In Latvia heading Lithuania

02/08/12

   Went out to find a new back tyre and some new boots, and some shoes.... I managed to find out that tyres are expensive here so are boots and shoes lol. Yes I bought nothing except some wine.

03/08/12

   Decided to head down to Helsinki as Harri and Elana had a parent coming over and family meeting in the weekend. Was a very easy 170km ride got into Helsinki nice and early so checked into the euro hostel which is near the ferry departure point. Only 26euro for a dorm bed, yes that sounds a lot until you realise there is only 2 beds in the room, so not too bad really.

Tampere from the tower

Beleive it or not... this is 09:00 ie rush hour in Tampere

   I went out for a few drinks to see the night life on a Friday, nice enough although they do not sell pints only 400ml in a pint glass???

04/08/12

   Relaxed most of the day, went and got a ferry ticket to Tallinn for tomorrow 58 euro one way with the bike.

Some of the sights in Helsinki

Who wants double glazing, get triple it's even better.

05/08/12

   Once in Estonia the GPS doesn't work as I do not have the eastern Europe map...mmmm back to paper for a little while but not the biggest countries here so that shouldn't be a problem. I managed to find a camp ground near to town, but as it is a Sunday getting the bike done was out.

On the ferry to Estonia

06/08/12

   Headed to the bike shop and got a new back tyre, also found the back brake pads where done so changed them as well, this all cost less than the tyre in Tampere 221euro. I'm presently sitting at a place in the old town waiting for the rain to stop, probably will go tomorrow now as the tent will be wet...

I hope they didn't Poo up the job.

He's a bit camp this guy.

Some of the sights from old town Tallinn

The new flag, i'm starting to get a few of them now.

07/08/12

   Headed west out of Tallinn toward Rakvere, mostly motorway so nothing to spectacular, but then still running in the new back tyre. From Rakvere I head south to Tartu. I've noticed than almost all the pine trees here have the bark worn off above a couple of meters, I don't know if this is just the type of pine or a decease, or animal/insect related. I have found a couple of trees that did not. One had a rap around it similar to what you see on power polls in New Zealand to stop people/animals climbing them, in the same group of trees I did find one other tree with almost all it's bark? There is nothing major in the line of poo at the bottom of the trees so maybe it is natural...

   Anyway in Tartu I had trouble finding a camp ground so headed south a little further to Elva where there was a camp ground.

08/08/12

   Headed down to Riga which was a slow ride as most of the road is down to one way sections with traffic lights well they build a new road. Riga is a bit like Tallinn with a lovely old town area, and like Tallinn this makes it harder to find a place to stay where you can park the bike outside the hostel. So town camp ground again, although this one didn't have the very helpful lady that was at the Tallinn one.

Old town Riga

09/08/12

   Spent the day walking around old town and even found a Kiwi bar lol, so yes I spent some time there too having a sausage roll and bacon and egg sandwich lol. Of course this Kiwi bar is owned by an Aussie and a Pome lol, even when overseas they like to pretend they are from a great country hahahaa.

The Kiwi Bar

I'm guessing there is a spider and fly on the top but could not see them.

   Went into the St Paul's church and was a bit disappointed, you had to pay around $8US and got quickly pushed up the stairs where there are less and less photos of what the place looked like after the war until on the top floor there is 2 photos and a locked door to the viewing area.....

  So unfortunately I didn't go into the dome one which I found out later is suppose to have a wonderful pipe organ, bugger.

   I'm also really struggling with my boots, they are shot big time, hopefully I can make it to Germany where I will buy some more maybe even some new pants as they aren't so good any more either. In fact most of my gear is showing almost 2 years worth of constant ish work... strange that.

10/08/12

   Road down to Liepaja as it was on the coast and sounded nice for a relax, mmm well when I got here I discovered that there is the Fontaine Music Festival on for 3 night. So after telling the hotel lady I wanted to stay in the room for 3 nights now instead of one I headed out to see the bands. They don't seem to do music festivals quite the same here, this one started at 22:00 on the Friday night finishing at around 05:00 mmmmm. So after being up since 08:00 ish in Riga I made it to bed around 11:00 with a lot of beer in me lol

11/08/12

mmmm Eggs, mushroom, bread and that was hard work so nap time, the lovely lady from the hostel was nice enough to take this for me.

   Got up at around 21:00 and didn't feel to hot lol, but I made it down to the festival to see Louie Fontaine, unfortunately I was too tyred by 02:30 to see anyone else so come back to the hostel to sleep, I must be getting old or something.

12/08/12

   Feeling much better today so went for a walk along the beach then up into town as I needed a new power converter plug, somehow ended up leaving my in the Kiwi pub in Riga...

So sculptures in Liepaja

Have to say another special thankyou to Harri and Elana for letting me stay and also for taking me out to a Finnish sauna. Hope to see you next time and go to your summer place in the lake.

Enjoy your life