Sitting in a Russian Bath House...

Punk rock changed our lives....

Warning, this blog contains pictures of a hilarious nature. 

I'm still with the velopiter crew, despite what the Russian press says ;). Rode by myself yesterday a few kms behind the group. Went from Старая Русса to Демянск, pretty good roads, smashing weather, bit of Sublime on the MP3 player. Life dosn't get much better...

 Stopped to check out this fountain in Старая Русса, apparently the waters have healing powers.

Got a cheap hotel in Демянск with the group and crashed out. The highlight of the night was when I accidently left my phone outside the hotel. When I went back to look for it two Russian lads had picked it up. My mate Gaz had rung me and one of the lads had answered it, Gaz thought I'd been kidnapped by the Russians! Anyway nice speaking too you mate and its good to know I've got a job to go back to ;).

Life is to short so love the one you got,
Cause you might get run over or you might get shot...

I was allowed to cycle with the group today cause there was no official business. Pretty happy that I managed to keep the pace despite the fact I've got all my bags, slick tyres and my bikes developed the most annoying fault ever. The rear cassette is so worn it slips in the top three gears, meaning that if you select one of the top three gears the chain dosn't grip and sends your soft fleshy thigh on a collision course with the hard plastic gear shifter. It hurts... alot.

A small rural church built by the local community, loads of log buildings where I am now.

Let's go! The whole group (minus the gaffer, whos taking the picture) The roads were terrible today, so bad they were good! Thankfully there were quite a few hills, I'm a very strong climber, otherwise I may have fallen behind. There's only two of us in the group without front suspension. Me and an old guy who's nickname is 'old school'. Havn't spoken to him much cause my Russian is crap but he has the craic with the rest of the group.

We are staying in two log cabins tonight in a place called Клймова (I think). When we got there a few of the lads decided we should go to the баня or Banya. Like a Sauna but with more water. 
I want one.

Not wanting to let team Britain down I decided I could stay in the banya for as long as the Russian lads. Not sure how long I was in there but the thermometer on the wall hit 100 and the Russian lads were still having the banter, like being slowly cooked was a mere inconvienience.

After this they told me we should go and jump in the ice cold lake, not wanting to look like a pussy I agreed. I slipped on the jetty and fell into the lake, much to the delight of my Russian friends.

I've actually got a video of me falling into the lake, but it won't let me upload it on here. I'll try again later in the week.

After this I went back to the banya for the traditional whipping of the limbs with birchbark branches to improve circulation...

Awesome tan lines from a few months wearing cycling shorts.

Heres papa smurf in all his glory...

What, again?!?

Felt quite chilled out afterwards though, sat in a little room next to the banya with a cup of green tea just relaxing and learning a few new Russian words from the guys. I went into the village earlier and actually managed to ask one of the locals where the shop was which I'm pretty chuffed about considering that a week ago I couldn't speak a word of Russian.

Supper was smoked fish caught from the lake.

Very tasty, a lot of bones though!

And to top off a fantastic day when we got back from the banya we discovered that someone had applied a liberal coating of lard to old school's bike seat as a prank. Hilarious.

Edit: Whoops, apparently not a prank! Some kind of leather softner!

Me in the Russian news (thanks Sergey and Katya):

http://www.ntv.ru/novosti/593000

Don't wait up...