I do love this perspective of Stockholm - Even thou I live here on the South side Södermalm... keep it up friends - and thank you all for this reminder of our Stockholm and some of its lovely places
Hi there! So nice to hear from you living in Stockholm! We did get to walk through Stockholm briefly on our 4th day of this trip, and it was so beautiful!!! We climbed up a slight hill to a public park with surround views of the city, that was stunning. And it was snowing just a little bit!! I think that will be in the vlog that comes out tomorrow if you’re interested. We chose to do all walking on this trip, which limited the range of how far we could go, but we were able to see so much by doing it that way. What a beautiful city you live in! Thank you so much for watching & commenting 🩵💛🩵
Thanks for a great video about Stockholm, nice to see a more architecture-oriented take on our "Venice of the North"! Regarding the lions they are fairly common both in heraldry (2 lions are on the Swedish Greater Coat of Arms) The concrete ones are as pointed out in the comments, a later addition. They work as road blocks on some strategic streets in the city. On a lighter note: in Kungsträdgården park there is a statue of King Charles the 12th, and nearby on Skeppsbron a statue of King Gustavus the 3rd. They are colloquially referred to as "A lion between 4 pots" (Charles) and "a pot between 4 lions" (Gustavus) because Charles is considered more of a warrior king (the 'pots' are in fact 4 mortars), and Gustavus a somewhat week king. ;)
Good morning, Bleckman, I've really enjoyed reading this comment you've left me! I was in Stockholm in November last year, when I saw these concrete lions, and at the time I didn't realize they symbolized anything more than just art decoration. I've since learned from some Swedes in the comments section the story behind the lion statues and how they protect the city and innocent people. What a beautiful backstory! I hate that I missed those statues of King Charles XII and King Gustavus III in Kungsträdgården park. We were there in the park on I believe our second day, but we of course didn't manage to see everything there is to see. I tried to film as many statues as I could and look up their significance later. I do regret not seeing more statues of your historical figures and kings though. I will for sure be visiting Kungsträdgården if I ever make it back to Stockholm again, that was one of my favorite areas in the city! Thank you so much for your comment and for watching the video. I'm so glad you enjoyed it! :)
I'm sure you know this but since you mentioned "Pippi Longstocking". There is an amusement park called "Astrid Lindgrens Värld" or "The world of Astrid Lindgren". Astrid Lindgren is the person who wrote Pippi Longstocking.
Hi there, @Touchpad! Yes, I absolutely loved the Pippi Longstocking books and the American movie when I was a child, and visiting Sweden was always a bucketlist trip for me! I really really wish we had had time to visit the Astrid Lindgren garden & museum, but we were just too pushed for time between my friends' hockey games and the museums we wanted to visit together. I hope to come back to Sweden soon, as Michael hasn't been yet and there is soooo much more I want to see! I'm sure we'll try to see Astrid Lindgren Värld then! We did have an awesome time on our trip and went to as many museums as we possibly could. I enjoyed Skansen the most I think, but the VASA and Viking museums were pretty amazing also!! I hope you enjoyed the video, thank you so much for commenting 💙💛💙💛💙💛💙
@@michaelandjulie I really enjoyed the video. I'm born in the southern parts of Sweden but live in Stockholm now days and seeing this country though the eyes of someone who's not use to it is always great fun! Glad you enjoyed your stay =)
oh that's so awesome to hear that a native Swede enjoyed this video so much! What a nice compliment! I was so surprised how many Swedish people found this video and the others I made from our Stockholm trip, but it's been so humbling all the nice words you all have had for me. Thank you so much for watching and boosting my confidence, I appreciate you!! :)
Hey Mustang! Julie here. I’m soooo way far behind in comments! I’m so sorry about that. I had completely out of the blue unexpected major oral surgery on Wednesday last week and just haven’t felt up to checking in & responding. But I’ve thought about you and thought I better hop on here and let you know we’re still doing great so you don’t worry! I’ll be back soon I promise. Thank you so much for commenting. I loved the architecture in Sweden. The little red houses with white trim are my favorite though, so classic! Stockholm was such a clean & beautiful city! Wide clean sidewalks everywhere, one of the most walkable cities I’ve ever been to! 🩵💛🩵💛🩵
@@michaelandjulie Oh so sorry to hear about your unexpected issues last week. I hope you’re feeling better Julie! Thank you so much for letting “us” and me know. Was happy to see you were still posting your vlogs, even though Michael and Abra aren’t in the last couple, still fun to see your smiling face. My degree is in Architecture, so I’m always drawn to unique buildings, and seeing the different styles that exist out there. Looking forward to seeing more of your trip! Hope you’re feeling better everyday! 😊
Hi there! I'm officially turned the corner of: I'm not in pain anymore and now this is just a freaking nuisance. I'm not allowed to swim until the stitches come out, which is driving me bonkers! I have to admit, I don't usually notice the exterior architecture of most building when I see them.. maybe I'm desensitized? Or just plain unobservant. However, most times when we visit a museum or old hotel, restaurant, etc, I am way more fascinated by the building we are inside of, than whatever we are actually there to see. I think of the huge library in downtown NYC. It's really just a library, and I don't even think you can check out books. They have some cool displays. But the whole freaking building (inside, anyway) is built out of marble!! It's absolutely gorgeous!! I almost fell down the stairwell because I couldn't stop gaping at how beautiful the foyer ceiling was haha. I noticed this a lot in Stockholm too. We ate dinner at a tiny restaurant on our first night, and I couldn't take my eyes off how old the building was. Even the doors were made for significantly shorter people. It's just amazing to think of the history that takes place in a single room or building!
Trust me I understand that feeling of being amazed at what you’re seeing when you’re walking through or around the buildings. I’ve felt that way around some of the buildings in Washington DC, used to go there a lot when I lived in Virginia. The history still amazes me. Been a long while since I’ve been able to do that, one of the reasons I enjoy watching videos of other people’s travels. 😊 Not much of a world traveler also, left the US once on a trip to Canada years ago. And while I know there are exciting and interesting sites to see all over the world, just never felt the desire to go to any. Maybe someday.
Believe it or not, I’ve never been to Washington DC! It wasn’t required in school, and I’ve never made it there as an adult. I think that I’d love to go visit, but literally the entire rest of the whole globe is more interesting to me than anything in the US 😂. I wish I could be a bird, and just fly around the world and see everything!
2:57 The house on the left is Riksbanken, Sweden's central bank which is the oldest central bank in the world founded in 1668. The building is more recent though, the original central Bank building is located at Järntorget in Gamla stan. Sweden also issued the world's first proper bank note (although paper with a certain value printed on it has been used elsewhere long before that). One funny thing about Sweden's economic history is that Sweden had rich deposits of copper so in 1644 Sweden started to mint copper coins where their value was set in their copper weight. Since copper is much less valuable than silver or gold the largest copper coin ever minted (and the heaviest metal coin in the world) weighed over 40 lbs (19,7 kg). These kinds of copper coins were minted until 1776... spooky COINcidence. =)
Hi Ahldor! Thank you for educating me, that is really interesting information! I did not know there was an original bank still in Gamla Stan, I wish I had seen that. I can't even imagine a 40 pound copper coin, how is a person supposed to haul that to the market haha. Are there still any left on display anywhere?
@@michaelandjulie Ekonomiska Museet (The Economic Museeum) in Stockholm I think has it on display. They are rebuilding their exhibations now but earlier you could get to try to lift a 19,7 kg (~43 lbs) copper coin (but not the original one, because it holds quite some numismatic value). Of course there were also lower denominations of the copper coins, the lowest denomination of 1/2 Daler (pronounced just like dollar) I think weighs roughly 1 lbs. So keeping change of a couple of Daler would surely weigh your purse down. And you'd probably need a bigger purse =)
Hi Ahldor! I do remember seeing the Ekonomiska Museet in Stockholm and thought that would be fun. We just didn't have enough time to do everything. It's amazing how many museums you have in town!!! Wow! That would have been so neat so see, maybe we can catch it on our trip back. Wow, even a few of those daler would have been difficult to carry around. No wonder we went to paper & digital money haha. Thank you for sharing! There is just so much to see in Stockholm, I feel like I could live there for a year and now see it all!
Hi! I found your channel just last week and liked your testing of swedish candy (even though some of it wasn't really swedish and some of it you didn't really like), and now this video turned up and you actually visited, wow! Really nice to see! You seem to pick up on some details/stuff that most don't in a first visit/video, really interesting and good that you went beyond the sort of tourist traps. Love that you wanted to visit since you read Pippi Longstocking (Långstrump) as a child! Astrid Lindgren is a beloved treasure of ours, in all of the world I guess (she lived at the same address in Sthlm for like 60 years, it's now a museum, she was born in Småland though). ❤ Look forward to seeing more of your stay here, really hope that you felt at home and had a good time! Hope you come back for a summer visit someday too! 🌞All the best from Stockholm, Sweden
Hi there, Guinevere! Julie here. I think in hindsight that Swedish candy was a bust, as I've heard from several Swedish people now that my selections weren't the best haha. I went to quite a few places to buy candy to bring home to Michael, including an actual candy store, a bookstore, and a gas station, and I bought whatever the cashier recommended to me as his/her favorites. I wasn't even aware until I got home how much of it wasn't even truly Swedish! I'm so glad you watched the Sweden vlogs though. It was such an awesome trip. I was there last November for 4 or 5 days with 2 friends of mine. They went to the hockey games. I was so jealous, they saw Prince Daniel on the Megatron! We all had so much fun and got to see so many amazing things. It was truly a trip of a lifetime. Unfortunately we didn't have time to make it over to the Astrid Lindgren museum, which was on our wish list. What's funny is, I love the Pippi books growing up and also a made for TV movie that my grandma recorded on VHS for me. I had quite a few favorite books about red-headed tomboys.. Anne of Green Gables, Caddie Woodlawn, Pippi... I only found out recently that the Pippi movie I loved so much was actually filmed right here in Florida only a few hours away from where I live now!! We had a fantastic time in Stockholm. All of us wished the trip could have been longer, because there is just so much to see and do. Michael couldn't come along on this trip unfortunately, so I'm really excited to go to Sweden again and show him. Stockholm is hands down one of the cleanest and most pedestrian-friendly cities I've ever been in. I really loved how easy it is to walk everywhere. I'm hoping to see Gothenburg, Uppsala, and maybe even the Swedish mountains up north if I'm fortunate enough some summer. And of course Midsommer! That looks like such a fun time! :)
@@michaelandjulie Hi Julie! I mean, yes some of it wasn't Swedish and then again some people recommended their favourites, that can be hit or miss, maybe all Swedish candy just isn't for you. In Sweden lots of us love salty licorice, that's not too popular outside of the Nordic countries and the Netherlands from what I understand, we have different palettes and are accustomed to certain tastes and textures. With that being said I do think you could find more candy you would like, we do have quite a lot of different sweet treats. You sure gave it a nice and pretty brave try going on what random people liked! I am also a Anne of Green Gables fan, and I don't know if you know, but Astrid Lindgren was too, she was inspired by the books about Anne when she wrote about Pippi! It all connects somehow. ☺If you like Astrid and have a childs heart still (I do even as an adult) you might enjoy Junibacken also (on Djurgården, right next to the Vasa museum), they have a story train ride that you can take through Astrids most popular fairytales in the "museum". In Småland (where she is from) there is Astrid Lindgrens värld (world), where they have built the houses in a smaller scale from her stories, more for kids but it is also close to her childhood home and some sights where they filmed some of the movies. I understand that your connections is more through the books of Pippi though and that the Pippi-film you've grown up with is an American version. I had no idea there even was one, that's amazing! So cool that it was filmed not far away from where you live! I have to look this film up now. 😀Amazing really that our beloved Astrids stories has travelled so far and are loved around the world and even being filmed in different versions in other languages. I am so happy to have had all of Astrids stories growing up, and having heritage from her part of Småland as well, so she and her stories are very close to my heart. Oh, you really have to visit again, if you can for a little longer, and bring Michael along! Midsommar/Midsummer is magic! (Recommend being somewhere more rural, Dalarna or something like that). Wish you all the best, will keep enjoying the vlogs of your visit and hope you can reurn for more! The Stockholm archipelago and landscapes like Dalarna, Värmland, Hälsingland and all the culture and natural beauty are some highlights I can recommend as well. And maybe some castles or maybe Birka and other Viking-related places?! I hope you will find old and new favourites and have a wonderful time - again! 🌼🙋♀
Hej Hej Guinevere! Oh wow, no, salted licorice sounds impressively not good... I would absolutely try it because I'll give anything a chance once, but I already feel like that's not for me hahaha. Americans have such an overly sweet candy palette, which is also not really for me. I do love a good chocolate or any candy that's not over the top sweet. Frankly I could just eat Swedish cinnamon buns anytime I'm craving candy and be happy as a bug in a rug! There's something so magical about how dense-but-not-heavy, and creamy-but-not-overly-sugary your cinnamon buns are. I don't know how you do it. Never had a cinnamon roll or bun that tasted anything like the Swedish ones! No way! I had no idea Astrid Lindgren was inspired by the Anne of Green Gables books! Prince Edward Island is on my bucket list to visit some day just like Sweden was (and seeing the rest of Sweden still is on the bucket list!). Shoot I hate that I missed Junibacken. Add that to the list for the next time! I knew going into this trip that Stockholm had many many museums, but I wasn't prepared for just how many you have! There was just no way to do it all. I feel like Stockholm is similar to New York City in that you could really never run out of things to see and do. I've never seen any other movie of Pippi besides ironically the Florida one! I did love the books from the library more though. Don't worry, we will be back! Michael & I have dreams of eventually becoming digital nomads and traveling full time. There's a number of things in our life that have to be settled first so it won't be anytime soon. But we regularly talk about all the countries we would love to take a brief trip to see versus take an extended time to travel through. Sweden is tops on my life of a place I would love to come spend a few weeks in, traveling from one end to the other, and seeing it all. I think there's always been a part of me that feels like it's my 2nd home, even though I had never even been there before last November. Like I said before, I've been a royal watcher for over a decade and really admire the Swedish royal family. I met some really cool people from Umea at dinner one night, and they've told me how cool their town is and how easy the commute on the train to Stockholm and back is. I'd like to visit there also!
@@michaelandjulie Hi Julie! I've never written so long comments on YT in my life, it's so much fun to chat with you! Hehe, yeah we are kinda special that way it seems. We must have eaten so much salted food generations back that it stuck, I can't explain it. But it never fails that others spit it out like their tongue is on fire. 😂 It seems that some that move here can get used to it, but that's the limit. We have different levels of salty or sour candy though, so one can chose which level to stop at. But we have lots of other stuff too, that just seems to be what everyone wants to see people try on YT for most effect. ;) We do like sweet too, but not american level I guess. You beat us there! I'll have to watch your video again to see if I can recommend something you havn't tried. But if you prefer cinnamon buns you might like a lot of other baked goods here as well, that are not overly sweet either. It would be so much fun to see you try more food, treats and sweets now that I know you (a little). Hopefully maybe on your next visit if not trying IKEA's assortment or something. But that wouldn't be as good as homemade or from a bakery. You liked Kex-choklad (sort of wafer chocolate) from Cloetta if I remember correctly and I love that. Marabou is our other big chocolate brand, although it has been merged and changed so it's not as good as it once was. You tried one of their bars I think but wasn't loving it (I have to rewatch). There is lot's of stuff but I don't really go around thinking - is this Swedish or Finnish candy/cookies? We have a lot of shared brands that sell in all our countries (more or less). We get some American brands too, but I am not too fond of the overly sweet either, I've tried pop tarts for example and that kind of sweet is a bit much for me. I guess we like it more when it tastes like real berries, not so much arrifical stuff in it (not that we don't have stuff like that too). Now I just want to open up a Swedish cookbook and bake you all our classics and see how you like them. Can't take any credit for the development of baked goods here, but we have some nice ones, I can't complain. I love Punschrullar, that is kind of special for Sweden as well, maybe too weird for Americans. Some Americans I have seen have not known what marzipan or punsch/arrack is. Maybe we are a bit weird at times, hopefully in a good/interesting way. ;) Glad I got to tell you then about Anne. Yes, Astrid read the books, they were pretty new when she was a child (it took a year or so to translate to Swedish), they inspired her in some ways with that orphaned red headed girl that was strong and made an impact on everyone. Loving Anne as I do and Astrid, the fact that she loved Anne too makes me so happy. I also dream of going to PEI, now if you go there maybe I can follow your stay here! It's so funny and lovely that you feel Sweden is like a 2nd home to you, I have felt PEI being mine and when I saw you I just felt an immediate kinship (you also remind me of a friend, who actually lived in the US for a while), and you seem so Swedish! If you had started talking Swedish I wouldn't have been surprised at all, but you kind of fit right in here, I'm sure you do in the US too, but that was my gut feeling. And then you post these vlogs of your visit here, in my town, you love Anne and Pippi and dreamed of visiting the land of Astrid and seemed to just feel at home here as soon as you landed. What is this?! Very lovely anyhow! You'll be back, you'll get to visit Junibacken, Astrids home, the woods, the lakes, the museums (yes, we have a lot, I havn't been to them all, of course we are not a huge city, but there is always lots you can do and look at, it's pretty compact). I hope you can go and see all you want, here and wherever you want. I think you will like the rest of Sweden too, and even more places in and around Sthlm. You "have to" visit the archipelago, maybe boat hop? You seem to be fine with the outdoors, there is lots of outdoor life (friluftsliv) to be had here. We have the right ro roam (allemansrätten) so nature and the landscape is all ours/yours! Now I have managed to write another long, long letter in a YT-comment section.... To much fun! All the best! 🍀 🌼🍀
Hi Guinevere! Yes I love these long back and forth conversations we have on RU-vid! Part of the reason Michael & I started our channel in the first place was because we had moved to a brand new state and did not know anyone or have any friends here. We felt like RU-vid would be a way we could document some of our adventures to share with friends & family back home, and also potentially meet new people who enjoy the same things we do. So far, it's the highlight of my day getting to read comments on our videos, most especially the long ones like yours that are so well thought out and informative. I've learned so much from people on here who care to educate me and it feels like making friends from around the world! I totally hope that I run into you or Mustang one day and we will feel like we know each other! :) I didn't think to try Ikea's candy, mainly because we do have Ikea here in the States. (Although in hindsight, we've never tried candy from Ikea before, so I should have!). I uploaded this video originally back in December as part of our Vlogmas series. I had just gotten home from Sweden, and as you know, I had asked around quite a few places to get candy recommendations to bring home to Michael. I think I'm going to upload this video again on Monday since the Sweden travel vlogs are just now coming out. There's been a few more people who found this channel and watched the Sweden vlogs, and they might enjoy this candy video, and never even see the one I posted back in December. If you see it come out again, don't worry, it's not a new video! I just wanted to make sure if people like Swedish content, they see the video if they might be interested. So many people have recommended other Swedish candies since this video came out, now I feel like I need a do-over! I promise, next time we go to Sweden, we will poll the audience before we leave and make a check list of candy to buy!! I had never heard of Marzipan before LOL, you are right, it's either not a thing over here or at least I'd never heard of it. If you'd asked me what Marzipan was, I would have assumed it was one of the ballet roles in the Nutcracker haha. Can definitely say it's not for me. Punsch? Arrack? I'm lost on those ones too haha! I am absolutely 1,000% more of a baked goods person over candy any day! Michael is the opposite, he has always had a sweet tooth. But just thinking about those Swedish cinnamon rolls makes my mouth water. I'll never eat another American cinnamon roll again. I've found where cinnamon buns belong, Sweden owns it! I would absolutely love to try more of the Swedish baked classics!!! I did mention in another comment, there was a time about 8 years ago when I was trying to learn to speak Swedish just to challenge myself to do something new. The language is so beautiful (I'm sure I butcher it, I really do try though), and grammatically it is not as complicated as some other languages I've tried to learn and abandoned. I started with the prepositions and then started learning verbs and how to conjugate to go with each one. That was pretty simple. The vocabulary mostly makes sense too. But I got stuck when I realized I didn't have anyone to practice with and therefore didn't really know how to make full sentences or respond to questions. Eventually I've probably forgotten it all at this point, which is such a shame. All the Scandinavian languages sound so pretty to me. I love that you have the word "frilruftsliv." I looked up how to pronounce it because I'm adopting this word into my vocabulary too. I hope that is okay! Also "allemansratten" (I'm sorry, I don't know how to do the accents on my MacBook, I will try to figure out if that is possible). Those are such beautiful words and I feel like they speak to me. Yes I do absolutely love the outdoors and any type of nature adventure. I would love nothing more than to just rent a car and drive through Sweden and breathe in the nature smells and hike anywhere I want to go. I truly do love nature and always strive to leave a place I visit better than if was when I arrived, if that is possible.
Hi there, Sweden! All the music in all my Sweden vlogs came from a free site to download music called Pixabay.com. The particular piece at the beginning of this video is called "Dance of Nordic Leaves" by Gioele Fazzeri. If you can't find it on Pixabay, type in "Vikings" in the search bar, and it's on the first page of results. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, thank you so much for watching! :)
All the Lion "Statues" you saw blocking many streets are called "Lejonsuggor" and they came up after the the Uzbekistani "Refugee" terrorattack at Drottninggatan (In Stockholm) killing 5 Swedes showing his gratitude against the Swedish people for Welcoming him. "Fler lejon ska göra Stockholm säkrare" IT IS ALWAYS A BAD IDEA TO LET REFUGEES/"REFUGEES" IN.
Hi there, Benedict! I did not know these lions represented anything specific, and I really appreciate the comment that you left for me to read. I googled the terrorist attack after I read your comment and have now educated myself a little more. What an awfully tragic thing to happen in your beautiful city! It hurt my heart to learn about what happened just a few years ago. The pictures in the articles of the statue lions covered in flowers are so poignant. I had no idea that these lions served such a special purpose and am so glad that I know now. What an awful thing to happen, and I hope your city never has to experience anything like that again. Thank you so much for educating me, I appreciate that you took the time to watch the video and tell me about these statues.