Sweden

Upon arriving in Stockholm, I had the feeling I was going to get on my bike and just ride as quickly as possible to England. However, I was introduced to the Swedish east coat cycle route and suddenly I cannot get enough of riding in Sweden. The route was sign posted from Stockholm to Ystad and took me down the coast through national parks along back roads. The scenary was unbelievable and I was able to just pedal and take it all in. The weather isn't ideal and its dark by 5pm, but it hasn't dampened my spirits one bit considering the majority of the last 7 years I have lived in the tropics, which makes the dreary weather somewhat of a novelty for me. 

Tomorrow I will venture to the happiest country in the world. To say the least I am quite curious about the happy Danes.

Is there a better way to celebrate six months on the road????

 

Aland

The last time I boarded a ferry to Aland I was an irreresponsible and not very smart 24 year old and I missed my stop. This minor mishap resulted in another 10 hours on the boat to Helsinki, not my brighest moment. However, this time I did manage to get off in Aland demonstrating my ability to make better decisions for the most part this time around. I was greeted by one of  my best friends,Cecila, who spolied me while I was on her little island with her and her family. For example, me: "Do you have a safety pin my pants are ripped?" Cecila: "Jenna Lee! Throw them out I have a pair of Armani pants you can have!"  Haha I love how my friends have grown accustomed to taking care of me and ensuring I have a little bit of style along the way.

Amateur

Professional

Finland

Ready to cruise to Aland

Entering Finland was a breath of fresh air complete with its marked bike routes, bike paths fully stocked supermarkets, English speakers, and availability of free maps.  Not too much to write about Finland the most exciting part was the orderliness of this country. I thought I enjoyed disorganized societies but then I entered Finland and embraced the civilization as I rode from the Russian border to Helsinki before catching a ferry to the island of Aland.

Helsinki!!

Vyborg

I rolled out of St Petersburg heading north to Finland after much deliberation about what route I might take. Well, I chose the colder one for some reason and headed for Helsinki with the feeling that I was ready to get home (this feeling has sinced changed :) ).  Part of the reason for new spirits was meeting Denis and Sveta in Vyborg. When I arrived in Vyborg and began the search for shelter, which proved more difficult then one might imagine, I bumped into Denis on the street. Before meeting him I decided that I was done trying to sort myself in countries where communication often proves difficult, basically I was done playing chirades and was tempted to book a flight home from Stockholm. However, someone knew I needed a boost and along came Denis offering his help. When he first approached me I gave him an exasperated "Do you speak English?" Fully expecting a no and for him to continue about but to my delight was "yes a little."  In short he offered to retrieve his bike and show me a hotel which turned into me spending a couple days with him and his wife in Vyborg.  Denis kept telling me about his dream to kayak or cycle around the world and it reminded me how lucky I am to have the ability to embark on such an amazing journey.  Needless to say I left Vyborg reinvigorated!

The road to Vyborg

Vyborg

Saint Petersburg

After Moscow I hopped another train to beautiful St. Petersburg (STP). Yes, I know lots of trains in Russia but there are 11 time zones in this country so cycling it borders on impossible with a 30 day visa.  STP is one of the most picturesque cities I have ever visited and gave me the feeling that Europe and the end are not far off.  Most of my time here was spent either wandering by foot or bicycle down unknown streets just admiring the beauty of this city. I have to say Peter did an excellant job when building his home base.  My only complaint was that one of his ATM machines ate my card, but the problem has been rectified it only took a few hoops to jump through to get a new card and then to get that card to actually work, which only occured a week ago. Anyway I made up for the lack of Moscow photos in STP.