Met by friends and family, we finally touch down on Irish soil!After the final 5,700km loop through Eastern Europe, the Baltics, Scandinavia and Western Europe, we arrived home in Dublin in tatters on July 4th. The blog went to crap during these last few weeks due to our excessive looseness. We had a few crazy nights in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia before catching the world’s greatest boat, aptly named the ‘Romantika’ from Tallinn to Stockholm, with its incredible 'Space' Niteclub onboard.
Dave and Fintan in Riga
Sunset in Lithuania
Getting Ready to Board the 'Romantika' from Tallinn to Stockholm
In Stockholm, we met Doyler and Smythy who was back for a second run with us and after a few great nights in Stockholm, we collected Dan O’Keefe, Dave’s mate from Sydney who had flown in specially to join us the whole way back to Dublin. We all agreed that the sheer caliber of Swedish women was up there with the best in the world and we struggled to leave to Oslo, the world’s most expensive city.
Franner the Bison!
We headed south and back into Sweden again to stop in Gothenburg to watch Sweden’s Euro 2008 match where they unfortunately went down to the Russians. Then it was off to Malmo, where Paul Sokhi had arranged to meet a huge mob of Swedish mates he had met in Thailand. The Malmo boys were unbelievably good to us and showed us a few amazing nights in both Malmo and Copenhagen which was only a 20 minute train away.
The Malmo Gang!
Our first stop in Western Europe was the German Port city of Hamburg before arriving in the madness of Amsterdam. We spent three days getting up to the usual mischief before heading to Paris to meet Dave’s friend Bertrand and were lucky to get free accommodation at a model agency apartment through Paul Sokhi’s wonderful social network. We visited all the usual tourist sites and got the classic Hummer meets Eiffel tower photo!
Dave and Fintan at the Eiffel Tower
Us at the Model's Apartment, Paris
After a 30minute Eurotunnel trip from Calais, we finally arrived in London where Franner’s cousin Patrick put us up for a few days. Our final roadtrip was to Liverpool for a final night of madness before catching the afternoon HSS from Holyhead to Dublin!!!
Waiting to board the HSS to Dublin!
A Knackered Dave finally arrives in his Driveway
Touching Irish soil was a huge moment for us and we were greeted in Dun Laoighre by family and friends before heading into SPY nightclub in Dublin for our homecoming bash! That night we handed over a cheque to Aware for €14,000 Euro, which we raised along the drive.
Dave's friend Kingy wins the charity auction with his 750 Euro bid to cut off Dave's infamous Ratty!
