The High Coast and the road to Luleå / by Jennifer Leahy

Travel Math:  If time = money, and the rule of thumb for packing is twice the money +  half the stuff, then it stands to reason that you should also bring along double the time as well.

The past two days, I've been overwhelmed by both the generosity of strangers and the realization that I can't possibly do it all justice, not in one go, not in a hundred. I'm stopping just short of the Arctic Circle, at the far north of my itinerary, Luleå, long enough to say hello to Niklas and check out the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Gammelstad. 

But first - a little bit about the road that got me here. From Stockholm, I headed up E4 for the High Coast (itself a UNESCO site), where a contact had recommended I check out Skuleskogen National Park. From there, it was on to Örnsköldsvik, a small town famous for hockey (home of Modo and a disproportionately huge number of NHL players), and the hometown of Anton and Elin, who gave me another guided tour (more on that later). Just north of Örnsköldsvik, a beach resort straight out of another era made me pull over and do a couple impromptu portrait sessions, and, hours later, an endless sunset on a bridge outside Luleå had me running across a highway for a shot.