 Hey Aljupa and welcome to my big Swedish adventure. I'm riding the length of Sweden from north to south. Can you believe it? We're almost there. This is the second to last episode. Even though it's been hard at times, this has been the trip of a lifetime. And I'm just so honored that you've chosen to join me by watching these videos and leaving kind comments. You are awesome. Now are you ready for some more beautiful Swedish scenery? Yeah! Let's do this. I slept so well and I don't want to leave. Someday, this gives me a dream, this gives me a goal. I want to have a backyard so I can build a cute little guest cottage like this. It really is amazing. Even the key to this place has charmed to it. I'm looking out at some blue sky. But yesterday morning tricked me too. I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful for a bit drier of a day. Thank you. Super awesome little cabin. I love all the details on this little stuga. But especially this guy. They have a little owl hidden in this hole. Good morning, good morning! Look at this beautiful breakfast. Look at this cornflake tin. I love it. What are you doing now? I'm just filming. Are you filming now when we're sitting here? Yeah, I'm just sitting here for a little while while we're eating together. Three seconds. It's a bit different though. But it works really well. It's just a bit dirty. Yeah, it's a bit dirty. I'm just going to hug you. Thank you. You're so kind. Thank you Magnus. It was really nice. And we'll see each other again in Sweden. I'll be back some day. You're welcome. Bye! Glad Friday, Juli! Bye! Once again, my heart is so happy. It really is. What wonderful people. So kind, so gentle. And I'm really glad they let me stay there. Because it was pretty cold and windy last night. The people of Sweden are just showing up every day. They sure are. Oh, it's going to be a good one. We've got sun, which is so nice. And maybe we'll have rain later. I don't know. But for right now, I have sun on my face. And that feels really, really good. No flaties, no crashies, no whammies. Oh, my knee's a little sore. I need to take an ibuprofen. Oh, boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am really looking forward to today's ride. Because I get to ride along the edge of Lake Vätern. Which is one of Sweden's big famous beautiful lakes. And it should be pretty cool. It was really nice to start the day at a breakfast table. Eating real food, healthy food, tomatoes and cucumbers. And talked about how Magnus lived in Minnesota back when he was in his early 20s. Like a lot of Swedes. They all went to Minnesota way back in the day. And there's still a whole bunch of Swedes out there in Minnesota. Skål! Oh, it's so good to see you, Shadow. It's been a long time. That's the way you want to be going. That woman is not even pedaling. But I'm going the other way. Take a sunny, windy day over a cold, rainy day. That thing is flying today. That is a happy windmill. In the woods and blocks from the wind. Yeah. Thank you, trees. I appreciate it. At this point, I'm just kind of used to a little bit of rain every day. Or a lot bit. I love how trusting Swedes are. There's this little spot right here on the road. Tobacco plants, 40 crowns each. That's about four bucks. You can take one and you just swish the money. Swish is kind of like the United States version of Venmo. But they use swish for everything. They pay with their cell phone. They barely ever use cash in Sweden. I just think it's cool that they just trust people to take one and pay for it. I've seen these stands all over Sweden with fruits and vegetables and strawberries. All sorts of good stuff. I stopped for lunch and I have this. Because it's rowdy on a yummy vegetarian pizza. In a candy store, a candy factory, I feel like I'm in the middle of a Willy Wonka movie. This is awesome. And the colors, they make everything look so tasty and so good. I want to eat it all. I'm reading a bit about the history here. It looks like this whole polka gris candy cane story was started in the mid 1800s from a woman named Amelia Ericsson. She started it up and it's now a huge thing. People from all over Sweden know that this is the place to go to get your polka gris. I'm not quite sure which flavor to get. There's so many and they just look so classic, old, timey candy. And I'm coming out with some candy. I wouldn't go in there and not buy candy. Oh, and check it out. We've got sunshine again. All right, I bought this one pretty much just because the name is cool. It's gone. I have this in my mouth the rest of the day as I ride. It's kind of like a czar. All right, Grena. Thank you for the pizza and the polka gris and the protection from the rain. The three peas. So I was riding out of town getting poured on. I looked at the weather, looked bad, rainy and windy all night long. I rode by this hotel that looked like a castle and I'm like, I'm getting a hotel. It's the fourth of July. I'm celebrating even though they don't celebrate in Sweden. I'm going to take a shorter day and look at my view of the lake. And I love in Sweden you can actually open the windows in the hotel. In the United States you can never open the windows, but I can hang right out of my hotel window and enjoy the fresh air and the safety of a roof and not get wet and cold. Oh man, that bed looks so good. It's only 3.30 p.m. but I've been going pretty hard for 13 straight days now. And I just want to take it easy. You know, I was just thinking everybody's waking up right now in Boulder and getting ready for the fourth of July. And I love this day. I always ride my bike up to this small mountain town, an old mining town called Gold Hill. And it's just the best of small town America. They have a pancake breakfast and kids playing everywhere. But the best part is the parade. They dress up all their old style fire trucks and whooping holler around town. And it's rowdy and fun and goofy. And to me the fourth of July is all about being with friends and family and celebrating community. And I've always been a very patriotic person. You know, I love, first of all, I love Boulder. I love my community. I love Colorado. I love my state. And I love my country. And we don't do everything right, not even close. But that's the beauty of being an American. We can criticize our country in hopes of making it better. You know, every day I want to make my country a little bit better. And I try to do that through my actions and volunteer work and service and just being a nice person more than anything. Being nice goes a really long way. So yeah, I'm proud to be an American. I'm also proud to have been a Swedish exchange student. I love Sweden. I lived in Honduras for two years. I love Honduras. I really develop connections with places that I spend a lot of time in. And it all goes down to the people. The people I meet and the connections I make and create and maintain. And that's what makes me feel proud to be an American. Proud to have been a Swedish exchange student. Proud to have been a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras. And I've been able to serve my country in that way. My grandpa was in the military. He was a colonel in the Army. I look up to him. I'm very proud of him and what he did. You know, I just didn't want to do that. That wasn't my way of giving back to my country. And I'll never forget him saying, he's like, you know what? The Peace Corps is a great thing. You go do the Peace Corps. He's like, you don't need to do the Army. So I'm going to sit here and just think about pumpkin pie. Wait, not pumpkin pie, apple pie and all the good 4th of July food that we eat and fireworks and fun and goofing around and riding bikes. And yeah, I'm really happy that I took it easy today. But that does mean that my next two days are going to be very long. Remember, I have two more days now to get to Malmo. And it looks like about 100 miles each day. No more taking short days. I need to get there on Thursday afternoon. Happy 4th, everybody. Time to get on a firetruck. Pick a firetruck, any firetruck. Oh, my God! Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, yes! We're short sleeves again today. Rado. You know, I wear these arm sleeves to keep sun off my arms. And I always wear sunscreen. Look at this breakfast. I'm not going to eat any of the meat, obviously. But there's all sorts of good vegetables. Let's see. Nope, not bacon. Meatballs and sausage. Nope, not that either. Swedish pancakes. Yes, please. You should never let a bike packer near a buffet breakfast. We will eat a lot. We've got the pancakes with the jelly, some eggs, some cucumbers, bread, jelly, yogurt. And of course, I took a little bit of Nutella. Thank you, nice hotel. Time to go. Getting bikes into and out of hotels can be tricky. I'm going to carry them up a lot of stairs. All right. You can see my nice long shadow. All right, let's have a great day. Let's do this. I had a good rest last night. I'm happy I stopped early. Here we go. No crashes, no flaties, no whammies. Two days to go, hoping for a big 100 miles or so today. Little single track to start today. That's nice. I'm literally 100 feet from the hotel here. Glad I have my mountain bike. What am I doing? Oh, it's falling. Branch just tried to take my helmet off. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Here we go. Right into somebody's garage here. Let's see, how do we get out of here? I'm trusting you, Kamut. All right. Here we go. Maybe that was just a little shortcut to get to this awesome paved road. Look at this. All right. This feels good out here. Beautiful morning in the woods. Suns streaming through the trees. Yeah, it's going to be a good day. They're all good days, really. Some are just harder than others. You know, what's funny is a lot of my friends back home have been asking me if I've seen the full moon. I guess there's been a full moon for 4th of July weekend. And it doesn't get dark enough. I have not seen darkness, pure darkness in over two weeks now. Now at night time here, it gets darker than it was way up north. But you're not seeing any stars and definitely not a bright moon. I've seen the moon during the day here, but not at night. There's a nice one. Look at that. These are some incredibly beautiful country roads out here. This has been a very nice start to the day. Look at that sunshine. Yes! Now passing on the outskirts of Yudin Shipping. It's a pretty big student town. I'm not going to go into town because it always just takes a long time to navigate through a city. So I'm going to skirt the outside and continue going south. So here I am enjoying a nice bike path riding through Yudin Shipping and this gentleman is waiting on the side of the path and I don't think anything of it. And it's actually a friend. How are you doing? Very well. Thank you, Ryan. Good. So what you've been following me? Yeah. I was in Kiruna, the 21st when you landed. And we were on vacation with the family. And we were grocery shopping and we were finished about a quarter past seven and we looked up your flight and we saw that it would come at eight o'clock. Yes. And then it was delayed. And we were on our way to our oldest daughter. Oh, that's so funny. So we had to skip that part to meet you and then we traveled back from the north and last Thursday you started from Harnesand and went to Hasla and Thursday evening we came to Sandsvall. Oh, no way. We missed you. And on Monday we saw that you were passing Askersund. Oh, yes. Yeah. And we also passed Askersund. So we took a little road down to Askersund where's Ryan. No way. That's crazy. And we missed you. Oh, well, now you found me. This is amazing. That's so cool. We're going to go ride for a little bit. Yeah. Let's do it, my friend. Very cool. And what was your name? Anders. Anders. So Anders is taking me on a little tour of Yonshupink showing me this beautiful beach along the bike path and the weed wacker guys. Here we go, Anders. Oh, no. Yeah. I was just telling Anders here that it means so much to me that he came out. You know, I can sit at home and edit these videos and upload them in Little Boulder, Colorado and he will watch them in a tiny village over here in Sweden and then we can connect here. And it just makes the world feel smaller and friendlier, you know. When you know that there's people out here looking out for you. So I really appreciate it. And I was only, what, 15 kilometers from your house? Yeah, 15 kilometers. So why shouldn't I go out and meet you when you have traveled so far to my country? Exactly. Well, as you've heard me say I love your country. Because of people like you, it really is. I mean, this whole adventure has meant so much to me. It's all the people. It really is. Hello! And here I go back out into the woods, into the wilds of Sweden. I was asking Anders how he found my videos and he said during the dark cold Swedish winters he rides on his training bike and he watches YouTube videos and he found my videos that way. And I've heard that story from a lot of people that they watch my videos riding exercise bikes in the winter. So for all of you exercise bikers out there riding on the cold dark days these videos are for you! Let's go Sweden! You know, I'm thinking to myself here as I do on my bike to remember to savor these last couple hundred miles I'm closing in on the end of this adventure and there's a very very good chance I will never do this again. This was my one chance to ride the length of Sweden and it's been absolutely incredible and hard and frustrating and uncomfortable at times but overall incredible dream come true and I just don't think I'll ever do this again you know, some routes like the Great Divide or even the Car or the Colorado Trail those ones I might do multiple times in my life but coming all the way over here to Sweden getting my bike all the way over here it's an ordeal so this is a once in a lifetime opportunity it truly is and I'm savoring it I'm just sitting and smiling and pedaling and looking up at these puffy Swedish clouds and the super green Swedish trees and smiling welcome back rain I think it's been a whole 24 hours I've missed you hey little guy what are you doing out there mowing the lawn in the rain I'm just riding by and I see this little robot mowing the lawn we don't have that technology in the United States yet at least I haven't seen it Robo mowers it's like a Roomba vacuum cleaner look at that it's kind of cute actually see you later buddy stay dry something like that is always good to put a smile on your face when you're getting a little wet in rain go away come again at the daft or tomorrow when I'm done with my ride you know I really didn't think I was going to get rained on today I thought today was my day but I was wrong I hear the birds singing singing their happy songs there's nobody that way there's nobody that way this is the benefit of riding your bike on a rainy day most people stay home but not us nope nope my bike and I we've got places to go and people to see look at this there's a bird house on the tree right here I've seen these all over the country little bird houses hidden in the trees it's really charming the way that Sweden takes care of nature oh it's so beautiful woo it's time to get some food at my favorite grocery store there it is Ika so the good thing about these big Ikas are that they have a restaurant inside so I got a nice hot panini of course my power ball the chocolate ball and a protein shake so I'm just going to sit here in the rain and be happy as can be eating my warm food the entire way down Sweden grocery stores right off the bike path and that's what I love about Sweden and Europe in general is that there's grocery stores everywhere and tiny little villages everywhere it's a lot different than the states where we just have really big ones that you have to drive to and buy all your groceries for one week and load up the car here there's a grocery store around the corner you just go every few days and all is good in the world oh and I get questions all the time about what do I do with my bike when I go into grocery stores or restaurants do I lock it up no I've never brought a lock on any of my bike tours ever I don't lock it up I just put it outside and trust in the world and so far it's been okay I love those birds stopped raining a bit and the birds know it they're singing their happy songs I don't know how long it's gonna last but the sun is out now and it feels so good on my face I took off my rain jacket exhale this is great this is so great look where I am it's so beautiful the highs are higher after you've gone through the tough stuff that's for sure good sun love it it's 8pm and maybe now I'll start looking for a place to camp what a day what a beautiful awesome amazing day in Sweden for adventure I think I can camp anywhere on this road just need to find a flat spot and I'll be good to go it all looks good to me I think this is it home for the night my final night in Sweden and I wanted to camp tonight I didn't want a roof I wanted one last night in my tent in Sweden I am sitting in my tent happy as can be eating my nut mix and some other goodies just really happy that's all I can say I'm really happy I felt so strong I had a good afternoon I just kept charging and going the highlight of the day was meeting Anders he was just sitting by the bike path waiting for me it was really cool to connect with him he's such a good guy and I really can't believe that I'm here I'm so close I'm gonna finish this tomorrow and it's incredible I love this feeling it's really good it's been a long day I was on my bike for over 12 hours I'm gonna sleep I'm gonna wake up and we're gonna do this thing tomorrow morning okay this is southern Sweden here I am the blue dot finishing down in Malmö tomorrow it's right across from Copenhagen Denmark just to give you an idea this is way up there I've come a long way hey there good to see you I just wanted to say thank you for watching all of these videos for watching to the very end of this very long video in this very long series I appreciate all your support it means the world to me I am here right now to say if you have the ability please consider joining my Patreon your financial support makes a huge difference in keeping this channel alive and you get something out of this deal as well you're not just giving me money you're gonna get early release videos with no ads how cool is that I also do zoom chats with my patrons from time to time and you'll have direct access to ask me any question you could ever want we have a great community over at Patreon but I want to reiterate that this is not necessary I just appreciate that you're watching my videos that means the world to me so you're doing the number one thing right there just watching my videos but if you can for as little as 3 bucks a month 30 Swedish crowns you can be a patron and part of the party over there Patreon so thank you all so much and get ready for the final episode