Did you just say fart?

Iâ€™ve been meaning to write this blog for a LOOONG time. It talks about one of my favorite museums in the city. Unfortunately, the name was rather difficultâ€¦so until I could pronounce it, I delayed writing. Today, Iâ€™ve finally accepted that I will never, ever be able to pronounce the name. Acceptance means I can finally write about it.

Now that you read that rather long introduction, letâ€™s get to the content shall we? 😉

My favorite museum to date in GÃ¶teborg is theÂ SjÃ¶fartsmuseet. Â Doesnâ€™t look too difficult, does it? Â Well, just so you know, that is notÂ pronounced â€œShow Farts Museetâ€. Â One of the many, many odd things about Svenska is that Sjo is pronounced like a guttural â€œquaâ€. Â Try as I might, I cannot get the right sound to come out of my mouth. Â Now that we got that out of the way, are you wondering if it is a museum of farts? Â I certainly wondered that. Â The hubs said just yesterday that he thinks the Swedes picked all the most awkward words in the English language and made them into really mundane words, just to mess with us. Â Deep down, I wonder if he is right…

So, what does sjÃ¶farts mean? According to my Google Translate app, it means â€œmaritimeâ€; which makes sense, because this museum is dedicated to ships and the oceans. We just call it the fish museum. Interestingly enough, every person Iâ€™ve told about the fish museum knows just what I am talking about.

Hereâ€™s some basic info for those of you traveling to GÃ¶teborg:

Name: SjÃ¶fartsmuseet
Address: Charles Johansgatan 1-3 414 59
Tram Stop: Stigbergstorget
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 10am-5pm and Wednesday 10am-8pm.
Entrance Fee: Over 25 years old: SEK 40 (about $5). Free under 25 years of age!!

I have a couple of notes about that information. They are closed Mondays. I reiterate that because somehow I have ended up there twice on Mondays. Do not make my mistakes. The second bit of information is that your entrance fee of SEK 40 goes to a ticket that can be reused for an entire year!! At multiple museums within the city!! How cool is that? I wonâ€™t go into all the different museums, but for goodness sake, if you go, hold onto that ticket.

This museum has many features that make it very kid friendly. The main floor has a small aquarium, gift shop, and a cafe (with delicious apple cake). There are also lockers for your stuff and small but tidy bathrooms. The second floor, which can be accessed via a large staircase or an elevator is also where the buggy parking is located. Here they do talks about the museum, have several interactive displays, including short movies, and a fun play areas for the kids. The top floor has a large area for enjoying your packed lunches and even more stuff to play with and on. There are giant sea creatures growing from the walls and floor, computerized programs for building fish and ships, and much more. There is even a boat you can get in that moves about! Altogether it is quite fun.

One wonderful thing Iâ€™ve noticed is that this museum is usually hopping with kids of all ages and their families. People really enjoy this place. My son requests to go here at a minimum once each week. I did draw the line at 3 visits per weekâ€¦thatâ€™s just too much video game ship building for me.