Day 1 in Finland

Saturday’s riding

Start:  1    N60 44 13.9 E28 45 25.3 (Russia)

Destination:  N61 53 38.8 E27 49 21.2 (Finland)

Distance:  279 km

Sunday’s riding

Start:  1    N61 53 38.1 E27 49 21.2 (Finland)

Destination:  N64 33 29.1 E26 50 14.0  (Finland)

Distance:  349 km

Good evening from Finland!

Getting out of Russia was not so easy as getting into Russia.

There were long queues of cars and passengers waiting to clear customs and immigrations. Each time when the Russians got to me and my documents everything came to a halt. Especially at immigrations to lady paged continuously through my passport and looked at the different visa. Later I had to remove my glasses so that she could have a better look at me..

It is true. I don’t look like the person in the passport anymore. He is clean-shaven and has short hair. The immigrations lady called then a superior and he took my passport away for at least twenty minutes. And in that time the queue stood still. I smiled to the people behind me and rolled my eyes but for some strange reason no-one returned my smile. Perhaps they hates queues as much as I do 🙂

The roads in Finland are really good, even the gravel roads but the petrol is more than 200% more expensive than in Russia. In Russia it was under R 8,00 a liter while in Finland more than R 17.00!!

What can I say about Finland after only two days? The land of lakes and more lakes and forests stretching as far as the eye can see. And there is so little traffic on the roads!!

I should get to the Arctic Circle (N 66.33) tomorrow afternoon.

The road circled through forests and past canola and wheat fields. It was relaxed riding after the heavy traffic of Russia.

I came to this strange barricade of rocks that stretched over many kilometers.

Finland and Russia fought a bitter war during the Second World War and it was here where Molotov cocktails came into use, devised by the Finnish soldiers and effectively used against the Russian tanks. Read the history of the Molotov cocktails on Wikipedia, very interesting.

One of the many lakes I passed on Saturday.

At a camping site I got this log room which was a very good shelter against the rain coming down. It was cold during the night and I slept with my jeans on and two t-shirts.

The lake at the camping site just before the rain came.

Today I received a beautiful email and two photographs from Ekaterinburg in Asian Russia. The evening at the birthday party I met a young teacher who spent a month in South Africa end of last year. The country (and a special gent from Cape Town) touched her heart but a relationship is nearly impossible.

Today Yekaterina (or short Katya) shared the good news with me:  She committed herself to the Christian religion and let her baptized last Sunday!

Katya at her baptizing ceremony.

Blessing on blessings to you Katya!!