Ion Ciorici

…it started like this...

…and it ended up like this…

…instead of this…

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start with part I

The only problem at the Polish customs was that they couldn’t scan my front registration plate:

I suggested them to bring a hair dryer or to use their brains and have a look at the back registration plate – which is usually in Moldova similar to the front one.

It was already 2 AM after passing the Ukrainian-Polish border and I was driving for more than 20 hours with no breaks. Red Bull is perhaps a good energy drink, but the Recaro seats from the Mergedes are definitely not a comfortable bed, so I have decided to spend the night at the closest hotel on my way to Lublin (Poland) – which was a nice hotel at a Shell petrol station – 15 EUR per night including breakfast – what can you expect more after the Ukrainian comedy;)

3. Stage three: Poland-Latvia

I am looking for a famous word, used by Jeremy Clarkson and which would best describe the road from Poland to Latvia…hmm.. astonishing - no way :)… boring – oh yeahh:) !

I was pleasant surprised by very smooth roads in Poland (of course in comparison with the Ukrainian roads), it looks that some of the EU (real EU) funds reached the final destination and passed through the Czech and Polish tunnels (google is full of definitions for the Czech expression of “tunneling”).

Why boring ? because the road maintaining services (whatever you call them po polski) were so fast in cleaning the road and respectively pouring the salt on the road, that I couldn’t even check the dancing skills of the Mercedes in the curves.

Nevertheless driving on icy roads in Poland and seeing so many accidents was quite stressful. Maximum speed around 70 km/h, accident after accident – really difficult to drive.

The first impression about Lithuania is ….empty :). With the Eastern EU enlargement of course the customs between Poland and Lithuania was removed, but when you enter Lithuania you have those empty customs buildings and almost ruined over the past years, which creates the impression that you have arrived in Chernobyl.
Speaking of nuclear power plants, Lithuania agreed to close its only nuclear plant as part of its accession agreement to the European Union. The nuclear plant accounted for 25% of Lithuania’s electricity generating capacity and supplied about 70% of Lithuania’s electrical demand it was closed on 31 December 2009. Now guess what happened?! You don’t need to have two Master’s degrees to figure out which country will have to pay a higher price for electricity. For this reason I support Moldova’s full independence and no rush for EU integration. Go Moldova, become a second Switzerland in Europe ;).

Weather conditions in Lithuania were slightly better, which allowed to increase the speed and reach Riga in a very short period of time.
Riga is as usually is a lovely place to be. I will not refer to too many details, since I have already dedicated several articles to this Swedish metropolis, ohh sorry, Latvian capital city on my blog;).

4. Stage four: Riga – Stockholm

13th of January, 17:30 sharp
Riga – Stockholm
Route operated by Tallink
Ferry name: Romantika

Parking and leaving the car on the deck was not an option for me, but it was the only choice – they don’t allow passengers to take their cars in their cabins ;). I was little bit anxious, since it is a route in the Baltic Sea and I thought the cars may scratch each other during the trip. However the people working on the deck took care of everything – putting some bubble gums in front of each tyre and make sure that the cars don’t make a single move. I was feeling even more comfortable when I saw in front of my car a Mercedes E420 and on the left side a Mercedes CLS 55 AMG :). The only problem was the Golf Mark III from the right side – but I am not racist, so I left it as it is ;).

Taking a ferry over the Baltic Sea to Sweden I would strongly recommend. Especially I would recommend the ferry Romantika, which is the newest ferry on this route. The tickets are not very expensive, considering the distance, money you save on petrol and in which comfort you are traveling: 50 EUR for the car place and 30 EUR for a bed in a 2 place cabin.

The problem is that the tickets for the cars are completely oversold, so it is difficult to find a spare place for the car during a short period of time.

The ferry reached Stockholm just in time – 9:30, sometimes you are really impressed by this Swiss exactness, oh sorry Swedish :).

The only last complication was when the Swedish customs stopped me for a short admiring of the car:
“Wau, first Moldovan car in Sweden”

Officer:
Did you drink on the ferry, Sir ?

Ion:
I wish, No, Sir

Officer:
Please breathe in the pipe.

Ion:
But, I said No (sometimes Swedes are not so naive as you expect

Officer:
Welcome and have a nice vacation in Sweden!

Ion:
I wish again Sir, since my vacation ended 1 day before coming back to Stockholm

Happy End!

After several successful attempts and comfortable trips from Eastern to Western hemisphere during the past years (here, maybe here and perhaps here) now it is time for cold Eurotrip story, which I just finalized several days ago.

Route: Moldova > EU (to be read in the whole post as Eroded Ukraine) > Pooland > Lithiumania > Latvia > Baltic sea > Swengland.

3 means of transportation :
1. Car (if you can call a Mergedes E220 a car).
2. Homo sapient (Ion during navigation problems in Lvov (EU) and the customs between EU and Pooland)
3. Romantika ferry between Riga and Stockholm.

3 types of fuel:
1. ‘95-’98 year petrol for the Mergedes.
2. 3 Red bulls for the Homo sapient.
3. 40% Alchohol preferably for all the cruisers on Romantika ferry.

Leaving all the jokes on a side I would never recommend this route to anybody, especially during the winter and more dangerously driving alone. But when you were born in the United Kingdom of Moldova, where the only flights organized by the local rural state-owned international transglobal air company is to Pyongyang and Havana, then of course the only way going to Sweden is by car (bicycle was not an option).

First difficult decision – shall a take a viking ship or a Swiss knife:

However considering unnecessary ice-skating capabilities of the XC90 I opted for the Swiss knife:

1. Stage one: Moldova – Ukraine

Besides all the criticism, the roads in Moldova were in really good conditions and if you are not satisfied with their quality have a look at your lovely neighbour. I mean driving in the Western Ukraine it is a suicide for your car. You cannot even call it “driving” – it is just a game of picking and selecting the small wholes out of the big ones.

Traffic signs are missing, or I believe somebody stolen them and build him/herself a fence at home.

Entering EU (sort of) [EU=Eroded Ukraine]:

Average speed in EU (not the real EU) [ignore the hidden advertisement of Lukoil]:

Building a new highway according to the EU standards:

Ukrainian understanding of cleaning the roads during the winter:

Besides all the bad road conditions, it is a country of nice sights…

…and hospitable people: like the ones which helped with the navigation in Lvov (my igo 8 has a map of Lvov from 18th century) or like the ones in the stage two:

2. Stage two: Ukraine-Poland

I was approaching the border between Ukraine and Poland, more exactly the Rava-Ruska customs – one of the busiest customs in Europe – make sure you avoid this customs or you risk to stay in the queue for 2-3 days unless you have some shiny papers or a comprehensive reason! The colour of your passport or the number of stars on the front cover will not provide you any priority!

Stepped out the car and tried to exchange a word in Russian-Ukrainian-Czech-Polish with the poor people which were staying in the cars in front of me. I guess poor was not the appropriate word for this case. I mean how can you stay so calm and live with the idea, that it is normal to stay in the queue for 2-3 days?! And this doesn’t have any connection with the fact that Ukraine will have elections on Sunday or with the fact that Ukrainian custom authorities want to retain some foreigners in the country in order to increase the diversity and number of different nationalities in the country.

Tried to fall asleep for 30 minutes in the car and hoping that the queue of several km will be a queue of several meters. Was too cold to fall asleep so I have decided to go for a short walk to the nearest custom officer. Put my glasses on and prepared a comprehensive speech in order to pass the customs asap.

Ion:
Dear Colleague, I am studying duty law in Sweden and if you let me to pass the customs without waiting in the queue I can manage to catch the ferry from Riga to Stockholm on 13th of January, be in time on the exam which I have on 14th of January and by passing the exam I will finish successfully the university and I will serve with honour the customs authorities in Sweden like you.

Custom officer:
oh really ?! yes, no problems. Let’s go to your car and let’s try driving the opposite lane of the highway

Driving on the opposite way is the only solution to avoid the queue, however is a little bit dangerous, because those who passed the Polish-Ukrainian customs are driving very fast towards you. OK, I turned on the beam of the car and trying to scary out all the others on the highway with the fact that a nerd from Moldova is a kamikaze. I have no words how to describe what I was seeing on the right side – an immense queue, it was so *********** long, that it took me at least several minutes to drive at the speed of 100km/h the entire queue.
With the help of the Ukrainian custom officer I have passed the entire Ukrainian bureaucracy very quickly. I was even a little bit embarrassed for passing so fast and that everybody was treating me like a diplomat. I still have voice of the office in my head: “Please allow this student to pass asap, he is in a hurry to catch the ferry” :).

Polish check was somewhere more demanding and I had to respect the queue of some 50 cars and 2 hours of waiting – Welcome to EU (real EU):

Continue to part II.

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As a recommendation from ClaraMy I will try to update my blog every day, but actually she forgot to specify every day of the week, month or year ?! .
I’ll try to do my best, but I think I need a qualified journalist for writing articles, so if you know somebody who meets the following qualifications let him/her to contact my personal assistant :

• Master’s degree with strong academic results
• Excellent analytical and quantitative skills
• Advanced technical skills
• Structured, accurate with ability to take initiative
• Able to take responsibility and work under pressure
• Flexible and good team spirit
• Fluency in English, Swedish, Malay and Khmer.
• Preferably blond relatives.

After I encountered some difficulties to spend my first scholarship I’ve decided to check for some student discounts at MPH – an exhibition with interesting cars and interesting prices in Nacka Strand.

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Finally I’ve received my scholarship from our lovely European Union and is time to do some shopping.
Maybe I’ll follow Gergelly’s way of spending the first scholarship For this reason I’ve decide to visit the closest car showroom, which was Bentley Stockholm – a nice showroom full of German cars,ohh sorry British .

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Each year I’m saying that it doesn’t deserve those 60CZK (this is the discounted price for poor students) for visiting Autoshow Praha. Anyway I am going again and again. Friday, is the perfect day to visit the exhibition, because everybody is studying/working. Previous years were really borring, even the Autosalon from Chisinau was richer.
Those 60CZK am deviding in this way : 10CZK for the ARTEGA GT, 15 CZK for MOSLER GT900S, 15 CZK for SPYKER C8 and 20 CZK for Aston Martin Vanquis S!!!
Hopefully Škoda will bring some maquette of the new Skoda Superb which is less than six months away from it’s launch. Anyway I can get a good idea of what the final version will look like. Continuare »

I am very agree with Hassanal Bolkiah (Sultan of Brunei) that is very uncomfortable to go shopping to Lidl or Penny Market (I am convinced these 2 shops are mostly prefered by his Majesty) in a sportcoupe or in a cabriolet (doesn’t matter which model, because anyway all of them together can take maximum 2 patatoes, 1 cucumber, half of banana and some sugar).
That’s why I do respect his idea of transforming premium cars in what he desires: ferraris in people cariers, bentleys into tractors etc. Don’t be surprised that soon or late to see him in a Rolls pick-up. It means aftewards LADA (VAZ) will be the only proper car maker of real limousines and tankars .

I first heard about Brunei and their enormous wealth few years ago when the circuit from this country was included in Formula 1. Since then I’ve allways been on the lookout for pics of the Sultan’s (brother’s/son’s) massive car collection. The collection is stored among five aircraft hangars near the palace and is closely guarded.

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On 28th of September all sports cars from Česká republika were supposed to get together at Autodrom in Most in order to create the biggest reunion of sports cars in the same country mentioned before.
This year because of the lack of financial resources the owners of such cars : Aston Martin V8 Vantage, BMW Z8, Bugatti Veyron, Caterham CSR260, Dodge Viper, Ford GT, K1 Attack, Maserati MC12, Mercedes Benz SLR, Pagani Zonda and Porsche Carrera GT – were not able to find enought resources to buy some tyres for the rainy wather and again we hope that maybe next year Mr. Radim Passer will be so kind to show his ecological Bugatti Veyron .
Anyway there were some cool wet cars like: Ultima GTR , Wiesmann GT , the new ZA BAKKY , S1 AKUNA and Mansory Continental GT.
Some photos here and from the circuit here.

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On 28th of September the sports cars get together at Autodrom Most. Continuare »

This weekend F1 drivers are resting a little bit, so we decided instead of them to try out the racing atmosphere on the longest kart track in Europe. There are more than 30 curves and average speed reaches as much as 50kmph. Track is situated in a glasshouse somewhere in Radotin, which provides great light conditions and even is air-conditioned.
Tomorrow I will put some photos here.

The biggest event concerning the meeting of the owners, adjustors and fans of tuning cars in Czech republic and Central Europe has been changed to the “The biggest international event concerning how many beers Czechs and their neighbours can drink during one weekend”. In comparison with last years there was nothing to see except bottles of beer, beer and of course beer and some nice people.