Beside the Seaside

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In Which Sweden Finally Sees The Back Of Me

October 9, 2006 by Mike

Haparanda

Route: Umeå - Norrfjärden - Skellefteå - Piteå - Luleå - Haparanda

The signposts to Haparanda began shortly after I pulled out of Gävle, a loooooong way south. I think the first one read

   __Haparanda 467km__

so by the time I got here I was ready to be impressed. After all, it's been advertised all the way.

I was also ready for another grey town under a leaden sky, bleak and huddled houses echoing the inhabitants. I was ready for another concrete bridge across the mouth of another river - lined with golden trees, a fountain set in midstream ignored by everyone except the man on the English motorbike. I was ready for car drivers to be wearing woolly hats and scarves when I pulled up alongside them at traffic lights.. a sure sign that I'm a blitherin' idiot for still being on a motorcycle, in my book.

But I'm sounding bleak too. Far from it. The road here has been spectacular. I never forget how hard life must be here for much of the year. How incredible the survival instinct during the dark, bitter months of winter. Nor how fortunate I am to be here right now -- the warmest October for 100 years, and I'm very aware that such things are terribly, scarily, frighteningly common now, and some of the reasons for them.

But what I wasn't aware of was the incredible explosion of colour that would greet me as I rode north. It's autumn here.. for a short while, I imagine, until winter's chill grip takes hold.. so I bear witness to a tumult of colours -- a palette growing more extreme with every hour I ride north into the heart of autumn.

There are reds and browns, but more than anything there are a million greens and a million golden yellows. Everywhere. Much more than I can do justice to in one or ten or a thousand pictures.

[pics to follow]

--

The reason Haparanda gets a namecheck on all the road signs is that it also marks the border with Finland.

What will I take with me from Sweden? I'm aware that I sound like I haven't enjoyed the country. I haven't hidden my disappointments with aspects of the coast road or the people.

Equally, I have tried to recognise my own shortcomings here - the retreating warmth of the sun and the onset of heavy rain effects me at the best of times.. perhaps all the more now that I'm on a bike.

There has also been a hangover from Norway - which was always going to be special for a half-Norwegian (!) and left me with such special memories.. people, places, feelings. Even the fact that I hunkered down in Høvik with my brother and family for so long left me out of kilter with the art of travelling. It took longer to establish my rhythm than I expected.

But I can't pretend I'll miss the way the coast road does it's best to hide from the sea. (Birgitta is quite right to remind me that the coast is special and deserves to be hidden sometimes from the likes of me.. but I have taken those sideroads, only to be disappointed by the end result. And at least three times I took roads that were specifically and explicitly designated as 'coast roads', marked up on maps and tourist information boards as such, that failed to deliver the sea.)

And I certainly won't miss the way roadbuilders here maintain or repair the roads. Any new stretch of tarmac is likely to be at a *significantly* different height to the surface alongside it. Fine if you're in a car (especially a 4×4, like half the population) but on two wheels that ledge can be unsettling at best and downright dangerous if you're not very careful.

And I thought Norwegian roads were bad. (nb: they *were*.)

So hejdå Sverige. And when I come back to Kivik to settle down in one of the loveliest places I've ever found, I hope you find it in yr heart to forgive me for all I've just said. And please, learn to smile.

Comments

By Birgitta | October 13, 2006 5:03 PM

hmm

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