The Gastrogays blog focuses on food, travel and Eurovision, and the duo behind it are currently visiting Sweden for six weeks to explore the country, sample Swedish cuisine and follow Melodifestivalen, the song competition that decides the Swedish entry for Eurovision. They spent one of their six weeks visiting Gothenburg.

The pair behind Gastrogays, one of the biggest food and travel blogs in Ireland, are Russel James Alford and Patrick Hanlon. When we meet them in Gothenburg they already have a long list of restaurants they want to visit.

“The food we’ve eaten so far has been fantastic! It’s been local, seasonal food with a global character. When we travel, we focus on the food, but we also want to gather experiences and get to know the people and culture,” says Patrick.

Russel and Patrick say they try to find the unique aspect of every place they visit and it is important to them that what they do is authentic. Their reason for spending a full six weeks in Sweden is that they like the country and want to see what it has to offer outside Stockholm. Aside from that, they love Eurovision and realised this was a chance to follow Melodifestivalen. Before they arrived in Gothenburg they spent a week in Karlstad.

“Gothenburg is big compared with Karlstad, but it’s still small enough to get around easily. We’ve been in Gothenburg for two days so far and think it’s great fun here; there’s lots of excellent, good-value food and plenty of local beers, which we like! And the people here are ultra-friendly,” says Russel.