Hellbent on Helsinki…

Leaving Oulu and heading south...

On Saturday the 23^rd, I left Olou and heading south for Helsinki, hoping to get there early enough to find a hotel and try and get my sweaty paws on a ticket to the U2 concert at the Olympic Stadium… I stopped in Pihtipudas to refuel and met a fellow biker heading north…

“You going to Nordkapp ?” I asked him…

“No… It’s too late in the season now…!! It’s getting too cold up there and it won’t be a pleasant ride…!”

We discussed my ride from there and then he asked where I was heading… When I told him I was going to Helsinki to try and see U2, he laughed out loud…

“Don’t bother rushing…!! That’s where I’ve just come from…!! I rode down last night to try and get a ticket for tonight, and it is impossible…!! All sold out !! I am on my way back to Oulu now… A wasted trip for me…!! And where do you think you are going to sleep ? All the hotels in Helsinki and the other towns close by are fully booked…!! Forget it my friend…!! You have no chance…!!”

After he had left, I decided that he was probably right… The chances were too slim to risk riding into Helsinki and not finding a place to stay… I gave up on my plans and continued south at a slower pace, passing the  Keitele Lake which spreads for miles over the flat landscape in south-central Finland…

Pizza with plenty of chillies... My Iranian friends prided themselves on their abilities to cook good food...

I stopped in the town of Jyvaskyla and checked into the Milton Hotel, across the road from the railway station… Trains seem to be a theme in the hotels I have stayed at recently… The good thing about being close to a big station, is that are usually kiosks and supermarkets in the nearby vicinity, so stocking up on foodstuff and other necessities is no hassle at all…

The hotel had a very strong internet connection and I decided to take advantage of this by spending the next day updating my website and strolling around the quiet streets close to the hotel… I ate at a little restaurant around the corner from the hotel, and heard the owners speaking Arabic… Turns out they were from Iran, so I spent a short while with them, asking about conditions in Iran…

They had left the country a long time ago, during what they referred to as “the troubles”, but when I asked about this, they would not elaborate further… They did however tell me which areas to avoid and wished me luck with the rest of my journey…

Helsinki on the horizon... By Big Fellas reckoning...

I left Jyvaskyla yesterday morning, planning to have the Big Fella serviced in Helsinki and had chosen their biggest branch in Vantaa at which to do so… I arrived at Biketeam Oy in pouring rain, having been escorted there by the owner of a BMW sedan, who I had asked directions from at a service station where I was sheltering from the rain… The highways entering Helsinki are a bit of a maze, and a massive ring road runs around the northern parts of the three cities that make up Greater Helsinki… The driver went out of his way to lead me there, and his act of kindness saved me a lot of time and effort, as I had forgotten to upload the exact address of BMW onto my GPS…

Bad news awaited me at the extensive workshop and sales centre of Biketeam… They could only fit the bike in for its service in two weeks time…!! The manager called another BMW dealer and got the same reply…!! I was in a bit of a bind… The bike had last been serviced in Gibraltar, and we had covered almost 12 000 kms since then…

“A few thousand kilometres more will not matter, but make sure they change your alternator belt, as your bike will be on 80 000 km, and this is a necessity…!!” he advised…

The Bonus Inn Hotel in Vantaa...

We discussed a few other items that I needed to check on the bike, and I hoped that the longer we chatted, the more chance there was that he would change his mind and try and help me with the service… I was prepared to do as much of the “donkey work” as they would allow me to in order not to waste too much of their technicians time… But, my please were all in vain…

Disappointed that they could not squeeze me in, I left their premises and headed for the Bonus Inn Hotel, which was only a few minutes away… There I received more bad news…!! The price I had seen on an internet advert for this hotel, must have been way out of date, as the best price they could offer me was twice that which I had expected to pay…

I had no option but to accept, but in doing so, I must say that this is probably the best hotel I have stayed in on the GBWT…! The service is outstanding, and Anne and Marcus at reception have gone out of their way to make my stay here as comfortable as possible…

They helped sort out my internet connection, and gave me plenty of advice when I asked for it… Markus even spent some of his personal time at home, trying to find a bike dealer who was willing to service the bike at such short notice… Unfortunately his efforts have been in vain, and I have resigned myself to riding through to Poland and hoping to get the bike serviced there…

Marcus and Anne provided me with great service, advice and assistance... Thanks Guys...!!

Outisde the Russian Consulate in Helsinki... Defying the ban on taking photographs...!!

The Big Fella waits patienty in the rain for word from the Russians...

I spent the morning in Helsinki city centre, in a futile attempt to arrange a visa to visit Russia, which lies only 200 km to the east of Helsinki…

I had stood in a queue that did not move a single inch for over an hour, and had eventually asked a lady behind a counter that did not deal with visas, to advise me on what was required. There was such a long list of documents that I would have to fill in, that she lost me halfway through it all…

I needed a “Letter of Invitation” from a hotel “authorized to invite foreign visitors”, Insurance certificate for the bike (against theft and damage…!!), a full itinerary of my intended stay, the exact route I planned to follow (which had to be authorized by somebody in Moscow…!!) and I was told that this route, once authorized, cannot be deviated from under any circumstances…, an official letter from the Embassy of the country whose passport I am traveling on, advising that I do not need a visa to enter Estonia from Russia….

And then there was a document or three that I would need for the bike as well… Most of these I had, but there were others that I did not have and did not know where to get…

The forms were all written in Cyrillic, and when I asked if somebody could help me to fill them in, I was shown an inch thick leaflet that supposedly had all the translations I would need…

These trucks keep the streets of Helsinki clean, come rain or shine...

The lady ended her explanation by telling me that it would cost $220.00 to have the visa expedited in two days, otherwise, I could pay $110.00 and wait for at least seven working days…

I was referred to another counter where a very serious looking gentleman sat shuffling through some paperwork… He listened attentively to my plea for assistance but in the end, told me they could not process my application, and insisted that I had to obtain a visa from my country of residence…!! I tried to explain that this was impossible, and I could not arrange the visa prior to my departure, as I had no idea of the exact date I would be arriving at the Russian border…

My explanation fell on deaf ears…

I am not the most patient of people when it comes to dealing with petty officialdom, but I remained calm throughout the time I spent at the Russian Consulate… I was hoping that someone there would try and help me realise my desire to visit St. Petersburg, one of the most beautiful cities in the world… Even if it meant riding back to Helsinki and aborting the plan to ride into Estonia from there…

“It would seem that you are not too keen on receiving tourists into Russia…”, I said with a smile… “All I want to do is ride for less than 400 kms through your country, and obviously spend money there while I do so…”

The official shrugged his shoulders, telling me, “These are the rules…!”

At this point, I had had enough… I handed the forms back to him with a grin, and left the embassy through the tightly controlled front door (no bags, no cameras…, metal detectors and careful scrutiny…!!)

On the steps outside I met an Englishman who was working on an oil pipeline and had been through the same process as I had… He too had been told to return to England to get a visa… The barge that all the equipment he was working with was on, had already sailed into Russian waters… His problems were bigger than mine…!!

It is costing me over R1000.00 a day to stay in Helsinki, and I was not prepared to hang around waiting for somebody in Moscow to decide on whether I could ride in Russia, or not…

I thought it appropriate to leave Scandinavia using the Viking Shipping Line...

I made my way down to the harbour and bought a ferry ticket to Tallinn in Estonia, on Viking Lines. The ferry sails tomorrow at midday, and I am looking forward to traveling within my budget again…!! Scandinavia alone has severely dented the “savings” I made traveling through the length and breadth of Africa…!!

It is not a place you want to linger in, on a limited budget…

Flags fly in the stiff breeze... Finland, the E.U. Sweden, Estonia and the Viking Shipping Line...

Helsinki is a clean and beautiful city and I rode around for a while, taking a few photos as I went…

The Upsenski Orthodox Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe... The Russian Orthodox church has a long history in Finland...

This wooden ketch was one of many tied up in the yacht basin in Helsinki...

Apartments of the wealthy line the waterfront, with their yachts moored outside their front doors...

This fishing vessel has been retired from duty, and is moored on the edge of the harbour...

There are always interesting people to chat to... I met this member of the Scandinavian Triathlon team...

It drizzled most of the time, and the cobblestone clad roads in the harbour area had the Big Fella twitching under me… I had taken the panniers off before coming into the city, and the tyres, freed of the weight, were pumped too hard for these slippery conditions…

The suspension was also set too high and too hard, now that the bike was that much lighter, and I had a few hairy moments at some of the traffic circles…

Without the usual weight, the bike had much more power on tap, and I had to adjust my throttle action pretty quickly to avoid the bike from sliding out from under me on the wet streets of Helsinki…

The uneven cobblestones have also brought back to life the little Gremlin that lives in my back brake light cover… The Rear Lamp fault light, which plagued me through the last few thousand kilometres I rode through Africa, is flashing at me again…

Another little hassles to sort out at the next service…!!

Once we were back on the highway, we zoomed back to Vantaa, 20 kilometres away and began planning our route through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania…

I have not given up on riding in Russia, and will try to get a visa in one of its other neighbouring countries further along my route through Eastern Europe…

There was some good news today however… I received a mail from www.southafrica.to , a website that promotes flights, hotel and car rental bookings in South Africa and abroad.

They advised me that my website had been voted “website of the month”, and was now in the running for travel website of the year…!! Fancy that…!!

I have been pleasantly surprised at the interest in my site, which according to the latest Google analytics report I have just received, has been read in 81 countries so far…!! In the six months I have been on the road, I have had over 36 000 views and almost 12 000 visits…!!

I am flattered, not to mention a little amazed at this…!!

Thanks to all for your interest and support…!! Much appreciated…

GBWT 2010