Visby and Late-night Kebab

I like doner... I like kabob... I like schnitzel... I don't like being unable to sleep.

I looked forward to Visby as a place to disconnect, relax, and restore. It's a quaint little town on the island of Gotland, Sweden. It has a rich and visible history and a romantic and welcoming feel. We arrive right as the tourist season was ending so we missed out on some of the attractions, but at first glance it looked to be perfect.

The town itself is gorgeous and the investments made to restore it and keep it beautiful have certainly paid off. It is a real pleasure to walk around the town and marvel at the street layout, the old buildings and the epic medieval wall that almost completely surrounds the town. Personal opinion: there should be no cars allowed in Visby, though I'm sure the residents would disagree.

We stayed on the second floor (which for Americans is the third floor as everyone else in the world correctly starts counting at zero) of a small shop in a newly renovated, nicely decorated and quite functional three-bedroom apartment. The apartment was within a one-minute walk of a convenience store and about ten restaurants. And, unfortunately, within earshot of two kebab joints. At least one of these kebab joints was open until 4am every night of the week. As most restaurants became lively around 11pm and calmed down by 1am, the patrons of this joint showed up in force around 1am and didn't leave until 4 and they were fucking obnoxiously loud. I won't say that it ruined my Visby experience, but it was very hard to enjoy it given my general lack of sleep. I really needed to recover after the disappointing Airbnb in Stockholm and this Airbnb was perfect for that except between the hours of 11pm and 4am.

I got some work done as I found about one square meter in the apartment where my laptop got a WiFi signal that was good. We cooked some home meals. We went to the beach; it was cold water, but that didn't stop the girls from enjoying themselves. We chilled. I really enjoyed much of what Visby had to offer, I just didn't get to enjoy the one thing that would have made me happiest: rest.

I make Visby sound pretty miserable, but that's really not the right story. It's a place I'll give another try, perhaps just Lisa and I. I was so relaxed during the day I didn't think about writing on the blog. We, as a family, are also still trying to get adjusted to ourselves in our new life as travelers. This has been a bit different but no more complicated than I expected. More to come on that.