Well........ now im in the city of Irkutsk in Siberia. I also spent 3 days at Lake Baikal the deepest lake in the world on the Olkhon island. That area is really beautiful but i have no pictures :(
I spent so far 3 days on the train from Moskow with a brief stop at Yekaterinburg. Tomorrow I begin the 3 day train journey to Beijing!!!!!

View from the train, there are also many many trees :)

Baikal train from Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk

Playing some cards that made no sense to me

Famous church where the Romanovs Tsar (in the statue) was killed ending the monarchy in Russia

More pictures from Russian Championships

Some very good pictures of the event taken by somebody else!!!!! :)

Estonia, Saint Petersburg, Tivdia and Moscow!!!

Now im in Moscow after a few days on the road. First I flew to Helsinki and after a few hours there I travelled by ferry with a very friendly Estonian ballerina to Tallinn Estonia. The people at the hostle were great fun, running the streets of the old town dressed as cat, mouse and dog and constantly harrassing poor Brad. Then to Saint Petersburg for 3 days. Then I got a lift north to Karelia, 7 hours away from St Petersburg for the Russian freestyle kayak championships. The wave was located in a small village called Tivdia and it was great to meet so many great people. The event finished with a great party in the woods beside a lake which went on until the next day. It was so north that it never got dark !!!! Then we drove to another kayaking spot, then back to St Petersburg. In St petersburg I experienced the russian tradition of Banya which means baths. It was basically a really hot sauna, and part of it involves a kind of thrashing with leaves and branches. It was a great for my body after several days of drinking and partying with russians!!! I felt so good afterwards :) Moscow is a great city, so busy, the biggest city ive ever been in. It felt so strange to walk around Red square and the Kremlin!!!! On Saturday Im taking the train to Yekaterinburg, then to Irkutsk and on the 3rd of July will arrive in....BEIJING!!!!

Home

EASKEY!!!! I had to go home for a few days to drop back my bike :)

All good things come to an end

7 weeks, cycling in 7 countries, 4,800 kilometres Portugal to Romania
FINISHED!!!!!!!!!

photos and perhaps video clip to come soon!!!

Week 7

Budapest Hungary

Guillaume at the crazy bar we went to last night.

Barbecue with Arpi, his family and friends

Budapest

Hungarian forest

Slovenian Forest

Week 6

Entering the Slovenian forest

Venice

It felt great to meet another cycling

The abandoned farmhouse where I slept. Also included is the farmer who owned the place. He was a really nice guy, we chatted for a bit.

The very nice Italian family who let me stay with them and gave me a delicious dinner.

I Made it to Ljubljana Slovenia!!!
I left Genova on the 7th, but many problems with my rear wheel (breaking spokes and generally weak) and a dodgy tube wasted time. A new wheel and I was ready to go, but only managed to leave the city by 6pm. I climbed for about 2 hours to Busalla where a very nice family offered that I could camp in their garden, and also gave me a delicious dinner!!! The next morning I began the descent to the Italian plains towards Trieste. Running on Biscotti, ciabatta and pesto spaghetti I made good progress, crossing the border to Slovenia after 605 kilometres 4 days later. It was nice to spend some days riding on flat terrain, but the wide open terrain meant that I was riding against a constant wind. I had lunch in Venice on Sunday and had a walk around the city - pretty crazy place with lots of tourists!!! I missed the Giro dItalia by about 20 mins on Monday. Just as I arrived in the town all the team busses were leaving.... that would have been cool to see.
Slovenia is such a beautiful counrty, so many mountains and forests everywhere, and the people are really friendly!!!!
Highlights of the week:
Dinner with an italian family, Venice, Slovenian contryside, crostata (italian cake kind of thing) borak(slovenian pastry/pizza)