 Hey Aljopa and welcome to my big Swedish adventure. I'm riding the length of Sweden from north to south. In the previous episode, I met a really cool Dutch guy, took cover from the rain in an old RV, ended up getting demolished by the rain later on and was taken in by a wonderful couple at the end of the day. And today my goal is not to get wet, but I doubt that's going to happen. I don't know what it is with sleeping on the ground. I think I'm allergic to sleeping bags, because my face always gets so puffy. But I am so thankful for this nice, dry, warm patio. Look at this super healthy Swedish breakfast. Yogurt, muesli, bread, cheese, and an egg. We've got Kalle's caviar in here. In here, this is called knäckebröd. Good morning, good morning. Have you slept well? Yes, we slept really well. That's good. Me too. But it was hard to sleep last night, because there was so much pressure on me. I was thinking about whether you were right. I know it seems crazy to put jelly on cheese. In the first day, I was an exchange student and Sweden and my brother was doing this and I was like, what? But it is so good. I love it. And this right here is called a dala häst. We are in the land of Dala, not right now, the county. And this is where the horse is from. And if you ever buy a Swedish souvenir, you're probably going to see one of these. And they're handmade and hand-painted. And this one is from 1967. And it is a big one. This is how big the dala häst is. They are usually not this big. But it's a nice hefty solid wood dala häst. And before I leave, I'm going to look at the weather. Oh, maybe I shouldn't look at the weather. Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain. Thank you, warm, cozy patio. Oh, it's always hard to leave a comfy situation knowing you're going out into the cold. But I got to get to Malmö. Thank you. Now I have friends in the dala. And we'll see each other again. You have to greet me in Colorado sometime. That's going to be nice. Yes, it's going to be really nice. Have a good summer. It's not really a summer day today. But that's life. I hope you get a sun. Let me get some rain at least. Bye, bye. Have a good day, have a good Sunday. Okay. My heart is full after an encounter like that. I was getting desperate yesterday evening and just saw him picking up his mail. And I was like, hey man, need a little help here. And before I knew it, I was in their house. We were up pretty late just chatting. Kind hearted people like that make the world go round. And they're everywhere. They're in Sweden, United States, Mexico. I've met them everywhere. And it always just makes me happy. Fills my heart with warmth knowing that there's people out there who just want to help, you know. So no matter what happens today, no matter how wet I get or cold I get, I'm just feeling charged up, you know. That was a good night for the soul. And as always, no crashies, flaties, or whanies. And just like yesterday morning, I am very thankful that I'm not starting out the day in the rain. I like to work up to these things, you know. Start off warm and comfortable. Even though it's not that warm, that's why I'm wearing my jacket. I don't know, but Dalana, where I am right now, this state or county, whatever they call it, they might win for the cutest little red houses in all of Sweden so far. And here's the ski resort, Rume Alpin. If you ever want to come this way for a winter ski vacation. There it is. So I want to talk a little bit about trail magic. Last night was definitely amazing trail magic. Sometimes it just happens. You don't have to put any effort into it. And people are there just waiting to receive you. And then sometimes you do have to put effort into it. Last night I knew that I was going to have to be a little bit bold and just ask people for help. And that's what I did. And when you ask humans for help, 9.9 times out of 10, they're going to find a way to help you. And Lasse stood there when I was talking to him. He's like, you need a roof? We can just sleep on our patio. We got you. And it led to a wonderful encounter. Sometimes on these adventures, you just have to put yourself out there in more ways than one. Physically and mentally. But you also have to have the courage to talk to people and ask them because it goes a long way. And most times they are more than happy to help. It makes them feel good. They're going to be talking about this random encounter all day. They're going to call their kids and tell them that they hosted some crazy American. And we're going to be connected now for a long, long time. I've got their email. I've got the phone number. I know where they live. I hope I see them someday down the road. I'm still in contact with a lot of the people that I've met on my adventures because they mean a lot to me. Even though the encounters are usually very short, they're meaningful. It is time for lunch. I got a little cheese sandwich. A blueberry muffin. A couple of bananas. Of course, my favorite barbells, protein bar. And chocolate balls. I'm not going to eat all of this, but I'm pretty excited. Skull. Alright. Here we go. Off. Into the darkness. Clouds are getting darker. No doubt. Well, I didn't beat the rain. But at least I got a blueberry muffin and a chocolate ball. You know, the worst part about today is that my solar-powered Garmin is not going to gain any power today. Nope! I want to see the sun in the sky. Look at the cows. Hi cows. I always wonder if cows and horses hate rain and snow. They're like, oh, this sucks. We just have to stand out in here all day and deal with this. They don't have fancy rain jackets. It's like us humans. But I guess they're animals, but nope, we're a bunch of wimps, us humans. We need fancy jackets. Where's your rain jacket? You know what I saw crawling across the road? This little toad. I'm going to save him. I've seen a lot of these guys smushed on the roads. And I don't want you to get hurt. Okay, I'm going to move you across. I'm going to move you. Oh, what a cute little toad. Yeah, buddy. You need to go to the forest to get a good road pancake like all your buddies. Okay. You stay away from the road, okay? That way is bad. This way is good, okay? Okay. Have a good day, buddy. All right. I've done my good deed for the day. I've saved a toad, a Swedish toad. Just eating a snack in the rain. Can't beat him. Join him. And by that I mean just embrace the wetness. It's 50 miles. It's 1pm. And I don't really know how far I'm going to go today. You know, there might be a shelter out here. But then again, I don't know if I want to just sit in my tent all afternoon. Again, I might as well just keep riding and stay warm. I don't know. When the opportunity presents itself, I will make a decision. Stop raining almost. I mean, it's raining, but not as much. And I just want to let my bike take a little break. I'm going to go for a walk. Shake out my legs. Yep. Oh, man. There's my bike. Just taking a little bike nap. We've done a great job, buddy. Just a few hundred more miles. This is a nice moment. You know, and one of the good things about a rainy day is, it just feels so quiet. There's like not a whole lot of sounds. All the animals are taking cover. Not as many people are on the roads. I mean, you just look out into the woods and there's it's just silence. It's tranquility. It's so fun to hear the birds sing. You never hear a bird complaining. All their songs are beautiful, right? They're not complaining about the rain. It's official. This is a magical forest. I bet there's trolls that live out here. Trolls and ferries. Yeah. Oh, what a gift to be here right here, right now. Let's get back on our bike. There you are. How you doing, bud? Look at that lovely road we get to ride on. Sweet. This ten-mile stretch of road might be my favorite road on the entire trip. It's just beautiful and quiet and it's not too rainy. Oh, God! What happened? It started raining like crazy. It was so nice five minutes ago. Oh, boy! This is the hardest rain of the day and as you can see, I have a roof over my head and not just any roof. Check this out. I just scored myself a cabin. Look how cozy this place is. And I can sit here and watch the rain happening. And again, I just stopped and asked somebody for help. I hate, are there any little stuga for rent around here? And this lady's like, yeah, go talk to Mimi. So I went and talked to Mimi. Here I am. Boom, 500 crowns, 50 bucks. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited. I mean, it's been kind of fun to ride around in the rain today. But now I'm cold and super wet. So it is time to be done. Yup. A little dirty out there. But I am so thankful to be out of that now. I mean, I can deal with a little bit of this rain but this is getting to the point where I was just soaked all the way through my rain jacket where it has, it's done its thing and it's like, okay, I can't block any more rain. It's coming in. So I'm a little wet and a little chilly and this was perfect time to be done. Done, done, done. I just took a hot shower. I probably stood in there longer than I should have but man, it felt good. And the sweet lady who rents out this cabin just brought me a plate of pasta. Yum. Sometimes things just work out. I needed a cabin when I needed it and it presented itself. I just asked somebody, they pulled me this way. Boom. And I'm so thankful. I'm so happy to be here because I don't want to be out there anymore. And for desserts another chocolate ball when I buy these things I don't just buy one, I buy multiple. So the clothes I was wearing are soaking wet but have no fear. You see, in Swedish bathrooms they have heated towel racks. You just turn it on and you can heat up your clothes a lot faster. It's not meant for clothes it's meant for towels but today we're warming up my dirty wet clothes. I just found their guest book and of course I had to leave a little entry. It says it was raining all day and I found my way here when I was wet and cold. I'm riding all of Sweden right now and I love it. I was an exchange student in 97, 98 in Malmö and I'm riding from Kiruna to my other home in Svedala. Thanks for saving me from the rain. I love reading guest books. I love reading everybody's posts. Everybody talks about how tranquil it is and how they saw beavers and moose out there. There's moose out there. They're probably hiding from the rain too. Well the rain stopped and I'm just sitting here enjoying listening to these seagulls have the time of their lives. Oh, so peaceful. What a spot. I really scored. This is a little piece of heaven on Earth. Even the hard days are good days and today was not so physically hard but the rain just makes everything more difficult and more uncomfortable and I knew that going into the day. Waking up, looking at the weather just like oh gosh here we go again but you know you just jump on your bike and you go and you see what happens and because of the rain I got the roads to myself and I saw some magic out there. I caught a toad rode some beautiful gravel So as cold and as wet as I got towards the end of the day it all worked out and again I'm just grateful to be here and I'm seeing a part of Sweden that I've never experienced. Where I lived was flat as a board and it didn't look like anything here and every day I meet kind people and they help me out and it just fills my heart. For so long Malmo has seemed impossibly far when I was way up north in Kiruna but I've made a good distance. I'm about in line with Stockholm and I can do it I know I can do it but I still have those nerves I ride my bike to chill out and slow down and enjoy the world and that's what I'm doing but I'm also feeling a little rushed because of the weather because it's rainy I wake up I'm like okay gotta go gotta go gotta go gotta beat the weather but you can't beat it that's just how it works you can't beat weather you just have to deal and make changes if need be and here I am I didn't know I was gonna be sitting here today and this is a pretty awesome place I didn't go as far as I had hoped but I'm happy now and I will get there I will get there just like at the end of every day I get to where I need to be I will get to Malmo and hug my family and I can't wait and until I get there I'm gonna enjoy every day when I get soaking wet and now that it's not raining anymore I can show you the outside of my cute little stuga my cottage isn't that nice hello there and thank you for making it to the very end of this video you get a high five I am here to say hey thank you for watching my videos but also if my videos bring value to your life if you love them if you love your heart and soul or even just a little bit of your heart and soul please consider joining my Patreon you will help keep this channel alive but you will also get stuff you will get early release videos with no ads which is very cool and I sometimes do zoom calls with my patrons you will have direct access to me through Patreon to ask me any question you want and like I said also hey I wrote a book it's called the long way home it's about my very first adventure from Honduras to Colorado and it talks a lot about how it inspired me to live an interesting life to say the least my mom loves it so maybe you'll love it too I will link all this down below but more than anything thank you so much for watching my videos you are awesome now it's time for you to get off that couch and get out there