Hello!
How do you think, what unites the Baltic and Scandinavia, m? For seafarers the answer is obvious - the Baltic Sea.
We quickly ran by it out of the place of our previous parking, which is Tallinn, to Helsinki - it took just about half a day.
We walked so briskly that even nearly collapsed with an unwary seadog, which was looking on us reproachfully for a long moment after.
On arrival, we immediately began to look for some quiet and free place, which soon was found, though it was just a piece of the city wall, nothing remarkable.
This was our first unsighty mooring place, and then we asked about it all our finnish friends - and surprisingly, the boat of one of them was taken to a dry dock, and the place is empty, and then - here we go!
The place, I must say, was not a bad one - sprawling promenade of a North Harbor in the heart of Helsinki, close to the gloomy brick walls of the Uspenski Cathedral.
Here and there our view was imprinting an elegant luxurious facades of houses standing in front of us, or sedate Finns, coming out for a jog in any weather.
We did not wanted to run anywhere, but it is sometimes necessary, especially if you wanted to eat.
There was no money left after the repair, so the time to be inventive has come.
So we became familiar with the concept of recycling, and therefore decided to experiment with it on ourselves, starting with Helsinki.
For example, metal cans and plastic bottles, which in most countries don't have any value, in Finland magically turns into money!
Well, I lied about the magic of course, but about the money - it's true.
The entire ritual is about dressing in well-worn sportswear and comfy shoes, adding a bulky backpack, plastic bags and gloves, and going on the hunt for them during the night activity period, which for homo sapiens lasts from Friday evening to Sunday.
Accordingly, if you have a certain steadiness of your feet and nose - to the smell of beer, you can gather about a hundred euros for the weekend - so happened with us.
Some of it we spent on diesel, and some, of course, on food, although there is another method to get it.
To do this, you need to come to a certain place at a certain hour, and pretend to be honest, but poor Christian.
Don't need to do anything special, you just go with a long human centipede into the room, where volunteers give you a simple set of food donated to God by supermarkets.
Usually it is yesterday's bread, vegetables and some frozen meatballs, and the exit of all this is crowned by 2-meter portrait of Jesus, looking at all with reproach.
But I'm an atheist, so, hmm ?.
And in a harbor cops were looking at us reproachfully, because they saw our attempts to fix our bikes, and decided that we're steal it somewhere, but then, however, they let us live.
By the way, almost all of our friends in Helsinki - it's the guys on the bikes, I mean avid bearded customizers, who have a workshop under the banner of Chopaderos Hellsinki Chapter.
And, after meeting each other once again and exchanging a strong warming greetings, we began to complain about our frail bikes,
and then Tony, who at that time just got his progeny, gave us a frame of his collapsible stretch cruiser, with the words "I'm not travelling anymore, but this custom was built especially for this, so let him travel with you all over the world."
Oh, I know it's pathetic!
So we got almost everything we needed, and what is missing - like, say, the boards to separate the rear cabin - bring in from the city constructions, bit by bit, as the ants stealing the sugar.
Generally, in such a large and wealthy cities you can find almost everything - down to the decent clothes, which we have successfully sold, piratly joining the famous flea market in the next weekend.
Profit was spent for the goodies, in particular, to purchase some sailor kinds of things, what is abundantly sold throughout all Scandinavia, although that lead anodes purchased there, apparently were made for not so salted Baltic sea, and as we move to the south were very quickly eaten.
And now, after two weeks of vanity, we've gathered our strenght, reinforced with dry bread and meatballs, and were ready to leave these licorice shores, and again have a run by the cool sea waters.
Well, the place is best of all where we haven't been at all, and maybe vice versa,
See you, bye!