Fredrik in Frövi, a community with 2,500 inhabitants.
Photo: Fredrik Jonsson
Father of two Fredrik Jonsson, 38, from Stockholm “needed a challenge” last summer.
He considered walking, for example, but instead chose to – take the bus.
Three to five hours by train to Gothenburg – or more than 24 hours by public transport? Simple choice. Fredrik was going to travel to Gothenburg and decided to take local buses all the way from Stockholm down to the Nils Ericson terminal.
A journey that clocked in at 26 hours and 55 minutes and there were a total of 19 buses distributed among seven different county transport companies and a number of energy drinks. It all started with the 54 bus from Centralen in Stockholm to Reimersholme.
And the question then becomes, of course, why?
– The idea was that I want a new “story” or whatever. You are almost 40, realize that all the fun adventures and anecdotes you have are not 5-10 years old anymore, they are 15-20 years old, and that I needed to do something new and I definitely have new stories now, says Fredrik and laughing.
Fredrik documented his journey for his YouTube channel.
Photo: Fredrik Jonsson
That’s how much the trip cost
Fredrik started in Stockholm at 06.55 and arrived in Gothenburg at 09.45 the next day. Most things went well, although it started with a mess already in Södertälje when he forgot, and later recovered, one of his phones on the bus.
The trip cost a total of SEK 526.
Good for the wallet but perhaps not so enticing for the regular commuter.
– When you think about how long you can travel, and how far, it’s definitely worth it. That’s a good mileage rate. But I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this way of getting between Stockholm and Gothenburg, but it’s a fun adventure.
Fredrik in Karlstad.
Photo: Fredrik Jonsson
Time to change buses…
Photo: Fredrik Jonsson
The night at Åmål’s city hotel
And of course there was adventure on offer.
– I would never have gone past Ica in little Frövi to buy a salad, or even learned that Frövi has a rune stone, if it wasn’t for this trip.
Fredrik spent the night, waiting for the next bus, at Åmål’s city hotel, and he was not alone. Among other things, he ran into a Stockholmer on a whim who watched a Hammarby match a few hours earlier.
Fredrik also met a “real bajare” on a whim from Stockholm. They had shown a Hammarby match at the hotel during the evening.
Photo: Fredrik Jonsson
Even that an adventure, it would turn out, and an experience in the small that will linger.
– I thought I’d go there, stay warm, kill two hours, have a beer or something. And there was a group that had already been going for a couple of hours, and they thought this was a shitty thing, and then I hung out with them in the lobby until five when I almost had to run to the bus. It was great fun, they were very funny!
Fredrik’s YouTube video from the trip has received almost 220,000 views and he has new similar challenges in the works. He has also been interviewed in SVT, and now Expressen is calling. An uproar that Fredrik hadn’t really expected.
– So it’s not just that I went Stockholm-Gothenburg on local buses, but everything around, but then my children and their mother and everyone around me will have tired of this story in two years or sooner, he says of his new and special anecdote.
Fredrik’s call to Expressen’s readers
Fredrik thinks that Swedes should generally be better at discovering, and that you don’t need to travel across the country. To take the bus sometime instead of the subway in Stockholm, for example.
– Take the bus sometime, at least four times a year, through town. Take the 4th, the 6th or so, and look at how nice this city actually is, regardless of whether it’s snowing like now, in the summer or in the fall, he says.
– And if you live out in the country, get off at that place that you always drive past but have never been to, or go to a stop that you haven’t been to before and see what’s there. Go on a little adventure with the bus or train or whatever public transport you have around, and see what’s available.
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