Archive for the 'Trip to Norrbotten' Category

23
Sep
08

Final thoughts about the Norrbotten trip

By Paul Leave a Comment
Categories: Travel and Trip to Norrbotten
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This is the last post in this series about the trip to Norrbotten featuring a few more words about what I found out there.

Everybody has a sauna in the northThe sauna
Nearby the cottage we used, right on the shore of a lake, there is a little sauna. It has two small rooms, one being a shower and the other the sauna itself. At this time is a bit decayed, but I was told it was really nice to go and bathe in the lake and then spend some time inside in the heat. Add a beer, take away the plunging into the lake and I’m in. In the sauna.

Wild life keeps quiet
I heard there are now much more bears than they used to be in these areas, but we saw none. I was also a bit disappointed for not seeing any moose as in the trip to Dalarna, but one took a crap right next to the cottage during one night, probably in disgust after he sniffed the surströmming leftovers.

I got however “satisfied” by a few reindeers on the road to the polar circle (this was not supposed to sound the way it did) and I found out that the name for the polar circle in Sami is Napapiiri.

Fika meets blueberries
A common way of spending time and chatting is by organizing a fika, which means coffee accompanied by cookies. Very often the cookies are chunks of blueberry pie and you can see everybody walking around with blue lips, due to high blueberries consumption.

Krokträsk

Click here if you would like to see more pics from the trip.

02
Sep
08

4 nice places to visit in Norrbotten

By Paul 1 Comment
Categories: Travel and Trip to Norrbotten
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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

Wet roses
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

Red houses in 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.
Discharge

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.
Colored vegetation at the Polar circle

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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