Summer trip \o/

For my summer holiday, I decided to do a slightly longer trip by land. I already had tickets to Knotfest in Turku and Elbriot in Hamburg, so the rest was just planning around these. I went through Copenhagen in March for the first time, staying a night there, and wanted to see more of that place. I’ve also never been anywhere basically in between Hamburg and Talliinn, so it was time to also do that route!

What I ended up with was this, going from Helsinki -> Turku (1 night) -> Stockholm -> Copenhagen (4 nights) -> Hamburg (3 nights) -> Berlin (1 night) -> Warsaw (1 night) -> Vilnius (1 night) -> Tallinn -> Helsinki. From Stockholm to Warsav it's train, and from there onwards night buses. Approximately 3500km with 48 hours actual travel time. Yes, it’s a bit of a rush for two weeks, but lets see! :)

The hardest thing was actually choosing which backpack to take. I like to walk around a lot, so any kind of suitcase was out of the question. I have two Osprey bags, one Fairpoint 40L and one Radial 26/34L. Osprey bags are awesome quality. The Fairpoint doubles the function of a suitcase while being comfortably walking around, while the Radial is a great bag for cycling. Since I want to do a lot of cycling during this trip, especially in Copenhagen, I decided upon the Radial in the end, even though it required more minimal packing. Though, that is also a good thing because I find I just back for all the space available subconsciously, finding it really hard to limit stuff taken, so now it was a must at least. The Radial expands to 34L so it’s still quite a roomy backpack anyway.

Other great points about the Radial are:
* It has a metal frame to make the bag stand up even when empty - this is great to be able to just place it on the ground and not have it fall in random directions.
* While the Fairpoint is also ventilated from the back, the Radial actually has a support mesh that leaves a gap between your back and the bag, which is important especially when cycling on a hot summer day.
* The containers are really well designed. Well, apart from the side pockets which are weirdly angled.

For anyone looking for a bag for cycling, really recommend this one. Now, how does it fare loaded to the full 34L (total weight 11kg) and walking around? Let’s see in the next two weeks.. Most of the time I’ll have the bag much lighter, most of the stuff sitting in the hotel room.

Oh, I almost forgot. Packaging bags are great when travelling with a backpack. No more random mess of clothes mixed up with all the other stuff. Finding things is much easier when the clothes are neatly tucked in bags.

My main worries for this trip? My mobile phone. I have a OnePlus3 from way back with the original battery. Should have gotten that changed. Two spare batteries and constant charging when plugs are available should hopefully do it. I'm also staying in a hostel in Copenhagen (too expensive otherwise) which is going to be exciting, has been a while. Also the night buses up to the baltics is a bit nerving, but I'll have one hopefully good sleep in Vilnius to make it less hard.

What follows are some day by day posts as I manage to write recaps, in the hope of encouraging others who haven’t tried to travel by land. It’s way more fun than air travel, with freedom to visit many places on the route and seeing lots of scenery and city life on the way. It’s also way way way less harmful than flying, even having to take a boat across the pond to escape Finland.

#travel #travelbyland #jasontravels