Southern Norway, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Saint Petersburg. Days 21 to 30

Morning of August 6, 2016. We decided to head toward the southern coast of Norway. On the way our task was to rent a cabin, because we had already spent two days outdoors and needed somewhere civilized to live for a bit, wash ourselves and do laundry. After driving a little, we found such a place. Once we had checked into the cabin, we went into town to look for a place where we could celebrate my girlfriend's birthday, but found nothing except a pizzeria. So we bought a pizza there and went back to the cabin to celebrate. After that we went to figure out how to wash our clothes. We bought two 25 NOK coins and went to the laundry room. We inserted one coin and pressed start, but then someone explained that we had put the clothes into the dryer rather than the washer. The manager gave us another coin for free. In general the system there worked like this: first you wash your clothes in the washer, and then you dry them in the dryer. The drying was actually quite good, with hot air blowing, so most things came out almost fully dry and ready to wear. We then realized that we had forgotten to bring laundry detergent on the trip. We wanted to throw some soap into the machine, but a Chinese woman standing nearby decided to share her detergent with us.

The next morning we packed up and drove on. Along the way we noticed that the mountains were starting to disappear, and things became less interesting.

Things also went badly with cooking that day. First the gas stove kept going out, and then its lid closed. When I forced it open, boiling foam splashed out. I managed to jump away, but my girlfriend did not, and some landed on her leg. She immediately ran to cool it in water.

Without thinking too long, we decided to leave the southern coast and go back into the mountains. On the way we pitched our tent for free on the grass of a parking area and spent the night there. In the morning I discovered that once again part of one of my boots had stuck out from under the tent, and it had gotten wet. I had to change footwear again. Sitting in the tent, I studied the rain clouds moving on the weather app on my phone and realized that we had a 30-minute gap during which we could pack up and leave. We used that gap, took down the tent, boiled some water, and then the rain started again. So we drove on.

We reached the mountains and took a few photos there.

Next we headed for Oslo. About 100 km before the city we found a cabin and spent the night there. In the morning we stocked up on water there, both plain tap water and boiled water. In general, to save money and avoid buying expensive water in shops, we did the following: whenever we had access to water and electricity at a campsite, we boiled tap water, let it cool, and poured it into bottles. We also stored regular tap water for washing hands and for cooking.

We arrived in Oslo and walked around for a few hours after paying for parking.

After that we decided not to leave Norway immediately, so we looked for a cabin near the Swedish border. The SIM card I had bought worked only within Norway, and we needed internet to plan the rest of the route. We decided to continue to Stockholm and spend two nights there with one full day in the city. I had also booked the Stockholm-Turku ferry in advance, and it cost an absurdly low 48 euros for a car and two passengers. But we were so tired that we decided to add a cabin with a porthole and buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the end it all came to 200 euros for 11 hours of sailing.

The next morning it was raining heavily again, and the rain did not stop all the way to Stockholm. But once we reached it, the weather cleared and the sun came out. On the way there we stopped in Orebro to see the castle. Nothing special. Later we received a parking bill from that city for 4,500 rubles. I had thought that I had paid for one hour and could simply leave afterward. But it turned out that before departing you had to return to the machine and declare that you were leaving. There were no barriers there. I later contacted the company that ran the parking lot. They agreed to refund the money, but only if I provided my bank account's IBAN, and in Russia I could not get one. So I gave up on the whole thing.

We arrived in Stockholm and checked in. The next day we went walking around the city. At times it was cloudy. As usual, Stockholm did not impress me all that much. I am not really a city person, but it was still something worth checking off the list.

The next morning we got up early and headed to the cruise ship ferry terminal. I kept expecting some kind of catch. It seemed impossible that it could really be that cheap in Europe. But no, they accepted our booking and let us drive onto the huge ship with the car.

The 50-euro cabin was perfectly decent. It even had a toilet, a shower and a bed.

There was a TV in the cabin displaying our names. You could also watch TV programs and a live feed from the ship's cameras on it.

We made a mistake by ordering breakfast, lunch and dinner. For some reason the times were 8:00, 11:30 and 13:30. Really, we should have taken only breakfast and dinner, and then we would not have had to stuff ourselves three times within a few hours. By the last meal we could barely eat anything.

Two and a half hours before arriving in Turku, we were asked to leave the cabin so it could be cleaned. We packed up and went to walk around the ship.

As we started docking, we went to look for our car and found it without any problem. Once on land, a patrol stopped us and asked to see the green card. That was the first and last time during the whole trip that anyone stopped us and asked for documents. After that we drove to the hotel I had booked in advance.

Getting up early the next morning, we continued on. It was a rainy day, and we still had to drive across the whole of Finland, cross the Russian border and get to Saint Petersburg. Because of the rain, we barely stopped anywhere. We only drove through Helsinki and looked at it from inside the car. Then we kept going. At the Russian border there was a huge queue, and we stood there for about two hours. From the radio we understood that there had been an issue with a Russian bus carrying contraband, a large batch of cigarettes. By evening we arrived in Saint Petersburg and checked into a hotel. We had wanted to go out that same evening, but it started raining, so we decided not to leave the room. The next day, however, the weather was good, so we used it to visit all the main sights of Saint Petersburg and Peterhof. We walked around the city and toward the end of the day bought tickets for a boat that follows the route past the main bridges that open at night.

The next morning we drove to Dubna. Once again we had 790 km ahead of us. We covered it without problems. That was it, we were home again, and it felt unusual.