Month: July 2008 (Page 2 of 2)

I’m over here >>>

On a random road-trip to Riga. ..

See http://roadtoriga.blogspot.com

I’ll be back here when the driving fun is over 🙂

Eddy

Posted from: www.bearder.com

Day 9, Salty porridge and Moose meat from Jyväskylä to Lappeenranta

What is it with these countries? where are all the stickers??

We’ve been looking for 7 days and 5 countries and just can’t find any. We found a shop this morning that sells plastic dogs, 50cc mopeds and wine making equipment but no stickers. We were hoping to plaster the car in them but it’s not proving easy. I guess stickers (the national flag, symbol, country code type) just ain’t cool up here. We finally managed to get a shinny ‘FIN’ sticker this afternoon with the help of our hosts but still…

Anyway, we’re still having a lot of fun in this pine-tree wonderland. We’ve been having a picnic with Krista in Jyväskylä, laughing at a chubby kid in the internet cafe who was devouring 4 large energy dinks and making funny noises, being baffled by strange toilet things (see picture) and drinking ‘bear’ with a bar man from the 80’s …and that’s just in the last 24 hours! We even slipped a real Finnish Sauna in for good measure. Also, in an attempt to stop myself from becoming completely car-shaped – I’ve even been jogging twice. Once along a Swedish river where I got attacked my a Goose and once through the Finnish forrests where I got lost. Luckily, I survived both and still have enough energy to write this rambling update.

We’re now in Lappeenranta on the south-east frontier of Finland and the north-west frontier of Russia and we’ve been hosted by the kind & friendly Jaana and Toni. We explored town this afternoon, saw the biggest sand castle ever (a whole wild west town) and let Toni joy-ride us to the supermarket in Ralph, the car. The drive here from Jyväskylä was short(ish) about 4 hours and we stopped on-route for tea, pasta and canned Moose meat.

If all goes well we’ll be leaving europa tomorrow and (if they let us in) we’ll be dancing with the big, red, Russian bear tomorrow in St Petersburg. We’re on schedule so hope to spend as long as possible in Russia soaking up slavic hospitality and being confused by cyrillic symbols.

In good BBC fashion, we’ll keep you posted with news as it unfolds…

Hei Hei (bye bye (for now(can you put brackets like this?)))

Ian (typing this) and Pete (drinking a Marskalkka beer).

PS. Did you know that…
> Unless you were born in Finland, 78% of Finnish words are impossible to pronounce
> 22% of finnish words have over 60 double letters and 33 syllables
> In 2007 2671 English people died trying to read or speak Finnish

PPS. Despite my repeadted warnings to remove it and offer of a truce, Pete has chosen to turn this page into ugly photo warfare. He’s done it to himself. So, I leave you with the following…


I say no more


Idiots


This holiday is turning out to be one big wig-fest


Can you work out what it is? We think we’ve worked it out. See if you can guess


Wey-hey a finally a sticker!


Loose Moose


Picnic ontop of Finland

Is Something Wrong With Ian?

I think the Swedes may have damaged Ian beyond repair, does anyone know how to fix this condition? Otherwise the rest of the trip could be difficult.

Day 8 Supplemental Log – Moomin Triva

For lunch tomorrow on the road to the Russian border we will be dining on the fine Finnish cuisine of Elk meat and canned Moomins. For those of you who can remember the Moomins you will be pleased to know that they are alive and well in Finland even if we stopped airing the TV show back in the 80’s

Q. Why do Moomins always look so bloated?
A. Because they have no bum hole!

Many thanks to Samuli for our fantastic lunch menu, never before has anyone used a camping stove to cook such fine food.


Finnish Sauna blog (splog)- day 8

Had a great day in vaasa with Samuli. Just about to sauna in Jyvaskyla then out for a picnic with krista. Planning to get to the russian border tomorrow. Car running well.

Still on sign of the moon, please give it our regards.

A big thank you to all our hosts so far. You have all been wonderful.

Keep the messages coming. Pete and ian.

This ones a photo update….

We’ll write something tomorrow but for now, we’ve just updated the pictures for each post 🙂

Road blog. Day 7. Sweden to finland

Superb days driving yesterday through fantastic lake filled forests en route to umea. We stopped regularly and swam in the lakes when it took our fancy. We picked up a hitcher called Hannah who told up lots about her glorious nation. upon arrival in umea we tidied the car before turning it into our bed for the night. It was dusk at 11 and by 12 it was dawn again. Zero hours of darkness! Currently on the ferry to vaasa. time to blog and relax before a might out in finland. Thanks for the messages do keep them coming. Pete and ian.


We’ve seen a lot of this and to be honest, I’d be happy to see a lot more of it. Scandinvia is undeniably pretty.


…and you can stop almost anywhere for a swim…


…and the towns are so pretty…


…and Pete isn’t. Yes, Elvis and co have good reason to look worried.

Day 6. We are in Sweden.

Things you might not know about Sweden…

1. In Sweden you are always 3 turns and 5 minutes from a place to Swim.
2. Unlike the rest of the world (who use those little bricks) – toilets in Sweden are cleaned using little packets of tobacco – toiletsnuffen
3. Not all Swdish people are blonde – there are 4 Swedes without blonde hair.
4. In Sweden you are only allowed to drive Swedish cars. If we get caught in our Rover, there’s a good chance we’ll get drowned in a lake and fed to the Elks…

Anyway, we’ve been having a massivley fun time in the ridiculously picturesque town of Orebro with (amongst others) Elvis, a boy who is living off his own death (it’s a long story), a South African and a girl who’s just been exiled from China.

Today we have a long sunny drive north (probably having a swim or two on the way) and we’ll probably exercise our constitutional right to allemansrätten, or ‘all mans rights’ meaning we can sleep wherever we choose 🙂

Providing the elks and bears don’t eat us, we’ll keep you posted (from the phone again) tomorrow.

Ian and Pete.

PS, as you can see from the photo’s, all this fun has turned me and Pete into a right couple of mingers….

Road blog. Day 5 . Sweden

Took the carlsburg brewery tour yesterday it got a bit messy. an absolute must 4 any visitor 2 copenhagen. Well after two nights in a tent in copenhagen we feel ready to hit the road again. We have just rolled over 1000 miles. Ian is driving and im road blogging the technology is fantastic. Although the sat navigation is sometimes frustrating. We ended up taking a ferry over 2 sweden as opposed 2 taking the bridge. Must not grumble though it is fantastic in cities. Car doing well although could do with a wash. staying with elvis tonight in Orebro.

An Englishman drinking Slovene beer in Denmark. Thanks to Ajda for the beer 🙂


Probably the biggest beer collection in the world, the Carlsberg brewery, Copenhagen.


I’ve put a little weight on recently…

Day 4 Germany to Denmark

Yesterday was more like an acid-trip than a road-trip. Cheap, surreal, funny and at times quite scary. Yesterday, I caught Pete, dressed as one of the Village People trying to strangle Florian (aka wigman) who was dressed as a gollywog! leaving that weirdness behind we got to the German border where I tested positive (twice) for drug usage. You can imagine my face after the second test the mean looking customs guy leant into the window and said 'so, you take H'. You can also imagine my concern as he took me off to his office and got some rubber gloves out. Thankfully for everyone, they were only used to wipe a thing on my neck which proved that, i'm not a junkie after all. Things are a little better in Denmark but we're camping in a fortress, have been attacked by huge dog-like flying things and 3 dudes in suits just walked into the tent next to us. Maybe the Danish see camping as a serious business? …naturally we ended the day drinking Slovene beer
and eating tinned peaches. Today we're invading Copenhagen. We'll keep you posted. Ian. Ps a woman just walked passed pete and shouted 'nice box'


Me and the Queen – Lubeck, Germany


Florian, pretending he’s a real actor


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