Sorry Lloyd in Omsk

Firstly I hope Justin had a good birthday happy 30th, I suspect many a good drink was drank my many a person in full celebration mode, speaking of which congratulations are in order to Ade and Amanda. just wait 9 months until you knee deep in nappies.

Well as the title says im in Omsk, After a couple of days in St Petersburg wandering the sights and the streets taking lots of photos and trying not to spend any money, followed by another couple of nights in Moscow where the hostel was much better and cheaper so the wallet allowed me to spend an interesting and amusing night out at the B2 club with a fellow English speaker (well American), Oscar, which was well worth the navigation of Moscows subway system in all its fancifull decorations and arcitecture, and even worth the tiredness the following day probably from all the dancing with nice Russian law students and getting in at about 7am could have contributed.

Well the day after was battery problembs with the car, after being parked up for two days at 10C below or so. Fortunatly with the aid of Oscar and our minimal knowladge of Russian we managed between us to blag a jump start from a ruski, however, it as always cost money.

So then after 2500km of mad drivers who haven't found out how to dim headlights, witnessing a number of accidents or aftermath's thereof and missing a few head on collitions, one of wich resulted in the car taking a trip down a small ditch and a bad puncture / rip in the wall of my nearly newish snow tires. that cost me another lump of money and a night of little progress spent sleeping in the car followed by a morning sorting out the acquisition and replacement of said tire, hence my spare is also now a snow tire.

Well i haven't time to post pics now as have found out that im another 3hrs behind, im on Moscow time which is 19:30 but Omsk time is 22:30, so time to set my watch and consider what to do about sleep tonight, after 4 nights in the car i may try to find cheap accomodation as i could do with a shower, clean clothes and a bed but if not i may just continue driving, its another 2500km to Irkukst and from there probably another 1000km to Ulan Bataar.

Sorry Chris i made it to St Petersburg. 7K miles on the clock

Well it took a while, mainly because i wasted 1hr getting out of Riga, due to road works and poor / no signs, and each time I asked somone for directions they politely pointed me the wrong way. (nice)

had to get snow tyres in Estonia as the roads were very snowy around the boarder. They cost about 75 pound for the four and fitting which wasn't bad, everyone at the garage thinks im insane as I answerd Mongolia to the obvious question of "where are you going?".

Also spent about 4hrs at the boarder getting into Russia. They had minimal english skills and my russian consists of "hello" and "do you speak english". along with "i dont understand".

That went well.
I was taken from guard to guard, booth to booth trying to answer all the questions about my car and where I was going and why. They also think i'm insane. in fact at one point i thought they may have asked for the men in white coats... they didn't.

So after smiling politely for what seemed an eternity and filling out forms left, right and center and taking them to another office to get stamped then another office/ booth for another stamp and then waiting, and more waiting...and a bit more for good measure... it went on a for a while.
The smile still remained although secretly inside I had a compulsion to jump up and down, tear my hair out and hit a few of them, ( I resisted the urge, it would only delay things more and i was starting to tire).
They were however very nice and even offerd me Vodka whilst sorting the insurance / road tax, I declined exspecting to get pulled over the instant i moved the car.

So when finaly the last stamp was placed neatly on the last little bit of paper and filed at the correct office/ booth they let me in to Russia. and that when the real fun started.

I proceeded to avoid total disaster on the roads, (some bumpy snowy thing between 15-30ft wide with a scattering of pothole's like some acne ridden teenager escaped from the loacal Mcdonalds.) dodging oncoming lorrys. It felt like what ice-hockey in wellington boots may feel like, Your never totaly sure your in control as the road keeps jumping about the place like a frog on LSD, too make matters worse there are only two lanes but nobody has told anyone else this so you frequently end up with three or four cars abrest the two (albeit sometimes wide lanes) narrowly averting near catastrophe by the narrowest of margins. Its even better when the three of the bigger trucks perform this stunt and some daring car driver tries to squeeze between them.
and running through my mind i have "They asked me all those questions, and they just let all these idiots on the road, this country surely is insane".

So I'm now in St Petersburg, last night I slept in the car, am at a hostel tonight and possibly tomorrow night then Moscow for a night and driving so many miles after am not sure when i will get a chance to update the site.

Have just worked out im drinkinbg baltika or "балтика" in russian, are 12 differnt kindes, just had number 6 which is like a porter and similat to Old Peculiar, #9 next, lonely planet says its lethal and 16.5% proof. o joy. i can feal my mind slowly slipping sidways already. or am i about to fall of the chair. Just wait till i get on the Vodka.

North from Poland and onwards towards St Pertersburg

Well from Morski oko i ventured up to Krakow where i took the car to a auto service to get it looked at, Ended up costing me a bit as needed the drums replacing and one of the valves had gone also, but at least the brakes work now and the cars in good shape to tackle the cold.
Whilst the car was in the garage i wandered around Krakow for a few days trying not to spend any money, I did however go to a recital of Chopin's music, went around most of the city's major sights but didn't get to the Salt mines or Auschwitz, which just gives me an excuse to go back at some point.

An Irish lad also named James who I'd meet in Zarkopane joined my wanderings and after the car was fixed we decided to drive north to Warsaw, unfortunately this coincided with the Poland Independence day festivals so stopping in Warsaw was going to be expensive as all the cheap accommodation was all booked, after very little thought we decided it best to keep driving so after 24hrs and lots of miles on bumpy roads with suicidal truck drivers we ended up in Riga, which has along with a nice old town has one of the highest rates of automobile accidents and fatalities in Europe, and where everything except the accommodation appears more expensive than in Poland.

However tomorrow i will venture forth to Russia where i will need to avoid the police bribes and everyone else who will inevitably try to rip me off. (such is life in eastern Europe).

I have just updated flikr with loads more photos, from Budapest and Poland.
With luck i will get to St Petersburg at some point late tomorrow evening. as for now I'm going to try and take some photos of the old town and have an early night in preparation for the long drive and perhaps try to learn a bit of Russian for the inevitable getting stopped by police.

P.S . Graham the lasses are, as in poland, easy on the eye.

morski oko, who needs the alps.

Well had a great day today, and have a big smile on my face.
Went up to Morski Oko which is a 8km walk up a road, alternatively you can get a ride up in a horse drawn cart. not exactly my style though.
From there I went over towards a couple of higher lakes (Predni staw Polski and Wielki Straw Polski ) which involved one and half hours trudging up the hillside above the pine, through snow which was knee deep in places.
UnfortunatelyI didn't get many good pics as the sky stopped overcast until i started heading down, when it did finaly clear the view up to Kozi Wierch and surrounding peaks made the trip.

Probably did about 20+km and was racing against the setting sun which hung on the horizon as i rushed to get back down to the main track and out to the car before it eventually vanished behind the Tatras and the darkness crept up through the forest's and onto the peaks.
I felt like a child at christmas running down the hillside and throught the pine forest's beneath, glissading over the snow and jumping branches which had succumbed from gravity and the weight of snow deposited on them.

The scenery was awsome, like somthing out Lewis' cronicals of Narnia with thick pine forests branches heavliy laden bowing down over the path and the Tatras coverd in fresh snow, wooden mountin huts sat next to tranquil tarns and bubbling streams.
I wish i had more time to exsplore this wonderland and I'll definatily be coming back here. perhaps with ice tools to tackle some of the formidable looking buttresses'. but im content for now.... i think.

well Bratislava was fun but onwards and upwards.

well this is Bratislava , as you can see the locals look a bit rough. fortunately not all were this hideous and a great night out was had with some Aussies. which ended about 5:30am.

Bratislava has lots of strange street art which is really amusing, just a few samples.

it also has all the usual run of the mill stuff, church, castle, market, im getting a little bored with them now as iv seen so many that they all start looking the same, i know i should be more enthusiastic and i'm hopeful the change of scenery in the tatras will resolve that, also it will give a chance for the wallet to recover from the expense's that inevitably come with stopping in major towns. I even splashed out and purchased another top which makes me look like a hippy.

I walked up Slavkovsy Stit today which give a fascinating view of the surrounding peaks. its about 2450 meters so a gain of 1440 in just over 8km which makes it a nice walk but very warm in the briught sun of today.




whilst iv been typing the cafe has slowly filled out and im now surrounded by folks from all different countrys, it looks like some lecture or film or somthing is going to take place, well thats about all for now.