This is the second post in a series dedicated to the trip taken last week in Norrbotten, the north-east of Sweden. First post was a short preview. In this one, I’ll give a brief description of the places we visited and which I recommend seeing if you come here.
Luleå
We landed in this lovely Nordic town one hour after taking off in Stockholm, so the journey was very short. They have a small and cozy airport and as soon as you exit the outside door you’re in the forest. Forest is the landmark of this area.
Gammelstad
Gammelstad is a very well preserved church village near Luleå, with more than 400 wooden houses arranged around a 15th-century stone church. The church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, if you were wondering, they accept donations made with the credit card.
Norra Sandsjärv
Located about 120km away from Luleå, Norra Sandsjärv is the village where we stayed for the 4 days spent there. The accommodation was offered by a cozy stuga (cottage), which will be the subject of an upcoming post here.
The orange discharge you can see in the picture is not pollution from some chemicals, but decaying vegetable matter, named torv (peat) used as fuel.
Polar circle
This is not actually a place, but if you drive a bit up north from Norra Sandsjärv, in about 40km you’ll cross the Napapiiri (polar circle in Sami). High chances of seeing reindeers crossing the street (we saw about 15 on the way) or moose at dusk (we saw none). Zero chances of heat waves here.
In the summer time, the things that you’ll encounter the most in these areas are: forest, lakes and mosquitoes. Our trip was taken at the end of August, so the mosquitoes were not that many. By not that many, I mean you’ll still be slapping your face every 5 seconds when standing outside in the evening. You definitely need protection from insects if you’re going there during the summer. Even if the mosquitoes population vary with the season, you can still count on the lakes and the forest.
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