Day 1 - Koria - Novaya Ladoga

20338-20800 462km

I have to admit that I have never been so nervous as I was this morning. Surprisingly I slept very well but way too little on the last night before the departure.

The morning was busy. I had to pack everything on the bike. And I hadn’t had any extra time before today so I had no idea which bag would go to which place on the bike. I also had to visit bank because I forgot to pick up the US dollar I had ordered there. So after all this hassle it was already 12 o’clock when I finally hit the road.

Ready to go!

It was rainig – hard. From Kouvola I drove to Vaalimaa via Sippola as I had to pick up my sunglasses from Kirsi’s workplace. That was the easy part. At the border the Finninsh border patrol said I’m crazy. Well – he is probably right about that. Then to the russian border control. Even though I had all the papers allready printed at home it took a lot of time. The actual inspection was really easy. The guy took the papers and stamped them without even looking at the bike. A little hint for the bikers. Go straight to the beginning of the line. You don’t need to wait. And when you get to the inspection, park of the lane (between the houses). At least this is the way to do it at Vaalimaa.

Currency exchange was very quivk and quiet. Lady behind the counter took my Euros and gave me rubels without saying a word. Then I drove to Vyborg to get a SIM-card. Thanks to Velzou I had an address to a shop where they speak fluent English. By paying 500 rubles I got 7Gb of data valid for a month. And it should work all around Russia – we shall see that.

Vyborg – St Petersburg is extremely boring. Nothing to see until the outskirts of St Pete. As a Finn it is difficult to believe the size of those blockhouses. They are really huge. Too bad I could not take a photo of some of them. Runnign on highway in a hard rain makes it a bit difficult to take photos. After passing St Pete the boringness continued. Mostly forrest and fields. Some gas stations from time to time. Actually nothing specific to see…

The road conditions were great all the way. Smooth paved roads, not too much constructions but absolutely cray trafik. No wonder so many people die annually in Russian trafik. Reckless driving, tailgating, passing in blind corners, driving without lights etc. And speeding all the time.


As it started to get dark I stopped in a roadside hotel, got a meal and a warm bed.


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