Luleå Centrum

Storgatan, (big road), the main road in the center of town. Here and off the side streets are where most of the action happens in Luleå. There are a couple of shopping centers and department stores, cafes, a couple of pubs, and one nightclub. Apparently it can be a bit rough here on a Sat night and there have been some fights outside the nightclub, maybe not at the level of gangs with machetes like in Melbourne, but its comforting to know that even here there is a "problem element".



When I first arrived the weather was good enough for people to be sitting outside on a Sat morning having coffee, just like anywhere else. But that hasn't really happened for a while. I have just found out now where a more stereotypical European style cafe is, so if I can get up early on a Sat morning can go there with my Swedish textbook, get a cup of coffee and a cake, and pretend I am back on Brunswick St. at Marios or something. I might try it this weekend.


And how many McDonalds are there? Just one, and none of the other fast food chains have made it out here. There are however several stores of a local hamburger chain called MAX, that are all over the place. I have eaten there and it was reasonably good - at least they cook the burger after you order it. There is also a chain of hotdog stores called Korvgubben (the Snag Dag?)

But one of the surprising things is just how widespread pizza is on the menu. It's not just limited to pizza restaurants, of which there aren't that many, but every other type of restaurant. Chinese + pizza, Greek and pizza, the uni caf has pizza, Kebab and pizza. The big Thai restaurant doesn't advertise itself as a pizza restaurant, but 1 out of 4 pages of the menu is a pizza menu. It's everywhere! And how many times have I had it - just the once so far. Now that I am thinking about it I haven't noticed any shops advertising pizza delivery, not that I know the swedish word for delivery...


Some other old buildings in town: