Håkan Stenlund

Perhaps the smallest restaurant in the world. In Kaalasjärvi between Kiruna and Nikkaluokta, in the middle of a straight part of the road that feels awfully long, a sign indicates the turnoff for Arct...

You know there is about to be some serious cooking going on when the chef arrives armed with both a wheelbarrow and a spade. Tommi Tuominen from the restaurant Finnjävel in Helsinki stands next to the...

The short version The following was overheard in the restaurant at Niehku Mountain Villa in Riksgränsen, as a group having dinner walked over to get some cheese and have a chat with the chefs in the k...

The first impression On a sunny day in mid-June, we enter the brand-new room Biosphere at Treehotel. World-famous architect Bjarke Ingels leads the way. It’s his first meeting with the new room too. H...

Sounds and sayings travel far on the island. Over my morning coffee, I hear two gentlemen having a conversation in the marina below. It’s still, and the sun has been up since midnight. That’s if it ev...

Hotel manager David Åberg and restaurateur Carina Brydling are sitting in the magnificent staircase of Sara Kulturhus in Skellefteå. The newly build cultural center that’s part of the entrance to The ...

What would a museum tell you, if it got the chance? Like in the film Night at the Museum where Ben Stiller plays night security guard Larry Daley, and the Museum of Natural History comes to life durin...

On a beautiful day in early summer, beautiful as only early summer can be in the Torne Valley, I park my car by a red house in the village Vitsaniemi in the Torne Valley. Gunhild Stensmyr steps out of...

We left a little too late from Björkliden on our hike to Låktatjåkko mountain station. Guidebooks and information usually say it is nine kilometres. But take it with a pinch of salt because it can be ...

“At least it gives you rosy cheeks”, Frida Lind Oja says, laughing. She says that her minimum temperature for the ski track is minus 20, sometimes a bit colder. She also says she is grateful that she ...

Sand between my toes I step out of the cold Bothnian Bay, surrounded by kilometre-long stretches of sand, the open sea and one of Sweden’s most remarkable campsite stories: Pite Havsbad. Spring has be...

The needle powerfully penetrates the white cloth, almost like a skier moving across untouched, white snow where poles and skis sink into the newly fallen snow to slowly create a pattern. The skier – o...

“Kalix Löjrom makes you happy”, it is as easy as that. Simon Laiti is busy in his food studio at Hemmagastronomi in Luleå. He is creating a three-course Kalix Löjrom testing menu for a dinner party an...

There are indigenous peoples living in 90 countries across the globe, and the Sámi are the indigenous people living in the north of mainland Europe. The land of Sápmi covers parts of Norway, Sweden, F...

Filleting fish by a lake called Sårgåjávrre stand Lennart Pittja and chef Johan Eriksson. The morning’s catch will be just enough for the evening meal. A fire has been lit in the old smoking hut. This...

The Sámi language is a Finno-Ugric language that is related to both Finnish and Hungarian. It’s a language with many different expressions and synonyms for nature and reindeer husbandry. The Sámi lang...

It is a clear, but slightly chilly early summer morning in the forest. The night mist lingers like minute clouds in the deep valley of the Laisälven river. The rays of the sun have yet to reach all th...

Exclamations, ranging from primal screams to whoops of joy bounce between mountainsides somewhere in the very north of Sweden. This is the setting for BAMM – Björkliden Arctic Mountain Marathon – a co...

It’s April in the Mausjaur Sámi district in Arvidsjaur. It’s warm, and the snow is melting. The summer has more or less come crashing into the life of the forest Sámi this year. Streams open up, and s...

Eric Gallardo drives fast. The chicane on what’s a perfect copy of the formula-1 track, Paul Ricard, on the metre-thick ice of Lake Uddjaur comes up very quickly. Unlike Eric Gallardo’s own knuckles o...

“And through another winter they wandered on the obliterated trails of men who had gone before. Once, they came upon a path blazed through the forest, an ancient path, and the Lost Cabin seemed very n...

Chad Blakley’s interest in photography began at an early age. As a teenager, he worked for a local newspaper in a small town outside New Orleans, Louisiana. During his college years, he started a smal...

I’ve been here plenty of times — in summer as well as in winter — and I guess that’s why I’m already thinking about the waffles. I’m trying to decide whether to go for cloudberry or raspberry jam. Sti...

Boat trips in summer and early fall are a given part of life for the residents of Piteå, a city in the Bay of Bothnia blessed with a rich archipelago. In the Bothnian Bay archipelago, there are small ...