{"id":1347,"date":"2010-06-16T18:01:23","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T18:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2010-06-30T19:09:40","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T19:09:40","slug":"the-swedish-provinces-landskap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/the-swedish-provinces-landskap\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swedish provinces (landskap)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before getting on with all the fun stuff regarding the World Cup and the exciting royal wedding (three days to go now!), let’s spend some time studying the geography of Sweden. Quite often we seem to mention a few\u00a0different provinces\u00a0 and I figured it was about time to go through them quickly and what they are most famous for.<\/p>\n

First of all, Sweden are divided into three big parts, G\u00f6taland, the south, Svealand, the middle and Norrland, the north. The country is then divided into 25 provinces, which purely have a\u00a0cultural and a historical meaning and no political importance what so ever.\u00a0That is taken care of by the 21\u00a0counties\u00a0that the 25 provinces then\u00a0are divided into. But let’s\u00a0forget about the counties today.\u00a0A\u00a0Swedish person is much more likely to mention wich province he or she is from rather than the county.<\/p>\n

Anyway,\u00a0every province has its own province bird, province\u00a0flower and province coat of arms. On a good day, I might know five of these, and I think it’s safe to say that that goes for many Swedes. But it’s definitely good knowledge if you ever plan to play Trivial Pursuit or go\u00a0pub quizing in Sweden. Or simply just want to impress Swedish family and friends.<\/p>\n

Today I give you the eight provinces of Norrland!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a01. Lappland<\/strong> is our biggest province and covers almost 25 percent of the whole country. Here you can find Sweden’s highest mountain Kebnekaise (2111 m), the native Lapps, the famous ice hotel in Jukasj\u00e4rvi, the biggest mosquitoes and the most amazing nature scenery in the world.
\nProvince flower: Fj\u00e4llsippa (mountain aven)
\nProvince animal: Fj\u00e4llr\u00e4v (mountain fox)<\/p>\n

2. Norrbotten<\/strong> is known for being our coldest province with -40 degrees Celsius during the winter. But Norrbotten is also our warmest province and holds the highest temperature ever measured in Sweden, +37 degrees Celsuis. Talk about difference!
\nProvince flower: \u00c5kerb\u00e4r (arctic bramble)
\nProvince animal: Lavskrika (Sibirian Jay)<\/p>\n

3.V\u00e4sterbotten<\/strong> is a culinary province and is the proud maker of the famous V\u00e4sterbotten cheese. The scenery is in V\u00e4sterbotten is amazing with a spectacular mix of mountains, forests, lakes and streams. Our blogger Katja comes from the big University city Ume\u00e5, she has written about it here!
\n<\/a>Province flower: Kung Karls spira (no translation found) Province animal: Storspov (Eurasian curlew)<\/p>\n

4. \u00c5ngermanland<\/strong> is the home of surstr\u00f6mming – the fermented fish that smells like… well, I can’t even begin describe it. Anyone?
\nProvince flower: Styvmorsviol (wild pansy)
\nProvince animal: B\u00e4ver (beaver)<\/p>\n

5. In J\u00e4mtland<\/strong>, you can find Sweden’s fifth biggest but most exciting lake, Storsj\u00f6n. Storsj\u00f6n is the home of Sweden’s Nessie, Storsj\u00f6odjuret, a large sea serpent who is said to be living in Storsj\u00f6n. This has never been confirmed, but it definitely keeps the tourists coming!
\nProvince flower: Brunkulla (no translation found)
\nProvince animal: \u00c4lg (elk)<\/p>\n

6. Medelpad<\/strong> has a rich animal life and if you travel there you might bump into deer, elk, bear, wolf, beaver and much much more. Sundsvall is the only city in the province.
\nProvince flower: Gran (Norway spruce)
\nProvince animal: Skogshare (wild hare)<\/p>\n

7. H\u00e4rjedalen<\/strong> is filled with ski resorts, hiking trails and rivers. The province has been home to people since the stone age and has a rich history and over 2000 ancient monuments.
\nProvince flower: Mosippa (spring pasque flower)
\nProvince animal: Brunbj\u00f6rn (brown bear)<\/p>\n

8. Lot of Swedish folk music and folk dancing origins from H\u00e4lsingland<\/strong>. If you don’t like cursing but still want to tell someone to go to h**l, you can without guilt shout “Dra \u00e5t H\u00e4lsingland””, since this province’s name has become a euphemism for “hell”. Last but not least,\u00a0the Swedish princess Madeleine is the Duchess of H\u00e4lsingland.
\nProvince flower: Lin (flax)
\nProvince animal: Lodjur (lynx)<\/p>\n

11. G\u00e4strikland\u00a0 – and especially the small town of Ockelbo – has become known world wide lately, since this\u00a0is where our new Prince, Daniel, is\u00a0born and raised.\u00a0\u00a0More royal connections:\u00a0\u00a0the Swedish princess Madeleine is the Duchess of G\u00e4strikland, together with H\u00e4lsingland as well.
\nProvince flower: Liljekonvalj (Lily of the valley)
\nProvince animal: Tj\u00e4der (grouse)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And speaking of Princess Madeleine, the coming weekend is all about a certain wedding in Sweden and I am pretty sure there will be one or two blogs about that. But then, a trip through Svealand and G\u00f6taland!<\/p>\n

(Foto: Ove K\u00e4llstr\u00f6m, Sweden.se)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Before getting on with all the fun stuff regarding the World Cup and the exciting royal wedding (three days to go now!), let’s spend some time studying the geography of Sweden. Quite often we seem to mention a few\u00a0different provinces\u00a0 and I figured it was about time to go through them quickly and what they…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9575,9577,9576,9573,9571,3266,9574,9572,3321,3360,3505],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-angermanland","tag-halsingland","tag-harjedalen","tag-jamtland","tag-landskap","tag-lappland","tag-medelpad","tag-norrbotten","tag-norrland","tag-province","tag-vasterbotten"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1400,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/1400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}