 Hey Aljupa and welcome to my big Swedish adventure. I'm riding the length of Sweden from north to south. In the previous episode I rode deeper into the Swedish countryside, saw some cool old American cars, rescued a Swedish flag from the side of the road, camped near a beautiful lake and I'm excited because I've done more than half of the adventure and I've got about 700 miles to go. Well, this is a lovely place to wake up. Wow. Sunshine. I dig it. Although I was looking last night on the weather app and it doesn't look good for the next few days. Rain, rain, rain. And on this lovely Friday morning I'm going to have some apricots, banana and some trail mix. Thank you beautiful lakeside camp spot. This one for some reason has a special place in my heart. I really like this one. And I've got the Swedish flag again. This is going to be my good luck charm all the way down to the bottom. Let's do this. Oh, leg over. The bike first thing in the morning is always tough. My butt's a little tender. My legs are a little sore. But I'm good. It's Friday. Yeah, let's do this. No crashes. No flaties. No whammies. This is a nice way to start the day. A big old downhill. So I'll be honest. The weather forecast with lots of rain is spooking me a bit. Last week traumatized me. And I don't really want to deal with that again. But I also realized that I can't do anything about it. So I'm just going to ride and see where I get. And if I need to find a hotel or something later on, I will. But for now, I'm just going to pedal and not worry about it. Because when I worry, it takes me out of the enjoyment of right now. And right now it's beautiful and sunny. So I'm not going to let my fears take over. It's hard sometimes. But I'm going to enjoy this right now. Because right now is awesome. Spring cows. Good morning. So I'm riding by this interesting looking church. And I'm like, I got to check this place out. Look at this cool building. I don't think I've ever seen something like this. Looks like it's completely made out of wood. I'm glad I stopped here. It's the first really interesting piece of architecture I've seen on this entire ride. And for my morning Ika run. And here are this morning's goodies from the Ika supermarket. Bananas, a protein shake. I got some of these little French cheese ball things. Of course, my favorite protein bar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And a tomato cheese sandwich. Skål allyupa. Uttfart. I am Uttfarting away from Delzbu, nice little town here. And moving on out. Knee update. It's feeling much better today, which is a good sign. That makes me happy. It's never fun to ride with a nagging injury. Because then you worry that it's going to get worse and worse. And get to the point where you just can't ride anymore. But I think I'm good. You know what I'm thinking about right now? I'm thinking about how grateful I am that I'm breathing in fresh, clean air. I was looking on the internet last night on my phone. And it looks like a lot of the United States, at least Chicago, New York, the Midwest is engulfed right now. And really yucky air from the Canadian wildfires. And we've definitely had this in Boulder as well. Throughout the years. And it's a bit of a new normal here in the summer. In the United States at least. And it's such a bummer. It just goes to show what's going on here with climate change. Growing up we never had to deal with bad air quality because of forest fire smoke ever. This is just in the last five years or so. And I know later this summer in Boulder when it's going to happen there's going to be some forest fire smoke that's going to shut everything down and then it's just unhealthy to go outside and run and bike. Which is such a shame because I love summertime in Boulder. Summertime anywhere. So I'm really grateful right now that I'm breathing in the fresh Swedish air. But even here it can happen. There's actually a fire ban in the entire country because it's been so dry. There's been some massive forest fires in Sweden as well. So it's coming for us all. I rode by this little red shack and I was like I have to check this out. And you know what it is? It's a little cute Swedish bus stop. And look it even has some flowers and a cute little boot. And look at this thing. So cozy. You can sit here safe from the rain and you have your own little shack. Even a cushion on the bench place to wipe your feet. An old road sign. There's even a cute little window here with glass. I love this. Sweden does it right. My goal is to find one of these later today when the rain starts. This would be absolutely perfect. So cozy. So as I'm sitting here in my favorite little Swedish bus stop bench another bike touring adventurer rolls by. What's your name? Hi I'm Koen and I'm from the Netherlands. And where did you start your adventure? I started in the north of Netherlands, Groningen. And now my trip for 30 days. And the plan was to go to North Cape but I don't know yet. And yeah. What's been the best part of it? The best part is well here in Sweden and in Denmark you have like these free shelters at lakes sort of like this where you can just sleep and camp and swim. And yeah I really love it. In nature. What's been your favorite Swedish food? I'm really easy to sandwich with the shrimps they sell here. Like pre-packed. They make it daily and it's with a lot of shrimps and egg and some dressing. That sounds good. Yeah I'm not a chef cook so I make easy pasta and uncle Ben's also. Nice. And this is your bike right here? Got all your stuff? Yeah it's a... You got a roll off hub? Oh you have a Gates Carbon belt drive. Look at that. Just like me. Yeah I bought it for my before this in 2016 when I cycled from the Netherlands to Indonesia and back. Wow how long did that one take? Three and a half years. Jeez that's incredible. So this is a much shorter trip of three months. But yeah the bike is great. I love the roll off hub and the belt is still good for 40,000 kilometers so I can advise everybody to take a belt if you want to. If you hate maintenance. What's your favorite part about traveling by bike? Just meeting the people yeah. If you go slow on a bike so people speak to you instead of like when you rush by on a moped or on a car. Great to meet you Koon. Good luck man. Enjoy this little summer cabin. Oh what a good dude. I'm so glad I just happened to stop there actually rode past it and then turned around and I'm like I gotta check that place out. I was there for about five minutes and then he rolled up. I always enjoy meeting other bicycle travelers and hearing their stories and man he rode all the way from Holland to Indonesia. That's a long way. And his next dream trip is the great divide in the United States so I told him all about it. Those clouds are starting to look like they're developing into something pretty mean. Oh boy. So it's going to rain this car rain now in about three seconds and I just worked out a pretty sweet deal here at this campsite. I'm going to show you. I'm pretty happy about it and it's cheap 20 bucks. There is my home for the night. I rented an RV. Are you ready to check this out? I even have a crystal chandelier check it out. So cozy all I really care about is that I have a roof over my head. I'm happy. I didn't get the miles that I wanted to today. I was hoping for 90 to 100 only went 60 but I just don't want to ride in the rain all afternoon. I'm treating myself to a night in an old Swedish RV and I'm pretty happy about that. By the sounds of it out there I obviously made the right decision. I've only been here 20 minutes and it's starting to pour. So I'm going to sit in here and be cozy. It's only 1pm. I've got the rest of the day to chill. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain for the next like two or three days so we will see what happens when I start heading south but for right now I'm happy and cozy RV happy dance I'm in the RV and I'm dancing because I'm not getting wet and it was only 20 bucks and there's even power so I can catch up on charging batteries well I've been here about 6 hours now just waiting out the rain I've managed to charge all my stuff and during one of the breaks I raced into town and got some lus goodies. This is like loose candy it's kind of like Willy Wonka in the chocolate factory style. You go into these stores and they have all these bins full of candy and you have a little scooper and you just choose whatever you want. So I got a bag of candy for my rainy day. I am grateful for today I am grateful for my health even if it's a rainy cloudy day I'm having fun. I'm on an adventure I'm living out a dream I'm in Sweden. My beloved Sweden. and it's all going to work out because it always does I slept so well gosh this is the best RV bed ever it rained a lot last night it's not raining now though I guess I need to get up and go so this is what I'm looking at rain all day and I'm looking forward rain till Tuesday there are some mornings you wake up and you just don't want to go outside and today is one of those days thank you awesome old RV your life saver man I am so thankful for that RV made life a lot more comfortable yesterday here we go I slept well it's Saturday morning I'm in Sweden I'm going to Malmo life is good I might get wet that's okay no crashes no flatties no whammies and maybe I'll get lucky and have no rain ease and today is July 1st and on the first of every month I always say rabbit rabbit right when I get up because it brings me good luck for the rest of the month so rabbit rabbit everybody it's another silly thing that I do I'm not the only one lots of other people do it gotta make every day fun somehow right I'm feeling better mainly because it's dry and I'm dry and I'm on a quiet road look at that in Sweden they even warn you about frogs crossing the road small grudena small grudena I love it Sweden's so cute hey look Kamut finally gave me some real gravel right on I've missed the sound of my tires crunching little rocks what it's time for time for a little cheese ball because I'm a little cheese ball I'm a lot cheese ball I remember getting these when I was an exchange student and I thought they were so fancy you like peel the wax off and you have this French cheese in there open that up like this it's hard to film this and do this with one hand but I will persevere there's my cheese ball I'm the only one out here today where is everybody hello this has been a great day like no cars gravel roads all day no rain so far it's been quite pleasant in the woods on a beautiful gravel road so I'm out here acting like a total goofball like always and you've heard me talk about love shoutouts where I just shout out love to people in my life like this I love you mom and I just go through everybody I love and today I actually started filming little love shoutouts on my cell phone so I can send it to them so they can actually hear me you know I have a pretty loud voice but when I shout out here I don't think my mom is hearing it maybe she feels it I don't know oh look at I just found a little shelter ooh with a very fancy piece of woodwork in the middle here hope I find one of these or something like this at the end of the day I would camp in here in a flash thank you awesome shelter that's a good place to hang for a second eat some nuts seems like the rain has stopped which is very nice right for that darkness oh boy is that sunshine I see a little bit of blue sky I'm seeing sun right over my head I'm not sure I believe it but it feels sunny feels warm look what I just saw off the side of the road look how tall that midsummer pole is that's pretty sweet yeah a lot of dancing under that one the whole town gets together dances under that very cool oh boy this sun feels good I took off my jacket I put on sunscreen got my sunglasses on it might be short lived cause the clouds still look pretty threatening but right now is a good moment there's a wedding happening right now and they're taking photos and I just rode my bike right behind them I wonder if I'm going to be in the back of their wedding photos how cool would that be look at this supermarket treat we've got tomatoes and mozzarella and I'm really looking forward to it I always feel better after a little bit of food and I'm looking off into the sky that way oh looks pretty dark is it going to rain I don't know there's only one way to find out let's get into this let's see what happens the temperature has dropped quite a bit that always happens right before it's going to rain this is really beautiful area these are some of the nicest red summer houses I've seen on the trip look at that guy it's perfect right out of a fairy tale the rain finally caught up to me luckily there's this little house with a some sort of a patio with a roof and I just rushed over here off the side of the road I'm going to weigh it out cause it's raining pretty hard now it's funny to think that just 30 minutes ago I was putting on sunscreen maybe I was getting cocky or maybe it was just wishful thinking thunder one of the first Swedish words I ever learned was Oscar which means thunder because at the time my Swedish sister's boyfriend was named Oscar Oscar thunder man okay I have been waiting here for an hour a lot longer than I thought and it's still raining but I'm getting antsy so I'm just going to get wet thank you wonderful patio whoever owns this place you're awesome well I was able to avoid rain for a good part of the day but not all of it and I pretty much knew I was going to get wet at some point so here I go getting wet in Sweden yeah I thought I waited out the heaviest part of the rain I sat there for an hour but it's still coming down pretty good but as long as I keep my legs moving I'm staying pretty warm just got to keep moving keep moving keep singing dumb songs where'd the sunshine go it was so nice I put sunscreen on whatever this day's going to turn out great at the end of the day I'll find somewhere cozy to stay and it's been an awesome day no doubt rain can't rain on my parade rain the rain sounds really pretty in the forest sounds kind of like shh hitting all the leaves and the pine needles there's a beauty in being out here alone on my bike in the rain again these are the days that are memorable I don't forget these days and when you make it through one of these tough days you feel really good about yourself and that's awesome looky looky rain's gone rain stopped for now and I feel really good sometimes you just got to go through it you got to face your fears you know even me I've been on tons of adventures and I've been in lots of precarious positions I still get spooked by inclement weather I don't like being wet and cold but I went out there and I realized oh rain you know when we were kids we loved jumping around in puddles and playing in the rain it kind of brings back that childlike joy to get wet and now I'm dry it is 6pm I've gone 92 miles I started at 7 in the morning I feel good I feel dry now the rain is gone and I'm going to ride a little bit more to find a place to stay hopefully with a roof because they're calling for rain all night big ol fat rain damn woo come on mother nature give me a break so I raced to get to this hotel here and she just said they don't have any rooms and there's probably no rooms in the entire city because it's a big soccer tournament I've just ridden 170 miles I've ridden 107 miles so far I want to be done I don't know what I'm going to do if there's no hotels just keep going maybe camp in the woods no no no no no I don't even know what to do my brain is fried I have something in my eyeball it's all red I'm tired I'm wet I was just hoping to plop into a hotel but yeah there's no hotels I just checked online there's nothing in this town so I am just going to keep on riding I'm in Sweden there's a lot of light so I'm just going to keep going until I find something I just got a laugh to myself here we go it's 8pm I've been riding since 7 and this is sometimes what happens in adventures you just got to figure something out so I'm figuring you know what I'm starving so I'm going to get some food I don't like my brain work better and then keep on going how about some pizza that sounds good whoa check that out I usually like to have my accommodation worked out earlier than 8pm and I'm still not done but you know what I feel good that I've just stopped and I have food and I'm just going to work things out and keep on moving and I'll find something it sounds crazy but luckily there's a lot of light here I can ride pretty late and find a spot I was really hoping to get a hotel but I don't think it's going to happen but something else maybe even better will happen this tastes so good I love all those protein bars and treats but something special about warm food thank you pizzeria and osselby man that was good yum yum yum ok I feel a lot better back on the road back on the hunt to find a place to camp for the night so I came off route about 4 miles just to go into Burling it to get a hotel so now I'm going back to the route and then I will continue and see what's down the road I'm just scanning everywhere not a lot of people on the streets right now to talk to and ask but I'll find something nice to meet you my name is Ryan and I was a student for a long time and right now I'm cycling all over Sweden from Kiro to Malmö I'm going to greet my world family in Malmö but today I found a roof I was just riding by not many people are out it's kind of late and this guy was getting his mail and I just said hey is there anywhere around here I can sleep under just a roof or something and we talked for a bit and he's like yeah you can just sleep on my outer room here the ute room and so this is where I'm going to be for tonight and I am very very glad happy happy happy it's time for some more Swedish trail magic these are my new angels thank you so much you are so nice and we are sitting here just catching up we had some tea they made me some nice warm tea saved me from a long day and rain and we talked about Sweden and everything so nice svensk and they're like this is go by all the time but you're the first one who's actually stopped here you're riding a ski alpine I was in the Swedish national team from 62 to 70 impressive and you're competing against Ingmar Stegmark in the end of my career I started against Ingmar so I was competing against Ingmar who won? hahahaha so I'm learning that Lasse is a little shy to brag about himself but he was at the Olympics twice US 2 times yes, I was at the US 2 times Innsbruck 64 and Grenoble 68 look at all of his trophies this is amazing so much gold and this is probably the mascots from the Olympics in those days what a day big miles, big rain big trail magic I am so tired, it's like 10.30pm but man, these are the good ones these really are, these are the good ones that I will always remember and hold close to my heart to end it with meeting this wonderful couple it doesn't get any better than that and they're gonna make breakfast for me in the morning good night oh man, it is really rating now hello there and thank you for making it to the very end of this video you get a high 5 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 with all 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, you're keeping this channel alive and also hey, I wrote a book it's called the long way home it's about my very first adventure from Honduras to Colorado 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 oh god what happened it started raining like crazy it was so nice 5 minutes ago oh man it is really raining now