MASSIVE Spring floods 2018 in Järvsö, Sweden is getting close to record numbers. It’s been 18 years since the last great flood, but with the huge amount of snow Sweden got this winter, we can expect some water damage in the weeks to come!
My name is Andreas Fransson aka The Beard Bringer, and today I’m gonna show you the beginning of the spring floods here in Järvsö. In just a couple of days, the water rose from normal levels to critical very fast. There are some houses affected by the floods, but mostly summer homes.
I have not heard any reports of accidents, yet. But hopefully, there won’t be any either. The amount of water causing the massive spring floods are coming from the northern parts of Sweden, and the melting snow is causing the floods.
Not since the year 2000 have we had this much water. And before that, it was in 1966. So this doesn’t happen that often.
I know it’s not huge floods like in some other parts of the world, but this is A LOT for our town, and the water keeps rising. This is only the beginning.
I hope you liked this video, and please let me know in the comments what you thought about it.
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Exploring Church Island Nature Reserve PART 2. We look at 500-year-old trees, look at the stunning forest and even find deer droppings. There are many signs of wildlife and past floods. But Church Island (Kyrkön) in Järvsö is also just a beautiful place to visit.
Watch PART 1 of my Island Exploration: https://youtu.be/_9E18kGbXF4
My name is Andreas Fransson aka The Beard Bringer, and today we are doing PART 2 of my Church Island exploration video. I walk in the woods taking in all the beautiful scenery, look at 500-year-old trees and explore the island.
I plan on making more exploration videos from this island, and other parts of Järvsö, as well as telling you stories about this place. I plan on telling the story about the missing church bells in Järvsö, which can be heard from the bottom of the river on new years night… supposedly.
I also plan to take you to ancient landmarks, sacrificial pits, monuments, runestones and other really neat places.
Please let me know in the comments if you want to see more videos like this. Thank you so much for watching!
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Exploring an ancient wolf pit on Church Island! Church Island (Kyrkön) in Järvsö has been home to the local church since medieval times, and on the tip of the island, there is an old wolf pit where they used to trap wolfs 200-300 years ago. Maybe even longer!
My name is Andreas Fransson aka The Beard Bringer, and today I’m exploring the Church Island in Järvsö, Sweden. A nature reserve with beautiful forests, landmarks and a very old wolf pit.
In the wolf pit they used to trap wolves who hunted too close to the community, and to get them out of the village, they trapped them in this pit. The pit used to be very steep and have wooden stakes pointing straight up to capture the wolves.
I tell a story about the priest Petrus Petri Schissler, who in 1729 fell into the pit with two wolves, but managed to get out alive thanks to the congregation who heard him screaming for help.
Please let me know what you thought about this video, and please leave a comment 🙂
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Järvsö by air – Stunning Mavic Pro drone footage from Järvsöbacken in Sweden 2018. Remember, I’m a beginner drone pilot. Unfortunately I bought my Mavic Pro a month ago, and yesterday they announced the Mavic Air… Talk about bad timing. But I still love the Mavic Pro and I can’t wait to fly more when the weather allows it.
In this video I’m flying the Mavic Pro on top of the mountain in Järvsö, Hälsingland, Sweden, at the ski resort Järvsöbacken. The Snowcat is preparing the snow park, building jumps.
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I woke up and saw that the sun was on its way up and I couldn’t stop thinking about the sunrise. Said and done I took my DJI Mavic Pro and headed up to Järvsöbacken and started to fly. Do know that I’m a beginner drone pilot, and it was the first time using my new Mavic Pro ND filters. There are some jerky parts to the video because it was some pretty strong winds up on the mountain.
Järvsöbacken is located in Järvsö, Sweden and is a ski resort. This was shot in January 2018 and my name is Andreas Fransson, also called The Beard Bringer because of my big beards.
DJI announced the Mavic Air yesterday, and I just bought the Mavic Pro a month ago, talk about bad timing, but who knows, I might get the Mavic Air as well, it isn’t that expensive.
I hope you enjoy the video and please leave a comment 🙂
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YES, this stunning sunrise with mist covered Järvsö completely one early morning in October of 2017. I woke up and all I saw was a dark gloomy and boring morning…. I wanted to go back to sleep, but something told me to get up, go out and to bring my camera… And yes, I do not regret that one bit. Järvsö was showing it’s beauty in the most amazing way ever.
I drove up the mountain at Järvsöbacken, misty all the way except the last few hundred meters, and the view that greeted me was out of this world. Even if the cold weather bit my cheeks and I was tired as a sloth, Järvsö really delivered this morning. I slowly walked to the viewing point on the mountain, facing the sunrise which was just starting and then I saw it… the mist!
Check out this video and see for yourself what I saw!
Just look at that, isn’t that beautiful!
Of course it is, Järvsö is beautiful and it is my hometown. The morning mist swept the entire town into darkness, but above the mist, that where the magic was. Looking out over what is supposed to be the town, I couldn’t do anything but awe at the beauty that mother nature has created. The mist followed the river, creeping up on land and engulfing everything around it, it was so amazing and stunning. I wish it would never end and that I could stand there and watch the sunrise for ever.
What do you think, do you think it is as beautiful as I do? Leave a comment!
If you want to see more drone shots, more beard talks, more of me, please follow me on Youtube where I try to upload at least 3 videos a week.
A spontaneous trip was just what the doctor ordered, if we’d seen a doctor and he said we should go on a spontaneous trip…. yeah! With our summer vacation being over and being back to work while everyone else is having time off kind of sucks, even tho we already had our vacation! The downside of working in an office in the summer is that I’m the only one there and it’s pretty tedious. It kind of made me even more tired then usual, because being able to talk to colleagues makes me stay alert usually.
Anyway, we needed to get out of the apartment this weekend, and we decided to go to Åre, Sweden – a beautiful place 3,5 hours by car up north. A totally spontaneous trip with no plans at all, other then the destination. We got my mother to check up on Marley (our cat) a couple of times and make sure she had food and company, even tho we were only gone for 11 hours we wanted to make sure she wasn’t alone all that time.
We began our journey at 7 in the morning and arrived in Åre around 10.30, and wow…. I hadn’t been there for about 8 years – it looked so different. There were new apartment houses, shops, café’s and restaurants everywhere, it was so cozy and beautiful. We parked our car in the center of town and went to Espresso House to get a Banana Split Frapino, something we have missed a lot moving to the countryside. The nearest speciality coffee shop is pretty far away. That frapino made the whole spontaneous trip worth it alone…. almost, haha!
We walked around town for a bit, checking out all the amazing houses and scenery, before heading to the cabin ski lift… It takes you up the mountain, to the (almost) very top, and the view up there is almost unreal. It is so fantastic and breathtaking, photos don’t give it justice, you have to see for yourself. The only downside with going up the mountain was that we weren’t the only ones with that plan… we had to wait in line for about 40 minutes, but not before buying two tickets, for one ride, for 280 Swedish kronor… which is about 32 USD. A pretty hefty price for one ride. When it was our turn to go in the cabin lift, we had to do so with 69 other people, it got pretty cramped in the cable car and we kind of missed a lot of the view going up.
But getting to the top made it all worth it!
At the top of the mountain there were still some snow left, in July, which is pretty neat. We played around in the snow for a while, took some photos and just stared out over the surrounding mountains taking it all it. Well worth the high ticket price, 40 minute wait and cramped cable car. After about 45 minutes we decided to back down due to some dark clouds heading our way, I only had jeans and a t-shirt on and it was pretty windy. On the way down there were not as many people and we got a window seat so we could look outside and take some more photos. Be sure to check out the gallery below, and follow me on Instagram!
Down back in the town we walked around a bit more, checked out the hotel and the surroundings before heading back to the car, we had now been in Åre for about 2.5 hours. Just as we are about to jump in the car I notice a yellow note stuck on the windshield…. a freaking parking ticket, BAH! So, our spontaneous trip now cost us 500 Swedish kronor extra (55 USD), but hey, we had a great time and it was worth it.
We headed on home and got through the front door at around 6 – Marley was happy to see us and wanted fancy food. We drove about 600 kilometers that day and we were pretty tired getting home. But we did decide that we will go one more spontaneous trips like this, it was really fun.
Have you gone on a spontaneous trip? Tell me in the comments!
June 6th in Järvsö Bergscykel Park, or Järvsö Bike Park in English!
Järvsö Bike Park is commonly used when talking about Järvsö Bergscykel Park in English – and the easy explanation is that Järvsö Bergscykel Park translates to Järvsö Bike Park. So I might us both names in my post, but they are the same, it’s just that Järvsö Bike Park is easier for the english speaking readers. Anyway, here are 38 new photos I took on June 6th in Järvsö Bike Park, I don’t know if I’m satisfied with them tho, because I think I didn’t get the colors, exposure or feeling right. Leave a comment with some constructive criticism please!
Other then that I’m taking my vacation from work tomorrow, 3 weeks off with pay, it’s going to be so amazingly nice and I hope to be able to hang around Järvsö Bike Park a lot, shooting more photos and hopefully some video. I can’t wait to get the DJI Spark to be able to shoot some really cool video from a new angle. I’ve had my eye on the DJI Spark since it was announced and it looks so amazing. The size is perfect for walking around the mountain as you don’t want to much heavy gear with you. I brought my tripod the other day and I thought that was too much.
I will also work on my other projects during my vacation which include graphic design, photography, events and more. I also have a new project with my little brother, but that is a secret so far, but it’s going to be great. I wish the time frame was a little bit better tho, but hey, we work good under pressure.
As I said in myprevious posts about Järvsö Bergscykel Park, hit me up on Facebook, leave a comment or send me an email if you are going to Järvsö Bike Park – we could do some photoshoots. And if you are a photographer/filmmaker, it would be fun to exchange tips and do something cool together. I love to learn new things and evolve as a photographer!
I’m gonna stop talking now and show you the 38 new photos from Järvsö Bike Park as promised! Don’t forget to leave a comment!
Here’s 90 more photos from Järvsö Bergscykel Park I took!
I wrote a post the other day about my weekend, and here are some more photos from Järvsö Bergscykel Park. Hopefully I’ll be able to go back next weekend if the weather allows it and shoot some more. I need to learn more action photography and hopefully be able to take even better photos.
Please leave a comment if you like the photos from Järvsö Bergscykel Park, it would mean the world to me. As I mentioned in my other post about Järvsö Bergscykel Park, this is a place you need to visit if you have the opportunity, bring the whole family, your date, your friends, your everyone. You will have so much fun.
I’m going to try a thing called Järvstigen some day, which is a climbing trail on the mountain. You strap on a harness and start climbing away along mountain walls, tree tops and rocks, it looks so much fun and I can’t wait to show you! In the meantime, here’s photos from Järvsö Bergscykel Park.
If you have any suggestions on my photos, please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you, I like to learn and to get constructive criticism.
There are about 90 photos from Järvsö Bergscykel Park below, so this post might take a little while to load, but hopefully you’ll like them. They are all shot with a Nikon D500 equipped with a AF-S DX 16-80/2.8-4E ED VR lens. The next step is to get a drone to get some aerial photos and video, and I got my eye on the DJI Spark, the size of that thing is perfect, hopefully the 15 minute battery life is enough, unless I get a few more batteries to bring with me. Let me know if you ever tried the DJI Spark and what you think about it, or if you can recommend some other small and lightweight drone with a great camera.
Also, if you do plan on going to Järvsö Bergscykel Park this summer, leave a comment and I might be able to go there and take some photos of you!
Järvzoo – a zoo that show animals in their natural habitat
Järvzoo is located in my hometown of Järvsö, Sweden. Järvzoo is a zoo that focuses on showing the nordic animals in their natural habitat in the untouched forest. You walk around the zoo on a 3 kilometer long wooden platform up and down the mountain with animal pens on each side. The animal pens are spread widely apart and some are huge, based on the animals size.
Some animals might be hard to spot depending on the weather, time of day and feeding times. Since the zoo focuses on the animals, there are lots of places for the animals to hide. Along the platform there are reststops, and even a small kiosk selling lighter lunches.
One of my favourite animals at Järvzoo is the muskox, a large majestic creature taken right from a fantasy novel, it looks like no other animal and have such a intimidating posture and grace. It’s a calm animal and I would love to pet one. You can read about the muskox on Wikipedia here!
The wooden platform runs through the deep dark forest and sometimes I find myself just staring out into nothing, listening to the silence and feeling the calm winds running through the trees.The peace and serenity you feel walking around this zoo is something I have never felt anywhere else, and I’m going to purchase a season pass to the park just to be able to experience this as much as I want.
Some of the animals you might see at Järvzoo is moose, reindeer, arctic foxes, wolves, owls, eagles, hawks, muskoxes, bears and many more. But one of my absolute favourites are the squirrels, they are so damn cute and run around freely in the park, jumping from tree to tree, and even come close to you. A few years ago I had a squirrel sitting on my shoulder trying to steal my ice cream, they are that “tame”.
Järvsö Bergscykel Park – Downhill mountain biking!
I spent my weekend hanging out in Järvsö Bergscykel Park, located in my hometown of Järvsö, Sweden. Järvsö Bergscykel Park opened it’s doors on June 6th 2010, and the first season had about 2500 visitors. That put Järvsö Bergscykel Park at third place over the most visited Downhill bike parks in Sweden 2010, a very good feat.
I myself used to ride my downhill bike as much as I could back they opened, but then in 2012 I moved to Stockholm because I got a new job. The weekends passed too quickly when we visited home, so I never had to chance to ride for the last 5 years, but hopefully I’ll be able to ride a few trails now when we moved back home. The best thing is that I see the ski lift from our bedroom, it’s that close.
It works like this: You bring your own downhill mountainbike, protection, clothes and everything else you need (or rent everything if you don’t have it). Purchase a Downhill pass, which gives you access to the ski lift, which takes you to the top of the mountain, from there you ride you bike all the way down to the valley. A tip is to stop along the way to check out the view and beautiful surroundings.
The trails run trough the forest most of the times, but now and then you cross over the bare ski slopes, because Järvsö Bergscykel Park is open during the spring/summer and fall when the ski slope is closed and the snow is gone. I posted a trail map below, along with the names of the trails and color coded skill levels.
All trails are named after our pride and joy – Lill-Babs (<— wikipedia link). A world famous singer born and raised in our small town of Järvsö. She put this town on the map and the creators of Järvsö Bergscykel Park honor her by naming all the trails after her. Her real name is Barbro Svensson, and the first and signature trail is therefor named “Barbro”. Other trails are named after her daughters Monica, Malin and Kristin, the rest have names from her most famous songs.
Here’s one of here songs “Leva Livet”, performed way back in the days!
Pictures from Järvsö Bergscykel Park
I thought I’d post some of the photos I took this weekend while hanging out in Järvsö Bergscykel Park. Since I don’t ride anymore (yet?), I felt that being behind the camera was really fun and I hope to get a few more hours in the park this summer.
GREENis for beginners, learn to control your bike and get a feeling on how everything works. BLUE is still easy, but a little bit more challenging then green. Blue is for you who rode the green ones a few times without problem! REDis the next step, this is where it can get a little tricky. Narrower trails, steeper and more bumpy. Be sure to feel really comfortable on your bike before heading out on a red trail! BLACK BEWARE – these trails are only for experienced riders and include huge jumps, gaps and steep trails. Even the most seasoned mountain biker can be intimidated by these!
Moving to the countryside after a few years in the city was a pretty big step for me, specially since 2 months ago we had not even thought about doing it. But times change and so does life!
The main reason for moving is a pretty common one… finding somewhere to live in Stockholm… For the past few years we have been moving from apartment to apartment, dealing with shady sublet deals and overpriced accommodation, a daily struggle for thousands of people living and working in Stockholm, Sweden. The reason being a shortage of apartments, and around 600.000 people in queue to get a first hand apartment contract. I wrote another post about it a few weeks ago, you can read it here!
The short story is, we could not find a new apartment within our price range or budget in time, which forced us to pack our things and move to the countryside where I grew up, 320 kilometers north of Stockholm (about 3,5-4 hours by car). The plan was that me and my girlfriend (who grew up in the city) would live in my mothers house, maybe not the most ideal thing when your are 33 years old, but we did not have a choice due to the apartment situation. But then, just a few days before moving, we got an offer from the local community that there was a 3 bedroom apartment opening up, available 2 days after our arrival…. Done deal, we took it!
So, here we are, now pretty much settled in after a week in Järvsö. We went to Ikea the other day to get some furniture and started refurnishing some of chairs and tables to fit our style. Within a week or so we should be settled in for real, just waiting for our new Philips Hue Lights (<— affiliate link) to arrive to make the place more cozy. Ordered a starter kit and plan on doing some nice light constellations in our living room.
And you know what, now when we are almost settled, we love it. We are much happier, more energetic and smiling much more. I think a huge weight lifted from our shoulders when we got our own place, not having to worry about finding a new home within a few months or living in a cramped space on the bottom floor without natural light. This new place is on the third floor, light and spacious, it’s amazing. I think we are going to love it here!
What about jobs? Well, I work as an Art Director for a magazine, which head office is located just 20 kilometers (15 minutes by car) from Järvsö. I used to sit at their Stockholm Office, but working from here is much better. It works fantastic! My salary is also good enough for my girlfriend to focus on getting her drivers license and studying to become what ever she wants! We also bought a car, so we can get wherever we want. Life has really taken a turn for the better.
If your are thinking of leaving the city for a life on the countryside, really consider it. The air is much fresher, the people are nicer and you will feel so much better! Just look at the header image above, it’s taken the other day when we took a ride up the mountain to check out the view over the town, beautiful!
Below is a picture I took about 7 years ago, very early one morning. It was before I moved to the city. It feels good to be home!
Purpose for staying at Hotell Riddargatan: Romantic getaway Nights: One Room: Suite Price: approximately 2500 SEK (290 USD) Stars of the hotel: 4,5
Backstory
One Saturday, we sat at home in front of the TV, knowing that the Swedish Eurovision finals was about to start in a few hours we felt the urge to get out of the house, to do something out of the ordinary for once. We live in Stockholm, Sweden, just a couple of kilometers from Hotell Riddargatan actually, but how often do you just out of the blue book a one night stay at a hotell, just to spice things up? Not very often unfortunately.
We looked around for different hotel rooms on short notice, the time was about 17.00 (5 pm) when we started looking, and even tho we found quite a few rooms at other hotels at a better price, the suite at Hotel Riddargatan caught our eye because it had a jacuzzi in it. Said and done, we booked the suite, packed an overnight bag and called a cab. We were at the hotel just past 18.00 (6 pm). Check out the video of our room below
First impressions
Our first impressions of our suite at Hotell Riddargatan was one of the best we’ve ever had, the front desk was very nice and helpful and explained everything we needed to know. Where the breakfast was, the bar, elevator, stairs etc. We felt very welcomed. The room itself was a very pleasant surprise, we did not expect it to be so big and spacious, almost bigger then our apartment we live in. The room was bright, clean and had all these extra little things as books, magazines, two TV’s, a balcony and the best of all, a jacuzzi.
The Bedroom
The Bathroom
The Livingroom
The suite/room was very clean and fresh, not a speck of dust anywhere, no forgotten socks under the sheets or furniture, no left behind trash, everything was in perfect condition. The amount of books and magazines were a really nice touch and a welcomed feature of the room. It being March in Sweden, we couldn’t use the balcony due to the cold weather, but standing there a few minutes in the middle of the night, seeing people walk past below, doing their stuff, it was soothing, and hearing the bustling city getting ready to party.
We went out to eat dinner, but instead of going to a fancy restaurant, we ended up at Mc Donalds, we wanted something fast and easy, and then head back to the room to enjoy it. As I wrote before, we live in Stockholm, so the nightlife or sights did not interest us this night, it was all about just being in the now and enjoy a relaxing night at a hotel.
Standards
One thing that was really nice, was the slippers and bathrobe, as soon as we got back from our meal, we put them on, and I don’t think we took them off until heading down to breakfast the next morning.
The beds/linnen at Hotel Riddargatan was in tip top shape, smelling fresh and clean. Not a single thing to complain about and it was well worth the money. The breakfast was one of the best hotel breakfasts we’ve had, there were fruits, vegetables, eggs, bacon, scrambled eggs, beans, sandwiches, sausages, meatballs and many different kinds of cold cuts. We’ve stayed at other hotels, but few have had this kind of breakfast.