END =)

well, i'll start from the begining, after other great Polish diner we decided to depart to the beach in the south of France. By the way, before Jorge's departure we painted the car, I attach some pictures. During our trip by France something sounded like pummmmmmmmmmmm
Fer: I don't have oil pressure.
oooo ooo...so we stopped and the car did not run anymore. The oil bomb did not turn, neither the fuel bomb and the delco, so the engine was death =(
we were in a private highway in France and we had to put the car out of there, at the beginning I though about runing but maybe Marius could have some problems, so we paid a wrecker and we left our lovely car in a scrapyard =(
Then we toke a train to Avignon where we slept in a park...again...jajajaja
It was interesting night, but by the time we were quite tired and the people there were a little strange. Next day by bus to Barcelona (my first time in that city) and then we rented a car to come back home. Yesterday I arrived home, this morning normal life, talk with my project director, look for a job, talk about phd (yes, I am thinking about studying phd) and come back to old things.
Now I feel that my Erasmus finished, I just want to say thank you to everyone who shared with me this year. I do not like to say names because for sure I'll forget someone, but I have to so thanks to all my neighbours, to my Czech and Slovak friends (guys, I became a little Czech after this year), to Krisi, to Elena, Natalia and Cristina, to Marcos and Sarita, to Faik (finally we did not meet in Krakow fucker :P), to all Spanish and Portugues friends, to waterparties (porque me encanta radiohead :P), of course to Tomas, Marius, Asta and all mentors, to all of you friends, thank you one thousand times =) (and sorry because I did not put all names of really good friends I did this year)
See you soon, without Lada but see you =)

near France!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello again =)
Right now we are in a McDonalds in Bern, it means really close to our goal :P
Bern is a really nice city, one of the best in my opinion. I was in love with Tallin but now I decided to cheat with Bern :P
Last night I got totally drunk because a Polish guy asked me if I wanted to drink Vodka in the old comunsit way, we all did it; well this way means to drink Vodka in the waterr glass
This days we are sleeping in Bern in Piotr's uncle place, we have Sauna, free Vodka and nice company =)
Jorge already left the expedition, because he had to take a plane to Spain to spend some days in the beach with his girlfriend. it was a pleasure to be with you in this trip Jorge.
The night before we slept in our friend's place, Miguel Gasca. This guy gave me a lot of Vodka ahoj (regards to German girls :P) and I got drunk again (I start to think that I have a problem)
The night before was one of te best, we stopped in Germany near a Motel, and the price was only 190€ for four people!!!!!!!!Awesome!!!!!!!!So, we decided to sleep in the parking of the motel, the guys slept in the car and I slept on the floor with the sleeping bag (thanks Marcos, the sleeping bag was really usefull)
I attach pictures of everything...I really wanted to write more, but everything is too fast and I don't have internete conexion so often =)
Tomorrow we go to France and in a couple of days we'll be in Madrid!!!!!!!!!!!
By the way, we have a Bearing fucked up and now it is really hard to hear each other speaking (the bearing sounds more than us :P)
Lots of kisses and regards to everyone
Jaimito

Virtual Showers in Československo

After one night in Československo (Checoslovaquia, Czechoslovakia) (Actually Slovakia) we have found several things that were surprisingly strange.

First of all, things are extremelly cheap! we ate yesterday in a roadside-bar for 7 euros each and we finished completelly full. Halft litre of beer cost 75 cents and a Student menu in McDonnals are for 3 tiny euros! That means that Československo has passed to be one of the desired countries to live!

Secondly, the hostel woke up this morning playing a strange noice remembering wall drilling. This disgusting noice made us to wake up 30 minutes before the expected time. Once we woke up, we tried to have a shower but we found the VIRTUAL SHOWER. we dont really know how to deal with them (we will post a photo later on). Those curious showers sound like if they work but there is no way to understand where the water is going to! If we discover where the water is gone we will write it!

Now it is time to walk around Bratislava and continue to Wien!

See you!

Red light :P

Well, since first day in Warsaw we can see in the car one big red light. We decided to call it the light of everything is right (la luz de todo va bien), this light is helping us everytime we have some doubts about the car, even about the way to follow...if the light of everything is right is switched on it means that everything is right.
I upload a picture of that light which is helping us so much.
From Krakow, Jaimito

Poland almost over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello once again =)))))
I am glad to say that we are in Krakow and we are departing to Bratislava in few hours.
This is my second time in Krakow, and the more I know the city the more I like it.
Yesterday we went on party and it was really fun!!!!!!!!! I was dancing with Polish girl, and I don't know why I told her I am Lithuanian. Yes, I am stupid, and drunk, but not Lithuanian!!!!!! The girls was quite surprised, because my pronunciation is not Lithuanian at all. Anyway it was funny. In the morning I almost die, because we forgot the papers of the car, so I decided to come back and I parked in a forbiden place near hostel, it was in front of the town hall. In 10 seconds I had one policeman telling me things in Polish. Piotr was with me and the others were going to the hostel to take the papers, Piotr pretended he does not speak Polish and I was trying to tell to the guy in my Czech that the guys will come with papers. Stirri kamarada, dva here, dva papers...hahahaha...and then, prosim nie zloti, student, nie penalty prosim...Finally he saw that I was not going to give him money in hand and he also saw my surname and started to laugh and said...hahahaha...speedy gonzalez. Come on, go away. So everything fine. We already fixed the brakes, so now it is possible to brake without spinning. We also broke a wheel in the way between Warzsaw and Krakow, we put the extra wheel and yesterday we bought a wheel for 50 Zloti (around 12 euro), so I think everything is all right.
Much more funny things happened during the way, but I don't have space, neither time to tell everything, furthermore i don't remember everything :P
Sumarizing, Poland was great and we really enjoyed a lot, the car is still working and now we will not stop so much time in everyplace, so maybe next time will be from Austria or from Germany or even from Switzerland...who nows =)
I'm gonna upload the pictures tonight, now I don't have time =)
See you everybody, kind regards...hugs for guys and million Kisses for girls ;)

Warsaw, breaks fucked up, awesome food, awesome girls =)

Hi again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fernando is brushing his teeth next to me, maybe I should do the same....turururururu...

We spent two awesome days in Piotr's granpas place. Awesome food and from the very first moment we all felt like at home. I am thinking about living here forever :)

Warzsawa...mmmmmmm. It was a surprise for me, because many people told me that this city is worse than Krakow, even some people told me that it does not have anything interesting. Well, my opinion is completely diferent, I like the city, I like its historical center, I like how big it looks, so nice city.

The car trip was good, quite long but really good. Our departure from Vilnius was around 6:00 am, and we were in Warzsawa at lunch time.

During the trip we stopped in many villages, but my Lithuanian is not enoughgood to find a place where we could drink a coffe.

Labas, prasome kavine...

The weather so so, first day was perfect, really sunny day and much warmer than my whole year in Vilnius but today rain came back. I think I am carrying the bad weather with m

e, so be prepared in Spain because in 2 weeks you will have snow.

We also havfe a problem. Only one of the front wheels is breaking properly, we tryed to fix it here but it is not possible. Tomorrow we'll try to repair it in mechanic if the price is cheap, otherwise we'll try not to break so much :P

If it is possible we'll go to Krakow tomorrow.

So far that's all. I hope you all are enjoying whenever you are the same than me.

See you soon. I'll try to write from Krakow.

ps: we are going to do a fan site of calcedonia adverticement in facebook, Fernando has some kind of animal behavior and in Poland if you are a little, lets say strange, you can have in your car something like "wo super" =)

here we go!!!!!!!!!!!!!

uuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!
here we are!!!!
we already did the first trip km and I already have a lot of histories!!!!!!!!
Water and I departed from Vilnius after going to airport with Nata and Crispi =)
During this journey I drove between 80 and 100 km/h; problems started because how I am, I mean. If you know me, you know that I am this kind of guy who is worried about everything, and when i say worried I mean really worried =) I started to hear strange sounds all the time, so I started to have blood in my nouse, and also when I say blood I mean a lot of blood =(
When we arrived to Riga there was trafic jam, and the car started to overheat a little, that was the moment when I found out that the fan is not working. Problem number 1. It was kind of funny, because the warmer the car, the whiter my face.
Then we planned to pick them up in the airport, and guess......................again traffic jam!!!!!!!!! In the highway!!!!!!!!No way, Sara says that I was white, then purpure, then yellow, then red...and then I decided to switch off the car and wait there. People were starring at us like...poor guys, they broke this piece of shit...Damn them!!!!!!!!!
When I was able to restart the car, I went as soon as possible to the firs outway...ok, not out but in...yes, I drove in counter-direction 50m!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then I met them in the center and they had a surprise, well, more than one!!!!!!!!!
1. the diode dance (I attach video)
2. we have a rubbick cube
3. we have a notebook trip
Next day, we came back and Piotr drove. Quite faster, between 90 and 110km/h but still ok.
We went to trakai because Sara was in love with these Vistiena Kibinai and she wanted to eat one, it was matter of life for her =)
Then Limoo party, I got totally drunk, Jorge too ;) and we enjoy a lot. Today Vilnius with trolleybus penalty included (funny history, maybe I'll write it all in next days) and in few hours we are leaving to Warsaw.
We are trying to fix the fan right now.
I am happy with the car, but people are planning to drug me in order to shut me up because I am fucking pain in the ass to everybody. I am allways afraid :P
I hope I'll not have bloody nouse anymore in this trip and we'll enjoy a lot =)
Next stop Warsaw, see you there and I hope with the rubbik cube already solved!!!!!!!!!!!

Волжский автомобильный завод

Here we start.
Friday 12th, in the morning Sara and I are planning to go to Riga to pick up Fernando, Piotr and Jorge. We gotta check many things, oil level, antifreezer level, tires pressure...etc. I am so excited!!!!
I hope everything will be great.
The idea is arriving to riga around 8:00 pm and spend there the night, then we'll come back in the next morning to Vilnius, where we'll spend the last erasmus days.
I think that if I don't break the car in this first trip, I'll be more confident about our chances of succes.
The way from Vilnius to riga takes around 300 km, lets say 600 the roundtrip, I'll take some picture in Riga and I'll upload here, so that I can have a picture in every city I visit with the Lada.

Now I have to tell you something. My Lada is not Lada anymore, actually it never was. The real name of the car is VAZ.
Ok, this name can be familiar if you are from east of Europe or if you really have some information about this Russian cars, otherwise it will seem like I was lying three weeks.
Lada comes from the group AUTOVAZ (in Russian «АвтоВАЗ»), which before was only VAZ (ВАЗ, Волжский автомобильный завод, Volzhski Automobillni Zavod); so, if you take a look in the papers of the car you will see that the real name of the car is VAZ 2103 =)
VAZ is still building their cars, the factory is a big complex in the Volga centras region, maybe you knew them because their most famous model, it is the well known Lada Niva, this car is quite spread around the world and its new models are still being built, anyway you can easily see in the road a Lada Niva from 80's because this car has two things. The first is a huge gas consumption and the second is that it is strong like hell.
See you soon friends, and I hope see you with my car still working after first real trip Km =)

first trips, first crash, shower with shoes and more :P

After purchase, did we use the car?
well, my first idea was not to use it to much, because I don't want to burn it before my friends come. But of course it is really cool to have a car here. Our first "excursion" was to akropolis. Elena, Radek, Water, Cristina and me. Five brave people in the old Lada, by the way Elena was more brave than others and as you can see in the pictures she was not afraid of driving the Lada :P
I have also gone to Europos Parkas with Sara, Cristina and Sara's parents. It was, so far, the longest trip of the car.
Other day Marius and I went by Lada on hurry to take some architecture stuff for Marius, we only had 20 minutos to go to the center before they closed the store, so we drove it like Fernando Alonso in a Russian Car (by the way, for sure better than McLaren or Renault)
Today I wen to airport with Czech girls to pick up more Czech girls. Ahoy, Dobri dien, jiek sa mash? :P
I love Czech Republic and their people =)
Sumarizing, I did almost 150 km and the car is still alive...more or less...
ok, once, when I came back home, I decided to park it between a car and a Van, in front of dormitory. Of course I did not want to crash with the Van, so I decided to crash with the car...:P
not to crash, but to go closer...and maybe, somehow...I crashed it a little bit. It was nothing for my car, but these new cars are shit, so I screwed a bit its paint. The worst thing is that the owner of the car was inside. This girl was really pissed of my behavior, and she wanted to call police. Lucky me, she spoke English, so finally she became a normal person and I was able to talk to her, so we filled the insurance papers and everything was great. By the way, that chick was kind of hot...mmmm... :P
So this is the history of how I crash my Lada ;)
Now, shame on me...
see you soon friends =)

ps: this is not about Lada, but I have to tell eveybody that last week Sara had shower without putting off her shoes =)))))))))

The purchase (La compra)

ENGLISH

Well, as I said one day I started to look for the car, it is really easy, we just went to autogidas.lt and then we did not understand anything :P GOOD BLESS GOOGLE TRANSLATOR =)
Also Marius was an unpayable help to me, because he was making all the calls (even when my Lithuanian is not so bad, I already now how to say "good bye") and also coming with me to see the cars.
There are many cars between 500 and 1000 Lt, after several unsuccesfull calls finally we found one Lada with all papers, without any mechanical problem and with insurance. The owner was supossed to be an old guy, so everything seemed perfect =)
Finally, Stepan, Marius and I went to see that car, It was in the other fucken corner of Vilnius, we toke a trolleybus to Stotis (40 min) and then a bus in Stotis to that Village in the sourrondings of Vilnius (other 40 min). The wife and the son of the old guy were waiting for us in the bus stop with his BMW, he was this kind of chandal guy from Kaunas :P with some gold stuff in his hands and neck and with a huge sound equipment in the car. He was also shaking all the time, so I am not sure if he was not on drugs :P
We arrive to that place and he showed us the car, Stepan and I went also under the car and we were checking how its down looked. Of course they can steal us, but at least we can try to avoid this posibility. We discovered that we has a little oil flowing from transmission, so we told them. The kaunas guy called to his father and they said that if we wanted the car they could fix it.
It was also a little corrosion under the car and I was really afraid of that, so I toke some pictures to ask the expert (Fernando :P). When I sent the pictures he told me that it's not so deep so It is not that big deal.
Next day we called more people, but it was allways the same, I don't have technical inspection, or you gotta fix this or that...bla bla bla...so I decided to buy the first Lada I saw :D
We met the shaking guy again and we did all papers in one hour because there was a place to do it out of Vilnius near his house.
So this is the history of how I bought an old Lada to drugsman, and how Marius and I came back home driving it through the Vilnius...OUR FIRST KILOMETERS =)))))))
By the way, the car is not called Lada but VAZ, but it is the same car with diferent name (things of Russians)...and now after Czech girls suggestion it is called Sofčka.
See you soon



Spanish

Bien, como dije un día empecé a buscar el coche, fue bastante fácil, simplemente fuimos a www.autogidas.lt y no entendimos nada :P BENDITO GOOGLE TRANSLATOR =)
También Marius fue una ayuda impagable, porque estuvo haciendo las llamadas (aunque mi Lituano no es tan malo, que ya se decir "hasta luego" :P ) y viniendo conmigo a ver coches.
Hay muchísimos coches entre 500 y 1000 Litas, despues de varias llamadas fallidas, finalmente encontramos un Lada con todos los papeles, sin problemas mecánicos y con seguro. El dueño se supone que era un señor mayor, así que todo paracía perfecto =)
Finalmente, Stepan, Mariys y yo fuimos a ver el coche, estaba en la otra punta de Vilnius, cogimos el Trolleybus para ir a Stotis (40 min) y allí un bus hacia aquel pueblo en las afueras de Vilnius (otros 40 min). La mujer y el hijo del dueño estaban esperándonos en la parada del bus con el BMW del chico. Era ese tipo de chandalero de Kaunas :P con oro en las manos y en el cuello y con un equipo de música bestial en el coche (parecía de Móstoles :P). Además estaba temblando todo el tiempo, así que no estoy seguro de si no estaba drogado :P
Llegamos al lugar y nos enseñó el coche, Stepan y yo nos metimos incluso debajo del coche y estuvimos chequeando como estaba por debajo. Por supuesto pueden robarnos, pero al menos intentamos evitar dicha posibilidad. Descubrimos que había un poco de aceite fluyendo desde la transmisión, así que decidimos decírselo. El chico de Kaunas llamó a su padre y dijeron que si queríamos el coche lo arreglarían.
También había un poco de corrosión, y a mi me asustó, así que saqué algunas fotos para consultar con el experto (Fernando :P). Cuando le mandé las fotos me dijo que no era tan profunda, así que no es importante.
Al día siguiente llamamos a más gente, pero era siempre lo mismo. No tengo ITV, tienes que arreglar esto o lo otro...bla bla bla...así que decidí comprar el primer Lada que habíamos visto :D
Quedamos con el chico tembloroso de nuevo e hicimos todos los papeles en una hora, porque había una oficina de tráfico fuera de Vilnius y cerca de su casa.
ASí que esta es la historia de como compré un viejo Lada al hombre drogas, y de como Marius y yo lo condujimos a través de Vilnius de vuelta a casa...NUESTROS PRIMEROS KILÓMETROS =))))))
Por cierto, el coche en realidad no se llama Lada sino VAZ, pero es el mismo coche con diferente nombre (cosas de los Rusos). Y tras la propuesta de las chicas checas, se llama Sofčka
Hasta pronto :D

Why? How? Who?

Hello friends,
as most of you already now I am planning to go from Vilnius to Madrid in an old Russian Car.
Why?
Well, this is one of this kind of things which starts like joke between friends, I don't remember who was the first in suggest that we could do more than 3500 Km in an old Lada, but the fact is that I have heared about time to time during last year.
I told to my friends that we could go by train, but they do not like the idea of a nice hollydays, they preffer going in a Sauna Lada through Europe in the middle of June.
Finally, two weeks ago I received an e-mail from my friends which said. Jaime, we already have bought the flight tickets from Madrid to Riga, so buy the fucken car.
(That day I was planning running away and do not speak them anymore, but finally I decided to start looking for a car)
How?
I am not sure yet, I guess half time in the car, half time pushing it. The plan is going through Poland to Slovakia, then Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain but soon I will upload the planned schedule.
Who?
of course me, actually I am the craziest of us, because I have seen the car, I have tried it, and I know what is waiting for us...and the worst thing I like it and I am looking forward for it =)
Fernando, you don't know him yet, but we have a lot of faith in him, if something goes wrong for sure he will be able to fix it, and if he is not he will pretend that he is.
Jorge, he is the only without driving licence, but he drove a dumper in a Scotish Village, so he will drive when the others will be drunk like pigs.
Piotr, we are allways kidding him about Poland, but now I am happy that he speaks Polish because if something goes wrong in Poland, after Fernando pretends fixing it we will have to ask for some help.
¿Marcos Porras?, he told me that he is 80% in the trip 20% out, so we are not sure of his participation yet, but it would be great if he can come and help us with his good mood and mechanical skills, just be carefull waking him up :P
¿Elenita?, my neighbour, she is also a little crazy like me and she will go by train through Europe, I hope she will join us after Switzerland.

Well, I have many things to tell but I will try to write it by small chapters, so in next episode you will be able to read about Lada's bought, our first Kms, my first crash and more :P