Photo: Northern lights over Lofoten Islands, Norway.  Oct 8, 2011

It’s been quite a bit of time since my last post.  I’ve been on the road for the last 2.5 months in northern and eastern Europe.  I really tried to get some blogging done, but every time I pulled out the crappy little netbook that I had, I felt more like throwing it in the ocean than trying to get any work done.

The trip started with 2 weeks on the Lofoten islands, with a spectacular display of the northern lights on my final night.  I next spent 25 hours on 3 train to reach Stockholm.  Then I took the overnight ferry along with hoards of drunk Finns to Helsinki and immediately took another ferry to Tallinn, Estonia.  I had meant to travel through the Baltics about 5 years ago, so this part of the trip was long overdue.  I spent 2 weeks heading south via Riga, Klaipeda, and Vilnius before an epic bus ride to far south east of Poland.  In Poland I hiked around the Biesczszady and high Tatra mountains, taking advantage of an unusually warm and dry autumn in Europe this year.  After Poland was a journey through the Czech Republic, visiting some old favorite cities of Olomouc and Cesky Krumlov.  Finally it was another 2 weeks in Germany visiting old friends and a bit of bouldering.

I’m in and around Wales for the next couple months.  Will make a journey out the the Western Isles for the new year again and maybe another journey in late Jan out to Orkney.  I’m also working on possible plans for a Lofoten trip in Feb.

The blog should more or less be back to normal now (not that many people read it anyhow) and I’ve lots of photos and stories to post from the last couple months.

Photo: Main square, Tallinn, Estonia

 

Photo: High Tatra mountains, Poland

 

Photo: Bouldering, Frankenjura, Germany