Friday, 07 May 2010 00:00 Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 May 2010 12:03 Written by Billy van Graan

The ride up the coast from Sundsvall to Umea was a short and again very cold. At some stages it was snowing quite hard but only for short distances so it was still safe to drive in. We didn't stop too much because we wanted to get in Umea and get warm again.

In Umea we stayed with Maria and Armando. Maria and Armando met in Ecuador and has been together for five and a half year. Maria is from Sweden (and looks very Swedish) and Armando is from Mexico. They are both studying at the moment at university and stay in a house near the edge of town. Staying with them was really nice because they are so laid back, easy going and friendly. We enjoyed chatting with them and hearing about the places they travelled and worked. Armando sometimes goes to Switzerland in the summer to work on a farm, a hemp farm. He showed us pictures of the massive amounts of plants they the farm grows and it was really interesting that such a place would be in Switzerland. If you a stoner that would be the perfect place for you to apply for a job.



Armando and Maria cooked for us a couple of times and on the last night we had a braai. Armando received some Elk (almost like a moose) meat from Maria's farther and we cut it up into steaks and cooked it over the coals. I watched the Bulls / Crusaders game from my laptop over steaming and for a moment with the braai going and a beer in my hand and the rugby on it almost felt like a weekend at home. The elk meat turned out to be really nice and tasty and we had a good time. The weather looks good for the next 2 days and since we can’t manage to get a couch in the next town north (Lulea) we decided to take a chance and head to Muonio in Finland inside the Artic Circle. It would be a long ride (600km) in the cold but if the weather can stay clear for a couple of days make North Cape in 2 days hard riding and then back down again.

Tags
Biking  Cape 2 Cape  Sweden