Everybody has a sauna in the north
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.

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

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.