Scandinavia is attractive to me. A month and a half after I got back from my first 10 months I headed off north again, this time with my backpack and by hitchhiking.
Most of my travels are solo but that doesn’t mean traveling alone.
First of all by hitchhiking almost 7000 kilometers, with more then 90 cars, and by searching most of the rides by asking drivers at gasstations: I can assure you that I meet quite a lot of people and some animals as well.
But some connections are a bit deeper and longer lasting: like in Turku (the south of Finland). I have passed there several times now because of some lovely human beings.
Another good reason to go back was the midnight sun. Last year it was only by the beginning of august that I entered the arctic circle and thus I was a little bit too late to see the sun all day long above the horizon. And it’s for sure a magical and special experience.
To enjoy the most of the midnight sun and to explore some regions I was already tipped upon last year I hitchhiked to the north-east of Norway. Kirkenes didn’t speak so much too much but it’s history during world war II is interesting. This monument to remember the liberation by the Sovjet army is one of it’s reminds
5 KM of the main road back from Kirkenes there is a little village called Bugøynes known for its Kings crab fishing. With the typical wooden building painted in different colors it was worth a stop and a nice overnight camp with a few on the Fjord.
The next day set course in direction of Hammingberg, the road towards there which is a touristique attraction was supposed to be quite spectacular. Before going there I first made a stop in Vardø . One of my hitch drivers tipped me on the street art that can be found there. It’s a result of a festival curated by “Pøbel” and focused on the depopulation that happened ( between 1960’s and 2000’s it decreased by half ).
The 2 wall pieces that spoke to me the most were not part of the festival.
The “naturressursene tilhorer folket” which can be translated to “the natural resources belong to the people” refers to the struggle of local fishermen against authorities and fishing regulations/limitations. The tool in the hand is one of the tools used by the fishermen to do their work.
For my planned night out and Hike in nature, some locals advised me the Ytre Syltevika National Park. Open and beatifull landscapes far away from all the summer houses in Hamningberg. I was quite amased how wel the reindeers could spot me from a distance and what great speed they can run. I also saw some of them swimming to cross a river.
It was time to head south again. First after a stop in Ivalo to visit some ex-colleagues from my Lapland job. Then a stop at Kiiloppaa to say hello to the guys from Rolls outdoors. They already let me experience some fatbiking in the snow in Rovaniemi in the spring and this time we went out for a ride through the national park.
Next I headed towards the Finish Swedish border to visit some ex-colleagues from the Icebreaker adventure. Great coincidence that I met my friend Kim on the parking lot where I was dropped off after hitchhiking so I could go with him for a night at his summer house on the Islands, and to meet some his friends (again).
Kim runs the turbot that takes people to the Sandskar island which is part of a national park. We already visited it together back in the spring time (back then we could still go by snowmobile) this time by boat. He stayed over for 2 nights in a beautiful old fishermans cabin and I had plenty of time to discover the island and it’s beautiful nature. Besides plenty of mosquitos I was lucky to have some close encounters with some moose and their kalfs.
Back in Kalix, the sun didn’t stay up all night anymore but still created some stunning sunset light. I am not a very experienced panorama or HDR (high dynamic range) photographer but I still feel like showing this picture despite it’s artifical look n feel.
Kalixriver, Kalix (Sweden)
More lovely ex-colleagues to visit in Kalix some with some lovely children among these 2 cuties: Vigo and Maximiliano.
At the end of the trip there was the Ting gathering in Denmark, which I attended for 10 days. It made my circle in Scandinavia round since it was last year the beginning of my first round in Scandinavia.
Ting is about simple life, about re-grounding in nature, about healing and about connecting to others. There were some truly beautifull people there , both adults as children. With Eliot I had a particular good conneciton and super happy with this souvenir to this magical time at Ting.
