What I learned about Scandinavia

what did I learn about Scandinavia that I love it when you travel to a country or consider a place as your home you need to know what makes it worth it for you what things can you do what are the people like how's the culture what's the best travel route in the northern part of Europe lies Scandinavia which consists of three countries Denmark Norway and Sweden and the nordics includes Denmark Norway Sweden Finland and Iceland over the the last 4 years I've been traveling to different parts of Scandinavia breaking the bank just to explore and have authentic experiences I'm a Canadian Who currently calls Barcelona a base as I climb the highest peak in every European country and I've learned that Scandinavia is where my heart belongs it's just so heartwarming I'll tell you why through hundreds of hours of research my stories and firsthand observations one of the things that draws me to Scandinavia is the nature and this is coming from a Canadian there is this freedom to Ram Sweden has the best deal here they have alantin so you can camp anywhere you want as long as you're not destroying disturbing or camping in somebody's Garden if you love nature you will love Sweden for this reason Norway also has a similar freedom but it's not as open as Sweden but what is really cool is they actually have Mountain Huts in certain parts of Norway and I learned this because my idea was to go and visit one of these but due to financial constraints I couldn't make it happen that means I have to go back what's cool about these Mountain Huts from what I know is there are some that are completely free there are some where you pay a small fee and there are somewhere you have to be part of a membership Community now Denmark as far as I know they don't really have this freedom to Ram because it's such a small country in comparison to the others and so there's not a lot of public land to really roam around Denmark is Tiny I think if you really wanted to you could drive from the northernmost point all the way to the southernmost point in a day hands down but with the other countries they're a lot larger I Love Trains if you did want to go from Stockholm to kiruna it's a 16-hour train ride there's a certain time of year that comes around where you have the Midnight Sun and this is exactly what you might think it is at midnight there is Sun there is no darkness and the crazy contrast to this is some parts of these countries won't get any sun at all for several months I've read a lot in comments in my videos that the darkness people experience during these few months is really difficult for some Darkness the very first time I went to Scandinavia was to Gothenburg in Sweden so here I am gothenberg I don't have a plan I don't really know where I'm going I know I'm going to head towards the water it's not the capital city it's like the second City it was during the pandemic and Sweden was I think the only country in Europe that had different restrictions or no restrictions oh I hope this thing doesn't have Corona when I was in a really strict lockdown in Spain it took a toll on my mental health as I'm sure it's happen to a lot of people unfortunately and I'm really sorry if it affected you so I took a few days and I went to gothenberg and it was magic because it reminded me of home because I could not go home I couldn't go to Canada because of these restrictions and it gave me taste of life again there's just something about this place that makes me feel so free you might hear a lot of people will say that people in the nordics are reserved quiet or cold I would actually say that stereotype is wrong sure they might not come and introduce themselves give you a big hug as soon as you meet them like you might experience here in Spain or in Italy they have this warmth about them I think it's more they don't like the small talk when they do say something they're often really curious really warm kind helpful this old man he stopped me and he basically told me his life story I'm only met a few weirdos to be honest I don't know if I've ever told you this story but when I was going from Bergen Norway to galigan I was taking a fairy to another city and I was eating my sandwich and this fellow came over to me he started speaking to me in a region I like I don't understand and he saw that I had dropped like a shrimp from my sandwich onto my plate and he reached out to my plate and he grabbed my shrimp I was like you can't do that you have to ask first like the most polite Canadian thing ridiculous I mean you'll find all sorts wherever you are in the world it doesn't matter I can't believe this is happening I can't believe where I am right now like well there were a few occasions where I had to put the people to the test and just keep in mind this is a really small cohort of people out of a massive population in a big geographical area I wanted to Hitch hike in Norway why did I want to do this because the taxi was going to cost me a ridiculous amount of money and I just couldn't justify it just for a 20-minute Drive come on friends I'm just like a friendly person just trying to climb a mountain I stuck on my thumb I was on the side of that road for ages you will not believe it the only people that pulled over were a couple of sweds in their camper van got 23 minute drive left got about an hour until the ski tour starts I suck my thumb out again lo and behold a few minutes later a Norwegian fellow pulled over and we chit chatted all the way up to the base he was going to go do galop pigan by himself which was really cool Norwegian just come out of the womb on skis I swear it when I came back down actually three French people they pulled over in their van and brought me down part of the way to get to the next major city though on older nor couple and their dog pulled over and they told me about the area what LOM was like what life was like there when it comes to Denmark I didn't really have much of a need to hitchhike but it was one of two countries in the world where I've actually had somebody pull over and ask me if I wanted a ride no I'm going to thank you the only other country I've had that was Cypress where there's so much hitchhiking I've had so many amazing encounters interactions conversations with people from these countries and I'm a person that often chooses their favorite countries based on the people and actually the culture if you like this cont content please hit the like button this burial site is almost a century old if you don't know North mythology is heavily woven into the cultures here in all three countries and in particular in Norway and Denmark I noticed that there is a lot around trolls and keep your eyes peeled for trolls in Norway if you are a child you will probably be fearful that a troll is going to kidnap you and eat you while you're walking in the forest and if you're in Denmark you can actually go on a troll treasure hunt of sorts there is a famous artist who creates these massive trolls out of old wood and resources that are no longer useful Vikings is something that you can see across the board in Sweden there is Vikings so there's a beautiful Hidden Gem don't tell anybody body I told you called gotland and it's this gorgeous Island a 3-hour fairy ride away from Stockholm it's in the Baltic Sea is that right this is where you would have found some of the most peaceful Vikings if you do go to gotland download some podcasts about Norse mythology and goat sacrifices while you're camping in your tent and they're talking about like sacrifices and like the things that they would do not a good thing to listen to before you go to bed in the middle of of nature by yourself a lot of Vikings here in Scandinavia throughout Scandinavia were Traders but the ones here in particular in gutland we're trading with Arabs in Denmark I had the opportunity to go see a viking burial ground hundreds of years it was covered only in the 1900s did all of the sand get swept away and in the 1950s they started Excavating the graves and that's how we've learned so much about them it's really interesting over the years the way they did the burials changed so there are some Graves where the body was buried in the mound and there's others where the body was cremated really when it comes to Viking stories Heritage their religion their way of life I've really only scratched the surface and it's something I'm really excited to learn more about and you know what's really cool there is a part of Spain in Gala and there's this place where Vikings were actually defeated by the Spaniards I mean there's a whole video on it the Vikings had entered into this part to pillage all of the treasures gold and riches from the compostella de Santiago the big Cathedral and they actually fought them off so every August in this town cataa they actually hold a big Viking Festival in Norway I have an adventure planned to go to a viking Village but that hasn't happened yet so I can't speak to it I know it's a very big deal in Norway trolls and Vikings do fit into the realm of culture Traditions what Scandinavia is right there are two concepts that I really love in Denmark they have hugi and this is this concept of being cozy warm and spending time with friends and family and it's just this beautiful thing I also think it's an excuse used to eat delicious cake over in Sweden they've got f f i need to practice similar in the sense that you are encouraged to take a break with friends family colleagues and have something sweet generally probably some coffee or some tea something warm again I take it as a reminder that there's more to life than just work the Pika brought Good Vibes let's reel it back into travel and cities so I've had the opportunity to visit the three capital cities for Denmark it's Copenhagen Norway it's Oslo and for Sweden it's Stockholm Copenhagen is a city that really and truly has a lot more to offer than you think it does this is one of the few cities in the world where I think I would never get bored that's a bold statement coming from somebody who prefers nature over cities there is this Market I don't think it's open right now because it's March but it'll probably be opening soon called refen one of my friends she was living in Copenhagen a few years ago and she recommended me to go and oh my goodness I recommend you to go Oslo was one that I tried really hard to love but because it is so expensive I didn't find a lot of things that I could do on a budget this will probably be my first and last beer in Norway this is €1 they've got these food hauls that are just incredible so many different choices and this fish burger I had oh my gosh I really shouldn't have filmed this video right before dinner and Stockholm I mean it's a Scandinavian Capital City the people are just awesome it's like this busy network of happy bees just busy working and it's like the Venice of the north because there are canals everywhere and there's I think over a 100 different Islands there is an archipelago just a short faery ride away and there's actually where a lot of locals spend their Midsummer unlike me going and spending Midsummer in Stockholm Midsummer they say yeah come to Sweden they say it'll be sunny why are my feet so why are they so dirty as I'm always traveling on a budget because I need to stretch it as much as I can with this peak project also if we get to 100,000 subscribers then I will go and climb the highest mountain in Greenland which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark get the Subscribe button I found that Stockholm is the most affordable than cop Haagen than Oslo and that's taking into consideration the price of food transport and accommodation accommodation is the number one thing that you will spend your money on if I were to redo Scandinavia for the very first time and only travel around for 1 month this is the itinerary that I would follow I would first fly into Copenhagen and then go north to North Jutland and experience wild Denmark we made it to the northernmost point of Denmark I would probably rent a car or ideally a camper van because there's a lot of really great nature reserve cycling paths surfing spots to see I would cross over into Sweden jump up to Gothenburg and then go straight out to the archipelago these islands are incredible and if you have the chance to go camping on one or exploring their nature reserves do it just don't get lost like I did I'm going to go explore cuz I have no idea what is here and then I would go back to gothamberg and use it as a rest day or there's a lot of really cool things to do in the area depending on what you like to do then I would rent a bike and cycle along a really cool path in the South you could cycle for a couple days and then cycle back whatever you want bring your tent or plan stops in specific Villages this would be a really great place or you could go into the Lake District the idea is to make your way over to Stockholm if you haven't had your fill of cities by then I would spend at least 48 hours in Stockholm because it is a really cool capital city and if you have time pop over to the archipelago or instead of the archipelago go down to gotland because it is seriously a Hidden Gem don't tell anybody I told you about this place we are in viby in gotland I'm super excited I've had almost no sleep all night but I'm so stoked on life right now I'm so stoked on in Sweden right now and then back to Stockholm because Stockholm is kind of a jumping off point to a lot of other places I would say go to the north part of Sweden this is where you can get a really cool adventure I love riding trains oh my gosh you can go out hiking for a few days if you'd like you can climb the highest mountain K we've got about 4 km left so we go around this across the bridge up you can explore some cool mines in kiruna and hopefully see some moose if you see one please take a picture and send it to me so I can show my partner then from there I would actually go directly over to Northern Norway I would go to the islands for a few days probably tromo as well from tromo then I would fly down to Bergen and Bergen is my favorite city in the whole world it used to be medine in Colombia but after seeing an experience what Bergen is and it's not because of my last name I just fell in love it's a city that is surrounded by seven mountains has delicious food tons of hiking trails come on how cool is that it's like moments like this where I'm just so grateful to be alive Norway really marks like a really special moment in my journey as well anyways there's a lot more to do in the area than just hiking you can go on F cruises um but just pay attention to the times of day because they're not offered all the time so I was not able to go on one myself then with the time left either explore around Bergen or head deep into the mountains maybe do one of these mountain hut excursions or head to the southern tip of Norway before going back to Oslo of course spend some time in Oslo by this time you'll probably be tired and it'll be a great City to be in because there are these beautiful saunas floating on the water next to the Opera House and you can have some delicious food to kind of recuperate from a whole month of amazing travels I will definitely have to come back it's amazing the things that you can learn when you travel I think it's the best kind of education and if you're a curious Soul like me and you have yet to go to Scandinavia I hope it teaches you and shares with you what it has with me if you're one of the people who actually lives in one of these countries or a neighboring country in the nordics let me know your thoughts on this if there's anything maybe I missed um a perspective that you would like to share a story of yours you would like to share I highly encourage it I love reading all of your comments getting to know you also I do plan to go back to all three of these countries so if you do have any recommendations please let me know you being here means the world to me so thank you so much for your time and I hope you got something out of this if you haven't already please consider subscribing if you'd like to support this YouTube channel the peak project and future videos I do have a patreon with an incredible Community with like-minded people who love to Adventure and travel there are lots of exclusive benefits different kinds of content and really nice guides over there for you so check it out if that's something that you're interested in all of your contributions go directly back into the channel and funding this kind of content and happy adventuring and hope to see you in Scandinavia one day

Channel: Natasha Bergen

Views: 40,254

Keywords: scandinavia, denmark, sweden, scandinavian countries, top places to visit in scandinavia, norway, travel scandinavia, travel scandinavia in 10 days, living in scandinavian countries, what to see in scandinavia, vikings, trolls scandinavian folklore, vikings in scandinavia, copenhagen, oslo, stockholm, how to get around scandinavia, midnight sun, hitchhiking scandinavia, funny travel stories, peak project, just the tip peak project

Id: B-_IaMPiEnQ

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2024