Being of a Geeky background, I feel the urge to comment on things techie. Long gone are the days when bike touring was accompanied with paper (maps, directions et al), rolls of film, phone cards and the weather forecast was about what you could see on the horizon or catch on the 6pm news bulletin in a language you couldn’t understand.
3 years ago I used my iPad, iPhone and digital camera to replace the lot, all powered by the sun, bike hub Dynamo and the occasional power outlet. Hey, I was even able to use TeamViewer to fix a laptop back home in NZ from a campground in Denmark.
Today I still use the same tech, although with some hundred upgrades or improvements – at least that is what it feels like. The key difference I’ve noticed this time is connectivity. So far in Norway and Finland I’ve rarely been out of a cellular signal and every boat, train and bus has had free wifi, as well as most of the town centres and malls.
When I can get a strong cellular signal in a deep fjord surrounded by mountains 100 kilometres from the nearest town, it makes the claims by the telcos back in New Zealand such as “we cover 99% of where New Zealanders live” rather shallow.
I’ve now swapped out my NZ sim for a local Norwegian one that for $50 that gives me 3 gigabytes of data plus unlimited calling and messaging throughout Scandinavia for a month. I did this after continuing frustration with getting roaming to work with my Spark number and then too many Call Failed messages. By the way Spark, it’s kind of difficult to be on hold for 2 hours when you’re on the other side of the world and your phone doesn’t work. Thank goodness for Twitter, it seems to get more attention.
On a somewhat different vein, my go to app this time around has been Google Translate, it works wonderfully both on and off line. I’ve even had a conversation with a Russian lady who spoke as much English as I speak Russian – nil. It’s still a bit weird taking turns in talking to my iPhone and then reading the translation, but, hey it works. It’s also saved me from regrettable errors at the super market like the time I once bought anchovies and vinegar instead of herrings and red wine.
Written and posted from the middle of the Baltic using the free wifi on board the ferry.