Never Drink with a Fin !

Day 81 Tuesday 21^st June 2011 

The day was relatively boring as we are fast running out of things to see or do in Vladivostok. 

Vladivostok art

Yuri has told us that our ship will not dock now until at least 24^th June and so that means, with the weekend looming, we should not expect to get our bikes until the end of next week at the earliest. This news has made us a bit despondent, Mark especially, as it is fast making us aware that with our Russian visa slowly ticking away we may not have enough time to get a Mongolian visa and this news has hit Mark particularly hard as this was to be one of his main reasons for the trip. The Russian visa cannot be extended  and overstay is a serious matter.  This is the last night for the Fins before they leave tomorrow so we agreed to meet up for a drink and a meal.

The rendezvous was the 4^th floor hotel cafe at 8pm and we all arrived on time. We were just having a beer when Yuri turned up. He had agreed to meet another biker, Jean from France, to go through some paperwork. Jean arrived and we introduced ourselves and, after he finished his paperwork, he joined us and our little international party of two Finnish guys, one Frenchman and two Brits headed down the hill towards the station where we found what was to be a very good restaurant. 

We knew we were heading for trouble when the Fins ordered firstly beer for us all and then vodka. Not a glass though – a bottle. And so the evening progressed with beer, vodka and after the Fins had insisted on paying for the meal we insisted on ordering and paying for liquers. Then it was back to the hotel for more beers and vodka.  We met a Moscovite and one of his troupe, Natakyia, – they were in a circus and were travelling to Korea for a show on the same ferry as the Fins – more vodka to celebrate.

We left the party relatively sober at around 1am and slept like babies.