sasha@lazytrips Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 (edited) Lazy Rally 2014: Eastern Europe It's August, the weather is great and the sun i shining. So I thought I'd go on a little road trip. Naturally enough my comrade Tom (brother-in-law) has decided to come along and we got the map out to randomly point at places in Europe we hadn't yet made it out to. When: Saturday 23rd August - Sunday 31st August Who's going: Just the two of us Why are we doing it? Why not? Sounds like fun! Check points: > Krakow > Minsk > Moscow > St Petersburg > Gdansk > Bremen More details to come! Here is a nice practical practical solution we have come up with for the trip. Comes complete with a set of oversized "soft and comfy" wheels, bone-shattering "smooth ride" suspension and decibel-pumping "quiet as a whisper" double pine apple guns at the back and various other comfort-exuding gadgetry. Latest Preparations for the trip are underway and we are setting off in about a week and a half. Stay tuned - plenty of photographic updates shall be upcoming! Task #1 is to get the car ready in time! TO DO LIST - updated 15/08/2014 Visas: DONE Car Paperwork: DONE New tyres: DONE New brakes: DONE Rusty bit replacements: DONE Fire extinquishers, breathalisers, triangles, etc, etc: All purchased including an emergency jerry can Wobbly plastic bits: DONE Places to stay: 90% booked Edited August 20, 2014 by sasha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 This looks a bit different to the normal Europe trips, hope you have a great week. What is your expected mileage for the trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 This looks a bit different to the normal Europe trips, hope you have a great week. What is your expected mileage for the trip. Mileage should end up at somewhere around the 5k mark before any detours - this seems to be about average for our trips! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMT Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 (edited) Make sure your able to get Super Unleaded all the way! lol Edited August 11, 2014 by AMT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will370z Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Have fun and take lots of pics. Which reminds me, must sought mine out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Update: Visas - all done Car Paperwork - now all done (except Belarus insurance to be purchased at the border) Places to stay - 90% booked All parts & new tyres delivered. Going onto the car tomorrow! Exciting times! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhackyWill Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Some great places there , been to all of them. Make sure the car is parked safely in Moscow, Gdansk, and Minsk look out for fake policemen in St Petersburg who pray on tourists. Have a great trip and stay safe.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCook Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Are those red strips on your wheels alloy wheel protectors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewen@Clark Motorsport Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Looks and awesome trip hope the DBA's work out for you Have fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Are those red strips on your wheels alloy wheel protectors? Nope. Those are the Rota GTR wheels with a natural red lip. These look a fair bit more scuffed 50k miles down the line but still holding up! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Some great places there , been to all of them. Make sure the car is parked safely in Moscow, Gdansk, and Minsk look out for fake policemen in St Petersburg who pray on tourists. Have a great trip and stay safe.. I'm alright in Russia as I have dual nationality. Belarus should definitely be entertaining! Don't think they see too many British cars at the border! (Reportedly <10 British cars drive into Belarus a year) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Looks and awesome trip hope the DBA's work out for you Have fun! Thank you for sorting me out with all the hardware! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Wow, epic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy78 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 What a cool trip! Looking forward to the pics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaddyCee Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 keep away from the girlies in Krakow main square Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KurtB Posted August 19, 2014 Share Posted August 19, 2014 Bremen has some great pubs along the river, whatever it's called! Have fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby D Posted August 20, 2014 Share Posted August 20, 2014 Have a great trip! Looking forward to seeing some pics x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 New tyres: DONE New brakes: DONE Rusty bit replacements: DONE Wobbly plastic bits: DONE All ready for Saturday morning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 27, 2014 Author Share Posted August 27, 2014 So we've made across the tunnel, along Germany's finest concrete and experienced southern Poland's "roads" before filling in a small forest's worth of paperwork to temporarily import the car into the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan joint tax area before stopping off at Minsk and carrying on to Moscow. Here's some interesting things: Provided you do your homework, the trip is pretty easy to do once you get going Krakow was great, but annoyingly full of drunk and high British stag weekend revellers drinking beer at 9am in various cafes while watching Sky Sports Border crossing to Belarus takes a few hours, but as long as you have the right visas and all the right paperwork (with a load of photocopies of every single document) it is relatively smooth - if anyone wants to go make sure that you have either Russian or Belarussian roubles available to purchase insurance and other potential border expenses. Cash only. Minsk is fantastic - great restaurants open all night - we had an amazing meal in one of the best ones in town for about £20. Only got stopped twice on the way to Moscow by the notorious Russian Police. Mostly for entertainment value for them to crack jokes at our documents which apparently look very different to Russian ones. So last night we thought we'd go and check out the sights and naturally enough went and parked up right on the Red Square for some photo taking. Confused local law enforcers came over to have a look, but let us get on with it. Obviously the next logical step was to go to the Moscow street racing venue by the University and park up in front of the Moscow State University on a hill overlooking the city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted August 27, 2014 Author Share Posted August 27, 2014 And a couple more. Unfortunately it was pouring it down during our entire stay in Minsk so not much photographic evidence available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Great trip Keep the pics coming Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewen@Clark Motorsport Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Looks great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samsniss350z Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Weather aside, it looks like you're having a good time. I bet knowing the language helped considerably with the Russian Police. Hope the weather brightens up for you guys, what a great way to spend a holiday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sasha@lazytrips Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Apologies for never posting back on this - had a very turbulent time recently with work so haven't had the opportunity. We made it all the way round the rest of the trip with absolutely no problems. Drove up to St Petersburg along what is meant to be Russia's best motorway. Here are a few pictures from that: After spending the afternoon walking around and the evening eating Chinese food, we began the trip back. The road from St Petersburg towards Latvia is patchy with the majority of patches being awful. As we were fast approaching the Latvian border, the inevitable happened and we were stopped by the Russian blue sirens. The one of us who wasn't me was sat behind the steering wheel as the very serious-looking men in blue explained the full list of charges including illegal manoeuvres, speeding and various others which were duly caught on camera. Jail in Pskov, impounding of the car with little prospect of getting it back and a first court hearing 3 days later were on the menu but after I completely by accident parted with a £50-worth stack of roubles down the appropriate glovebox we got on our way and made it safely to the border despite another few dozen lots of men in blue hiding in every bush along the way. Here is a pretty church that we stopped off at shortly after the stop: We crossed through a very random little village crossing into Latvia which was great because there was absolutely no queue and the local boss came round to chat. The chat went something like "How many horsepower" followed by "Is that all?" Great mardy guy. Latvia was a major surprise. We didn't venture towards the coast, but covered a lot of the eastern half of the country and wow. It is stunning. There are hills and forests and lakes with beautiful houses. This place gives countries like Switzerland and Slovenia a run for their money. I completely didn't expect it, but it felt a lot more European than any of its neighbours. Talking of neighbours, the moment we crossed into Lithuania, everything changed. We were back to Soviet-style towns, old rusty tractors and... roadworks. Now these weren't just some roadworks of the type you might expect on a major road between two countries. This was the sort of thing that monster trucks usually get up to. I have no idea how we got the car along the 70-80 miles of a mix of mud, rocks, crevasses and sudden changes in the height of the road which could be more than a foot in places, but eventually we made it out. The car was in a bit of a state. With the dirt road taking quite a few hours off our journey, we arrived into Gdansk very late which meant that we spent half of the next day going round the town before setting off for Bremen. I can't seem to locate the photos from this bit of the trip - must be on some odd SD card lying around in a rucksack somewhere. Bremen was also very nice. Quite unlike a number of other cities at the western tip of Germany, the centre looks great even if most of it is reconstructed. The beer is also good (but not as good as Belarus) and due to the autobahn we made up a lot of time to relax in the evening. The journey back from Bremen was very quick and straightforward right down the middle of Holland and towards Calais. To be honest by this point, we were both glad to be back - a really great experience and lots of cool memories! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewen@Clark Motorsport Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Looks and sounds awesome thanks for sharing, can't beat a good road trip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.