Not having our campervan for the weekend did cause a few issues.

Concern number 1 is of course a place to sleep.  We have become to used to just rocking up and parking almost anywhere (in Sweden you may park overnight for free, anywhere with the P sign) and are not ready for the Swedish hostel system where you have to book, using an automated phone line – in Swedish, of which I speak only three words.
Those three words are quite important to the Swedish though, number 1 is Fika… a word meaning literally “food/coffee/snack / any excuse for a break!  You see signs for Fika on almost every small shop in Sweden, and it is something that should be introduced in the UK for sure!

Second is Hej Hej, meaning – Hello, an essential greeting! And Thirdly there is Largomm (spelling might be wrong here).  Largomm literally sums up Sweden, for it means “just enough to fill you up, but not more”  which is quite a nice thought, no oversized portions but nothing rip off.  I like it and I like the way it sums up the Swedish culture and identity.

So we are on our way to Stockholm, with no hostels open and also no hotels open, the eery light of the eve has caught us out and it is nearly two am, the sun is almost rising again through our windscreen.  We eventually find a hotel Ibis in the nearby (by Swedish standards) town of Nykopping.

Six hours later we are up and out, on the final run to Stockholm in our lovely Saab 95 turbo, for which I am sure the lovely Emily must be thanked.

Our bed for tonight is the first thing we sort out, heading for a rather bizarre youth hostel located on an old warship, the AF Chapman.  The old sailing ship has done many miles and is now a prominent attraction on an island opposite the old town of Stockholm. Parking for the car is not too bad either at 30krona (about £2.50)

So – our bed for tonight is sorted, although the swipe card used for entry onto the ship is slightly dodgy, leaving us hoping that we will be able to get back on!!

Stockholm, as with Copenhagen, is a city built on a load of islands.  Luke and I fear for the lives of our shoes after our Copenhagen expedition led to getting stuck on many of the smaller islands and having to walk miles to get back off again! So we decided to keep our walking tour to a more confined area.

We head off into the old town, Gamla Stan.  It is a maze of tight, twisting streets with shops hiding around every corner and restaurants attracting the flocking tourists with charm rather than brashness.  The Royal Palace, consisting of 680 rooms and thus making it the largest in the world, occupies one corner of this small island and the wide streets surrounding it are in severe contrast with the aforementioned maze just a few hundred metres away.

There is mostly certainly a tourist feel to this part of Stockholm, as is to be expected. We hear many English and American accents in the hordes of people clamouring for that certain photo of this old place.  Luke and I head off into the side streets to see what else we can find, which is not too much really, but the calm and coolness of these streets is not to be missed.

By this time my mobile has died (my phone has a habit of doing this at inconvenient times) so we head off to find a place to get a charger (with European socket) and head back to the hostel for a few hours of much needed kip!
We had arranged to meet some people from the brilliant Couchsurfing.org website in the evening, unfortunately due to mobile numbers, emails and all sorts of other miscommunications we are unable to get hold of our drinking buddies for this evening and so, with ther remaining power left in the laptop I connect to the Internet and post an “urgent drinks request” on the Stockholm page, then the stomach growls and it is time for some food!

The old town has transformed in just a few hours from streets packed full of travellers into a much quieter, cosier and more relaxed place.  The bars are full of people kicking back and the restaurants are crammed with smart looking people enjoying some good looking food.

Being on a budget of course meant that we were looking for the most “cost-effective” place to eat, rather than the one that looked like you needed a mortgage to enter.

We were not disappointed though, nor were we snubbed at – for we only really had a few “travelling clothes” with us, which can cause an issue in some snobbier places.  Our restaurant looks reasonably priced and once inside the host whisks us off to a table, then onto another table (he mis-judged something or something, but was very polite about it all).
Our waitress was yet another incredibly good looking Swede, although not blonde – which is better in my books.
With our meals ordered Luke and I settled into our beers (and wine).  Then the meals arrived.

Now I have mentioned before about Largomm, and this is exactly what I got, a healthy, but not too large portion of meatballs in lingonberry sauce with some mashed potato, a truly brilliant meal.

Just as Luke and I were ready for an early night a text came through from our “urgent drinks request” on couch surfing and just a few hours later we were knocking back a few beers on a fairly orderly bar crawl around the south Stockholm island of Sodermalm.

At around 4am, and with the sun now firmly asserting itself in the sky we headed back for a night on the AF Chapman, another Scandinavian Capital has been partied in, and yes, I would recommend anyone to come here.  The city is clean, laid back when not in the packed tourist areas and that friendly feel to it that is missing in so many cities. 

Stockholm has soul.

We arrived in Ringsted on the 1st of May.

Europe takes it’s May day holidays seriously and everything was pretty much shut.

Ringsted itself is a bit of an industrial town, though there are the usual tourist attractions that most towns fling up the most entertaining thing Luke and I found was a Jolly Roger flag flying high over the tow from an abandoned old warehouse.

Our stellplatz is nice enough, tucked away at the back of a clean industrial estate.  Our host this time has his own campervan, house and campervan repair shop all in a reasonably large plot.

We plug-in to allow us to use the heater, the nights are definitely getting colder now.

Our host soon arrives on his bike (most Danish people seem to be more adept at riding their bikes than driving a car) and instantly tours into a tourist information office, offering us leaflets for here, there and everywhere.  Unfortunately with it being May day our drive out to an open-air museum is just a drive-out.

Our sink is playing silly buggers again so our host turns to role number 2 and quickly becomes repair man.  About ten minutes, some pressure testing and 10krona later we have a sealed and working sink, brilliant!

Parked next to us is a strange campervan that looks as if it is being used as a mobile piercing studio, I do believe that a man is not equipped for some of the piercings that the paper signs advertise.

A walk around Ringsted provides today’s entertainment and photos can be seen below.

I had a reply on my last post about Budgets from experienced traveller and blogger Lissie from Budget 4wd Travel.

Lissie raised some very good points regarding servicing of the van etc.  In fact there were enough questions for a post, so a post I shall write!

So from here on in Lissie’s comments are in the Block quotes and my answers are below.

I’d say the main thing you are missing – and the biggest risk is maintenance – curently spending A$1500 on torque converter for said 4wd (yes we still have it!).

We’re lucky enough that the van is fairly new (2004).  Of course the downside of this is that there’s a lot that we cannot fix if it did go wrong, most of the injection timing and stuff like that is all controlled by the Engine Management computer and they are damn expensive.

We do have some other spares we will take with us (I used to work for a magazine for the automotive repair trade – it’s not what you know but who you know when it comes to getting things for a good price).

Tyres wear out, etc. We did do 35,000km in 6 months though – you get that in Australia! You should service a diesel every 5000km to – its really a bad idea to miss this (they are less forgiving than petrol in this)

The tyres should last us for atleast 7500 miles, they will be replaced at  the start of the trip if they don’t look like they will.  We will also take two spare tyres (full size) in case of punctures or blowouts.

Fiat Panda, 1.3 Diesel!

As for servicing every 5000km – I’d disagree.  Modern diesels (Like Ford’s 2.4litre Duratorque that powers the LDV) should be able to last 12000 miles between servicing, obviously more often increases longevity and economy etc. I’m not sure if Australia have the same kind of diesels as we do in Europe, I know in America they are seen as slow and sluggish but in Europe diesel powers just about as many cars as petrol.  There is even a small diesel unit for the Fiat Panda!

In pratice you will need to regionalise your budget – you cant spend your average in Bulgaria and expect to spend the same in Sweden LMAO. We budgeted on a weekly basis – cause stuff averges out. What about interent and phones – internet adds up trust me on this!

We are looking at this.  One of the reasons we went for the same costs acros the board is due to weighing up living costs.  In Sweden and Norway etc we can camp for free in layby’s and even out in the wild, so our nightly costs will be nearly nothing, meaning that we can shift some of our 55GBP daily budget aroundfor food or activites.

In Eastern Europe, although we can camp for free, we will not be doing so.  This is due to security, many campervanners have tales of being woken in the night by people robbing them, or even just stealing the whole van whilst they are in the back in bed!

Using guarded campsites does not come cheap though – about 20euro a night minimum, of course this is offset by cheaper activities and food costs.

On the flipside to all that though I quite agree with Lissie’s comment.  It is hard to know what things will cost until we get there, and then budgets can be properly set.  Different countries may have different costs and different regions certianly will.

We set out our budget just to get an idea of our trip’s cost. It’s a kind of “worst case scenario” or “most expensive scenario”.  Once we get underway I am sure we will chop and change things and almost completely rewrite the book.

As for internet and phones – we will only be taking a mobile with us for emergencies.  Again down to costs.  As for Internet, we will be relying on internet cafes in cities, in most youth hostels you can find a pc with internet (free) and on campsites we will be hoping for wi-fi access or again a pc and internet.

You can see Lissie’s post from her travels by clicking  on this link : How much will a budget trip around Australia cost? Part 1: Day to Day Costs I really do appreciate everyone’s comments, and I hope Lissie doesn’t think I am just disagreeing with her! lol.

I hope all the rest of you find these articles useful.  Are there any other tips that you guys want to know about?

Ok, so another thing I had to check out was what it would actually cost to take my mobile abroad. I am on a contract with 3 mobile, I got a bloody good deal so didn’t really want to cancel it and pay all the money to terminate the contract early.

Neither did I want to spend a fortune making calls here there and everywhere without knowing what the charges are.

Three.co.uk

For those of you unaccustomed with European phone usage it works like this: buy a phone / sim card in one country – easy enough. Want to take it past that country’s borders? You have to have roaming added to your sim card and then of course pay for the privelege of using it outside of your “home” network. I’ll bet people living in Lichtenstein get a bit annoyed, the border is only ever 5 minutes away!

So I found all my rates from my network provider and here are my costs for usage abroad. Just another thing to add to the ever expanding “budget”.

So my rates are as follows.  For Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Italy I can recieve calls and text messages for free, becuase three have partner networks here.  It is also cheaper to call and text to others, costing just 15pence per minute / per sms.

In all the other countries I am travelling through there are no “partner networks”  so it will be 15 pence per minute to recieve a call /sms and 34 pence to make a call and 25 pence to send an sms message.

I haven’t had look at any other providers as I find my contract useful when I am at home for “normal” living”. I would suggest you have a look at other options if you are planning to travel and not keep your home contract.

Either that or go old school.  Phone cards often represent the best value for calling outisde of the country’s borders and for long ditance calls I don’t think anything can beat them.

Or you can go new school, get your parents / family or whomever you want to talk to to get skype, login at one of the millions of internet cafes and talk for free.

Lovely Jubly!

Happy Travelling

I cannot believe how quickly this has come.
Tomorrow is my final day at work.

I cannot wait, nor do I want to go in tomorrow. It’s a battle everyday and to be honest I want to hold up my white flag early.

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Life has just become so busy recently, plans are afoot for this and that, plans that take time. Tonight I sat down with good intentions of writing a damn fine travel information post; went through the usual processes – grab a nice cold glass of Ice Tea, turn the mobile off, turn laptop on, whack on the media player, find links – then it all stopped.

And I make absolutely no apology for the post below sounding like a bloody hippy or “life coach” thing – I don’t really believe in them personally, but who knows they may be on to something.

Whilst the glorious piece of technology that is Media Player trawled through my collection of random noises that is my music folder it stumbled across a track that I hadn’t heard before. You know the ones I’m on about, you bought the compilation because you knew eighty percent of the stuff, but had only got round to playing the first of the two disks before you copied it onto the laptop and promptly bought something else.

I am listening to Beyond Time (ambient mix) by Blank and Jones. You can listen to it by clicking here.

Listen to it, close your eyes – don’t look at the screen, don’t look at anything. Picture yourself where you want to be. Take the moment of solitude before the bass kicks in to do a complete 360 shot of yourself, once the heavy bass kicks in dream of the discoveries you will make, the small things you see everyday that have made you stop and look twice. Allow yourself a little smile.

Seven Minutes and 40 seconds.

How often do any of us ever actually dedicate that amount of time to just closing our eyes and dreaming of somewhere else. And not the dreams before you fall asleep that you actually have very little control over, in this you are in control.

Seven Minutes and 40 seconds

Isn’t really that long, so why do we push ourselves continuously to be as busy as possible, cram everything in, work harder, play harder. Just stop.

For Seven minutes and forty seconds.

Don’t think about the music, don’t analyse it, don’t think about the lyrics. Just shut off.

I’m still not a hippy, I just wish that the whole world would take a day off, without insecurities or stresses most people are actually quite nice and a whole lot happier.

I hope that some of you will appreciate this. I look forward to my new life. Because I have suddenly realised that it’s not about the travel, it’s not about getting out of a job I didn’t like. I don’t know tha answer yet, but I’m going to go looking.

I realise that some people will just think that it’s because I’m “at that age”.

My question to you is this – when did you give up, when did you give in?

Think about this also for just a few minutes…

If I said to you that I want you to plan your life around me, around where I want you to be for 30 hours each week, at the times I specify – which happen to be during the day, when the sun is out, I will leave you the dark evenings though, so you can eat, have a few hours to yourself and get some sleep before you come back to do what I want you to do.

How much would you want for me to disrupt your life like that?

Back to normality, please leave a comment – even if just to say hi, it has been a pleasure meeting you.

Good evening all, how are you?

Thanks to the wonders of mobile internet from T-Mobile Germany I am able to stay in touch with you guys direct from our glorified car park hehe.

I should also say that we have snow, wonderful snow, and lots of it. When I get round to replacing the batteries in the camera I will upload the photos of our excellent Snow Table!

While the snow storm outside batters us I shall inform you all of a new travel invention that I have seen on my travels.

We stopped over night at another stellplatz near the German twn of Julich, which is home to one of the largest open cast mines in the world. Whatever you may think about the terrible destruction that this way of mining causes, you cannot stand near the edge of this “hole” and wonder at the scale of it.

Mahusive! and yes that is intetionally spelt that way!

Whilst staying in Julich I noticed that next door to us was a lovely patch of flat land, with some brlliant “pitch turf”, lights and a small toilet and shower block. This is the future of budget travel ladies and gentlemen…. A youth tent platz!

We’ve all heard of youth hostels, so just apply the same principle to tenting, basic – but nice and clean – and of course fairly cheap!

So there we go – ony one day down and already I have found the future of travelling. You can find out more about this place here

Happy Tavelling
Overland Si