yep. that was it. I was a lazy bum and didn't write too much in this blog. oh well, it can only mean one thing. I had a great year. absolutely awesome.

in finland now. sitting at uni, feeling pretty lost. don't know what to do and where to go. i've forgot so many things, so many places. my body's here but mind somewhere else.

yes well...we're here. don't have much to say about Adelaide. It's just another city, pretty quiet one but nice. Visited an art gallery and a chocolate factory (yum!) and tried to go out on saturday for Niina's birthday drinks but it was raining and we didn't really know where to go so it wasn't too special. Was weird to get back to civilisation after the outback life. Saw Uluru and King's Canyon and they were both amazing although the weather didn't bring out the best colours of Uluru and we didn't get to see it at sunset. But yeah, was definitely worth the 3000km's drive!

when we started heading south from Uluru, Richard's van started making really weird noises (it had been giving the warning signs all the way from Townsville but being a lazy englishman he didn't do anything about it...) and after a couple of hours of driving it decided to break down in the middle of nowhere. couldn't really have been a worse place...80km's to the nearest town and no service stations or anything. we stopped about 10 cars and tried to get a towing rope and eventually I had to tow his van to the next town. apparently the head gasket was fucked and it would've cost him too much to get it fixed (obviously they added a little 'outback bonus' to the price..) so he had to leave the van there and move all his stuff to our van. the next couple of days were a bit frustrating with all that stuff in our van so we were really happy to get to Adelaide! on the way we stayed in Cooper Pedy, a dusty little mining town where half of the population lives in these underground dugout homes because the temperatures can reach such extremes as +50C in the summertime and -20 in the wintertime. We stayed the night underground as well in a little cave type of thing, was pretty interesting!

We're planning to leave Adelaide tomorrow, think we've seen pretty much everything we needed to in here...will probably drive along the coast and around the peninsula and then head to the Grampians (some sort of a mountain) before driving to Melbourne. Found out on saturday that Sanna and Antti will be here a week earlier than planned, so happy to see them soon! as usual I don't have any pictures, probably never will...but I'll keep updating this cos I seem to be too lazy to email everyone :) so keep reading and commenting! miss you all!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

We made it. 2500 km’s of straight and empty roads. And we’re only half way on our trip :) Never seen so many dead kangaroos and cows. Never seen such emptiness and roads that just don’t seem to end. All you can see is this blue haze at the “end” of the road probably caused by the heat, so that it looks like you’re driving into a gap after which there’s nothing. And every now and then a huge 50metre long road train passes you (they’re not really trains, just massive trucks) with a big wooosh! and then it’s empty again.

There wasn’t too much to see on the way. We stopped in a few little villages and saw some funny country people, you know the cowboy hats, boots and a big beard sort of country hillybillies. The cattle farms here are massive. They’re so big that they actually have to sheer the cattle with cars and helicopters. One of the biggest farms here is about the size of Belgium! Other than that there’s been some freaky green frogs in the toilets. hehe, yes. the first time we went to this dodgy looking “oudoor” toilet we ran out screaming with Niina….just because after flushing I discovered that there were 3 green frogs the size of my hand living underneath the toilet seat. yuck. that’s the outback life :D

sorry no photos again, my laptop's too slow and we're gonna go see baby kangaroos and then get back on the road before it gets too hot! next time I promise :)

That two weeks from my last entry went pretty damn quickly then. Minna's gone and me and my Raisin400 are missing the sound and smell of her. I'm in Magnetic Island now, spent a couple of days in Townsville after Minna left last thursday. We had such a memorable trip, never got to go and do the sea kayaking because of a stupid little rain. Fraser Island, with our shitty 4WD, group of 10 girls and 1boy, storm, high tides and unexperienced drivers, was a little disaster but we survived, felt like we'd run a mental marathon after that tho. oh well, we had good times there too. but the highlight of all was our 3-day whitsunday islands sailing trip...it was so good that not much can probably beat that. the snorkeling on the reef was most beautiful thing i've ever seen, was breathless, speechless and just incredibly happy after that! never thought i'd get to experience something like that. swimming in the middle of thousands of fish i've never seen, the beautiful colourful corals underneath, hearing nothing but your own breathing....wow!! and we had such a nice boat, great crew, delicious food and a really good group of people so it was just perfect.

anyway my time's running out. will be on magnetic till wednesday and then niina and her friend will fly here from melbourne....so I'll have new company to travel with and I know it's gonna be lots of fun, can't wait!