Lida-Pida

Day 1 – Tuesday, July 19

Yeah, it seems that Vuosaari Satama is the most hidden place in the world! How hard it is to find a harbour? It seems that 5 people and 3 navigators are sometimes not enough:) Luckily Google maps helped. The evening on the boat was pretty boring and the weather windy, boys were speaking only Finnish, but the cabin was really nice:) First time I was facing the same view as the captain of the ferry (or at least almost the same;)).

Day 2 – Wednesday, July 20

Funny waking up when Konsta opened the curtain:) Everybody had faces worth the best painters:)))) After breakfast I was sleeping all day before getting off to the shore. After that started something which I would not even expect. No, I knew that Poland is a crazy country, but I didn't think it was even more crazy that Russia. 3 cars in a 2 lane road - totally natural thing! It even stopped to be amusing in a while! On the other hand, everything was cheap! Lower prices for better gasoline (no ethanol!). Eating in a tavern - 10 euros for 2 people incluting noodle soup starter, fried fish with boiled potatoes for the main course and mineral water and beer to drink. The same in the food store. Actually, speaking about driving, we were also driving like crazy trying to find our way out of this country:) Finally late evening, we are in Germany! Immediately better roads and cleaner neighbourhoods and more expensive (than in FInland) gasoline!. The fun part was driving small roads where speed limit is 100 at night! This rerquires quite a bit of attention though! Sleeping in the car for 3 hours next to a lonely gas station.

Day 3 – Thursday, July 21

This time morning started quite early for us. 5:30 and a half an hour before the gas station opens. After filling the tanks and filling our tummies with coffee and tea we hit the German road again. The most commong thing which I observed in the German autobahns is an Audi overtaking us! Of course BMW and Mercedeses also, but Audi outnumbered all of them. Taavi even commented, that when you are buying an Audi you have to sign a contract that you will overtake all cars cheaper than yours:)))) Driving to Haren (Ems) took place next to a nice small river which we were crossing back and fourth a couple of times. Most of the drive we were following annoying fuel trucks which were neither turning anywhere nor driving fast. Visiting the ”local mafia boss” (as Taavi said) in Wessels Reederei went fine! A nice little office at the end of a nice little road. Our further journey turned quite unexpected:) Ville had a friend in a little town called Ter Apel (of course the name of the plece is which I liked most and expected to see a lot of apples, which I didn't!). The scheme of the town was very simple! The major part (at least as far as we could see and we may be wrong) was located along a narrow chanal a single layer of houses on both sides. Further? Fields! Btw the typical smell of the highly agriculturel Central Europe is the smell of (to say it nicely) natural soil fertilizers:). So we stayed overnight in Ter Apel in the yard of a very very hospitable Dutch family:). Btw as a pet they had a goose who has survived already several fox attacks and seems to be a really tough guy!. An interesting question which came to my mind was why nobody is walking in this small town? Even the pavements aren't really always good. I found an answer quite easily! The bridges over the chanal were so seldom that it would be a hell to get to the other side by walking if you are unlucky with your location:) If you for example meet your friend but mix up the side you will have to walk a kilometer or two screaming things to each other over the canal!
The evening was quite cold and Taavi, Konsta and I went to sleep quite early while the rest of the boys were still tasting Dutch beer (at least that'r what I understood on the next morning;)).

Day 4 – Friday, July 22

Friday lazy morning...Actually the morning starded at around 3am, then the mixed up naighbours' cock started to scream like mad with 20 second pauses... But after a while I managed to fall asleep again. The temperature at night went down to 8 degrees! After waking up, packing all the stuff and thanking the host family we hit the road towards Amsterdam. It was recommended not to drive to the downtown but leave the cars next to a small railway station in Zaandam Kogersomething:) After long and really annoying ”labour” of whether how to go to the downtown and to which direction, finally, the decision was born to take a train to the direction (sirprise - surprise) ”downtown”... Visiting Amsterdam if I had to give one adjective was horrible! So many people and no clear plan made the visit almost useless and quite tiring. Taking into consideration also the lack of time everything what we managed to do was eating in a Spanish restaurant where I was served a tomato soup with meat (who would ever have thought that! But maybe I am not totally familiar with the Spanish quisine...). Yeah, Taavi had to eat my soup and I had to order another one... In general I wasn't at all impressed by the coffeeshops and sexshops which were plentifully distributed in Amsterdam. We didn't even manage to reach the Red Light District! So another adjective for the visit would be ”useless”:))) Finally, our visit was spiced with taking the wrong train which unfortunately didn't stop on our stop but took us all the way to Hoorn whichtook us over 20 minutes only one way. In Hoorn I desparately tasted Dutch waffels from a vending machine. This actually made my day! Even though they contain 40% of sugar:) The next destination was Belgium. The drive was really nice, the roads even nicer! Our camping place was located next to a pond in the neighbourhood of ”container summer cottages”, as I called those for myself. Amazed by the density of the little houses around the pont I told Taavi, that real summer cottages chould be only two, one here, and the other on the other side of the pond:). The highlight of the evening was competing in speed tent installation. Konsta - 10 seconds, the rest... well we stopped counting after Konsta.