Joensuu
SortavalaWord to your respective mothers.
So I went to Finland with my mate Jesper and his friend Fyodor on Wednesday. Jesper needed to go because of vehicle registration issues, Fyodor because he's interested in beavers and their habitats, and I went because I felt like it. That is, I'd never been to Finland and I thought it might be cool.
I was wrong.
It might have something to do with the fact we went to several small towns (Ilomantsi, Joensuu) where we didn't know anybody but really the two things I can say about Finland currently is that it's a) boring b) expensive. That said,I have been invited to go sailing in the Gulf of Finland this summer which I am sorely tempted to do. In fact the most interesting part of the trip was on the Russian side, on the way there they thought my visa was hilarious. And on the way back my passport wouldn't scan in the machine, and then they thought that Jesper was doing something dodgy with these four tyres he had in the back of his car. Rather funny in retrospect really.
No, the best times are to be had on the Russian side of the border, where we went to a little town called Sortavala and stayed in a very cheap hotel and got really really drunk in a bar that only sold cans of beer and crisps.
In other news, on Wednesday we probably set off on our road trip around the Onego. Which will no doubt be very interesting, and will hopefully involve some hot water along the way because they've turned ours fucking off for 3 weeks. Ta.
