One thing I really wanted to experience while I was in Europe was 24 hours of daylight. I had heard of it, but not really believed it. So Gemma and I packed some things and headed north of the arctic circle to see if there really is such a thing as daytime that never ends during the summer solstice.
Gemma in a forever twilight.
We flew into Trondheim (Norway) on 17 June, hired a car, and commenced on a 7 day road trip through Scandinavia. We started off by heading east into Sweden and visiting Östersund and Arjeplog before heading back west into Norway and following the Kystriksveien (aka route 17) from Bodø through Sandnessjøen and finally back to Trondheim on 23 June. 
'Sploring. 'Sploring through Scandi.
We were struck by a few difficulties early on: number 1 being actually getting to the airport, we somewhat misjudged the traffic on the M25 (or whatever silly motorway we used) and had to leave our one bag of hold luggage in the car. The second issue was driving once in Scandinavia; driving on the right is hard, - even though I have done this before the increased traffic made me somewhat more anxious.
Plus, I found their cars a little unusual.
The entire trip we were faced with stunning scenery in both Sweden and Norway, and most importantly didn't see the dark night skies for the entire trip. Our first night in Trondheim was the closest to darkness that we got; twilight appeared at about 2am. The next day we followed the E14 into Sweden to Östersund where we were greeted by distant snow-topped mountain peaks and roadside waterfalls.
Gemma at our first waterfall.
Östersund is a lovely city. It sits on the stunning Lake Storsjön and has expanses of greenery with a beautiful public park, an outdoor theatre, a playground, and statues of naked people and clearly defined genitalia. It also is home the the northernmost runestone and some outlandishly strange road signs.
Not sure what this means - boys and girls come out and play all along the motorway? Perhaps they're RPG fans?
In fact, the only aspects we were somewhat disappointed with were complete lack of people and the hotel didn't have particularly thick curtains (which is kinda a good problem given what we were looking for). Also, we couldn't find anywhere to try some Swedish meatballs. 
I still don't really know what turns a stone into a runestone but, Viola, a runestone.
After a night in Östersund we visiting an old ruin of the Old Sunne church and hunted for Storsjöodjuret - the Swedish/Östersund/Lake Storsjön version of Nessie. After this we followed the E45 towards our next destination, Arjeplog.
Waiting for the Storsjöodjuret.
I enjoyed the Swedish countryside. Much like Australia it seems very remote and isolated outside of the cities when compared to the UK in which you always seem to be driving through towns, villages, cities. We stopped off to admire forests, rivers, and deer as we drove past. We even managed to find a model of old-timey Swedish village in Strömsund complete with a singing wooden gorilla (if you think that doesn't make sense try witnessing it in real life)!
Baiky overlooking Lake Hornavan.
We arrived in Arjeplog in mid-afternoon I tiny town on the massive Lake Hornavan. Our hotel was...unusual. Filled with stuffed animals, undergoing renovations, and had its own miniature sami village on a nearby islet.
Yes, it was weird.
Arjeplog was pretty much devoid of life, but we managed to find a fastfood restaurant Gemma dubbed Swedish Mcdonalds when the chanting started. We snuck outside to find a numerous small groups of locals, whom we assumed had Sami heritage, banging drums and chanting outside the town's famous pink church. An while we were excited at seeing more than 5 people in one place at a time it seemed cultish. We took sneaky photos (from a distance) and ran away.
The local priest invited us to join them for dinner. This was not a comfort.
On the dawn of our final day in Sweden we jumped on the 95 and headed west towards Norway. up until this stage of our journey we had mostly being in flat
woodlands, but as we neared the Norwegian border we rose into the mountains.
The model Sami village.
Despite being summer snow soon blanketed the ground and deer fed by the roadside. We explored a mountain river and waterfall where we became overexcited at seeing people BBQing and fishing.
and we... ahhh...pretended to be reindeer.
We stopped at a rest stop to admire the pristine white snow sparkling in the sunshine, frolicked through the creeks, and tramped through the snow. The we came across a Stalos site. For the uninitiated, Stalos are evil, simpleminded, and one-eyed beasts from local folklore. We found a campfire and red marks in the snow that looked a little like blood stains. We jumped in our car, drove to the border, and left Sweden. We left Sweden forever...
Is this a Stalos house?
