I haven’t been to Visby yet, but I have traveled there in the way many 80s and 90s kids did — through a grainy VHS copy of “The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking”, lovingly dubbed by Disney. I didn’t know back then that the real Pippi was Swedish, or that some of the most iconic scenes in the original TV series were filmed right on the island of Gotland, with Visby’s medieval charm as the backdrop.
Turns out, her actual house — Villa Villekulla — still exists near Visby, relocated to Kneippbyn. You can visit it. I might cry.
Even now, as an adult prepping for my first trip to Visby, I can’t think about that place without picturing Pippi cartwheeling past confused grown-ups or hoisting a pirate chest like it’s a purse. She was the ultimate rule-breaker, the original girlboss before we had that word, and probably the only person chaotic enough to fit right in at Medieval Week.
So when I finally walk through those old gates in August, I’ll be thinking of her. Of how, deep down, we all kind of wanted to be that strong, that free, and that weird. And how a tiny Swedish island gave us a red-headed icon who made it all seem possible.
Swedish Word of the Day: Stark (adj.) – strong 💪
(Pippi är världens starkaste flicka! – Pippi is the world’s strongest girl!)
Swedish Wanderlust 