Today my boyfriend and I went to the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. I've wanted to go for a while, but they've been closed for the past couple of years due to renovations. Some might remember my blogs about the "ocean's wondrous creatures", if so, you will know that I love everything to do with oceanic creatures and their way of life: So when the doors opened to the museum again I just had  to go and see this new exhibition about the world of water.


World of water tells the story of life in the seas and the importance of water for our planet through four different themes - water planet, organisms' adaptation to water, Swedish waters, and human impact on aquatic environments. In the exhibition, you will see many marine organisms preserved in alcohol from the museum's collections. Some of these have never been shown before in our exhibitions - from the tiny pearl boat to the spectacular giant squid, which exists in only a few specimens worldwide to observe. [taken from the museum's website]



I absolutely loved seeing all of the preserved creatures, but the one thing I was most excited about was of course the giant squid



It's difficult to really encapsulate in a photo how incredible this specimen was. I was in total awe of seeing it in real life. There are so few examples of the giant squid around the world, and this one was found in Swedish water in the 60's which made the entire thing even cooler. 

However, I was slightly disappointed with the displaying of this. After reading on their website, and with it being a unique item, I thought it would have a more central part of the exhibition, perhaps alongside other deep water creatures. But it was sort of tucked away by itself and could easily have been missed.

I also thought that whales would have a bigger part in the World of Water exhibition, especially with their new documentary about blue whales. But the whales were shown in another exhibition called Polar Regions. 




I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, perhaps even more than World of Water. They had several whales hung in the ceiling, and the exhibition was divided into two floors. The upper floor was the North pole and downstairs was the South pole, a very clever idea in my opinion!

Of course they have other standing exhibitions in the museum, which were all pleasant to explore. One that was particularly cozy was the exhibition of Swedish Nature where they had everything from "the big five" to the tiniest of mice, with lots of interactive games and quizzes!



And for those who might be more into geology and crystals, they had an entire exhibition dedicated for that as well called Treasures from the Earth's Interior. So there truly will be something for everyone and I highly recommend going if you have the chance!