Archive for June, 2008

Use Starbucks WiFi for free (besides drinks)

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

I just read about a promotion that Starbucks with AT&T are running: if you are using your starbucks card at least once a month (be that a refill or a purchase), you can register with it for AT&T WiFi access at Starbucks and get up to 2 free hours each day. Sounds good to me : )

Here are the details at Strabucks.com

Europe Motorcycle Rental

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

In July we (me and my friends from Russia) are going for a motorcycle trip around Europe. But since I crashed my beloved Kawasaki ZX-9R in November and did not have time nor ability to buy and arrange for a shipment of a new one, I decided to rent one, the difference of renting vs. bringing my own is not as much as the headache I would have (Though, if I had spare money, I would definitely buy one here and bring it there, since I like to explore new issues, like shipping stuff overseas).

Well, long story short, I looked around a lot for a good rental. Similarities between different rental agencies:

  • Large deposit (like $2,000)
  • High prices
  • Many offer with limited mileage
  • Many did not have insurance for all the countries that I wanted to visit.
  • Most rent out BMWs (that’s not an issue, but I still would love different bikes, like Honda CBR1100XX! : )) )

What I needed:

  • Rent for a long time (about a month)
  • Large mileage
  • Comfortable for two
  • Bike with decent power (more than 600cc)
  • Nice looking bike
  • Many countries to visit, including such as Croatia and even maybe Poland, Belarus

There are a lot of places that rent out bikes, many BMW dealerships do it, here are few places to look:

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Baltic sea ferries

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

First I need to get from some Baltic states (that are close to Belarus) to Stockholm on a motorcycle by a ferry and then we need to take a ferry from somewhere around Bergen to Denmark (so we won’t have to drive all over there and can sleep and drink on the ferry ;) )

The major players in Baltic sea are:

Scandlines

image

Route map

Prices

Times

Polferries

The routes that they operate on are:

Gdańsk-Nynäshamn

Świnoujście - Ystad

Świnoujście - Kopenhaga

Świnoujście - Rønne

Tallink / Silja Line

Major routes:

Stokholm-Helsinki

Stokholm-Turku

Stokholm-Tallinn

Stokholm-Riga

Rostock-Helsinki

Helsinki-Tallinn

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