23092015 - The walk to Skansen took me about an hour. And that is because I was enjoying my walk. I detoured for a bit to Ostermalms Saluhall and got discouraged by the prices. Along the way, I saw why Stockholm is named 'City on the Water'. It was a dreamy walk as I imagined I am the owners of one of the boats. Haha! Did you noticed if you walk the route to Skansen, you can see structures that gave meter readings of the cleanliness of the water and air? It is so amazing! I wonder if the measurements are accurate. If they are, Stockholm is really a clean city. Oh, I did see recycle bins being locked up. Here, I also noticed that Swedes love to jog! The cold weather makes it the best time to jog because one don't tire that easily.
By the way, this post has a lot of photos of Skansen. Enjoy them! This is a museum I would highly recommend to visit! Unfortunately, it is not free when I visited it. But it is very worth the money I paid. SEK100. I just entered the website and it is free on Christmas!
Skansen is located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm. On this island, you can see many other museums. I only had time to visit 2 museums in this island. Skansen and Nordic. Two very worthy-to-visit museum. Abba Museum is also on this island but I did not have the time. The Museums in Stockholm are grand and have amazing contents that I could stay there for hours! It is very unfortunate that I do not share the same sentiment for the museums in my country.
Ta-da, I present to you Skansen Museum - the first open-air museum and zoo in Sweden. It was founded in 1891 by Artur Hazelius (1833–1901) to show the way of life in the different parts of Sweden before the industrial era. The many exhibits over the 75 acre
(300,000 m²) site include a full replica of an average 19th-century
town, in which craftsmen in traditional dress such as tanners,
shoemakers, silversmiths, bakers and glass-blowers demonstrate their
skills in period surroundings. There is even a small patch growing tobacco used for the making of cigarettes. There is also an open-air zoo containing a wide range of Scandinavian animals including the bison, brown bear, moose, grey seal, lynx, otter, red fox, reindeer, wolf, and wolverine (as well as some non-Scandinavian animals because of their popularity). There are also farmsteads where rare breeds of farm animals can be seen. (Source from Wikipedia)
I reached Skansen at about 11am and was there till 5pm. This is the longest time I have ever spent in a Museum. The place is so huge but well connected to one another. I was not familiar with the concept of open-air museum as I read in their website the night before. When I went in, I was like 'Wow'. I was brought back to different eras in Scandinavia. I could said that I entered into all the places except for the Aquarium because there is a separate entrance fee for it. There were descriptions for each building, structure and animals which is sufficient to understand what am I looking at. It rained as I walked inside Skansen but stopped shortly. Good thing I got my almost-water-proof jacket and drybag, and I could still continue my walk.
Glasses on the floor as I approached the Glass Workshop. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed inside. The place has been around for 3 generations. I remembered I saw a photo of Sarah Jessica Parker with the owner.
The owner of the Pottery Workshop allows photographs.
In the olden days, the fences in Scandinavia are horizontally placed.
Now, the Scandinavian animals! I was excited to see if there was a moose because I did not see them during my impromptu trip to Norway.
And I see the moose! Finally! I was so happy. So, I decided to have my lunch with the moose. He was having his, chewing on the leaves. So, I had my sandwich (that I packed from the hostel - you can see how thick my sandwich is) too. Oh Mr Moose, you complete my trip.
It is so great how squirrels can dart around safely in Skansen.
I talked to some of the workers who were dressed up. One tall man was holding acorns in his hand.
From afar, one can see Nordic Museum.
Check out the beautiful garden they have. Some of the garden patches were named after celebrities.
I went to the Bakery and got myself a cinnamon bun! The baker baked the bread the traditional way. But it is an expensive bun. SEK16.
I got to try the traditional game of Sweden - walking on stilts! It was a bit difficult initially trying to balance myself on it, but after a few minutes of hobbling around and trying not to fall flat on my face, I got the hang of it.
This is the Medicine Shop which is sort of a pharmacy. The lady is real.
I got to speak to some of the 'olden days' people. The lady in blue is reading an Aftonbladet newpaper from the 1800s and it was just a 2-page news. I asked her if this newspaper was still available today and she said yes. I was very shocked!
Time to continue my museum exploration to Nordic Museum - this time for free because it is after 5pm!
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