but it has been cut down somewhat! i originally planned on doing a weekly diary, but due to my laptop packing up in the first few days, i had to limit the amount of photos i have taken, so i have just concerntrated on the last part.
i left england for holland on a sunday, and loaded monday and headed to vienna, after there it was a double drive for myself to werchter festival in belgium, and then onto oslo. from there we went to stockholm, helsinki, then onto moscow. once at the finnish/russian border, we waited about 13 hours to clear customs before heading to moscow under ■■■■■■
what can i say about russia!! its another world! they are probably the worst roads i have driven on, beating poland (but not by a huge amount!), the driving standard is non existant, serious/fatal crashes are the norm and so there are not really tailbacks of people wanting to look, we saw at least half a dozen i think. its an amazing drive in which you get to see the real russia, not just the tourist sights of red square, you see hard life and poverty. i was a little suprised at the amount of american trucks and trailers operating out there, mainly due to the friction between the 2 countries, but i guess they are pretty durable.
anyway a few pics first…
sign says it all
motorway heading towards st petersburg
bad roads, but people still head past you if they can, like this coach…
and this guy!
sell what you can at the side of the road, this one sold towels of various descriptions
made it!
security for the night was provided by these…
crashes are a common sight
the other thing which suprised me was the amount of old english trucks and trailers being operated out there, i almost waved at a ralph davis coming the other way, and several other old ones i noticed were phillips of seahouses, novacold, boots, asda, reed boardall fowler welch etc etc
i thought this guy was on a hell of a trunk run 
this was the standard of the slightly more minor road we took to the border at narva, estonia. walking pace was a must on a lot of it!!
back to the border, queue to clear for what seemed an age, then it was through and back through estonia, latvia, lithuania, poland, germany back to utrecht to tip, and then home
i dont know how many kms i have done as the truck i had was a digi card and i never wrote it down. there will be some pics in the photo forum of some of the truck i spotted
sorry its not too detailed, but i hope you have enjoyed reading it
edit: thanks a million to r slicker for the polish help, much appreciated, and all has been noted down for future reference
I pity the poor bloke in the Axor, i felt sorry for him when he turned up in Lisbon in it. Glad to see you enjoyed the experience.
