Day Seven - A nice cafe, Googling, and seafood

This morning we once again were up early and got the University of Gothenburg by 9 for the continuation of the  SAI Sjofartens Analys Institut (The Institute of Shipping Analysis) Executive meeting. This meeting in the morning was for the most part an exhibition of avoiding catching up on the lacking sleep at the beginning but after a conversation with a keynote speaker with Matt Holmes, I was very interested to hear what Hans Correll, a member of the legal counsel of the UN, had to say about transport in the arctic region. The ownership and transport rights of the waters in the arctic is more interesting and meaningful than one would think at first impression.

After the session, Bryan, Jon, Alex, and I headed to Haga Nygata which is the college street in Gothenburg to find a cafe for lunch. We found a great spot called Grappoline where I had a great lasagna and a bottle of Nygarda, a Swedish soda.

Our afternoon company tour was to ASCOM which is a wireless 'mission critical' communication provider. This means that if a company needs to have extremely reliable versatile wireless communication quickly, they are the provider to use. Their systems are used widely in hospitals throughout Europe and some in the US as well.

Anna, a marketing director taught us the ins and outs of how to market through Google. The sponsored links on Google are a matrix of bids and wordplay that each industry fights aggressively for. ASCOM markets directly against their main competitor, CISCO, by buying the rights to keywords that would be able to generally find a CISCO product. The system was really remarkable.

Rolling the herring balls.

We rushed back to get to our night appointment as soon as possible. After stripping out of our dress clothes and jumping back on the bus and trams, we got to the harbor to a cook your own fish restaurant. Since it was right in the harbor the fish came in early and the morning and was fresh on the counter when we got there. Kim, Lisa, and I had the task of making herring balls. You read that right: Herring balls. They contained herring, cream cheese, onions, chives, and dill. A perfect combination for me. With a small amount of help from Annika, the chef's assistant, we finished the balls and served them to the group. The head chef, who had cooked for the Queen and Prime Minister of Sweden, said it was very good and said she would put me on the homepage of her website.

Here's what the group ended up making.

Salmon and shrimp mixed with cream and served on carefully sauteed bread was the first appetizer followed by our herring balls.

The main course was a breaded 'Witch Fish,' which from what I understand is the American flounder, served with shrimp and mushroom risotto and green beans. Surprisingly, throughout this all, I remained a member of the Clean Plate Club. That's for you mom :).

Dessert was a delectable white chocolate mousse with raspberry topping. JM specially shaped the raspberries in a heart just for me. It was an awesome dinner experience.

I am now looking forward to what will be another great day tomorrow and an awesome weekend.