Thursday 5th August mileage 4170 Oulo in Finland

Weather very bad for most of the day.  Rain, clouds, mist, wind, more rain, more wind !!

Woke early. I didn't use my sleeping bag in the cabin last night because it would have meant unpacking all the camping gear from tyhe nicely stowed and locked camping gear, so I used the sheets and duvet provided in the cabin.  All night long I am thinking am I going to wake up with bites from bed bugs?  I have been bitten, but not sure if bed bugs, but it's all quite manageable.  Had nice shower early on and packed and ready for off at 07:00 hrs Finland time.  Just as I was ready to leave the rain started and the weather closed in for the next 6 hours !!  However the Heine Gerike suit that I purchased from the tokens by people from JM proved more than a match for a little rain, or a lot of rain !
Stopped for petrol,and my credit card would not work in the automatic payment pumps that they have here.  Went to the accompanying cafe and the chineese owner said that no credit cards work on the pumps only cash notes, so put in €10 note after he instructed me not to try and put my money in the place where the receipt comes from !
Stopped for break at a large place called Sodankyla and it was "Sodanwet" at the time and I asked people if there was somewhere I could get a multi adaptor for the car charger that will fit both Nokia and Ipod.  Eventually was directed to a large out of town retail complex with places similar to PC world etc. and at a place called Motornet they had exactly what I needed. So for the rest of the wet day I have had music to keep me occupied. 
Highlight of the drive down was to drive past the "Lapland Santa Park" complex and know that I didn't have to go there with children.  It looked awful.  If you are thinking of this then I only hope it looks nicer in winter when there is snow on the ground.

Both tomtom and myself got confused at Kemi, they are building a new motorway alongside the E75 and you were diverted off the road.  There was an absolute lack of signs, just lane markers and as I was on my own I started to doubt whether I was on the right side of the road and going the right way.  Tomtom kept taking me around in what I could only describe as roadwork mobius loops.  In the end I gave up with tomtom and just used the compass setting to move in the right direction eventually we found a road and tom tom decided it liked the direction and we were away again.  I should add that this whole episode is done alone and in pouring rain with visor visibility down to 30 metres.  Well I think that is a reasonable excuse!! It is quite liberating travelling where you don't know where you are going and not really that bothered because you never know you might end up somewhere interesting!  As it happened I didn't but thats not the point !

Stopped again at a place just soutrh of Kemi at a place called Simo and had mid day meal of mince and beetroot mixed and cooked as a burger, boiled potatoes, sweetcorn and salad plus a cup of coffee all for €6.50 oh the joy to be out of Norway and back to reasonable costs.  Felt tired after eating so closed my eyes for a few minutes and then asked if there was a library in town.  Directed 500mtrs awa y and the library lets you have free access and on library computers you can connect the camera.  On Hotel computers (like this one) theyare just a dumb terminal and nobody knows how you can connect a camera or SD card so no pictures on this post today.

At 3pm the library closed and I decided to press on to Oulo.

The rain now started to abate, but the wind really got up.  I don't know whether I have missed the predicted thunderstorms and lightning, or whether I just rode through it.   I didn't notice any lightning.  Cruised around Oulo centre and then the docks and settled eventually for the Best Western Hoterl near the centre.  The receptionist said they had three categories of room, so eventually I settled for the smallest and cheapest but with a 15% discount for bikers !  I don't know why?  Maybe it was just her way of justifying the limited reduction she was prepared to offer.

 The room is compact, but it has everything and is clean and modern.  Had a shower and washed my clothes including the towel that was starting to get a bit "mingy".  Now I have updated the blog on the hotel computer and will go out and explore Oulo nightlife !

Update to blog.

Went out and discovered that Oulo is on a musical festival week and that there is live jazz being played in many of the bars. Settled for the open air bar area around the harbour front and had a couple of drinks listening to a quartet ( double bass, trumpet, guitar (hofner cello type) and banjo/guitar/vocals.  They were very good all togged out in DJ's and with sunglasses.  They played what I would call swing, blues, jazz and had the crowd going with their version of songs like "hello dolly".  People were jive dancing in the square to the music.

Settled for a Macdonald's burger (I know I know !! ) on way back to hotel and then watched Steve mcQueen and Paul Newman fight the Towering Inferno fire again.

Woke up and all clothes nicely dry and fresh again. 

TOR