Finland, Shengen zone....

Hello from Helsinki !

I just arrived this afternoon on a fresh afternoon, 15 C degrees, few rain events. But i did arrive with a lift, by car from Kotka. Let me explain you how after i describe my previous days....

Last wednersday, july the 1st, i left St Petersburg. It was easy 'cause I had a good city map, and i could find the M10 quite easyly. M10, motorway, but let's say the only kind of good roads in Russia...
I had seen a sign on the road map, about a camping site at around 100 kn fron St Petersburg, and had been looking forward to testing an official Russian camping...
So I took the M10 on most of the way, going on a smaller road, the A 122, for some 18 km or so. Just an idea, but when on the M10 i could ride 24 km an hour without any problem, on the A 122 the speed went down to 15 km/h moslty because of holes everywhere...
After i found the M10 again, i saw on my russian map a secondary road, but supposed to be quite wide and used, going along a lake. As it was 4pm i decided to take it, and went to Pushnoye town, then starded to ride along a gravel / dirt road... why not. Reaching the lake (beautiful, with poeple swimming and with lovely little summer cottages), the road started to be sand road... and this lasted 9 km, that i took around 1.5 hours to complet, and during which i met 3 cars... You can imagine i was a bit surprised and not so comfident on my itinerary...
After the 1.5 hours, i kind of found a crossroad i was expecting, but guess what ? Instead of leading to a city center, it was just entering a wild garbage dump ! So i looked around a bit more and finally found the city center, thanks god i was not lost !

Then it was time to look for the camping site, but when i arrived to the supposed place and asked if it was possible to camp (thanks to gestures and the help of my conversation book!), i only had 'niet'as a reply... so continued my way and found a great place to wild camp around 3 small lakes, where i could also make a fire !

On Thursday morning i took the direction of Vybork and the Russian / Finish border.

I visited a bit Vyborg, i was told about the castle and the Swedish booted out of the place by Peter (Russian). I also had a diner for 150 Roubles, and escaped few rain showers. Then i reached the very close border, and decided to spend my Roubles to stay in a hostel and have a bit of comfort.

I got a bit surprised and disappointed when 2 hostels refused me because my visa was not 'ok', and my registration (the one i had paid 800 roubles for in st Petersburg in order to be clean in case the police stopped me) was un-complete ! So i finally wild camped another time... in a field 200 meters away from the main road.

On Friday norning the 3rd, around 11 am, i arrived to the last check point before the border. I cahnged my Roubles to Euros, then spend the rest i had for a tea, and started to ride in front of all the cars... no way, i would not wait 8 hours to cross the border !
Arriving at the pasport check point, everything went right... so why did the hostels did not want to have me in ?
Then i had to open my paniers for a rapid check of what was in, but just a chack because they had to, nothing serious.

Around 1 pm i was in Finland, recieved the traditional SMSs on the mobile phone to say you have changed the country etc... then crossed the Finish check point without a problem.

Less than 1 km after i saw a road sigh i had not seen since 2 weeks, the one with a white bike and a white human beeing in a blue circle, to specify a bicycle way ! Finland, a civilised country ;)
Less than 4 km after that, a second surprise... a sign to indicate an official caming place (event if in Finland it is possible for everyine to camp at more than 150 m from a private house, even if the land is a private land).

In the evening, around 5:30 (Russian time, i had forgotten to change my clocks and put 1 hour less), i arrived to my host's place and expected to find him home as he was supposed to be there at 5pm. But there was no one... I waited a bit and saw him arriving, then understook only few minutes after that i had forgotten to change my clock's time.

Juho made me feel comfortable home and in Finland, i could have a shower and take some rest, then Anita arrived in the evening and we had diner and went for a walk around in Kotka's surrounding. I then realised that it was the 1st time in 3 month that i had left 'home' without taking my passport with me ! Shengen zone... i love you :)

On Saterday morning, as i was prepairing my stuff to go back on the road in direction of Helsinki, they suggested that i couls stay 1 more day with them, enjoy the city and that they could give me a lift to Helsinki on sunday because they actuelly had to go there by car !

So i accepted and we went to the market 1st (i saw a habit they have, to measure vegetables with liters for instance), then to the city center and the fish museum (with all the kind of fish we can find in Finland), then back home for lunch, then sauna, then rest in front of games, then some time in the local pub and time for a local Kebab !

This morning, sunday, we took the road for Helsinki and i was driven directly to the neigbourhood of Mike and Maria where i'll stay a few days to visit Helsinki...