...A Great Day in Murmansk....

....This Russian Soldier looks out over Murmansk Harbour like Christ the Redeemer looks over Rio....


....Murmansk is quite a city made all the more easy by a great guy called Igor who I met through couchsurfing.....He's a bit of a businessman and owns the hostel we're staying in but is insistent that we don't pay.....at least for the first couple of nights......
.....We kind of arrived here with three problems.....


1...The back tyre has worn out.....It may have another day or so's riding left in it but the tread has pretty much gone so today Igor took me down to the auto market & I bought a new Dunlop racing tyre for the back wheel!!.....A bit of a missmatch to the T63 on the front!.


2....We arrived here with no motorcycle insurance!.....a big problem!....Last year when I rode to Moscow, I bought it in a booth just after the border....Crossing the international border from Norway there were no businesses at the border.....We were the first international motorcyclists that the border guard had met....thankfully at the border there was no check on my insurance....only on the temporary import of my bike.....With no insurance the Police can impound the bike so last night Igor arranged a 4pm Saturday meet with an Insurance agent and we now have legit 3rd party Russian motorcycle insurance valid for 3 months.....British insurers are a real pain....They just won't insure for Russia and don't seem to want to issue "Green Cards" any more.....


3....I need a haircut otherwise I will look back at all my holiday snaps with shame!.....Igor has a friend who can do this!


So as well as getting insurance, buying a tyre and changing some sterling with "The only" changer in Murmansk to change sterling, we had a whistlestop tour of Murmansk visiting the huge war memorial to the allied troops that looks out over the city and the great battleground of WW2.....We also saw one of the Russian Aircraft carriers (Strictly no photographs)......and tomorrow we're going to visit a Nuclear Icebreaker which is docked in Murmansk harbour at the moment.....


.....I quite like Murmansk......If you look beyond the soviet housing blocks and the pollution, it's quite a bustling lively forgotten city that just seems to get on with it.... (mind you, it is midsummer and sunny....It's probably a bit different in winter with three feet of snow and no daylight for 2 months).......