Scandinavia Trip - Part 3 (Sweden)

With an hour or so of sleep and still very drunk we managed to pack our bags and catch the overnight ferry to Stockholm. With numerous restaurants, a casino, bars and duty free shops we found the journey very relaxing and a bargain, considering it was cheaper than a flight and included a night of accommodation in a fantastic room.

We arrived in Stockholm and immediately organised to catch the soonest bus out of town to Mora, a lake side town five hours north. We had most of the day to waste and explored Stockholm’s version of ‘old town’, Gamla Stan.



Mora was a beautiful little town nestled on the edge of a large lake and in a region famous for its Viking heritage. It was just a pity that it was dead boring and in no way living up to it’s reputation as a summer sports location.

The next day we hired bikes and headed off under threatening clouds. Soon enough it was drizzling in patches, but not enough to destroy our will…..yet. We ventured through the country side admiring the small town culture and discovering Viking ruins (unfortunately with no English signage).




We eventually arrived at Soleron, where the local markets were in full fling with at least 10 stalls!!! We gorged on the sweetest strawberries we had ever tasted and decided to head back toward town before the rain got too heavy. I was enjoying the ride, after all, I hadn’t ridden for over a week and the rain was nothing compared to some experiences I have had on a bike. Tim felt differently!

It was Saturday night and we headed out for dinner. We had no understanding of the Pizza menu so Tim took a random stab and ordered a pizza with three mystery toppings. Of the thirty or so pizzas on the menu the pizza Tim ordered was one of only two with prawns. Tim’s allergy to seafood meant that I was well fed.

The next day we headed to Rattvik in a vein hope that it would be a bit more fun. It wasn’t. I would compare it to Victor Harbour in summer; trailer trash everywhere, nothing to do and a ‘Youth Hostel’ full of people over forty. We spent most of the following day on the internet planning the next week of our trip, as we had discovered that it was impossible to live day by day in peak tourist season. Thankfully we arrived back in Stockholm the following morning.



Our hostel was located in the basement of a large hotel. About sixty rooms had been constructed, each measuring no more than 4 x 4 metres in size. The surprising thing was that these rooms were amazing well designed; clean, comfortable and surprisingly similar to a cabin on a ship.





Again we headed out to explore for the day before we met one of Tim’s friends for dinner and drinks. Dinner never eventuated but some serious drinking ensued until we found ourselves at an Irish bar that played heavy metal music. We caught the last bus back to Frida’s sister’s soviet style apartment and crashed (the bus driver allowed us to ride for free as we didn’t have tickets, he had a soft spot for Aussies!).

With terrible hangovers we planned to take a ferry through the bay that day; however, I piked and went back to bed, a decision which I’m glad for to this day. Tim endured the sun and sea and returned with some worthwhile photographs.

Scandinavia Trip - Part 2 (Finland/Estonia)

Our Finnair flight arrived at Helsinki airport late in the day, but the sun was still high in the sky. We checked in and headed for the city to explore; eventually finding an outdoor pub called the M-Bar, we began drinking our first Scandinavian beer and ‘Gin Longdrinks’ (a gin and lemon drink you drink by the pint!). By 10:30 that night we realised the sun was never going to go down, welcome to the land of 24 hour daylight.

Our plan was to head to Estonia the next day so we booked and boarded the morning ferry across the channel.

Estonia greeted us with cooler weather and some drizzle, which we made the most of by heading to the ‘Old Town’ and photographing the street while they were wet (bringing out the real colours of the stonework and cobbled streets).





What an amazing place! For hundreds of years people have been living in these street, unchanged, from the cobbled roads to the large squares full of restaurants and market stalls.


The real eye catcher for two foreign travellers was the overwhelming natural beauty of the local waitresses (read: beer wenches) in all of the pubs. The more traditional pubs had them dressed in traditional dresses (white gowns with decorated velvet and gold vests and waste coats) while the less traditional pubs had them dressed in the same attire, except with the gowns cut off well above the knee!





Our second day in Estonia saw us head out of town on the bus for a look around the area. We hobnobbed it at a ritzy yacht club, explored the ruins of a monastery and walked through the city centre.


The ferry brought us back to Helsinki the following day and we checked back in to the hostel. With nothing much left for us to do in the city we decided to make the most of the night and hit the M-Bar again. I befriended a bunch of Canadian when Tim visited the lavatory and questioned the locals on where to head once the bar closed. We were directed to a nightclub called Redrum (three floors underground!) where much hilarity and debauchery took place until the very late hours of the next morning.


My favourite woollen jersey was stolen while we were there, causing Tim and I to embark on a rampage through the city as the sun came up (I won’t go into this further, although I am relieved to say that we could not get the Helsinki Council roller started).

Scandinavia Trip - Part 1 (Japan)

When explaining my plans of travelling to Scandinavia for a holiday, most people asked why? It was as if we were going off the beaten track and exploring an unknown, untouched and potentially dangerous part of the world; with nothing interesting or exciting to be seen. It was either Scandinavia or Mexico, and we weren’t overly keen on sharing our trip with thousands of American teens who coincidentally would be spending their Spring Break in Cancun!
The trip began uneventfully, apart from almost leaving our bags in Cairns airport, luckily the taxi driver wasn’t too perplexed when we asked her to return so that we could collect them. The flight to Japan was more eventful, as the crew took a liking to us and dutifully kept us fuelled up with double Gin and tonics for the entire flight. What seemed like a good idea at the time made for an interesting entry to a very crazy country; drunk in Japan before we even stepped off the plane.

Japan

We first realised how orderly and pleasant our time in Japan would be when we approached the conveyor belts to claim our luggage. Each bag was evenly spaced and with its carry handle facing outward for ease of collection, no bogan luggage handlers trashing you luggage in this country!





With our hotel located close to the hipster shopping precinct of Shubuya, we decided to explore the next morning and found Tokyo to be one of the most fun, outgoing and easily manageable places to visit. Virtually no one spoke fluent English, but this caused no issues as all menus were augmented with pictures and everyone was patient and very friendly; to the point of openly apologising when YOU made a mistake!!!


Brightly coloured fixed gear bikes were everywhere, most with no brakes and zooming along with the dense traffic. Velocity rims were the wheels of choice and most bikes were nameless Japanese (NJS) track bikes with narrow riser bars and toe clips. Ladies bikes or MTBs were used by the common riders and were generally ridden smoothly along the footpaths with the foot traffic.
Subway travel was a pleasure, even though it was cramped. The easiest way to travel was to buy the cheapest ticket you could find, travel to where ever you wanted and then on the way out of the station approach a ‘Fare Adjusting Machine’ which would tell you how much you owed. You would then pay the deficit and exit via the turnstiles, easy!


Tim and I let our metro-ness come out and spent most of the day clothes and shoe shopping before we retired to the hotel in preparation for a night in Roppongi, the ‘nightlife’ district. A strip comprised of pubs and restaurants, Roppongi’s most annoying feature was the African American spruikers who followed white guys like us constantly trying to get us into their clubs for ‘titties’ and ‘women’. We had a fantastic Japanese dinner, topped off with Sake before we hit the town. Finding some great pubs and enjoying the frivolity we ended up heading home quite late the next morning.



Walking in completely the wrong direction, and perhaps borrowing unsecured bicycles, we eventually gave up on navigating ourselves and caught a taxi. The taxi ride didn’t last too long before my rear passenger side window was coated in the contents of Tim’s stomach as he released it from the front window. We were promptly ejected from the cab, I can’t even remember if we paid! After more of a walk we eventually caught another cab and arrived back at the hotel in time for Tim to purge his stomach once again.
The sun was well and truly up when we got home and we didn’t rise from bed until dinner time. Our hangovers worsened by the lack of functioning air-con in our room.
Tips for a good time: Don’t be intimidated by the lack of English tongue or the subway; stay near Shibuya; eat lots of Japanese food, YUM; if the lights go red when you are crossing a road, do what everyone else does and run; and enjoy the amazing number of beautiful, stylish and elegant Japanese women.

My new Focus TDCI.

I recently decided to say goodbye to the faithful Rover and after much research and deliberation picked up a new Ford Focus TDCI (Turbo Diesel Commonrail Injection).


I was originally fixed on buying a Volkswagen Golf, but surprisingly, after taking a couple for test drives I lost all interest. The Ford was always an option (although at the bottom of my priority list after the Peugeot 207) but after seeing so many of them in Scandinavia hauling bikes and sports equipment through the mountains I thought I'd better give one a test drive.


To put it simply, I knew it was the car for me the second I sat in the driver's seat. From then on it just got better and better.
The interior was better than the VW, the handling was a lot better than the VW (although I'm sure the Golf GTi would show it a thing or two) and in my opinion it looked a lot sportier. Power was on par but the short shifting manual six speed really sold me.
So I agreed to buy it during the test drive and three days later it was in the driveway.


We took it up to Paluma on Saturday and it sat in 3rd gear the whole way, 320nm of torque (60nm less than the Falcon V8) at 2300rpm means it just keeps on pulling. And 5-6 litres of diesel for 100km!!!


Anyway, enough bragging. It's awesome; although I'm not too impressed that on the odd occasion I have been known to lower myself to dragging off V8s, it's just the sleeper appearance really surprises the local bogans!!!

(Oh and most importantly, a bike fits easily in the back without disassembly; and the Thule roof racks are on their way.

Magnetic Island.

Rachael and I headed to Magnetic Island for a weekend away. The weather fined up and we had the beaches pretty much to ourselves.

Balding Bay.






Horseshoe Bay at night after our fantastic steaks at the Marlin Pub.

Our special little Moke, complete with cupid painted on the bonnet.

Picnic Bay, with Townsville in the distance.

And a quick walk up to the Sphynx, a mountain just behind our hotel.