Upon arriving Skelleftea, I took a rest in a small fast food restaurant and had arranged a meeting there to meet my host from couchsurf, Frida. I was so tired until I couldn’t finish my food. After a while waiting, Frida finally came on her bicycle and it felt good to know that shes an artist. She is now trying to sell her paintings and at the same time trying to enrol in a university to pursue her career as an artist. After some brief introduction, we then cycle back to her place and the first thing I did, which is like a ritual for me whenever I get indoors, was to take a long comfortable hot shower. This journey really made me appreciate everything. Traveling alone for a long time sometimes made me appreciate my home and family. And been out in the cold for a long time made me really appreciate a long hot shower. I appreciate every single drop of hot water that hit the surface of my skin. I closed my eyes… letting the hot water to go through my whole body from top to bottom… think only about the good things that made me smile and be thankful for whatever I get…

deep snow in housing areas in Skelleftea

Her place is really interesting, paintings on her wall and all the drawing and painting tools all over her place. Hard to imagine how much energy she put on each painting that was on the wall. It is always interesting to have a conversation to an artist, since they always look at things at different angle, details and at totally a different level to find something that interest them and put them in paintings. I find it very special talking to Frida and we had a good conversation on many topics that interest us… mind power… the subconscious mind… how we look at life… the connection of everything to the source and many other interesting ideas. Shes at the stage where shes lost… doesn’t know what to do in life and trying to get out of the system. To me… this is something good, because I’ve been in that situation too and when you are at the bottom, the only way to go is up! So I think soon, she will face a big change in her life… and I strongly believe that.

the artist in action!

a quick doodle of me by Frida :)

Frida’s “keyboard”

Everything happens for a reason, to be more specific, everything happens for a good reason! If we look closely, failure is a very powerful thing! It is like a steroid that drives us to reach our goals! One of the things that I learn from my long journey on a bike is, to learn how to look at things from the positive point of view. Even when we are successful, we won’t enjoy it while being negative. We will always filled with the feelings of worry and fear, of losing whatever we achieved. We keep thinking about the future, that we might lose everything that we own now… and because of that… we will be lack of happiness… and the negative feelings like worry and fear will slowly consume our energy, making us older than our age. But when we start looking at things from the positive point of view, things are clearer and we realized that we can start smiling. Even when we are at our failure, we will do something to change it, to turn ourselves to be successful, just like when we are starving, we will do something to find food to ease our hunger.

the frozen river in Skelleftea

footprints of an otter

On top of that, I also had a good time meeting her parents, where the dad, Classe is actually a hunter! He usually goes out hunting moose in the forest and really has a special skill to attract the moose. He can make a sound like a female moose to attract the male, so that the male will come towards him. He usually goes hunting in the forest in all season except for winter. He cooked some very delicious moose meat for me to try, which he hunts himself last autumn in the forest. I love it so much. It was very delicious and I finished everything clean hehe. Everybody was so nice to me. Classe gave me a good advice on which route to take on my way north. He was like a team leader, where he really discussed with me on the best scenic road for me to ride on my way north. And Frida’s mom, sew my torn pants. Classe also used to cycle in Europe when he was young covering nearly 2000km in distance. We had an interesting conversation about each other’s experience.

Frida enjoying the light and colors of winter

Kapcai Nordic style! :)

After 2 days resting in Skelleftea, I finally recovered and feeling strong again to face the long road north and the extreme cold. I finally had to say goodbye to Frida and her parents. I felt weird, every people I meet here in Sweden who hosted me, I felt teary whenever I had to say goodbye to them. I feel so attached to them, like theyre my own family. I even shared my thoughts with them, before I came to Sweden, I was expecting the people here to be cold to me, but somehow I experience totally a different thing. I had a good start even when I just arrived Sweden the first day, where I met Karin and Fredrik. The people I met along the way including Frida and her parents have taught me something valuable. Most people here in Sweden that I met, theyre caring and loving people. I really hope that one day I will cross my path with them again. It would be great if one day they will come to my continent, to the realm of Asia. I really hope to see them again someday.

last photos of them before i left