Continuing our Scandinavian adventure of May 2007, we spent four incredible days in Svolvær, a town of a few thousand known as the “capital” of Lofoten. Surely one of the two or three most spectacular places I’ve ever seen, Lofoten is too beautiful to describe sufficiently in words. I hope my photos convey some of the awesomeness of this Arctic treasure.

Our first morning in Svolvær, I woke up around 4:30. Never mind that we’d been up quite late the night before. (After a seven/eight-hour drive and ferry ride from Kiruna, Sweden, we didn’t even sit down to dinner—a massive pizza gorgefest—until almost 11:00 pm.) Now on the fourth day of our trip, I still was coping with my worst case of jet lag ever, so sleep was elusive. And up here in Lofoten, you experience 24 hours of daylight at the end of May. Since it never gets dark, whenever you wake up—even in the middle of the night—it looks like it’s time to get out of bed. Especially when your circadian clock has stopped working.

So when fickle sleep departed that morning, I decided not to run after it. Instead, I dragged my disoriented self into the silent streets of Svolvær. Under threatening skies, I staggered, aimless, brain dead and bitter that every other soul in town obviously was sleeping perfectly well. It was no surprise when rain began to fall. Yay! But even that would not stop me from finding a decent photo or two. Because when brain dead and bitter, I am a dedicated photographer....

This shot was taken from the bridge that connects Svolvær with neighboring Svinøya (yes, that means “Pig Island”). I was on my way back to the hotel, hung over from hunger, exhaustion, wet clothes, and crankiness. But I forgot all that when I spotted this scene (captured with a telephoto lens to compress the distance between the rooftops and mountain). I immediately liked the shot, and was considerably cheered, knowing that my inclement morning was ending with at least one good photo in the bag.

In case you’re wondering, the blue roof in the middle of the image isn’t a photographic anomaly. It really did have these colored patterns.