26-30 July, St Peterburg-Rybinsk

Good road from Pskov to St Peterburg, bordered with poor villages of wooden houses. On arrival Filip was extremely учсшеувЖцу found a bus like ours on the petrol station!

One whole day in St Peterburg, parked in the touristic centre, in front of Mikhailskij palace. Nice tour on the bike. We also met again our friends Toques from Biarritz.
Then road again, good halt for sleeping in a quiet forest, just near a very big gaz pipeline, probably coming from Siberia. The weather is good all the time. Last night we should have met a Couchsurfer in Cherepovets, but she didn't answer sms, so one more night in the city, we prefer nature!

Today, nice people: looking for water we found workers from Kirghizie on a petrol station, they shared their lunch with us. Then in the nexy t town, rybinsk, as we were looking for an internet cafe, a nice guy took us to his house: that's where I am now!

First week : Poland-Lithuania-Latvia-Russia

First day, first surprise : after leaving Fred in Brzeszcze who helped us with the stickers for the sponsors, we meet our friends from France travelling with four kids, they had just arrived in Auschwitz. Some hours of driving and we go sleeping in a forest, then drive again to Spioch’s house, a family farm North-East of Varsaw (Ostrow Mazowiecka). 

Third day, we wanted to have a look at the nature of Mazury and see the village of Jedwabne where Jews were burnt in a barn during the war. Bad luck for us too, we jumped on some holes and the rear beam got completely deformed, it has turned into the frame, we cannot change the gear and have to weld in emergency. Filip finds with no delay a garage that can take us, Augusta and Elios have to stay outside, it’s so hot, and then comes the rain and a violent storm. We find refuge in the small shop nearby, and at 9, Elios begins to be sleepy and the works on the bus are finished (see technical part).

Next day, we join our friends Andrzej, Kasia, Zosia and Lila in Mazury, then leave together, in 2 VW buses, towards Lithuania, it rains again, Filip repairs the sweepers in two seconds, I twist my ankle violently but it gets better quickly. We get to the coast, a third VW bus joins us, that of Marcin, Ewa and Marianna, and we rest one day in a farm-camping in Pape national parc in Latvia.

On sunday, the weather gets better but we need to drive all day, we take a hitch-hicker who tells us a little about the country, stop in Riga, nice city with a chill out atmosphere, and then drive by night to get to the border early morning.

No problem at this border, paper work and waiting take us take us 2.5 hr, we find cheaper fuel before running out of fuel, not as cheap as it was 6 years ago though, now it’s about 0,60 euro/liter. So, we are in Russia ! Now we’ve got thirty days to cross it.

Pskov is a big town, very old (more than a thousand years), it’s the craddle of Russian chritianism. Its gigantic icons and different churches, along a nice river, are worth seing. A couple of Couchsurfers, Alex and Alesya, take us for a little walk and visit. Today, we have to hit the road again, direction St Petersbourg.
Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/filipfromPL/PlLvLtEst?authkey=Gv1sRgCPev06_spPaBdQ

The great departure

Here we go, finally, away from Bielsko Biala. After loading the bus yesterday, we drove some 60km with no breakdown! That's good news, when you know that Filip spent his week working on the whole engine, repairing the brakes, adjusting electrics, making the whole basis of the vehicle higher, giving him bigger new tyres
So we've got a small week left to get to the russian border slowly, through Warsaw, Masurian lakes region Lithuania, Latvia and maybe Estonia.
Next news and pictures as soon as possible!

8-10 July: Garbojama: VW meeting in Cracow

That's was meant to be our departure point. But we're still not ready: on the road there and back (2x100 km), not less than 4 breakdowns (fuel, GPL switch, lights not working in the middle of the night and fuel filter), so that there is a lot left to do! The meeting gave us already a feeling of being East: 7 buses came from Russia, and a few cars from the Baltic countries. And almost all Filip's friends were there to say good bye.
Now Elios is getting baptised today, and as soon as we can, we'll hit the road, Jack!