Hudiksvall

Hudiksvall, or Happy Hudik or just Hudik as the locals call it, is my home town. Its a very old, small, friendly and cute town with about 15 000 inhabitants. The town dates back to 1582, it was founded by King Johan III, by adding the two villages Hudik and Vallen together – thus Hudiksvall and it was the first town in Norrland (the northern part of Sweden). The town was known for its busy port industries and trading, it has suffered severe fires some 10 times but parts of the original town still remains – like Jakobs Church. Today the older parts of town are by the harbour or close to the harbour in the east in what’s called ‘Fiskarstan’ aka fishing town. Its an area full of small, cute and colourful wooden houses with their little private courtyards – a very sought after area to live in and very nice to walk around. This area is where the fishermen used to live, as fishing used to be a thriving industry back in the days. The area most iconic is where the canal runs out to the harbour and is lined by the old red fishermen’s storage sheds/boat houses as seen below.