Being in Narva a day before our visa date gave us a little time to prepare for the border crossing. And we had a fair bit to do like clean the number plates and the windscreen, do some mechanical checks and repack the car. But first was Parex Bank. We had read some info that Parex was the place to go in the Baltic States to pre-purchase third party insurance for Russia. However after a lengthy discussion ensure that we were all understanding ourselves we were informed that they did not do this. We tried Ergo a local insurance company who explained they were only authorised to issue insurance for Estonian registered vehicles. This meant that we would have to take the chance that the other stuff we had read on the internet about getting insurance at the border.

When we had arrived at Narva we had spent some time watching, trying to sus out what the system was and work out exactly how we were supposed to go about getting across. There seemed to be several random queues, some people were getting out and handing over tickets. Some were just waiting. Gem spotted some bikes with NL plates and ran over to speak to them, counting on the fact that everyone in the Netherlands that we have ever met has spoken English. Success!!! The biker confirmed that we could get the insurance at the border, but had crossed the other way at this border, so wasn’t sure about the protocol

We saw a couple of German campervans pull up confidently into one of the queues. Unfortunately they spoke only a little bit of English, but we did manage to find out that we needed a ticket and we needed to pay for it and we don’t get the ticket at the border we have to go somewhere else to get it. After driving aimlessly around town, trying to decipher the directions we received in Germ-english, we finally found a tourist office. The lady at the tourist office was amazing!!! She was able to tell us exactly what we needed to do and where to do it, so here it is:

1. On the way into town there is a turn off on the (R) to a service called Transervice
2. At the transervice either:
   1. Wait in line indefinitely to be issued with a ticket (2-12hours) for free
   2. Pay 20euro and get a ticket straight away
3. Come back to the border ‘around the side’ and join the queue
4. Give the ticket to the man in the little window

When the boom gate does go up and you finally cross into ‘border land’ you firstly stop at an Estonian check point for regular passport and vehicle checks. Once through here you drive forward and are held on a bridge for quite some time. You can get out and collect immigration cards and customs cards here, although the customs card is in Russian Only.

Once through the next boom gate and over the bridge you enter the Russian check point. This involves two parts. The first is to get out and go to the booth for passport control. The second is to drive 3m forward and park for customs. Fortunately the lead customs man was quite helpful, finding me an English customs form as well as completely filling it out for me. They put the sniffer dog over the car and pointed us to the customs window. It was here that they asked us for insurance and after a momentary panic when we said we wanted to buy it from the border and they looked at us blankly, they pointed us in the direction of an office. We were met by a lady who promptly instructed Gem to go back to the car and wait. After what seemed like forever we had insurance (about £27)(which we are unsure if it covers Gemma), had a document issued for the car (unsure whether this was something similar to a Russian Registration, or whether this is a Russian Temporary Import Document), and had been told that we could leave.

So without looking back for fear they would change their minds, we drove into Russia, with one border crossing successfully negotiated, it took about 2 hours in total. In general we had found the staff on the crossings to be quite helpful. We had also forgotten about the time difference and after winding our clocks forward another hour it was getting quite late, and for the first time since we had started we were driving in the almost dark.

We followed the street signs into St Petersburg, and using some guess work, maps that we had saved as jpegs off of google maps and sheer luck we found our hotel – Accent Hotel (no website, we booked off hostelbookers.com) The hotel is conveniently located within easy walking distance to the metro and only 2-3 stops to the centre. And it was much cheaper than other options we had noted. It had parking, and the only thing that made us a little wary was that the parking was not gated or listed as “secure”. It had video surveillance and that was all. Feeling a little nervous about this we reversed the car so that it was almost touching the wall of the hotel so that no one would be able to access the back if anyone did smash the windows. We put both the car alarms on in the hope that two flashing lights on the dash would be a better deterrent than just one.

The staff at the hotel were very helpful and even gave us service with a smile, contradicting everything that we had so far heard about Russian customer service.

We had each been quietly worrying about the Russian border crossing for weeks. I don’t think either of us realised exactly how much until our first morning, or should I say this afternoon in St Petersburg, when we finally woke up and got out of bed. Feeling slightly guilty about the lost exploring time, we lethargically and somewhat half-heartedly dragged ourselves into the town centre. I feel that our initially apathetic attitude didn’t allow us to do justice to St Petersburg when forming our first impressions.

As we wandered up Nevskiy Prospekt we were struck by how outdated tourism appeared to be. It seemed a contradiction that this bustling progressing town with high end business and fashion, appealed to tourists by offering photographs with animals: wrap a snake around your neck, hold a bear cub!?!?!? or an endangered Macaw. If exploitation of animals is not your thing then perhaps you would like a photograph of a gentleman or lady in period costume dressed as a member of Russian royalty, mind though, if you do that you don’t include feet or you will see their skate shoes. Would you like to go for a ride in a carriage resembling those used by Russian royalty? You most definitely can however the door will have to be tied shut with string, and it is a shame that the surly drive is not presented a little better – but at least the horses look well fed.

We found some postcards to send home, and found it saddening that the colours of some of the buildings have been noticeably photo-shopped to improve their appearance.

Now we are well aware that the above makes us sound like whinging tourists who don’t appreciate anything unless it is exactly like where we have come from.. and that is not so. Looking back I think that maybe we had been really looking forward to St Petersburg and had heard so much about it that our expectations for a city that emerged from Soviet Communism less than 20 years ago were not realistic. Following our initial reaction to St Petersburg over the next few days we became gradually smitten.

We explored the Cathedral of our Lady of Kazan, inspired by St Peters Basilica in the Vatican but much smaller. We checked out the Armenian (not American as Gemma first read it) Church and the Catholic Church of St Catherine which had a charming artist market out the front, and had ate outside the Gogol (famous Russian author) statue.

Turning off the Nevskiy Prospekt and walked down to the Church of the Spilled Blood which is one of the most beautiful of St Petersburg Churches with it’s technicolour domes. It was used as a storage facility for many years during the soviet rule and greatly damaged requiring more than 20 years of restoration and now it is a museum.

Behind the church was a canal with a small bridge that was serving as the background to several weddings. Oddly a man who appeared to be part of the wedding party stripped off out of his suit, dived off the bridge into the water, swam down to the embankment and got out!. We wandered through the souvenir markets admiring all the nesting dolls.

Pancakes… one of the yummiest Russian cuisine! Pancakes which are stuffed with all sorts of things such as chicken mushroom and cheese or mince meat… delicious. You could also have it stuffed with caviar should you choose, but we were not so keen on that idea. Caviar is everywhere in Russia, even on their crisps. To be adventurous we bought a bag of caviar and butter flavoured chips. It was the grossest thing we had ever tasted in our life, so the chances of getting Gem to try the real thing are minimal. Everything that is Russian and is stuffed is good (as long as it is not stuffed with Caviar), stuffed pastry, stuffed pasta dumpling thingies… all good.

The hotel didn’t have a washing machine that we could use, they were happy to accept our money to do our laundry there is something not quite right about having other people washing your unmentionables. So instead we washed them in bucket in our room. Fortunately our un-air conditioned room was perfect for drying them quickly.

After a little hiccup with metro, we could not get off at our stop so had a long walk ahead of us to pick up our ballet tickets. From there we walked to the Peter and Paul Fortress on a little island in the Neva. It is a beautiful little island with churches and dungeons and the Royal mint. From here we walked around the neva past some beautiful old ships that have since been turned into restaurants and past the naval museums

Although we hadn’t been there yet we were able to immediately recognise the Hermitage in particular the winter palace from the other side of the river. The riverscape was beautiful with the magnificent 18^th and 19^th century buildings sitting aloft.

We crossed the river and headed for the world famous Mariinskiy Theatre. When it first opened in 1860 it was the biggest stage in the world. It was known as the Kirov Theatre during the soviet era, and apparently is ‘the’ place to see the ballet in St Petersburg.

The theatre itself was beautiful, more intricate carvings and gilting and an amazingly lush and decorative stage curtain. We were sitting in the Presidential box, front and centre – which was not where we had intended to go. We had originally planned to see Spartacus in a different theatre however we received an phonecall from the booking agent stating that that performance had been cancelled and replaced with swan lake. As much as the idea of seeing the famous swan lake appealed to us it is a performance that is over three hours long, and we were not sure what our tolerance for Ballet was. So instead we opted for Giselle ‘a fantastic ballet in two acts’ (and only two hours long). We both enjoyed it a lot more than we had expected.

Back on Nevskiy Prospekt again, although second time around it had a slightly different flavour to it. We stopped at the Stroganov Palace as it is home to one of the more exclusive restaurants in St Petersburg. Gemma was hoping that on seeing it and inspecting the menu that Duncan would decide that he *just had* to take her there for dinner so that they could have stroganov in stroganov palace. Fortunately for Duncan it was far too early for the restaurant to be open and the menus were not out.

Further up the Nevskiy Prospekt we studied the so called siege plaque. Painted on the wall in the second world war the plaque translates: “Citizens! This side of the street is more dangerous during an artillery bombardment”

Nearby the siege plaque we turned of Nevskiy and entered the Palace Square through the archway in the staff quarters over which sits a sculpture of Victory and her chariot. From here the palace square opens up on the magnificent Hermitage and in the centre of the square the worlds tallest unsupported column with Alexander I on top.

We explored the Hermitages art collection and the winter palace’s splendid rooms. The winter palace was used pre-revolution by the tsars and embodies the opulence and extravagance that Russian Royalty was known for. Some rooms had more gold leaf paint than anything else – incredible! Gem’s favourite was the artillery room for its golden columns white walls with historical décor and huge chandeliers.

The art collection for which Catherine the Great was largely responsible is quite impressive with contributions from all the greats, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, Rembrandt etc. as well as some more modern Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh. And the setting within the Hermitage is magnificent. So after a whistle stop tour appreciating most of the masterpieces and wondering why some of them were masterpieces, we headed back out into the sunny St Petersburg streets.

Next on the list was St Isaac’s cathedral. Yet again this church had been turned into a museum during the Soviet era, and unlike other Churches which are churches again, it has remained a museum for Russian Art. As we were a little Arted-out for the day we admired it’s architectural glory from the outside and moved on.

A definite highlight of St Petersburg for Gem was having stroganoff in the Stroganov Palace.

We had been told that over the last few years (up to the beginning of 2009) Riga has experienced unprecedented growth and development and this became increasingly evident crossing over the Daugava and exploring the city. More sprawled than I had anticipated it was a conglomerate of buildings of modern architecture, Classical Romanticism and Art Nouveau; And scattered amongst these, particulary toward the periphery of town, wood cladded buildings that had once been impressively coloured and decorated and were now in need of some TLC.

The destruction of historical buildings following various periods of occupations was more apparent in Riga than Vilnius, with most of the buildings being relatively new styles or rebuilds of buildings that once stood there.

Helpfully Mike and Theresa had given us their little book of Riga, with two walking maps in it, this saved us a trip into the information centre and meant more time for precious sight seeing. We combined the two walks to take in the best of Riga; fine examples of Art Nouveau, obligatory town halls and squares, not-so-secret alleys, and of course churches. One notable highlight was the Orthodox Cathedral of the Birth of Christ, however I am sure that this 220 year old Russian Byzantine style church is a mere taste of what we may see in Russia. Skarnu Iela is a pleasant little road with remnants and restorations of some historically important buildings; and Dome square is a spacious and vibrant medieval square opposite the Dome church, with bustling bars and live music every night.

With fatiguing legs we started to walk back to the campsite via the castle. Disappointingly the street façade is unimpressive, but as we began to cross the bridge the vista back over the river to the castle was much more striking.

So after walking what felt like a million miles in a day we climbed into bed for a much anticipated sleep. We were sorely disappointed. The hotel across the road had an open air rooftop nightclub which kicked off about 8pm. Initially feeling very tolerant of the whole thing we expected that by the early morning it would have stopped. And in a sense this was correct, if you consider 7am early morning. So very tired and a little grumpy we tested the new cooker (which we had bought the previous morning) packed up and left. Perhaps a little eager to put Riga City Camping behind us.

With Duncan behind the wheel, rain was inevitable as has been the pattern so far on the trip. We were heading north west and much of the road was a stones throw to the ocean  but a funny thing about the Baltic states is that forest seems to contine right up to the sea. So though looking at the map we could tell that the sea was close, and if we wound down the window we could smell it, we just couldn’t see it.

When we reached our campsite in Kolka, we were greeted by a young girl who assured us that the weather ‘prognose’ was for no more rain. She pointed us in the direction of the toilets which were quite malodorous not-so-long long drops, the open air sinks, the field where we could set up and the gates to the sea.

Being a stones throw from the coast we chose a sheltered position to pop the tent, and being as though we were unconvinced that it was not going to rain, we also popped the shelter. I have always felt that being close to the beach was good for the soul. Walking along the sand, listening to the water come up, kiss the shore and run away again is so calming. Unlike other beaches the sand closer to the water line became hard like packed cement. We strolled admiring the small white shells, and searching the tide line with the romantic idea that some precious amber might have washed up (cheaper that way too . Can’t say that we were all that astonished to leave the beach empty handed.

We were not alone on the beach and found an embarrassing amusement in coming across women of older and larger inclination who had not thought that bathing costumes were necessary. They weren’t starkers, but their ‘white cottons’ were less suited to the sand and sea than a bikini might have been.

The weather continued to defy prediction and confused us all with moments of brilliant sunshine and cold showers, and as the sun slipped behind the horizon the temperature dropped with it. It was for moments like these when in need of cheering and warming inside and out that we had bought some packets of chilli con carne mix.

Knowing that we had quite a drive ahead of us yet heartened by last nights chilli we were up early, packed and on the road before nine – a trip record. .

After speaking to Julian on the road about our oil leak, we knew we would need to stop once again in Riga for some supplies, so back we went.

And then we were off again, heading north towards Estonia. Halfway through the day and around the coast we were continuing to see glimpses of the ocean occasionally while for the majority of the time it was hidden from us by fairly think forest. So fed up we turned left on a random road down toward the coast and take any off-road road that wasn’t marked no entry to the ocean for lunch. We never made it to the ocean, as we detoured past a lake that was so tranquil that it begged us to stop. We made sandwiches (with a somewhat odd cheese) and mused that this is what the trip was about: finding spots and having encounters which were spontaneous and where the worth is not equal to the fiscal value.

Further up the coast we stopped again, this time admiring brave and/or stupid kite surfers making the most of the wind that was whipping up the coast. Although how they manage to go both directions spurred much debate, and will remain an enigma until someone more knowledgeable enlightens us or we remember to google it.

Finally we made it to City Camping Tallin. Keeping accommodation standards consistent across the Baltic states we once again found ourselves in a bitumen carpark, attached to a commercial and seemingly unused building. The customer service was as severe as the prospect outside, but the showers were warm and the internet was free!

We had heard a lot about Tallinn, capital of the country that is famous for being the most connected in the world, it has recently joined the EU and tourism is pushed in England with posters in all the undergrounds, on taxi doors and the cheap airlines flying there. It was a lively reputation and is fond of a party especially if it involves European electronic music, so I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise to learn that many of the shops, restaurants and even cafes were open much later than they would have been elsewhere. This included the 24hr pizza house down the road.

Excited by our expectations of Tallinn and ready to explore, we headed immediately for a walk. We took our gortex jackets with us not trusting the northern coastal weather and thinking that surely if we take our rain gear it won’t rain. We were wrong, and we were not far into our walk when it did start to rain – heavily – we persevered looking at the clouds stating confidently that it would pass quickly – it didn’t. So eventually looking as though we had just stepped out of the shower with gortex jackets that were threatening strike action we gave up and headed back. This did give Gem the opportunity to do some necessary pre-Russia prep, while Dunc provided 24 hour pizza!

As our trip has progresses our ability to estimate our expenditure appropriately still leaves a lot to be desired. We entered Lithuania once again with no currency and too much of Polish currency left over.

Lithuania is a lovely country and our first stop was the famous castle on the lake in Trakai. The picturesque town which we later discovered had once been the capital of the Lithuanian state was located on the banks of 5 scenic lakes. Amongst these lakes two castles also sit; one which can be accessed by footbridge from the town. The castle was spectacular. As we walked around it a very well dressed lady, with wet feet and ankles and her sandals in one hand stopped us to show us her yabbie (or the Lithuanian equivalent – small fresh water crayfish)  that she had clearly fished out of the water.

Trakai is also home of large population of Karaimai people an ancient mixed Judaic and Hebrew sect from Bagdad who adhere to the Torah.

With Trakai under our belt we headed to the current capital Vilnius which was not far away. It was with some amusement that we pulled into our campsite. The city campsite was simply a giant carpark in a semi-industrial part of Vilnius. But hey, it had an excellent bathroom and toilet, a washing machine, it was level, and we could even play mini golf if we chose J

We found Vilnius a very easy town to be a tourist in, and were enjoying having a little extra time here.  They provided a lot of information and walks in English and a lot of points of interest street signs that were also in English. Before we really got stuck in to our tourist-ing – Duncan was momentarily sidetracked by a ‘point of interest sign’ pointing in a different direction, intrigued he followed it to find a monument, and according the information the only monument to Frank Zappa in the world. Is he Lithuanian???

On our way to starting our sight seeing at the university we passed a formal military procession. It was difficult to understand what was going to happen, but it appeared as if the troops and dignitaries were waiting to receive someone. Hoping it might be someone that we recognised we hung around, but no it wasn’t. One thing that was worth the wait however was the appearance of a military division whose dress/ceremonial garb was in fact armour and chain mail. With all of the men in black suits and ear pieces watching every move it was difficult to get a good shot of this.

Starting with the Presidential Palace, we moved onto the University which is rumoured to be one of the oldest universities in Europe, and then to Pilies Gatve. Pilies Gatve was at one time the main road in and out of the town leading up to the castle, it has an eclectic collection of boutiques, souvenir shops, bars and restaurants nestled within the pastel yellow, orange and pink buildings.

Gem lived dangerously by blindly sampling some local cuisine for lunch. This turned out to be potato pancakes with pork medallions on top in a white creamy garlic sauce – meat and giant hashbrowns/rosti – how can you go wrong.

Finally in Vilnius we were starting to have some hot days.  We idled through Cathedral Square surveying the towering monument to Gediminas. We located the miracle tile between the cathedral and the bell tower and stood on it to make our wishes, twirling 3x as local folklore insists to seal the deal. We climbed the hill to the castle tower. It goes without saying the all castles are on a hill, this one was located here after the King Gedminas had a dream about a wolf on top of this very hill. His pagan witch advisor suggested that this meant that he should build a castle and as such a new town in this location, and it would rise to be a great town in Lithuania. Only one tower remains of the castle, and the climb up affords a pretty (if not hot) view of the city.

Two things in Lithuania have not ceased to amaze us. The first is the sheer amount of pretty people, particularly women. The second is the propensity of the women to wear ridiculous shoes all the time! Now I am not saying that there isn’t a time and a place for a 2 or 3 inch stiletto heels, but surely climbing an unevenly cobbled hill is not one of them?!?! Oh well, different strokes as they say….

Also while in Vilnius we took time to visit the Independent Republic of Uzupis. Over the river from Vilnius is a break away republic of Uzupis, formed at one time by predominantly artists, squatters and drunks, although now it looks a lot more ‘hip’. Reading the constitution of this little area is easy enough as it is nailed to the wall in several different languages. It includes things like ‘Everyone has the right to love’; ‘Everyone has the right be be loved’ and ‘Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat’. Uzupis is also well known for its Angel of Uzupis Statue as well as the smallest church in Lithuania.

On our last night at the campsite we met with Mike and Theresa a couple of Aussies from Queensland who for the retirement had bought a camper in England and were spending their time touring around to places within Europe that they had never been (and they had been a few places). They graciously hosted us under their porch while we ate sugared cherries, shared some wine and swapped books, stories, hints and tips for our respective paths.

When it did come time to leave Vilnius, it was not a great day. After checking all the levels etc the day before we had noticed a small leak of oil from the front diff. Initially unconcerned Duncan thought that this might have resulted from him not tightening the bolts tight enough after he drained and refilled the diff oil before we left. However after tightening them the slow leak continued.

After Dunc made his toast and boiled some water for a coffee on this fateful morning, the cooker stopped working. This was devastating in many respects. Firstly we were reliant on having a cooker, and were fairly reliant on having a dual fuel one so we didn’t have to carry different gas canisters and/or regulators etc for the often incompatible gas requirements of the varying countries. The second concern was the Gemma didn’t get her much anticipated toast – this could spell disaster.

After several hours of taking the cooker apart in true bush mechanic style we diagnosed the problem and attempted to fix it. It worked temporarily, long enough for Gem to have toast (one crisis averted), however on further tests it only worked with much fiddly persuasion.

Frustrated and perhaps a little cranky we were packing everything away ready to leave and while closing the tent up got some canvas in the zip well and truly stuck. With Gemma on the roof rack trying to tackle it and Duncan standing on the running board there was no indication of getting the canvas free and the zip unstuck. Frustration continued to bubble insidiously and soon enough after a violent tug on the zip the metal tag on it snapped. This left us with the knowledge that should we be able to free the canvas we have nothing to pull the zip with!!!! A seemingly easy solution of course was to cut the cover off and replace it as we were carrying a spare. We were reluctant to do this as we had brought the extra cover with us as the quality of the first one was dubious and we didn’t think it would last the 5 months. Our original idea had been to use the old cover for as long as it would last and then swap them over. It seemed the decision was taken out of our hands and finally we were forced to admit defeat, cut off the old cover and replace the new one (which seems like it may be a bit better, so  here’s hoping)

So 4 hours late we departed, tempers a little frayed. Having lost so much time meant that our original itinerary needed to be revised. Instead of heading out for the coast we changed our minds and headed north to Sialuliai, where we stopped. We needed to find some free internet, which we did  and started some research on where we might get another Coleman cooker – it seemed no where in Lithuania but we may have some more luck in Latvia or Estonia. We called Coleman for some advice or information on nearest suppliers and were told that they could not help us with that information – I find that very hard to believe – gits!

So we left Siauliai with a plan, and feeling a little more relaxed we headed to the Hill of Crosses, just north of Siauliai. We both were more impressed than we had expected to be. It is a destination frequented by those on the spectrum between the religious on pilgrimage or atheist tourists with a fascination of the behaviour of those belonging to organised religion. I am not sure that we fitted into either extreme but somewhere down the middle. It was an odd location. Originally created by those Lithuanians who were forbidden to mourn the deaths of rebel soldiers fighting against occupation it symbolised a defiance against oppression. People made crosses, snuck through fields at night to plant them in the hill. They even broke through ‘barricades’ when it was quarantined by the Russians (in an effort to stop more crosses being planted). Now however and perhaps I am being cynical but it seems more like another commercial opportunity with cheap mass produced crosses being sold at the souvenir shop so that you can write your name on it and add it to the hill, requiring none of the forethought and meaning that the act of planting a cross on the hill once represented. However it was still worth the stop.

So as the sun was beginning to lower, we continued to head north. We were heading in the general direction of Kolka which was 3 hours away on the north western tip of Latvia. Feeling that trying to get there before dark was improbable we had planned to camp somewhere along the way. We passed one sign for a campsite and couldn’t find it, and before we knew it we had crossed another border and had arrived in Latvia.

Our first stop was Jelgava, although of small tourist importance, it was quite a pretty town and we thought we stop.

After Jelgava we carried onto the capital Riga. Riga City Camping a little hard to find due a labyrinth of slip roads and one way streets we were very grateful for sat nav. Riga City Camping is another ‘campsite’ in a car park, this one for a swimming pool.

We learnt a valuable lesson, if you see cheap fuel, fill up regardless of how much is in your tank! We passed a petrol station near the campsite for cheap!!! Thinking that this was merely an indication of what was to come we drove on – first mistake. Then at a much needed toilet stop, on moral principle, refused to pay for fuel where it was 13cents/L more expensive – outraged and indignant we drove on, until the light came on and we were forced to by petrol for 15cents/L more than the original!!!! I don’t even want to work that value out over the cost of a tank, it might make me cry.

Our destination is somewhere in the middle towards the top of Germany. We will decide when we get there.

It has been raining at consistent intermissions, and continued to do so until we reached Celle. We chose Celle as a way point to the Mecklengburg region in Northern Germany. The camp was one of those funny ones where most of the people there live there and you get eyed very suspiciously. We went in to check out the store and it was conversation stopping. Picture those wild west movies, the store lady got up and left her beer on the table while she followed us around the store waiting for us to buy something. Feeling a little self conscious Dunc bought a beer. The campsite was located on a small lake so feeling brave but taking an umbrella (not that brave) we strolled around it.

The pop up shelter although a little awkward to pack in the back of the car, is proving to be worth its weight, so to speak. We have used it several times sometimes just to get out of the rain, or sometimes zipping ourselves in the with the PC to watch movies while Gemma whipped Dunc at scrabble.

With all the rain that we have had Gem’s greatest concern is whether the tent would survive the continual barrage of water?!? I guess we will find out!

We have had our first bit of repair work to do. When passing the light up from the 12v to the tent last night, Dunc accidently cut the insulation and blew the fuse for the 12v plug. We only discovered the fuse was the problem after pulling everything out of the car and the side of the car off to try and find the fuse box. Then of course once we found it we had every other fuse except the 20A one we needed.  We plugged in a 25A for the mean time.

On arrival in Mecklenburg, it was hailing, they weren’t quite the size of golfballs but the hail stones were pretty big – maybe grape size These formidable weather conditions were not conducive to camping so we decided that maybe the tent needed a rest and we should stay in a hotel. Nice in theory however all of the hotels were full. There was no accommodation available for a night in Mecklengberg. Back to our maps we thought we would head on toward the Polish border and find a pension to stay. No such luck there either. What is going on!?!?!

After trying 3 hotels in the last town before the border we crossed into Poland. We had no Polish zloty, no idea what the symbol for diesel is and no idea where we were going.  Practically the first building we saw over the border was a hotel – The Sans. So tired and hungry we pulled over and got a nice clean room and breakfast and internet for only 10euro more than our camping accommodation in Bruges had cost – score.

After missing out on her paddling in Mecklenberg which she had been looking forward to since leaving London, it was necessary to come up with a plan B and quickly. A quick consultation of the guide book and we came up with a lakes district in the north east of Poland the Mazurski National Park.

It is a long way across Poland – a lot longer than it seems. However between the storm showers there was some spectacular scenery, and we were far more impressed with the rolling farm fields, the forest and even the wind farms than we thought we would be. Unlike Germany the farmland seemed to end right on the doorstep of the forest. It was less orchestrated and in that sense has a certain raw beauty. The roads through the forests were dotted with women and children selling pots of what we think were blueberries or perhaps Juniper berries as well as some sort of mushroom. Not feeling brave enough to try we did not stop.

One of the campsites we stopped at in Poland was Wagabunda, at the picturesque Mikolajki. It was nice to not be driving and actually be sight seeing.  Mikolajki looks, from the opposite side of the water, like a quaint waterside village. Over the bridge however it is a vibrant litte town, with a waterside atmosphere not unlike a country fair, with games and ice cream and good food. It was a lovely place to stop a while.

Nearby in the national park is a small town called Ukta. From here we hired a canoe and paddled 8km down stream (was harder than it sounds) to a pick up point. The river meandered along and the view was glorious. We did not see a lot of wildlife, apart from some iridescently blue dragonflies, extremely large water boatmen and the occasional jumping fish. In the shallow water it was crystal clear, allowing a window to the reeds and plants growing below. As it got deeper the water remained clear but became black contrasting nicely with the green rushes and making the perfect reflective surface.

In true European style there was no on at the meeting point to collect us. A German couple who had arrived a little after us were with the same company. Unlike us, they had been told to call for pickup – hmm we didn’t bring our phone with us and their phone did not have signal. An interesting quandary, but soon enough our ride came to collect us, then drove away with out us, then 10 minutes later returned.

So far as we had been doing a lot of self catering we had not experience much of the local cuisine. One lunch we did, although not intentionally. We had been drawn to the little rustic café, not by its charm, which it had plenty of, but by the massive advertisement for Kebabs outside. When it came time to order, there were no kebabs!!!!! As kebab was the only thing on the menu that we could understand we were in trouble. We ordered two seemingly different dishes on the menu, we received to very similar dishes. The local wild mushroom that we had being sold along the sides of the road had been chopped up cooked in a garlic cream sauce and served to us, Gem’s came with potato and cabbage and Dunc’s in vol a vant (sp?), the down side was that both tasted much the same, the upside was that we were both pleasantly surprised with the mushroom dish, and we could say that we had eaten something authentically local.