Tomorrow I will possibly have the worst trip of my life so far. Or the most boring, back-aching, cold and lonely. Or the best.

Anyway, I will attempt to drive my Gilera Runner (50cc) från Stockholm to Ulricehamn, a trip that totals about 440 kilometers. I will make a stop (and possibly spend the night) in Tibro, but have otherwise no plans besides hourly stops to stretch, eat, and so on.

Why? The practical reason is that I’m going to store the moped at my parents place during the winter, but the other reason is probably just for the heck of it. “Because it’s there”, as a mountain climber would say. When I was 15 I wanted to go on a moped vacation with my friends, but that never happened so perhaps I’m subconsciously compensating for it now.
To quote the great Waylon Jennings: I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insane.

To see the route I’ll likely take: Google Maps

Now: Time to pack.

Update:

A few miles from Katrineholm

The  trip went great! I took the whole trip in one day, only staying for a pizza with my friend Dossen in Tibro instead of spending the night there.

Total travel time: 12½ hours, including a total of about 3½ hours of breaks for stretching, food and gas.

I’m very glad I took this trip.

Me, Marianne and Sanna took a ferry to Latvia this tuesday and just got back.

Riga is not quite as depressing as Tallin, but not so far off either. It’s ok to visit, but nothing that I will long to visit again.

Last week me and Marianne were in Strängnäs, just checking out the place. Later the first day we met up with Jens and Linda, who had taken their boat there the same day.

Good times!

Yesterday we went to Mercat Del Encants, a huge marketplace with many hundred (maybe thousand) of stands where absolutely everything was sold. From young men selling brand new furniture to old ladies selling used adult magazines. Lots and lots of plain junk, and often the seller had just poured everything out on the ground. It was very crowded and stressed, and we didn’t really find anything of interest.

After a few hours we took the metro and decided to jump of at Arc de Triomf, built for the 1888 world fair. Therewe first encountered musicians that we at a distance thought were protesters for something (lots of banging drums and whistles), but when coming closer we realized they were kids from a local school or something.

On the other side of the arc there was another marketplace. The contrast to Mercat Del Encants was however huge. Here everything was extremely calm, not at all crowded and the loudspeakers played  soothing music. The market seemed to focus more on handcrafted items and there were also plenty of food (like an entire sausage stand) to be seen. We stopped for a while and had delicious falafel pita while sitting in the grass. About halfway through, the marketplace changed direction and started to focus on animal rights, new age, help organizations and such.

After stopping by for  a while at our apartment, we did some more alley-walking in old town. Since it was Saturday, a lot more street performers was there, taking advantage of the extra crowd of people coming in over the weekend. We also crashed another wedding, saw some ancient roman pillars, had some food and later some dessert and did some final shopping.

Today we are going home, and I better finish packing now. We will wait in Frankfurt for about 3½ hours. Good thing I have plenty of movies on my Eee.

Today we started the day by visiting the 60 meter high obelisk/statue of Christopher Columbus. We paid the 2.50 € fee and took the elevator up to the top, where we got a good view of the heart of Barcelona, the old town. After that, I tamed a giant metallic lion and rode it.

The rest of the day we spent  alley-walking in the old town (where we live). We walked for hours and still didn’t covered half of it. Some fun shopping and surprisingly good and cheap meals were also included in the day. When the cold hit and we were both tired and with aching legs, we retired to the apartment for some relaxing.

When getting hungry again we went out for dinner and found an Italian restaurant where you could get a three-course dinner for 6.95 €. The female bouncer was very nice but the male waiter was very unengaged and almost rude. Dessert consisted of an apple.

On the way back  we bought some snacks, and now we are going to watch a movie.