Terrible weather

Linköping, Sweden

Yesterday it was absolutely the worst weather on this trip. Raining like a monsoon, cold (12°C) and windy. Not that fun. I had a lot of breaks and only advanced a little, to Linköping. It was just too nasty for driving, not enjoyable and due the rain I couldn’t see that much.

As my memory card is corrupted and I’m still hoping to revive some photos from it when I get home, I decided to use the smaller memory card that came with the camera. It’s 16MB, oh boy. Anyway, I can take few pictures with that if I drop the megapixel-count a little. Don’t expect any huge picture-collections from Sweden. Although, yesterday I didn’t take that many pictures anyway because of the weather.

Vättern. It's a Huge lake. Huge clouds too.

Today the weather looks much more nicer, and I got a call from a friend – we’re going to meet for a coffee somewhere along the road. And I’m continuing towards home.

Technical Problems, but approaching Home (photo update)

Ljungby, Sweden

So it happened to me, too. The memory card of my camera got corrupted – and I hadn’t transferred pictures to my laptop in 4 days. Darned, but luckily this happened so close to home and not 3 weeks ago. I managed to get some of the pictures back, though, using the PhotoRescue-software.

Yesterday was a hard day for driving. The wind was hardest so far on this trip, it was just terrible. I avoided the clouds over Sweden and ended up here, in Ljungby. I’m continuing my trip toward Stockholm, and take a ferry back home from there.

The landscapes start to look more and more like home – not exactly yet, but still enough to remind me that I’m getting closer to home. This is already my fifth week on a trip, but it doesn’t feel like that – time just flies when you’re having a good time. I could’ve continued for some weeks still.

Anyway, here’s a picture update with those few pictures that I could save:

This I found when leaving Klein Glien. You Germans you, seriously! Saksa on paska maa.

...and then I waited under the bridge for the thunderstorm to pass by.

Deja-Vu in Leezen.

I drove from Germany to Denmark through a loooooong bridge.

Never operate the camera while driving.

And then another looooong bridge, from Denmark to Sweden

Weather was nice, but windy with capital Y.

Heavy clouds started to gather over Sweden. I avoided the rain, though.

This starts to look more and more like home

Today the weather looks like I’m not going to avoid driving in rain. It’s also cold (well, under 20°C anyway) and I had to add an extra-padding to my driving-jacket to keep me warm.

Living and Loving Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Denmark

I arrived to Copenhagen yesterday and I have to say I love it much more than last time I visited here, which is over 10 years ago. The city is full of life, lovely people and even it’s a big city, it has sort of a cosy feeling.

I had a great evening with people I met. Unfortunately I woke up so late today, that I only have time for this quick update. No Photos, sorry.

On thursday, I spent my time mostly avoiding thunderstorm under the bridges of a German highway and for that reason I didn’t advance so much, spending a night in a small village called Leezen, somewhere in a vicinity of Hamburg and Kiel. That was a friendly little village as well and the cheapest hotel so far on this trip.

Today I might continue toward Sweden, or stay here for one more day, let’s see…

Towards Scandinavia

Klein Glien, Germany

Few days without doing anything and enjoying the nice environment of Klein Glien and the Hotel, Gutshof Glien was great. I feel like continuing with the trip again!

I’m starting to head towards Scandinavia, as I have more alternatives there, I can take several ferries home or even drive through Lapland.

The weather looks great for driving, around 30°C and sunny with barely any wind. Hopefully it will stay that way.

By the way, I fixed the exhaust again, as it seems that my prediction was true: The original gasket gives up faster than the repair-stuff, so the gasket had another leak. I now covered the whole joint with this repair-stuff, glassfiber and finally with Red Bull can. Now the gasket can evaporate for all I care and the exhaust should still hold together.

Red Bull logo still visible, but not for long I guess, as the heat will burn the paint.

I also remembered to charge the battery pack of my camera, so hopefully I will get some new pictures along the way again.

Nasty Episode

Dear reader, yesterday I got one more experience that I wouldn’t have wanted.

I was driving from Czech towards Germany. About 40 kilometers before border, I decided to have a short break on a resting spot beside the forested road. There was also a Dutch driver having a break. After the break we left at the same time, I did let the Dutch driver to leave first as I don’t usually have that big hurry than cars. We accelerated to around 80km/h when I saw something yellow flashing in the forest, I heard a loud thud, that something yellow flying in the air and then breaks squaking. I had hard time breaking myself, to not hit the car in front of me.

After stopping it took me few seconds to realize what has happened, the car in front of me had collided with something that came from the forest. The Dutch driver was clearly in shock when he came to me and started to speak something which I couldn’t understand. Other cars stopped at the scene too. When the Dutch driver understood that I only speak English, he managed to tell me that he had driven over a little girl. Bad things.

There must’ve been around 50 people running, yelling and hassling around and quite quickly we became conscious about the graveness of issues. The girl had perished right away. There was nothing to be done.

I promised to wait for the police to arrive and tell them what I saw, as I was the closest eyewitness. They actually arrived pretty soon and talked decent English so it was quite quick. I told them what I saw, and that the driver of the car didn’t have any chance to avoid the collision, the girl ran straight to the road from a small forest path. We will never know why.

That tragic event left a mark. The day was perfect for driving, weather was just nice and the roads were even, but when driving, I could feel that I tensed my muscles and was extra careful with everything. I didn’t enjoy the driving anymore, it was just mechanical and stressful fidgeting with bike.

I decided to have a few days break somewhere and chill down a bit. So I came back to Klein Glien, and was warmly welcomed back. I will stay here for one more night and try to cool down my nerves before continuing towards home.

The camera also did what too many electrical equipments do: In the morning, the battery-gauge showed full charge. After 2 pictures it showed red. After 2 more, the camera told me to replace the battery-pack. Oh boy, what a useful gauge. So, no pictures from yesterday, either.

Strange weather and fixing

Prague, Czech

Again I found a hotel with no other Internet than just a computer in the lobby, so again just a short update without pictures.

Yesterday I had some strange weather. When I left Bratislava, I first stated to drive toward Hungary, but just before the border it started to rain, heavy rain. I could see that the clouds were gathering and it would rain more in Hungary. So I made 180 degree turn and headed toward Czech.

On the way the skies were clear blue, temperature was around 30 which I’m already quite used to. Suddenly the temperature dropped around 20 really quickly and the wind was terrible, I could barely stay on the road. Within 10 minutes or so the sky was full of clouds and then became the thunder – and I was in the middle of nowhere, I could only see fields everywhere. I drove around 2km and found a brigde, so I decided to stay under that and wait for the thunder to pass. Around 15 minutes later, the rain stopped as quickly as it started and I could continue.

I saw a hole in the clouds and decided to use that as my GPS – I headed toward the clear skies. It seems that my prediction was true: The exhaust-gasket gave up again, this time from different location. The exhaust-fixing-stuff held, though, I just had to add more of it. Now the exhaust pipe seems to contain more fixing-stuff than original gasket.

CouchSurfing seems to be really hard this time of a year, and I’m a bit bored to hotels, let’s see where next.

Lovely Bratislava

Bratislava, Slovakia

What a beautiful city, Bratislava. Nice day, without stress, just wondering around. It’s also a friendly city, I’ve had really nice service wherever I go. And people speak english much better than in central europe (this is already east, isn’t it?).

I’ve enjoyed the churches, old buildings, towers, strange art and walking the streets here and there. It’s been sunny and warm day. Lot of tourists though during midday, which was sometimes a bit annoying as they played “follow the leader” with tourist guide, in big herds. I went to have some lunch while they filled the streets and when I returned, they were gone. Lucky me!

People here seem to be more relaxed than elsewhere so far, which is nice. I like this place. But again, I have not that much to say, so I let the pictures to speak for themselves.

Churches, towers, everywhere.

Another church

Theater

...tower (and finger )

And church...

Small allies and... tower

And surprise, a church!

Some buildings are not that well renovated...

The art around the streets is totally different than elsewhere, it seems.

Some strange art...

...and live music

Funny statue...

...and another

...and another. Bazooka or camera?

For a moment I thought I have to turn back and it would be a long way home…

They went too far. "He said we went too far!"

Pretty streets when the sun goes down

The food here is excellent and practically free (or at least cheap). So today, I’ve been mainly eating, drinking and eating some more.

I’m not exactly sure where I will be heading next, as it turns out that CouchSurfing at this time of year (vacation season) is getting more and more difficult. Today I sent 22 CouchSurfing requests, so far I’ve gotten 12 polite “no go”-answers. Maybe I’ll have to head back through Scandinavia, as the vacation-season is about to be over there. Let’s see.

My World is flat again

Bratislava, Slovakia

Because of all this hassle with the exhaust pipe and the fact that I only have 12 days more time to travel before I have to be home, I decided to skip Slovenia and come to Slovakia instead. I will stay here for 2 nights and continue driving on monday.

When I left Vienna after fixing the bike, I realized that the world is flat again. No mountains – I got so used to them (and I drove to Vienna when it was already dark).

Countryside. Crop has been harvested.

Nice driving-weather today, little dripping of rain at first, but nothing that would’ve bothered me – actually I liked it, the rain cooled the air (as it was over 35°C in Vienna) and the temperature was nice for a change, around 26-28°C. I wondered quite long, why the countryside here looks so different, until I realized that the crop has been harvested and I could see over the fields and far away.

Flat.

About an hour after I arrived to Bratislava, it started to rain here too. It was still nice walking around the city – It’s pretty here. The city is full of contrasts, old buildings, new buildings, side by side. They also build here a lot, you can see cranes basically everywhere you look at.

Cranes. Didn't see Denny.

Tomorrow I have the whole day of time to explore more of the city, and the forecast also promises quite a nice weather. It’s lovely here, although I’ve been here only 10 hours, I already like the city.

PS. It seems that fixing the exhaust also made the driving again much more enjoyable – My bike responds to gas much better than it used to, with the broken exhaust (then it only responded to full gas, with a lot of noise). Love it again!

Oh woe Vespa, shame on Piaggio

Good news and bad news.

The exhaust pipe of my Vespa is fixed. Sort of. I had to do it myself, as none of the shops around Vienna could help me. Yes, they knew what part to order, they spoke english. They also told that this is just “wear and tear”-part that isn’t covered by warranty. And the ordering of the part takes 2 weeks. I almost gave up and thought this would be the end of the trip, bye bye and take a flight home. Thanks for guys on Finnish Scooterclub forum, they reminded me of the stuff that I’ve used years ago and then totally forgotten.

This is just an ugly patch, but it works. And it allows me to continue my trip and drive towards home. And judging from the messages around Internet, I guess this stuff will outlive the life of Piaggio’s own stupid invention.

Thanks for this stuff of wonder

Kludgy Patch. Ugly. It works.

There exists a lot of discussion about the bad exhaust gaskets of Vespa GTS (and maybe GT) models. There seems to be only one fix that will really work, and it’s not made by Piaggio, so it seems Piaggio isn’t actually doing anything about the problem. Shame on them. I have no clue why they use breaking and chipping graphite-gasket anyways?

There has been lot of reports that the failing exhaust gasket has been burning the fuel hose, break hose and other parts. Piaggio has made a lot of recalls around the world, but not everywhere it seems. And also in the recall process they only weld a stupid “collar” to the exhaust pipe which just prevents other parts from burning – it doesn’t prevent the gasket to fail again. They also claim that the gasket is “wear and tear” part, which is all on customers responsibility and will not be covered by warranty. I call this part “bad design” and I won’t eat any bullshit from Piaggio, they will repair the exhaust pipe on warranty when I return home.

Well, enough ranting. The most important thing is that the bike is running again and the trip continues.

Vienna part II

Vienna, Austria

So my plans to go to eastern europe failed a bit – as did the exhaust pipe of my Vespa. It finally gave up totally and the sound is terrible.

The exhaust gasket fails in Vespa GTS and it seems that Vespa knows about the issue and have had a lot of recalls about the issue already well over a year ago, still it’s not fixed for even 2008 model. Bad, bad, bad.

Might be that I have to stay few days in Vienna, unless I find a shop today which could fix the exhaust.

Time to check-out from the hotel..