite Elite hotel starts at $153, a lot less than you would expect to pay for a similar hotel in Stockholm.
Getting there
There are no direct flights from the Bay Area to Stockholm. I traveled to Stockholm by way of Iceland via Iceland Air. It was a bonus to get a quick glimpse of Reykjavik between the clouds on my way from the Iceland airport to Stockholm. Iceland Air will also let you stop over in Iceland for no additional charge. Or you can do what I did, buy some Iceland souvenirs at the airport as proof you were really there. By the way, Iceland's airport is charming. It is a good example of modern Scandinavian/Ikea-ish architecture, with a lot of natural wood and glass.
Public transit
Public transportation is great in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Stockholm has a bus and subway system that runs like clockwork. A single ride on the subway costs about $3.80 but if you buy 10 tickets at the same time, it will only cost around $2 per ride. You can also transfer to a bus or return for free as long as it's within an hour after you first boarded. A one-day tourist card is a good deal if you plan on doing a lot of sightseeing. It costs  $33 and is good for unlimited subway and bus rides and free admission to a long list of museums and attractions. A three-day card is $69. You can get a similar card in Gothenburg for $27 for a one-day card or $38 for two days.
Money
The exchange rate is about 8 kronor for a dollar. Sweden has a reputation for being expensive but it's not. Stockholm and Gothenburg are less expensive than either London or Paris, for example. Overall, Sweden is only a little more expensive than the Bay Area. For example, on a McDonald's dollar menu, your choice of a hamburger, cheeseburger, desert, or small coffee is $1.20 in Sweden. But the posted prices in Sweden include the sales tax, so the dollar menu is only about 12 cents more. For those on a super tight budget, you can buy a filling hotdog on the street for about $1.20. Â
A service charge is included in all restaurant meals, so the price you see on the menu is the bottom line price of the meal. If you are given exceptional service at dinner you can tip 10 to 15 percent but it is not expected. You can also leave a small tip to folks who give you exceptional service in a hotel, but unlike the US, it's also not expected. Â
The sights
A great way to see Stockholm is on a sightseeing bus that will let you get on and off at the city's most popular attractions, including the Royal Palace and Stockholm's ornate City Hall. There are a number of water tours open during the warm weather months.
Gothenburg also has a wide variety of sightseeing tours. A must-see is its Liseberg amusement park and its neighboring Universeum. Admission is free with the Gothenburg pass.
Best time to go
If you don't mind winter weather, the least expensive time to go to Stockholm is mid-December through January. Hotel rates are discounted by as much as 50 percent and winter airfares to Europe are usually a lot cheaper. Hotel rates are also as much as half off in late June through mid-August but airfares are usually higher.
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