Porto to Santiago hike with friends:
Daily hiking tracks: Continue reading
Done.
In 2007 when I achieved my Worldloppet Master title, I decided to go for the “smaller brother” – Euroloppet Champion. Now, 8 years later, it is done. I just received my Champion medal, crystal plate, badge and diploma.
This year I had planned 2 Euroloppet Marathons: Marxa Beret and Vuokatti Hiihto. Marxa Beret is the largest ski marathon in Spain, it takes place at the end of January/beginning of February in north Spain near the Andorra’s and French border. Vuokatti Hiihto takes place in northern Finland mid/late March.
Welcome to Armenia!
Since Risto had to work during the day I decided to take two days and visit a neighboring country – Armenia. It was even easier because just a month ago Estonia signed visa-free travel with Armenia. So Risto’s secretary found out that there will be a “Marshrutka” – a small minibus – going from Tbilisi to Yerevan (the capital of Armenia) 1PM and after sending out some e-mails in the morning I took a taxi to the station.
The Marshrutka was fully packed. I sat at the backseat together with 3 other guys, two of them had obviously eaten a lot of Hatšapuri in their lifetime. Continue reading
Risto posing proudly in his car. As an attentive reader sees, the right light needs changing.
My friend Risto has been working in Georgia (the one very very far from Atlanta) for 3 years and he’s been inviting me to visit him ever since. As he is leaving the country already this summer for a more interesting place, I decided to use the last chance and make a quick visit to Tbilisi. Continue reading
The track
Yesterday I skid my second Euroloppet marathon – Apkart Alaukstam in Latvia. Apkart Alaukstam is a 42 km race where you ski two laps around Alauksta lake in free style. By the way, if you are wondering why there are so many 42 km races in Euroloppet, Estoloppet and other, then the reason is simple – the organisers have been inspired by the marathon distance in running. Obviously, it is much easier to ski 42 km than to run the same distance, so ski marathon organisers try to get back by giving impossible-to-pronounce names to marathons – Jizerska Padesatka, Birkebeinerrennet, Bieg Piastow just to name a few. Apkart Alaukstam is so far my favorite in this list.
Alarm clock was set to 4:50 AM this time, but I was awake long before that. Continue reading
At the start
On Saturday I skid my first Euroloppet marathon – Biela Stopa in Slovakia. Euroloppet is a series of long-distance skiing races. Unlike in Wordloppet, all of their member marathons take place in Europe. I achieved my Wordloppet Master title (you have to ski 10 different member marathons, at least one of them outside Europe) in 2007. At the end of the last year I decided I will also go for the “smaller brother” title of Euroloppet – Euroloppet Master. To achieve that I need to complete 8 different Euroloppet races in less than 10 years. Biela Stopa in Slovakia was my first marathon in achieving this feat.
We went there with my father, having both registered to the main distance – 45 km freestyle. Friday morning 3:30 AM my alarm clock rings, 20 minutes later my father picks me up and we start driving to Tallinn airport. Continue reading
At the last day of the year it makes sense to look back at the year and make conclusions and future plans. 2012 was the best year of my life. Without any doubt. Here’s a short recap.
1) Becoming a father would have been sufficient enough to make the year the best one so far. The Continue reading
Welcome to Kosovo / Monaco!
Since I was in Balkans anyway, I decided to spend a day and take a look at the newest country in Europe – Kosovo.
I stepped on a bus at 9 AM and started going towards Kosovo. Pretty soon we were nearing the border because my phone changed carrier to a Kosovian one and Estonian Mobile Telephone (EMT) sent me an SMS: “Welcome to Monaco!”. Yes, Monaco. A country 1100 km from Kosovo. In a way I understand EMT. A few years ago Kosovo appeared on a map as a new country, now we also have South Sudan, in the near future perhaps Somaliland, Catalunya or Scotland. It must be very hard for EMT to stay on top of things with country names in these crazy times. Continue reading
Guess who?
After the Game Connection I flew straight from Paris to Macedonia to mentor and be in the Jury in Mobile App Camp. Mobile App Camp is an international (mobile) startup event and competition that brings together the winners of local startup-competitions from Balkan region. In the event there were 40 startups and mentors and investors from more than 10 countries. Continue reading
Lauri Antalainen 
