Great oppotunity to go to Finland, Cheap (relatively speaking) Where's Timo Options

[Gint]

I wore my 914 6 denim shirt for my passport photos. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Thanks LB (otherwise known as Rusty).

[fiid]

St Petersburg is home to the Hermitage art museum. If you spend 1 minute looking at every peice they have there, it will take you several years to finish.

An ex-girlfriend of mine spent a lot of time in St P. and the place sounded pretty awesome - so if you do have the opportunity to head over there - it would be time well spent. It has some REALLY interesting history.

(Russia's leaders are/were even more outrageous than ours!)

Also - whenever you travel, it's worth doing a lot of research ahead of time to figure out what your options are once you're there - there are some things you may need to book in advance, etc etc.

I don't know bugger all about Finland, other than a friend of mine being from there, and they all have cell phones - otherwise I would make more useful recommendations and comments. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/boldblue.gif)

Fiid.

[Rusty]

ginter, the gintman, gintmeister, ginterola...,

For every day that you spend in Finland, you have one less vacation day to work on the 914, or come to swap meets, or make marathon runs to California for BBQ and parts.

Life's a tradeoff.

Besides, Finland is full of those darned foreigners, just like Iraq. Okay, not *just* like Iraq, but... you know whut I mean.

-LB (otherwise known as Rusty) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif)

[Gint]

Yup. It's all a matter of perspective. I suppose I can tolerate some foreigners for 5-6 days. We're not talkin months (year?) like you're doing, in an arm pit.

You only go around once. Hoping to see Timo beauty. Is there a corner of the world that doesn't have a 914 around somewhere? You even managed to find a 993 in Iraq. Seen any teeners?

I'm goin. Can't wait. I'm even going to buy a new digi-cam. I need somethig smaller.

Thanks for the info fiid. Doing Research goes without saying. I'm trying to get into Russia after all. I'm still looking for people with actual experience getting into Russia from Finland. Some of my wife's co-workers have said that it's difficult. One of my co-workers is from the St, Petersburg area and he says that Fins have no trouble (he says part of the area used to belong to them, no surprise there huh?), but foreigners (like me) do. Bit he has no personal experience in recent years and of course it's quite a different experience for him as he is Russian.

Mike, Nathan, any hinys here? It sounds like you guys have actually done it.

[Rusty]

I've done a bit of travelling. Call the Russian embassy and tell them you want to do some sight-seeing as a tourist, and you want to enter from Finland. You can save yourself some heartache and some $$) by getting a visa in advance, if they offer one. Visas purchased in advance are typically cheaper than right at the border.

You got a passport, brother?

-Rusty (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smoke.gif)

[Gint]

You got a passport, brother?

Thanks LB (otherwise known as Rusty). I'll check into the visa. Anton (Russian co-worker, this guy's a riot and the sharpest Unix guy I've ever met) said the same thing yesterday.

Got photos yesterday and I'm off to apply for the passport this morning. Expedited is only supposed to take two weeks.

[Bleyseng]

AAAh come on post a pic of your passport photo! We need some humor on the BBS.
You need to brush up on your arm waving and charades skills so when you go somewhere where no one speaks any English you can get by. haha its great fun! When we travel Monique has gotten alot of laughs outta watching me try to order food or buy stuff. Me with minimum foreign language skills but good at charades. Nothing like being lost in a country where you cant read the street signs and standing there shouting" Anyone speak English? I am lost"

Geoff (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Gint]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) My passport photo looks like every other ID mugshot I take. I refuse to smile for ID photos. My wife gets lots of mileage out of it. Damn shame the 914 6 logo on my shirt isn't in the pic.

[Bleyseng]

Haha, now you have to wear that shirt everywhere otherwise they won't recognise you when you cross borders.


Geoff

[Gint]

Hey Timo! I'll shoot you an email when we get plans finalized. I'm going to skip St. Petersburg this time. We'll only be in Finland for 3.5 days, and my wife will be working most of that. After the experience visiting this time, I'll be better able to plan that trip for the next trip. I do hope to make it over to Estonia.

The flight out fro Denver is to London and then on to Helsinki. It looks like we're going to go ahead and fly back to London and spend a couple of days there before returning home.

Man, I can't wait.

[914Timo]

OK. Let me know when you are coming here. I can reserve your ticets to Estonia here or at least I would like to share you some information about the different companys and ships. Some of them are not as good as others.

I think it is good idea to skip the St.Petersburg. I am sure it is nice town, but.... And, I am sure you will have a lot of seeing here in Helsinki.