Long time no post

The last week was full of, well, full of what exactly? Rain? Yes sure. Swedish miles (one mile equals ten km)? Jep, that as well. But first and foremost full of nature, that had me breathless; because of its beauty of course, but also because I cycled through a region called Höga Kusten, the high coast. Several national parks, bridges and islands, the ocean were just a small part of the past week. I’ve met Karina in her green House, was invited by Ester and John to have some waffles in the sun and am now resting my really exhausted legs in Skellefteå. A huge coincidence had it that Benni, a brother of Andi, is working in this region at the moment. He provides shelter and a very comfy bed for my own!

In the next days there might follow another post with a little more detail, but for now I just want to upload some pictures and explain those a little bit:

This painting portraits the high coast moose in all its beauty. The high coast started the day after having surströmming and the first stop was Rotsidan. I was a little confused, I expected a cliff which is high above sea level (since high coast you know). Here is what I came to see:

From there my way went through the Skuleskogan national park, which was a pain to cross with the packed bike. It kind of was a mountain bike trail, but all the rocks, roots and the muddy ground had me furious. At the point I could‘ve just screamed out of anger, I stopped and wondered why I was angry at all. Because the nature just was as it is? Because of my bike? I really couldn’t answer the questions at this point, but the anger was gone. Looking back, I guess it was my critically exhausted state that had me angry. Anyway I made it out, after spending a night on a beautiful small island (the Swedish word for island is ö btw)

The next day‘s sunshine had me shirtless for a short time, enjoying a short break on a flawless brand new cycling path.

Some river I crossed, can’t exactly remember where and when, but it’s a nice few anyway.

When in need of a toilet, I came across this airport (of Örnsköldsvik). It was closed due to the pandemic, but the one guy that was still working there was kind and let me in. Very interesting atmosphere inside a shut down airport.

And here you can see a picture of Karina’s green house. The story why the house is green (a very uncommon color for Swedish housing) is the painting itself. The artist painted the house green, before the actual house was painted. So to fit the picture, the owner had to use green paint. I really like this small and subtle detail about some random house :)

And to close the post, there are two videos. The first shows a small cottage I spent a night in. The second video is taken inside an open kitchen, where I also had a shower and cooked a meal so salty that I barely could eat it.