Final Stage...: October 2006

Warsaw (Polish Army Museum)

Warsaw, Poland (The Old Town)

The Baltics

After my tour of Russia ended in St. Petersberg I travelled by bus across the Russian border into Estonia. Bruce and Karleen, who were also on the tour, booked themselves onto the same bus as me, however I'm sure that they were regretting this not long into our trip! The bus was packed. We were possibly the only English speaking people and passport control took place at 2am! This required us to disembark the bus, get our luggage out from underneath the bus and walk it through the checking point. This was on a night they were predicting their first snow!!! I had no idea why everyone was getting off. I thought it was a food stop, so initially I made no effort to get off! Once this ordeal was over we stopped again - this time at 3am for duty free shopping! Why not?!

Anyway we arrived into Tallin at 6am - still pitch black and our location wasn't even on the map we had! So Karleen and I pulled the sleeping bag out and tried to get some much needed sleep on the floor of the bus station! Anyway it all worked out in the end. Tallin has a gorgeous old town where we stayed. Karleen's bouyfriend, Chris, joined us that evening. The next day we hired a car and explored Estonia's country side and two days later we ventured down to Riga, Latvia, where we stumbled across the Queen! And by the Friday we had gone our separate ways into Lithuania...next stop...Poland.