Gypsy Travels to North Sweden

Today, we take you on a journey to the Northern Parts of Sweden. Our Gypsy Travels took us to Västerbottens Museum, located in the city of Umeå.

Umeå is the biggest city in Norrland and the twelfth biggest in Sweden, with 121,032 inhabitants in 2016. The municipality had 119,613 inhabitants at the end of 2014.When the university was established in 1965, growth sped up, and the amount of housing has doubled in the last 30 years. As of 2011, 700 to 800 new apartments are constructed each year.

Umeå is a university town and centre of education, technical and medical research in Sweden, with two universities and over 39,000 students. The city was elected as the European Capital of Culture of 2014.

Umeå is situated on the inlet of the Gulf of Bothnia at the mouth of the Ume River, in the south of Västerbotten. Umeå is about 600 km (373 mi) north of Stockholm and about 400 km (249 mi) south of the Arctic Circle. It is the largest city north of the Stockholm–Uppsala region, and is sometimes referred to as the regional centre of northern Sweden. The nearby community of Holmsund serves as its port. From here a ferry line connects it with the neighbouring city of Vaasa (Swedish: Vasa) in Finland. The near connections to Finland affects the population of the city – several Sweden Finns live in Umeå.

Here, skiing has been a popular recreation for decades during the winter months and in one of the parts of the museum, you can learn about the history of the skis and skiing itself. For instance, you can see the world’s oldest ski and several more modern versions.

Can you imagine going down the hill on these?

The museum also has a modern section, where you can enjoy street art as well as sculptures made from junk – which Gypsy does not love something like that?

Next time you’re in Sweden, make sure you add the Västerbottens Museum to you list of places to visit – there’s plenty more to see in there but we can’t share all the surprises… where’s the fun in that?

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