Saturate dry wells

My travel companion arrived today.
It will show you places where I am and have been.

Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Trouble Sleeping

Waking at 5am in panicky flusters about where I'll be sleeping in China. 2008 is year of the brown rat so lets all head for the sewers. Spurs are beating Arsenal 5-1, that's brilliant. Well isn't Thorn Tree is a great site, contrary to the Russian Business Visa application. Anyone would think that UK relations with the Motherland are at an all time low. After much pestering and smelling something fishy from my nose, my visa support chappy admitted,

"According to the regulations we can only apply for business visa support 45 days prior to the indicated entry date. Therefore, we can not submit your request for processing immediately. Your request is stored in the system and will be submitted to the Passport and Visa Department on the nearest possible date."

Which means if I hadn't asked he would have had my support documents ready for 17th March (ring any bells?). A full 10 days before my departure. Why can't they just tell me the truth? Will have to lose half a month of the 3 month Visa just to get the documents in good time. No matter, I wasn't planning on a full 3 in The Motherland anyhow.
Hep A & B vacs yesterday in respective guns. Also need typhoid, rabies (the dogs may be out for revenge when chow down on their relatives), malaria and others so plenty more needles to come. Pete Doherty will be jealous.

Northern Lights Yo

I leave: 27th March. Read the following with this.

1st leg Norway, beginning in sweet, sweet Trondheim. We stay with student friends studying at the university of Trondheim from 27th to 30th followed by lungfuls of Norwish air then shoulders for pillows aboard our overnight passage to Bodo (arr 0910 on the 31st), gateway to the north. Here we shall bribe the gatekeeper and find hostelry to lay our wares. From here it's anyone's guess how we make our way to Narvik, either

1. via the Lofoten Islands (if the ferry is running)
2. coach journey direct from Bodo or
3. by vigorously mincing our way there

Upon arriving at Narvik we can plough north to Tromso (arr 1st April), where I will probably enjoy my first couchsurf. The remainder of the Norway leg will be spent in Tromso observing the aurora borealis oh yeah. Options from Tromso are Stockholm then Helsinki or straight to Helsinki and onto the Motherland.

Corrections from last post: The brief flirtation with Denmark (and possibly Sweden) has now been put to bed, due to our new start point.

Travel Plans

"It's nice to be alive
Wonderful people everywhere
The way they comb their hair makes me want to say
It's a wonderful place
Oh what a wonderful place
For you, for you, for you, not me"

...sings Zac De La Rocha from Rage Against The Machine. It'll come as no surprise then that Zac is coming nowhere near my travel plans, which begin here in late March. I'll indulge in planeflight from Stansted to Haugesund with my good friends Damian (Right) and Raggy - Damian's Norwegian (it's all coming together now isn't it reader) girlfriend. Raggy has kindly offered to show me the sights of her homeland before we proceed to Denmark (possibly) and Sweden before we go our separate ways as I proceed East to Finland and the Motherland. More to follow my pretties...

29.12.07 Update: Plans change like important minds the journey now starts here.