We flew into Stockholm where we joined our tour group (around 50 people) and hopped on the bus for what would be a long trip up to Jokkmokk (just North of the Arctic Circle). After 12 plus hours and not a huge amount of sleep we arrived at Jokkmokk in the early hours of the morning. Each year in the first weekend of February Jokkmokk hosts a big market which is where the Sami (the native people of the north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia) used to meet up ...

Part one of our Nordic August was a weekend in Stockholm. We flew into Stockholm on Friday night and spent the night in a hostel with a difference. The hostel was an old airplane which had been converted into accommodation. We stayed in a room with bunk beds and an accompanying overhead luggage compartment. The next morning, we took the bus into town, dropped off our bags and headed out to explore Stockholm. We were just in time to see the changing of the guards ...