 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 flew across the Atlantic, landed in Kiruna above the Arctic Circle, put together my bike and took off to connect with the European Divide Trail. I slept hard and I'm seeing that it's a little breezy outside and which is good for removing mosquitoes. It is time for a Swedish breakfast cookie. Just kidding, I made that up. I'm just getting you to cookie for breakfast. You know, sometimes when you sleep so hard, it takes you a while to orient yourself. Like, where am I? What's going on? Why is my face so puffy? Whoa, I did not think I was gonna be able to walk outside of this tent without getting demolished by migor mosquitoes. It's a little cooler, maybe that's helping and it's definitely breezy. Thank you, soft piece of flat land and thank you mosquitoes not really being here in the morning. Okay, all dressed up ready to go. Let's hit the road. Man, I sure am grateful that I was able to sleep last night. It took about an hour and a half to finally fall asleep, but I think I got, you know, six and a half hours. It's pretty solid. Way more than I've been getting the last few nights. Looks like it might rain today, which will bring its own set of challenges. But here we go. No crashes, no flaties, no whammies, and no mosquitoes. Although I don't think I'll ever have a day without mosquitoes. So today is Friday, Claude Midsommar to la Domina Svenska Compissar. Today is Midsommar's eve and it's the day when everybody goes outside and dances around the May Pole and sings the smogru du na smogru du na song and it's just their celebration of summertime, you know, Swedes, especially way up here in the north, deal with a lot of darkness throughout the year. So summertime is a big deal and they go out in full force. They eat and drink and stay up late and dance and it's a great holiday. It's one of my favorite over here in Sweden, although today's weather does not look great for hanging out outside. We will find out, but a swede would tell you that that's just typical Midsommar weather. They're so cool. Looks like this one is probably carrying a lot of that iron ore that gets mined from up here. All right, now I'm on some dirt. European divides should have quite a bit of dirt, right? I brought my mountain bike after all. Being in this type of weather really reminds me of my time as an exchange student. We don't get days like this very often, if ever in Colorado and so I remember when I was an exchange student thinking, wow, this is mystical, magical, gray, and drizzly. And I remember my summer. I was so looking forward to summer after a long winter here. Going to the beach, having fun, doing outside things, staying up all night, parties and it was like this almost every day. There weren't many beach days that summer of 1998. You know, I'm looking around at the woods here and I'm thinking to myself, this is what pretty much the entire ride is going to look like. Woods. I'm stuck deep in the woods, just me and the mosquitoes. I'm riding and chomping and I'm eating this apple that I got yesterday and the sticker on it said it was from South Africa. We don't get South African apples in Colorado, maybe not in all of the United States, but it's really good. And as I'm riding here, I'm having my deep thoughts thinking, wow, it's just crazy how the world works. That I can be eating a South African apple way up here in the northern parts of Sweden. It just, how'd this get here? You know, it's just amazing how we have all these transport systems and cargo ships and we can have all sorts of amazing food from around the world, pretty much in every corner of the world. And I'm very grateful for modern technology that has brought me this apple. Okay, I'm going to stop talking because the mosquitoes found me. There's something in the middle of the road up here. I don't think it's a moose. That would be bad. Oh, it looks like a reindeer right in the middle of the road. Oh, there he goes. Hey, buddy. It's really cool seeing reindeers. You know, as a kid, I grew up loving Christmas. I still do. I love Christmas a lot. I'm kind of like elf and anything about Christmas makes me happy. And when I think of reindeers, I think of that jolly time of year, you know, and I'm glad it wasn't a moose. Those guys can be dangerous. And there are bears up here, too. Hope I don't see one too close. I'd rather see one on my bike than at camp. So rainy days are hard for me. And I know that sounds funny, but growing up in Colorado, we have sun all the time. And I love sunny days. I just feel safer when it's sunny when I'm out on my own. I know that it's just going to be comfortable. I'm not going to get freezing cold and wet in a rainstorm. So days like this, they spook me a little bit because you don't really know what's going to happen out here. And I don't really want to get stuck in the middle of these woods, shivering and freezing cold. I have all the gear I need. I have a much heavier rain jacket than the one I'm wearing and warm clothes. But still, I like sunny days. Oh, I'm going over quite the bridge here. Whoa, look at that. Wow. Look at that down there. Whoo. I think we're at a power station, hydropower of some sort. And we're on some chunkier stuff. This feels good on my mountain bike. A little bumpy. Okay, this nice smooth road just got a little sloppy here. Oh boy. And the mosquitoes are already on my case. Slow going, I think. Holy moly. It's chunky. Here we go. Adventure time. Oh no, this is not looking good up here. Not only is it wet, and boggy, but this is mosquito heaven. Boy, I see a tire tracking here. Somebody else has pushed through this. Oh my God. Mosquitoes are all over me. Oh, can you see these mosquitoes? Oh my God. Oh boy, I'm going to put the camera away. Okay. I really hope this doesn't last too long. I almost can't open my mouth without mosquitoes getting inside my mouth. What is this? The mosquitoes are biting my head. I just slathered on a lot of mosquito repellent. They don't seem to care. Okay, we are back onto smoother terrain. And it's not so much that that part was like technically hard. It was just that I had to get off my bike and push, and then get swarmed on by the mosquitoes. They're like, oh cool. Hey everybody, Ryan's here. It's amazing how quickly they find blood. So here's my dilemma. I ran out of water about 30 minutes ago, and there's plenty of creeks everywhere. I could filter water, but you know what that means. That means I have to stop and get off my bike. And then the mosquitoes come out. And I just don't want to deal with that right now. There's a town not too far ahead, yuck mook. And I'm hoping I can find a hose to fill up with water. You know, the mosquitoes kind of take the fun out of everything. All of the snacks I've eaten, I've eaten while I'm riding my bike because I don't want to stop and hang out. It's not fun. It's actually miserable. So I'm moving as fast as I can. Which is unfortunate because I like bike touring for the fact that I can stop and hang out and lay in the flowers and look at the sky. And I don't know if there's going to be a lot of that on this adventure. So I'm riding along here. I think I'm in the middle of nowhere, and I see these little beautiful red houses. And I walk in and I ask for some vatten. And they're like, yes, of course you can have some vatten. So they just filled up my water. They are so nice. Ni är så jättesnälla. Tack för all ting. All right. I'm the first American on a bike over here. And he's from Finland. Ah, okay. Ah, just there. That's cool. They're actually from Finland. Okay. I know three words. One, two, three. And now 16 miles to Jaktmukk. And it feels like it's starting to rain. That was so funny. I just knocked on the door and she said, come in. And I walked in. She probably did not expect me. Probably thought it was one of her neighbors or something. But I love how open and welcoming they were. It's nice to interact with some humans, you know? And even that little three minute moment just makes me happy. Makes me feel safer. Makes me feel connected. That lovely Swedish drizzle is coming back. You can see the water on my helmet. I just hope it doesn't get any stronger. Right now it's okay. The trees are blocking a bit of the rain, which is nice. I'm riding next to this beautiful summer house. And then I just saw this decoration on the other side of the road. I love this. This is pretty cool. Someday I'm going to have old bike art like this welcoming people into my house. And this is interesting. Pretty much every Swedish bike has one of these on the front. You know what that is? It engages with the tire. You can hit a little lever and it rubs on the tire and creates power for the light. And I had never seen one of these until I was an exchange student. But a lot of the bikes have them. I'm next to a big dam here. And this is the first I've seen of native art in the area. Really cool looking. There's the reindeer. This is a nice little town. I dig it. Very cool. There's the Systembolaget. Interesting fact about this. This is the liquor store here in Sweden. And they're all state run. There are no private liquor stores. And they're all called Systembolaget. There's your fun fact about Sweden for the day. I just got an amazing plate of vegetarian food and I have a whole new Swedish family. So I was sitting here and then we started speaking Swedish. We had a nice talk. She gave me her phone number so I can come by and stay with them. And obviously there's not many people here. Most people are with their families celebrating mid-summer. It was nice that I met these people over here. But they're gone now. They had just finished their meals. But I feel good. I feel good and loved the woman here who owns the restaurant is like your shirt is wet. You need to take that off. You're going to get a cold. Put on a warm shirt. You can't keep riding your bike tonight. It's going to be rainy. I love. I love everywhere I go. I immediately pick up a new mom taking care of me. She's so sweet. I love people like that. I walked right in and she just wanted to take care of me. I love these small town restaurants. You know I didn't go to many restaurants when I lived in Sweden because I lived with the host family. So these experiences are kind of new. Well it's not raining anymore. I'm going to go to the grocery store now. And on the European divide in the Swedish section specifically the towns are about 100 miles apart. So whenever you hit a town you have to take advantage of the opportunity and fill up on food. Uh oh. Now we're getting some real rain. Makes me kind of think I should turn around and go get a hotel. I thought I was home free. Had it stopped for a while. It's raining. It's pouring. The old man is snoring. Sometimes you just got to sing yourself out of an uncomfortable situation. And it works sometimes for at least a few seconds. I'm singing in the rain. Just riding my bike in the rain at the top of the world. What have I gotten myself into? I could have had a warm hotel. But no I chose to keep going. Sometimes I just listen to my inner voice and it's like hey man just keep going. So here I am whatever happens happens. I'm definitely getting wet. There's no doubt about that but it's all right. Just a little rain. I'm crawling up a steep hill and the mosquitoes are all over me. Man this is not fun. I don't even care about the rain anymore. It's the mosquitoes. I need to downhill soon. Damn. This is why I like bikepacking adventures in the desert. There's no mosquitoes. Oh my god. Well this is kind of cool. I've climbed so high now I'm pretty much inside a cloud. Look at that. Talk about mystical, magical. If it weren't for the mosquitoes this would be pretty epic. Oh boy it is sloppy around here. What am I doing? Where am I going? Why am I doing this? Oh man. Certainly is beautiful right now. No doubt about that. I don't know why but there's no mosquitoes here. Oh man. I should have gotten a hotel. Now I'm going to be setting up everything in some mud puddle. Everything's going to get wet but all part of the adventure I guess. I'm riding over here and I see this sign. It doesn't look good. Danger of death. Even in English for us dumb Americans. You are here. Tire test in progress. Road closed. What the heck does that even mean? A tire test? This is definitely the root. Damn it. One more thing to worry about. All right we're making progress slowly. I've gone the wrong way a few times. My garment doesn't have the detail that my cell phone has and I always use my cell phone to double check the root because it's easier to see. But my fingers are too cold and wet to use my cell phone so I had to like hide under a tree and warm up my hands and then look at the cell phone and figure things out. Oh man. The things we do for fun and adventure right? I'll look back on this night and have fond memories for sure. But right now I'm like I don't know how this is going to end. I'm just going to keep moving because I'm warm moving. If I stop and get in my tent I'm going to be all wet and muddy. So I'm just going to ride for a bit. I get questions a lot about how I deal with uncomfortable stressful adventure moments like right now and I just keep a cool calm demeanor. Just kidding I freak out sometimes but I really do try to keep it cool and you always just make the next right decision. Don't freak out and just have a tantrum. Just make the next right decision and I'll lead to the next decision and the next one after that. And I've been through enough of these moments where I know everything's going to be okay. I just have to keep my head straight and I'm thankful that I got sleep last night so that my head actually works. Thank you brain. Okay new obstacle. This mud is so wet. It feels like my tires are flat. I'm just sinking in. Man. Today's had a little bit of everything. Oh god. Look there goes a train. Civilization is near. Oh boy. I think it's almost time to call it quits and find a spot. I have pretty much had it. Okay I finally found a pull off. All the mosquitoes have found me. And I think I'm just going to throw my tent right here. Yeah it's good enough. It's good enough. I was hoping for something better but I'm ready to be done. I don't mind the rain. Mosquito. Okay tent. I'm so covered in mosquitoes. I'm scared to go out of the tent in the morning. They're going to be waiting for me. Look how dirty my legs are. Oh my god. Yep a little bit dirty. It's a little messy in my room but it's the way it's got to be. Oh man. I don't even know what to do now. I'm so hungry. I'm tired. I'm just like. But I'm glad that I am dry. I am so glad that I am dry. I am going to treat myself to my favorite chocolate. I love this stuff. They're so good. If you ever come to Sweden get marabou. Madabou. It is so just smooth and tasty and yummy. But yeah here I am. Day two. I think I went like 87 miles and I was on my bike for 12 hours. I got on my bike at nine. I finished just before 9 p.m. and I don't stop much. I'm not hanging out because it's miserable to stop because the mosquitoes just get you real fast. I hope it's not like this tomorrow morning. No this is not what I wanted to deal with today. The crazy thing is you'd think there wouldn't be mosquitoes. It's so rainy but they're all over me every time I slow down. Hey I just wanted to jump in and say hi. Hi. 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This is going to be an awesome series and stay tuned for the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one. Hey y'all!