This is just a short hand diary copied from the 'smitty and andy's russia and finland adventure diary'. It's just what we did bullet points pretty much--to jog our minds to remind us of what it was all about when we read this 20 years down the road. Click on the pics for each day's best photos.

Up a bit later than planned. Went up the tower at the Olympic stadium we were staying in. Japanese ladies--sugoi! Walked around the lakes into town via crazy sculptures including wind power sculptures!! Cup of tea and covert peanut butter on bread outside restaurant.
Went to the market by the docks and waited for the boat to the fortress. Fortress--lots of cool guns, mission to climb wall to break into fortress--successful. Back to land, bet shopping trolley coin op free bikes. Ride through the square and the park then nip into botanical gardens. Race back, grab ship to the zoo island. Animals all asleep (if in the cage at all!). Big sea eagles, reindeer, lazy lions, oh and its supposed to be one of the most northerly zoos in the world. Back to land, pizza for tea, all you can eat my arse. But did get a litre glass of beer! (for a hefty price of course). Wrong tram again, finally get home, plan tomorrow on weird sofa.

Gun at the fortress - click for day's gallery

Up pretty late. Went to museum of contempory art--weird cinema stuff, 3d stuff, some cool sculptures then design forumn (the shop was bigger than the museum!).Good stories of design house startups. Then finnish supermarket experience for lunch then Art and design museum. Cool product development displays of finsek tool design and manufacture. Lots of styled chairs too. Went to use our helsinki card to gain free access to the amusement park--denied! Then big white building--andy does rocky running up steps. Rainbow.
Went to Helsinki SU--supposed to be first day for the first years! Lame--very non eventful and well expensive beer. Big shot putter dude brings trophy to show his new housemates.
Home, cook went to on the rocks to see band--band not start till later so back to SU for another pint. When went into the on the rocks place had a pint in the bar then went down into the club--crazy! - blackjack table with proper croupier down there and a fountain! (so wouldn't happen in england) Saw an ACE band called passionworks (supporting someone else, who also rocked). Great seat. ! Spoke to crazy dancing girl--turned out to be a friend of the first band's lead singer (lovely lady). Asked for CD--after much time spoke to crazy girl again, she said the singer was flattered d someone from england was interested in her music--then got introduced to her as leaving. Got cd! She was called harry and was ace!. Andy--found website with pics from that night! - http://members.surfeu.fi/ethlinn/pws/   their cd is ace too
Found coin and ride bikes! Tipsy, bumpy ride as far as the sports area before the hostel stadium. Bike kept derailing. Home, lots of peanut butter and nutella on bread.

Rainbow! - click for day's gallery

Up 8:10! For train to lapreenranta. 3hr journey on ace train- kids playpen, american diner style buffet car, double decks, amazing bike racks, tvs, family room (best concept). Arrive, goto campsite--ace ace ace wooden huts, go for walk--ski jump then lunch on the jetty. Into lapreentranta for a wander and to book the ferry to russia tomorrow. Then to dull fortress, daydreaming on stone table, supermarket. Back to campsite, hire row boat/ row to island with cool cabins and sauna on it! Completely empty. Cold tinned ravioli, meatballs and lovely corn in a tin and andy's beer for tea on island with sunset. Back at 9. Sit in hut and write postcards and chat--really good chilled out evening, then advance

Tea on the island - click for day's gallery

Up 5:15am to get 6:15 bus to town. Get to harbour, wait, cup of tea, drop banana on tea. 8am on boat--4 groups of people in the bar all drinking! Beautiful lake islands and wood power station--wooden bails floating on water everywhere! Stopped at first loch for frinch leaders to come through (or maybe not). Had cool escort of 3 dudes on jetskis who opened the locks. 9:30 folk singer starts playing and singing russian and finnish songs.
Arrive in russia! 1 hr in customs. Find money exchange. Paranoid about duded following us. Goto hostel--ace boat--room like sleeper train--wooden. (right next to 24h bar!!) Went to castle--closed! Then go to lonely planet's nice park, no map--"1km this way" - my arse--rabid dogs 1km this way and well dodgy area with sheds.
To heiniken pub for £2 beer! Walkaround. Find champion pub and food!American dude hels us out with the menu. Great food. Back to boat hostel. Chatted to girl and squaddie. Sly stallone F1 movie on. Vodka--in a whiskey glass!!. Andy not want one. Wasted, feel sick, pace around deck waiting to chunder, goto bed. Then andy pulls twice--one a hooker in a viking boat!. Some dude gestures don't go anywhere with her! (all assumed and alledged.) 24 hour bar! And something about the cheeky girls.

Waiting for the boat to russia - click for day's gallery

Up to the sound of the bird behind the hostel desk banging on the door at 12:30. Andy major hangover--went to bed 6am (me about 3.30). Andy would not shut up about 24 hour bar! A-team hangover music. Andy plays mallets mallet with himself and talks garbage. Metal shower--douche. Out 2pm. Finnish dude offers us a lift in a shop to st petersberg. No thanks. Train. Sleep.
St petersberg--andy sleep, me goto park get tea and danish pastry and watch the world go by for 1 hour then kip for 20 mins--so nice and peaceful. Back. Out. Quality walk into nevsky pr. And to lenin's mating call restaurant. Porn on tvs, UV toilets, waitresses dressed as wartime nurses with red fishnets and well short skirts--ACE!! Metal lenin heads everywhere--cool. Home, pepsi, andy bed, sat in reception and read because woman behind desk had nice music on.

Andy's hangover - click for day's gallery

Up 11:30. Yoghurt, croissant and juice. War boat--closed. Fortress--st pauls? Walked on battlements. Standing sunbathers. Cool posters. Engineering / craftmenship building. Space room--huge engines--well complicated! Replica landing capsule from space rocket. Sputnick. Period drama going on outside--herded away. Peter the great statue--small head. Walked to bridge together, andy goes to inet café, I go for walk--milees and miles to a park that looked nice on the map. Found ace beach on way--lovely sleep--lots of volley ball going on. Went on to rubbish park, was ill internally--results in emergency in-park measures. Stomach hurt lots. Found an Olympic stadium--music blaring outside, millions of roller bladers and formula 3 circuit--loads of bladers and cyclists going round and round it. It was huge! Looked like loads of fun! Walked so far, back at 10 after finding babylon supermarket on way home. Cook food, spoke to 2 duded from italy.

Tallest building in St Peters' - click for day's gallery

Mini st basils--still amazing - click for day's gallery

Up 10:30. Pack, leave. Get to station, nice lady shows us the way. Sit outside in café for a long long wait. Write this. On to novgorod. Arrive 8pm. Find hotel, mystery smoke rolling off grassy bank! TV in hotel room! Off to formal restaurant--3 pairs, one dancing. Too much meaty soups! Complete with caboret singers too! Rocket launcher programme then film programme. Sleep.

No pics today

Up 12. To fortress aftertrip to english speaking tourist information. Nice helpful lady then points the way to a bistro in the park--minging chicken for breakfast, nice potato puree though. Inside gthe fortress went to ancient runes on fake stone museum and very sweet lady gived us a booklet on swqedish pop music because it's the only thing she has in english! Cool photo gallery in another room though. Cool ice pic and yellow leaves. Then looked round a few souveniur shops. Ace old church, bell tower, metal cake.. Glimpse of viaduct and saw a wedding with the couple throwing some doves into the sky. Then bus to the the monastry but couldn't get into the wooden monastry area as too late. Nice lake there too, and a windmill! Craft market. Home, sleep. Restaurant, bar--eggplant rolls and volcano!- (chicken cone on fire!) home and via bar and watched sneakers in russian on tv.

Wind power! - click for day's gallery

11am bus. Get dropped off near to the market in valdai, tried to find where to go on a big map. Old dude spoke to us. Try to find TI centre--no luck but andy does speak to a taxi driver who says he can get us there. Get a ride, try to draw map of our route (taxi driver was most amused) gave up after 10 mins! Long way away. Bit worried. Arrive, 20 mins of gate keeper and driver talking russian to us and waiting. Finally woman comes and we get in. Room is cool, balcony too- nice view of lake from end of balcony. TV again, with mtv! Watch tv, check out hotel meal times--full board! Then forest walk, then read by lake for a bit. Tea time at 7 then bar. Mistakenly choose non alcoholic 'Buckler'. Get couple of beers in and go and play a weird russian pool. Really small pockets, 15 white balls all numbered and it seems you can hit any of the balls looking at the people next to us. Oh and a huge table too. AND a huuuuge sofa! Long enough for 10 people. Hotel dancefloor! Back to room, eat shed loads of biscuits, MTV, playboy TV and advanced wars on Gameboy.

The lake outside the hotel - click for day's gallery

Up for breakfast (just me). Minging chicken stuff again. Long bath and shower and read. Then go down to lake and explore a bit--find café and grab a cup of tea and sit and read and listen to a 10 yerar old girl do some peace shattering karaoke from inside the café! Hire boat, row to valday's lake--see a cool monastry and hear some amazing bells as the clock strikes the hour. Music and advance wars in boat, swat draqgonfly, phil's mario kart cartridge ends up in lake! Try to get down a river on the map--denied. Such a beautiful dat, so relaxing, amazing trees. Back just in time for tea. Eve--to café by the lake for 6.9% beers--0.5l for 60p! And loads of crisps. Try to go and see stars but cloudy. Back, TV and pack.

Boating adventure! - click for day's gallery

Grab breakfast and arrange for a taxi. Man with one eye hassles andy while waiting for the taxi to come. T valdai in taxi, then 'hold on' , then driver gets out, walks into a building and comes out with a lady. He gestures us to get out the car and follow them--hmmm. Write down reg plate (rucksacks still in car). And follow. Are led into a building--looks bit like police station, go upstairs, turns out to be a school. They get a teacher out to translate english for them! Taxi driver offers us a price to bologne--take it. 40mins journey and he helps us with the time table and finding a train to moscow. 5 hour wait. Hassled by loads of wine-o's who smell bad and talk to you right up against your face. And one lady had a major facial hair problem. By some cards, all porn cards except britney ones, buy britney, but cards go from ace king queen down to the 6's then there's no more cards in the deck! But as a bonus the ace of hearts has britney topless on it! On train about 5pm. Arrive 9. Find hostel, fair walk. Hostel is ace--I-net, 4 to a dorm. Talked to russian bloke about oil industry and irish couple. All nice people.

No pics today

Up out by 1030. Subway, bolshoii theatre, walk around--which one is it? On to red square. Then lenins tomb. Ion kremlin- bell, cannon, cathedrals, went inside one, nice, old paintings all over. Oh and went in st basils--couldn't find way into main room. Armoury and gold rooms--Faberge eggs, gold old tracey island and all corination carriages--oh and wind up trans sib train in Faberge egg! GUM shopping centre--pretty high class stores. Russian fast food place on high walkway. Off to craft market, then also to biggest market I've ever seen, ever. Much getting hassled. Got binoculars! Ace!!. Beer on balcony in upstairs of a restaurant complete with sauna, sofa and pole dancing pole in front of it! Ace--(empty though). Off to sculpture park. Back to hostel. Off to english pub--v. expensive. Home via tube. Back late.. Sleep

Sculpture park - click for day's gallery

Out by 11. To awesome military museum--MIGs, cool missiles and interesting museum about russian military history. Long walk there. After lunch (including chocholate and nuts on 4 pancakes! Ohh baby! Then to sparrow hills to get view over the whole of moscow--bit misty though--had good play with binoculars then get tube, part ways, go to banya--ye olde russian bath house. Hit yourself with leafy oak branches soakes in oil! Sauna upstairs--cool. And cold pool to go into--so cold. Did sauna / pool cycle 5 times. Also bar in there! Back, met dude from birmingham uni (works there) briefly. Out to peking duck chinese restaurant. Eat meal--not very chinese--turns out the chinese is upstairs. But well nice pizza and salad. On to tourist trap bar. Spent ages trying to find the bunker club. Went to B2 instead for live music.. Beer then decide band sounds lame (can hear it) and £8 to go in (and only one band). Ask lady who works there if there are any good nights at the other clubs in lonely planet. We point to the first one--she says yes--that;s good tonight. Get taxi there. Dead! No music (although it is 1:30 when we get there). Beers, pistachios and white russians--bella ruski (after much explaining and pointing to things behind the bar). Cool place though--and the bar is an aeroplane wing! Going round town looking for a taxi home and avoiding the police, also go to red square to see cathedral lit up. Back about 4am.

More cool military stuff - click for day's gallery

Up 9. Breakfast. Go to shop to get supplies, taxi late, chat to english guy in lounge while waiting--trying to get a place in moscow for 2 months. 1.5 hour drive to airport. All goes to plan. Cups of tea and expensive sandwiches. Great food on plane and tv's !! Hurrah. Get to airport in uk. Say bye to andy, go to bus station at Terminal 4--says I wait here for reading rail link. No joy after 40 mins, go and ask, they say a white bus should have been to the stop to take people to Terminal 3 to another reading bus stop. Wait 20 more minutes. Time running out. Get train to Terminal 3. Wait another 30 mins--finally it comes. Get to reading. No way I can get a train home now because its so late--have great idea to stay at katy's. check there's no trains, taxi to katy's. look at some pics and cup of tea!!

Waiting at the airport - no gallery

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