Trans Alpine Pachyderm

I arrived in Stuttgart at about 5pm, just as the first snowflakes were falling. I had time to eat a waffle and snap a few pictures of the schloßplatz before being picked up at the central station.

By the time we reached the mountain pass to Grasgehren we needed to put on the snow chains.

"Don't worry, I'm a very experienced winter driver."

With nearly three feet of snow on the mountain we headed up the pass...slowly.

This was the only lift operating and it was opening day so there weren't many other people braving the sideways-blowing snow.

Breaktime. Gulaschsuppe und bier. And a thumb.

It was snowing *this hard*. Had to dig the car out of about a foot, maybe two of snow. Then went to change and use the bathroom...ten minutes later, another inch on the roof.

Going down was considerably more hairy.

"I'm only wearing the helmet because it's warm."

Every good surf trip has a good surf-mom behind it.

Powder on the bus at Kukusruf Str.

Came home to a frozen Stockholm. 2 hour flight delay coming in due to snow/fog at Arlanda Int'l. Great session--powder all the way, nearly empty and with the Kleinbubs.

Fall Break--Baltic Bikini Bash (Riga pt. 2)

The following happened between 9.00 and 23.00

Italians (notice the small cups)

rest of the world

We left Riga at 11 for Stockholm. The Ryanair airport is one and a half hours away from the city though, so it took us a few to get home. As for Riga, we saw some top-rate museums with free entrance. Also we found a few really nice places to hang out after dark. We even were shaken-down by the cops and had to bribe our way to freedom. One of the few time when I can say we didn't do anything wrong and really mean it...unless of course our mistake was speaking in English too loudly.Riga definitely lived up to it's reputation as the "wild child" of the Baltic cities.

Back to being hard a work.

Fall Break--Baltic Bikini Bash (Riga pt. 1)

Arrival in Riga a few minutes before midnight. First things first. Our hostel was next to a Belgian beer bar. It bears repeating: our hostel was next to a Belgian beer bar.

We met up with Riccardo who had just finished his last exam.

Hostel pop life.

I left out most of the cityscape photos because there were many repeated from the last trip here. But there were definitely some new sights because we had a few days as opposed to the 5 hours this time.

We heard of a Russian flea market just across the canal. Outside there were tons of fruit stands and flower peddlers. Inside the zeppelin hangars were not dirigibles, as one would expect to find, but hundreds of people buying meats, cheeses and preserves of every variety. The further from the river we went, the more unique some of the wonderful items for sale became. One could find "Guchi" blue jeans, past-date dog food, a left blinker (or right, if upside down) from an old Volga, Red Army hats, track suits in every color and some gold chains to match and pretty much anything one could imagine and still some things from beyond. If ever you were to be missing a button on the zuit suit your "zany" aunt or uncle gave you for high-school graduation, here was the place to find a suitable replacement.

Stalin's layer cake

Our trip coincided with the Baltic-cup final match between the local team Skonso and the opposing team from Kaunas, Lithuania. Bitter cold didn't slow down the action any as there were two red cards and two yellow. Kaunas scored 2 goals before the half and Skonso recieved a penalty kick and shortened their trail. After endless attempts, moments of brilliance and punctuated by incompetance the final whistle blew at 2-1. The crowed dispersed and we headed into a palemeni cafeteria to fill up and warm up.

Before we could go to sleep we had to check out some of the nightlife offered. It lived up to the reputation. Now only if we could figure out how to avoid being arrested in the streets between the bar and the fast food restaurants...

Fall Break--Baltic Bikini Bash (Tallinn pt. 3)

To the pub! Time for introductions (albeit late).

Matthias. Germany. Likes being punctual and discussion. Has a photographer's eye and camera to match. Likely to drink the most beer in the shortest amount of time.

Joseph. France. Prefers Hoegaarden (see above). Quiet and with dagger-like wit. Always keeps his cool. Has mad international banking skills in the form of a working credit card.

Never seen this guy before.

Liina. Estonia. Speaks more English than your average federal employee. Chocolate promoter. Fabulous tour guide.

After going for a beer swim, the next morning Liina took us to the top of St. Olaf's church for a great panorama of the city, then to some off-the-beaten-path locales.

Liina and Tiina

the president's house

With our time in Tallinn at and end we said farewell to Estonia from the top of this hotel and spent our last few kroons on some chocolate for the bus ride to Riga. I really wanted to stay, but adventure calls and you can't let the machine get it--adventure is way too busy to leave a message. I settled for deciding to come back to Tallinn as soon as possible.