Today’s the day the plans changed. I woke at Mike’s and sorted all my stuff out. I’d arranged to meet the others at the airport where Antoine had hired a car for the journey to Rovaniemi where we were to meet Heydi and some other surfers for the weekend. A tram into the city and [...]

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The magic ferry with free wireless pulled into port around 13:00 and I lugged the vast quantities of alcohol I’d bought down into the arrivals area. This is obviously a common reason for a trip to Estonia as others had trolleys laden with cases of beer. I had a short wait as the nice people [...]

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I’ll update with more later, but just to let everyone know I made it safe and sound to Finland. I’ve met up with some great people, had a night out and am about to head off into the wilds of the north. Not sure when I’ll get ‘net access again so likely expect a large [...]

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OK, I’m impressed. I am on a laptop. I am online. I am on a ferry. And it’s free. I feel like firing up Skype, calling someone loudly and shouting “I… AM ON… THE FERRY!!!” down the line like that not very funny guy on TV. Seriously. Free wi-fi on a ferry. How cool is [...]

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It was only a brief trip, but I did enjoy my stay. Made all the more pleasant by my wonderful Couchsurfing hosts Johnny and Lena. Thank you both so much! I’m currently sat in the waiting lounge before hopping onto my ferry to Helsinki, where I should arrive in about 2 1/2 hours. Bizarrely, simply [...]

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I didn’t do a massive amount today, really just a stroll around, but I’m glad to say the weather was a lot better. A bit breezy, but with a warm sun. Much improved on the rain from yesterday. As I didn’t do too much I thought I’d fill up the space on today’s post with [...]

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Somehow I survived the living hell of Stansted (again) – I am so not looking forward to flying back in again after Graspop. It has the worst queues for passport control of any airport I have ever been in. Madness. Anyway, the good side is that I arrived in perfect time (10 minutes early, in [...]

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Nothing much about today to report apart from that I had to leave the gorgeous West Cork and my fantastic hosts. Yes, I got that website going (as a testbed) and with any luck Joleen can get it up and going herself. Yes, I had a great time and yes I really would like to [...]

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I spent most of the day working on stuff for Jolene. She takes and sells photos and needs a website set up to make this as easy as possible. The least I can do in return for all the generosity she and her family (and Mike!) have shown me the last week or so. I’ll [...]

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Arr! Pieces of rum and bottles of eight! Klingons off the starboard bow! I’ll bilge-haul ye, ye naval cur! And other piratical rantings. I lucked out a little with the dates for my visit to Ireland. My last weekend here coincided with the Crosshaven Traditional Sail event, an annual gathering of traditional sailing vessels. A [...]

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