My mum actually went to Stockholm in 1982, and she told me that Skansen was one of the places we should definitely visit. I looked it up online and instantly wanted to go as soon as I saw the pictures!
The museum covers a huge area of 75 acres and allows you to discover life in Sweden across different periods of history and all regions of the country. It includes many authentic buildings, such as houses and churches, as well as native Nordic animals. It's a very immersive place, and you need to spend several hours there to really make the most of it.
One of the things we loved most about Skansen was seeing the animals, of course! Some of them were more shy than others, but all of them were amazing to look at. Among the Nordic animals, we saw wolves...
...bison and wild boars...
...a sleepy lynx...
...a family of brown bears...
...seals...
...reindeer...
...and elk.
There were also typical farm animals, including some adorable pigs, and a petting zoo with rabbits and guinea pigs. The guinea pigs had their own little Machu Picchu-inspired room!
It was also brilliant to see some typical Scandinavian buildings, including houses, churches and farmsteads.
There is even an 18th century manor house, Skogaholm Manor.
Another part that was very interesting to see was the Sámi camp. The Sámi people live in the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, and are the only indigenous people in Europe. In the area where the camp is, you can see plants from the north of Sweden.
I also found it interesting to see the Finn settlement, which is based on the forested areas of Sweden where Finnish farmers used to live.
In addition, the museum includes a recreation of a quaint little 19th century town, which was very nice to walk around.
Exploring Skansen was definitely one of the highlights of our trip, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Stockholm. What I really liked about it was that it gave us the opportunity to discover more about the entire country of Sweden, which was nice, because we only visited Stockholm during our trip.
After spending a large part of the day at Skansen, we walked around the surrounding area for a while. It was a really attractive part of the city, especially because of all the autumn colours.
Our next stop was another exciting museum not far from Skansen: the Viking museum! It was really fun to learn about the Vikings and to even dress up as them!
Even the staff in the museum looked like real vikings. They were all about 7 feet tall with long hair and beards!
There is also a ride that you can go on within the museum, which leads you through a story about a Viking family. It was quite similar to the ride I took in the Jorvik viking museum in York last year, but a little more dramatic and exciting! I remember that Jorvik gave me Wanderlust to visit Scandinavia, but I hadn't expected to be in Sweden just a little over a year later!
As we were looking round the gift shop before leaving, we overheard some voices from the next room. Claudio was very happy, as he recognised the accents as being Chilean! So we went round the corner and met three Chilean guys who live in Stockholm. We chatted to them for a little while, and they told us about some of their favourite places in the city.
It turns out that Chileans are one of the biggest non-European demographics in Sweden and are by far the largest Latin American demographic, so there's quite a big community there. It was really nice for Claudio to have the chance to speak to people from the same country as him for the first time since he arrived in Europe.
The following day was our last full day in Stockholm, and I'll be writing about it next. Highlights included a visit to Nordiska Museet (the Nordic Museum), a boat trip and a very special celebration in Sergels torg...
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