About

I am Olaf Schneider, a German jazz musician, web developer and photographer who has been living in Northern Sweden since April 2010.

The story probably began on 24 November 2002 when I bought a “Canada Goose Snow Mantra” – probably the warmest down parka in the world – on eBay without knowing if I ever should need it. But it came in quite useful when I made my first trip to Northern Scandinavia ever some month later. I travelled to Finnish Lapland for two weeks and got the full program of a North Scandinavian winter: Standing on a frozen lake, watching my first polar lights (and quite beautiful ones), experiencing temperatures down to -35 °C and trying to do cross-country skiing in one meter deep powder snow. I considered moving to Finland but changed my mind when I read a Finnish grammar …

The next year I visited Norway for the first time in my life and was so touched that I considered moving to Norway – Oslo maybe. Instead I moved from Essen to Munich but visited Northern Scandinavia several times each year, mostly in winter. Up north I experienced fantastic adventures on ski tours or other journeys.

In December 2009 I decided to move up north. In February 2010 I travelled to Murjek in Swedish Lapland where a job offer caught my eye. A small web agency in Skellefteå was looking for a web developer. It looked like the perfect match to me so I got into contact with the web agency and the following Monday I travelled south (!) to Skellefteå for a job interview. The next day at 10 o’clock I got the job. Life can be very co-operative at times. In April 2010 I started the job and already in May I bought a house in Skelleftehamn which is located at the coast of the Baltic Sea.

That’s me and my relocation to Skelleftehamn in a nutshell.

Well, almost.

In 2020 several changes happened. Annika and I bought a house near Umeå and move in together. I got a job as a developer at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromsø. Annika and I got married ♥︎.

Since then I’ve lived partly in Obbola and partly in Tromsø. I’ll continue with this blog, because both places are way up north.