The Trans-Siberian

As I say, 9289KM, 150 hours, 8 time zones, 1 train. My week on the trans-siberian was really something great altogether, but I'm struggling even to know how to start writing about it.

OK, Chris told me about this train a couple of years ago and it immediately became such a dream for me to do the journey. It's odd when your dreams become reality - I'd imagined and thought about the idea of the journey so much, I'd looked at the map and imagined the huge distance - so after all that dreaming, it is already a strange feeling just to be sitting on the train in the first place.

I shared my carriage with Oleg and Natasha - a married Russian couple - Oleg is 27, Natasha 34. I speak about 5 words of Russian, they speak about the same of English. Awkward? For the first half hour yes but this was really the first time in my life that I genuinely appreciated how much it is possible to communicate and connect with people without even sharing a language. Oleg and Natasha were great and we got on so well. They took such good care of me! Food you see is a communal thing on the train - there's a table in the cabin and everyone lays out some food on it and everyone shares - it's great. The food I had brought on really showed my westerness, from the white bread to the berry and nut breakfast bars to the mayonnaise and jam. But they had all sorts of great new (for me) delicious food - different fruits and vegetables, sausage, fresh fish, lovely brown bread, and tins of all sorts of different things like seaweed, fish etc. The train stops a few times each day and local babushkas come out to sell food and drink so we get similar delicious foods off them - again fish and soups, noodles, potatoes, filled pastas, nuts, etc. At first Natasha and Oleg used to buy nearly everything and almost wouldn't let me buy stuff (they's seen the western crap I brought with me probly!) but after a few days I got better at buying things and brought some stuff to the table each day.

Now see for me this journey is a big adventure that I think of almost with legendary status but for these guys surely it can't be the same. Natasha and Oleg are on it because they're going on holidays, to Sochi ,south in European Russia - they'll travel across the country for a week, enjoy 12 days there and travel back - others I spoke to travelled to Vladivostok for as little as 6 days, 1 week on the train each way and this is for their summer holidays. For them this is just what they have to do to cross their country - it's interesting when I'm with them just to try and imagine how they see the journey.

My brain really isn't working properly - none of this is flowing and that's why it might seem very jagged. It's a week since I was on the train and it's difficult to write about it when I have so much more going on in my head! Missy, if some parts start to sound like my letter to you well that's the only thing I've written bout this before so I probably keep borrowing from it! To continue I'm going to just write a little bit about a few aspects that are probably important.

Scenery: I should have written this near the start but I really have to emphasive now (by cursing so excuse me) how very fucking beautiful Russia is! Flat plains, rolling hills, little streams, huge rivers, misty forests, mountains, lakes, big cities and the remotest little villages - so many times I looked out the window and was amazed by what I saw. I've heard a lot about how desolate the landscape would be - maybe in winter it seems that way but so much of it in the sunshine was so beautiful. Now obviously for a week I wasn't jammed to the window - it wasn't amazing all the time but enough of the time.

People: From Oleg and Natasha to all the others I met on that train (and from other people's stories) I can safely say that Russian people are remarkably friendly, warm and welcoming. Russia more than any place I've been before has really been an eye-opener to the falsity of so many pre-conceptions we hold in the west.

Also should mention that I imagined before that I'd be on the train with a load of other backpackers but this is completely not the case - I was the only non-Russian in my carriage and I only met one other native English speaker the whole journey (Stuart from England, living in New York - met up a couple of times in the dining car for drinks and chats - very interesting guy, been to all sorts of amazing places and certainly gave me a few ideas for more trips in the future!)

What did I do?: Well that's difficult to describe. I slept at night, I ate food in the morning, I rested, I looked out the window, chatted with the guys, read a little, wrote a little, listened to music quite a lot, slept often during the day. Time really just drifted by so quickly - we'd stop and get out for 10 minutes, 5 hours later there'd be another stop but that didn't feel like along time and things like that and meal times really broke up the day so that before I knew it another day had passed. I thought a lot, about the journey, about life in general, about Missy and so on. I tried to imagine how I might write about the journey for the website but that didn't get me very far cos I'm struggling here!

And drinking: One thing I brought on that certainly got used very quickly was a bottle of vodka! Now thankfully Oleg doesn't drink as much or often as many other Russian men but there were a few evening when the vodka came out. And when I couldn't handle it straight any more it was ok, he'd mix it with beer for me! Two times I ended up quite drunk and woke up in the middle of the night not quite remembering how the night ended! Vodka's good as long as you're eating at the same time - that's what I learned - as long as you have some food, like say a tomato, or bread or something to eat after your drink the stuff then it's much more palatable and enjoyable.

Beer can be drunk at any time of the day but not in the same quantities as we do in Ireland.

I think I should stop with these seemingly random details.

On the last day, about 9 hours before we got to Moscow I was packed and ready to leave. After so long it really felt that 9 hours was nothing and we were practically there. 3 hours from Moscow and it felt like - well like on the train from Limerick to Dublin when the train is arriving in Heuston but there's still a few minutes until you reach the platform. And as we actually were arriving in Moscow I got very thoughtful and serious, contemplating the vast distance we had covered and the fulfilment of a dream I have had for a long time - but I snapped out of my daze quick enough!!

I'm gonna post this now because I've been here too long but honestly I'm not very happy with it. I have not summed that journey or this country up very well at all. It's more difficult than I would have imagined - but I guess maybe for a country so huge and a journey so long it would never be easy to sum it up. Sometimes I tell myself "Oisin it's just a train!" and yes in reality I guess it is just a train - but for me it represented much more - as I said, in my head I built it up to so much more over years of imagining it.. and it did not disappoint, it fulfilled whatever expectations I had for it - so now in my head it represents some sort of an achievement. I'm still trying to figure this stuff out myself so maybe that's why I'm not clear here.

I guess I am quite confused at the moment - about what I'm doing, why exactly I'm doing it, what I'm getting from it... I feel like I have a lot to figure out.

I'm gonna head now. I've to catch a train in a while - just a train! Maybe the trans siberian is just a train too?

Vladivostok, Russia

Ok first off, the airport is something that really has to be seen to be believed. Got off the plane in the morning and a bus took us about 50m to the gate, literally, just a shaky gate in a metal fence behind which loads of locals were standing waiting to meet family and friends. Through the gate and pushing through the crowd now I head into the warehouse type thing that is baggage collection. Felt like a scene from a movie standing there in this crumbling place waiting for my bag to come round on the old ricketty caroussel - all the bags keep getting jammed and falling off, it was quite surreal.

The bags disappeared one by one and after a few minutes the caroussel stopped & I was standing there in an empty warehouse at an empty caroussel. The administrator woman was shouting something in Russian across the floor at me. I thought it was a bit funny at first but after a while I started to get a little worried - began listing the things in my head that were in the bag, only really got worried when I realised my ticket for the trans siberian was in there! The woman disappeared out through the hole where the bags come in - I squinted though the gap to see what was going on outside.

After about 10 minutes more people poured into the hall and more bags started coming through. I watched in anticipation as each and every bag passed me. The worst thing, I thought, is that I have no idea what to do if the bag is missing - in London or Amsterdam or somewhere like that I wouldn't worry because I know it would get sorted easily enough but standing there in the rusty hall I knew things couldn't go so smoothly.

But just when I had given up hope and turned away in despair, I spotted my lonely little bag which had somehow gotten past me and was doing a few laps on the caroussel. I was thrilled and so relieved! Headed outside and round the corner and was shocked to see that the rest of the airport was pretty normal - maybe a little run down by western standards but fairly normal - was happy I had my little surreal experience at the arrival lounge before discovering this though!

Ok think I've spent way too long talking bout the bag. Vladivostok:

Farthest east I've ever been, any much further east and I'd be west. Vladivostok is quite a strange place. Located on the south-eastern tip of Russia, right down by the borders with China and South Korea and a ferry ride to Japan, it's built on very hilly terrain by the sea. It's an industrial port city so lots of boats in the harbour and big grey buildings dominate the view from any window - well that and the sea. Ex military base so it has the military ships in the dock and an old submarine you can visit. It's picturesque in the strangest of ways.

But, it's also a haven for Russian, Japanese and Korean holiday makers! So on the other side you have the beach and the pubs and karaoke's for these guys. It seemed quite crazy to me - I walked down along this tourist strip along the beach one night and you just have all these outdoor portable karaokes, plastic tables and chairs, some in tents, flashing strips of neon lights hanging off trees and tents, beer is bought either from a stand or from a kiosk and drunk at the tables or else just walking around or standing on the beach - bottles and litter everywhere and quite smelly. It seemed insane to me that this was people's choice of holiday destination - but for them it was all perfectly normal.

Spent quite a lot of money there cos could only find one cheap hotel which was full (as were most places). On the first day when I finally found a room I had to pay $80 for it - then for 2 nights after that I was paying $50 (seems like loads now to me but then I was just happy it wasn't 80!)

This post really is turning to babble and I'm not writing about this the way I wanted to. I'm just gonna sum up: When I first arrived I thought I had arrived in a hole, a deep dark expensive hole that I was waiting for the trans siberian to take me out of. But after some sleep and some walking, and some days to take it all in, the great things I had read about this place began to make sense. It's probably one of the most unusual cities I've ever been in and a great spot to mark my furthest trip from home. As I stood on top of a hill looking out over the city and the sea I couldn't decided whether it was beautiful or not - which makes it quite intriguing for me and it is certainly one place I will never forget.

On my last evening I met Monika from Hungarry, who came up to me in the Internet cafe and asked if I was a tourist and then so did I want to meet later (there's not too many English speakers in Vladivostok see). I really admire someone with the confidence to just approach someone else like that. We had a great night, talking bout Russia and Monika's experience on the trans siberian, drinking, beer, wine and then vodka (eeks!) down by the beach (where I spoke about before) and on the balcony of the student accomodation she was staying in. It was a great laugh and very interesting too - Monika had travelled across Russia, and was continuing through China and then India. I really don't know what to say but trips like that (or this dare I say) really just fascinate me so much.

On another note I watched quite a lot of television in my expensive hotel rooms (was up most the night with jetlag so) - it was so funny watching Police Academy, Fear Factor, Daffy Duck among others dubbed in Russian - I actually got quite a taste for it and one evening even headed to the cinema to see Lara Croft II in Russian! Think I could still pretty much follow the plot - it was good fun!

So yeah, maybe not very well surmised (is that a word?) but that was Vladivostok: peculiar and charming.

Email Bust

Don't know what's up but I can't get into my email which is seriously pissing me off - not gonna post for real now, Vladivostok was great, Transiberian was something else altogether - will write with actual details another time.. as for email I just hope it works soon. Later Buds, Babes, Studs, Folks, Sis, Bro and Missy:)

Quick note from Vladivostok

Wish I could stay and chat but I'm rushing to catch the train. From Vladivostok to Moscow - Longest trasin journey in the world - 9289KM - 150 hours across 8 time zones - jees I'm excited. Talk chas in a week!

Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The bus arrived earlier than I thought it would - got off in a very tired and confused state. This was not helped by the fact that we were not at the bus station marked on my map and I actually had no idea where I was cos all the signs were, believe it or not, written in Russian, which I couldn't even read (cyrillic alphabet) let alone understand.

Anyway I eventually got myself sorted out and onto the metro towards the hostel. And going down to the metro was just a treat! OK I don't know if this is actually going to sound that exciting but St Petersburg underground is the deepest underground in the world, which means one hell of a long escalator down to the trains. Now I thought I'd seen long escalators before, in Budapest most memorably, but this was just staggering! I timed it once and it took 3 minutes to travel the length of it - admittedly the novelty wore off just a little after a few days but the sight of the huge tunnel into the ground in front of me (you can just about make out the bottom from the top) really gave me a thrill!! Such simple pleasures!

At my hostel I slept a few hours and then headed off to start my exploration of the city. St Petersburg is pretty much very big and there is just so much to see in so many places so the exploration of new places would continue for all my time there.

I can't remember a time in my life when my mood has been so effected by the weather as it was in this city. That first morning when I headed out it was cloudy, grey and gloomy, I was initially quite thoroughly unimpressed with the city - I walked to some of the most famous landmarks, along canals, through parks - I wasn't enjoying myself and I wasn't enjoying the city. Disappointed, since I had heard such fantastic things, I continued my strolling.

It was becoming evening time. I walked past the monumental St. Isaac's Cathedral, thinking to myself "yeah it's pretty cool but whatever!" In the square on the opposite side I turned to have another look. The view this time struck me so vividly - the sky behind it was now clear blue and I was actually stunned by how great the Cathedral now looked! As the clouds continued to pass by overhead and eventually all the sky was blue I, quite literally, saw the city in a new light. In the sunlight the city sparkles, the water sparkels, the gold sparkles (and there is a lot of gold around!) the streets are picturesque, I felt light, free, and enchanted now as I strolled the streets discovering what I now felt was this wonderful city. Another day I would climb up to the dome of St. Isaac's - that was one of my favourite moments in St Petersburg.

And over the next few days things continued in this manner, cloudy mornings for which I was downbeat and kinds lonely, then the clouds passed by and everything was rosy again!! I don't know.. I think it's crazy - I can't remember being like that before. The clouds just really dulled the city, much of it is quite run down and while in the sunshine (or probably also in the snow) these areas are still enchanting, without either they lack this. Also the clouds were everywhere and grey and I knew the sun was waiting behind them so that was frustrating and they became quite oppressive. But now I will stop this talk of clouds, for when they passed I really did love this city an extraordinary amount!

I chatted to a few people at the hostel but never met anyone I really liked or got on with and so was always alone outside the hostel. This was not a problem though. Travelling alone there are times when you meet people and times when you do not - you have to be able to enjoy both times as much.

But it did make for a rather unusual solo birthday! Again I was quite miserable for the first half in the clouds - continued my exploration, but wandered quite unenjoyably. But the evening time was to bring quite great satisfaction! And this even before the clouds would pass! I had bought a ticket for the ballet, Giselle by Adolphe Adam. Gonna steal a bit from my email home that night to for this bit:

Now I've never seen a ballet before so I wasn't sure what to expect, worried after my crappy day that this would just be another boring part of it - but wow was I wrong. First of all this theatre is just the best place in the world to see your first ballet. It's just fantastic looking, been running for 220 years, it's where Nutcracker premiered and all sorts of other great stuff like that. And the ballet itself just absolutely wowed me - kind surprised at myself for enjoying it so much but i was honestly stunned! amazed, even moved (even had a tear in my eye at the end)!!

And after that when I walked outside I couldn't have been happier to see the blue sky above, which prompted an hour or two of strolling through the streets and along the canals, just content to walk and take it in.

Later I tried to phone home to say Happy Birthday to Siobhan but that didn't work out so I did a big email instead! After 1 I sat in a 24 hour diner place for some food and took a beer with me on my walk home (everyone walks around with bottles of beer here so it was a bit of a thrill for me, my first time!). The bridges across the River Neva are all "openy up bridges" and they open in the middle of the night to let big ships through. I was very satisfied when I just managed to cross the bridge before it opened (otherwise stuck on the other side until 5AM) - sat on the hostel side watching it open up and finishing my beer - very great end to the evening and to my 21st birthday.

I think this may be becoming as long as some of my Asian posts (quite fitting really since once again I am now in Asia! writing from Vladivostok) but not very easy to read so I will stop writing soon I promise.

Everywhere I went I carried with me a page from my book with all the characters of the cyrillic alphabet so I was always consulting it to translate signs - so I could at least say them even if I didn't know what they all meant - that also gave me a great feeling of satisfaction as I progressively got better and eventually didn't even need the sheet any more. My crowning moment was when I read from a menu and ordered my "Double Cheeseburger Nevsky" from a stall all in Russian - didn't say much really except, Hello, asked for my burger please, yes, yes, thank you, goodbye, but not a word of English in there and I was delighted with myself!

Finally there is one thing that it would quite probably be considered a sin to leave St Petersburg without doing - a visit to The Hermitage is an absolute necessity (general opinion not mine). So on my last full day I headed there for a few hours. Now this is the largest collection of art in the world (3 million painting, but only 5% on display at any one time) so it's not possible to take it all in in a week, let alone a day - but paintings aren't really my thing so a few hours were ok for me. It's a very impressive building and worth a visit for the State Rooms alone, let alone the art, but I wandered the halls and corridors and saw art by lots of great masters.. most interesting for me though was a temporary exhibition of photgraphs on loan from the New York Museum of Modern Art. I spent ages at that, spending time at each and every photo - photography just interests me and inspires me in ways that paintings never could.

After that I headed to the vodka museum but skipped the museum part and went straight for the cafe pub out the back where the woman working there chatted with me and picked out her 3 favourite vodkas for me to have hekpings of! Really interesting chatting to her and the vodka was great too. By the way Smirnoff and Boru are rubbish vodka! The woman shuddered at the mention of them!

Slightly lighter headed I was off to the ballet again - this time for Swan Lake at the Alexandrinsky Theatre - again a great show but I don't think anything could live up to my first night of ballet!

And that was my first experience of St. Petersburg - flew the next day to the east. But it will certainly not be my last. I will be back some day - if nothing else I promised that woman in the vodka museum that I would return and see the actual museum! Her reasoning was that their museum was the best in St. Petersburg because "this is the only museum where you can drink vodka!".

Parnu and Tallinn, Estonia

My first day in Estonia was one of mixed emotions. I woke in my cabin in Parnu and got packed up to leave. Had gotten a taxi there the night before and so the walk back towards town was a little confusing and quite long.

Parnu is a pleasant little resort town (beach resort for Estonians mainly I would think) with not that much to offer me except the mud baths, which was really the only reason I was there in the first place. But when I got to the baths I was told I was too late, even though my book said I still had two hours, damn book. Anyway I was pretty pissed off cos I didn't really have another day to hang around this place for the baths the next day. I went to the beach for a few minutes and then walked back towards the center of town. I was beginning to feel like everything had taken a turn for the worse - with my bus to Sigulda just to come straight back and then coming to Parnu for mud baths and they're closed - I was not a happy camper (this fits since I stayed at the campsite the night before).

En route I saw street signs advertising the Museum of New Art, which I turned off the road to visit. And this place made me feel so much better altogether - mainly photography, some sculpture, some video displays etc. but it was definitely my kind of stuff and I spent ages in that little place looking at each and every piece.

Then my walk round the main town turned out to be pretty pleasant too - as I say not too much to see but it is a nice place.

Bus to Tallinn and after settling into the very nice, very small hostel, with only 8 beds, chatting to the strange Lithuanian guy with a Bonnie Prince Billy style beard who runs the place, and two German ladies who were much nicer, then I headed out strolling round the town by myself. And I completely fell in love with it. I strolled for a few hours, sat in a bar with a cappuccino, made a note to myself to stop buying the stuff cos I don't like it, walked through the small streets, the open squares, up winding steps and alleys, past the churches and cathedrals, admiring views over all the steeples and trees of the city, taking my photos, enjoying every step - it was quiet, with few people on the streets and I was in my absolute element - I had certainly adjusted back to life on the road alone again! Late at night I sat at a table outside a restaurant for a small meal and some orange juice and I was as content as I might ever be.

The next day my idyllic view of Tallinn was somewhat disturbed when I saw the throngs of tourists that pack its streets! All these little alleys and gorgeous viewpoints were now packed to the brim with tour groups faithfully following their leader's umbrellas. Obviously it is still a remarkable place but this did detract from it for me.

In the museum of photgraphy (again a fascinating place) I got chatting with the elderly woman who manages the temporary exhibitions in the basement. She was really lovely and started showing all these different photographs she had taken, recently and in the past, and then work of other people in the Tallinn Photography Society - her work was really great actually and I had a great time talking with her.

I went to a "15 Minutes with JS Bach" concert in the main cathedral (where the pope himself has said mass!) - organ music concert thing - not that I know lots of classical music or anything but I did recognise the piece they played so that was great too. Had a nice lunch out on a veranda type thing.

In the afternoon I got a great surprise when walking down the street I met Petra and Katja (remember from Slovenia) - then I went into the gallery where Jerca and Mojca were looking at some photos - it was so funny to see them again - their trip to Sigulda had also turned sour so that's why they were so far north ahead of schedule. And I spent the next couple of evenings with them.

That day we went to a park just a walk away from the city centre. It started raining so we sat under the porch of an old building at the edge of the park. We sat there with the rain pouring down around us and the girls started singing some Slovenian songs - it was a great moment sitting there and one I want always to remember.

In the evening they cooked pasta in the kitchen of the apartment where they were staying with a local Russian family. Italian food, cooked by my Slovenian friends, in the kitchen of a Russian family in Estonia - and delicious too! Later we played cards and that was great fun. I lost and so had to do a forfeit (that's spelled wrong I'm sure) which involved going to the tourist office and asking for the hill of three crosses (a famous landmark in Vilnius - as opposed to in Tallinn where we now were) - that's probably not actually funny but we thought the idea was hilarious! Never got to do it though so now they have 5 weeks to think of a new forfeit for me to do in Slovenia!

On Saturday I got up at 6 in the morning. I had this great idea that I could get an early bus to Parnu again, enjoy my mud bath (which I was obviously very keen on) and be back in Tallinn by mid afternoon. All was going beautifully - arrived at the front door of the baths by 9:30 - only to discover that they are closed on weekends!!! I wasn't pissed off this time though - now I could only laugh! I spent a little time in pleasant Parnu again and headed back to the capital.

Another evening with the girls - dinner in another Irish pub, then some strolling, first through the familiar streets but then towards a park I hadn't been to. The sun was setting and the walls around the old town were burning orange - we walked up some steps to look over the city at the sunset. There the girls gave me a tub of Raspberries they had picked that day, and they sang me a Slovenian happy birthday song - it was such the sweetest moment - another one to make sure I remember - they really took such care of me - even gave me a jumper in case it would be cold in Russia.

In the park we lay on the grass - the old town sat above us on a hill surrounded by it's high fortress like walls - it reminded me of towns in Italy perched on the side of hills - and I've seen photos of places like it in France too.

Then it was time for me to head to the bus station. We said our goodbyes and again it was emotional - slighly less so since it was our second time! I walked towards the station alone and I was glad I had met the girls again, and looked forward to seeing them in Slovenia at the end of the summer, but also I was excited to be on my own and on the road to Russia. Just this overnight bus and I would arrive in St Petersburg early the next morning.

Riga and Sigulda (slightly), Latvia

So the six of us were off to Riga. It was interesting being in a group - whereas I am used to making all the decisions for myself, following the map myself and all that kind of stuff - in the group, for the first time I was content to just stand back and follow the flow. This is unusual for me, because as I'm sure Chris and Aidan can testify, I like to be in control.

We went to the posh backpackers hostel - that's what it's called - it's kinda posh I guess but not really. Anyhow headed out round the city with David - just strtrolling kind of at random first - sat on the grass in the park but that's not allowed so we were soon moved on. Riga is much more cosmopolitan than anything I had seen in Lithuania (or would see in Estonia) - it's the biggest city in the Baltics and it certainly feels like it - great place though.

Met the girls (by chance - lots happens by chance) and we ate grapes and headed off for more strolling - this time round the old town. Later we met Ed, an Australian guy the girls had met in Vilnius. He was with Dahze (I'm sure that's spelledd wrong), anyway she's from Riga so she took us to the cool bars and stuff.

Had lots of fun on my evenings in Riga - ended up quite drunk both nights which is strtange for me twice in a row but it really was a grreat laugh. Went to this communist bar which was underground in a bunker style place, painted in camouflage and with these great round red tables - dimly lit except for the lamps on the tables so that they seemed to glow and light up the place - then there was all this other communist props and propoganda (what does props stand for? propoganda? surely not - anyway by props I mean soldier uniforms and coats and guns and stuff) - very cool place, could've easily been cheesy but it managed not to get there.

We went too to this great club type place where they played just the best music ever - most of the music I had never heard before but then there was stuff by Bob Marley and variuos other greats - but it was just superb music, there's nowhere in Ireland you can go to hear music like this so that was a great experience.

Jerca didn't like pubs and clubs so we would go for a walk around the city for a while, chatting and walking and sitting - they were lovely times and it is great to have time like that in a city because you experience the city in a new way, see it in a new light kind of. Jerca would go home or keep walking and I would go back to the group.

Also got dragged into an Irish bar one night (as I said I am follower not leader!) which was also good fun but I refrained from ordering a Guinness since it was twice the price of the local beer.

One day, Ed, David and I got a bus out of the city to go to the Automoble Museum, where they have a variety of old cars including Lenin's (or was it Stalin's? no Lenin I think) armoured vehicle. Took us ages to find the right bus route, then we walked for ages when we got out there, but never managed to find the museum! Never mind it was good anyway to get out to the suburbs and see another side to the city.

On the last day, everyone else had gone there separate ways and I went to the bus station with the girls to say goodbye as they headed off to Sigulda. It was quite an emotional goodbye - it's crazy how much of a connection can build up between people in just a few days - as their bus pulled off and I walked away I felt incredibly alone and even cried for a few seconds that they were gone (I'm such a sop!).

I walked aimlessly around the old town, went up the tower of St. Peter's Cathedral for a view of the city - sat in some square for a while. I was so confused - my head was all over the place. My plan for the day had been to do a few more things in the city but mainly to do some email and organising and to head to Estonia in the evening. But now I was considering if I should have gone to Sigulda with the girls - then I thought maybe I should go to Sigulda and try to find were they were staying - this had two motivations: firstly it was really weird being alone again so there was the issue of being with friends again, but also it was about the place - should I really leave Latvia without going to Sigulda and going rafting and camping? but then I'll miss the mud baths in Parnu? My head was going mental and I had no idea what to do! I changed my mind so many times but eventually I ended up on the bus to Sigulda. The journey cleared my head a bit and I was thinking more clearly. Even on the bus I was considering not staying in Sigulda (small town, mainly countryside region).

When I got there it was lashing rain, rain like I can't even remember seeing in Ireland - I put on my rain jacket and walked 1 min up the road to some sign posts - when I got back to the bus station my trousers were soaked through and I had to change them. I decided I would just head back to Riga and go to Estonia like I had planned originally - a few minutes later I was back on the same bus, with the same driver (who looked at me quite strangely as I got back on!) on my way back to Riga.

I was happy, I was laughing at myself for going out there in the first place - so I was glad I had. Then the bus broke down and I was laughing at myself even more. The driver got out and was getting soaked in the rain, then a big trruck went past and such a huge spray of water hit the windows of the bus, the driver stood up outside and he was absolutely drenched to the skin! I laughed so much, out loud too but others were also laughing so that was ok.

Another bus eventually took us to Riga. I wandered through the market getting various food and drink for the journey and then back to the bus station for the bus to Parnu, Estonia. A strange and confusing day but when I opened the door of my little wooden hut at the campsite in Parnu that night I giggled with happiness and I was very happy to be on my own in myy teeny ickle cabin.

Vilnius, Trakai, Kaunus, Klaipeda & The Curonian Spit, Lithuania

I had intended writing one post for each town/place I visited but considering how far behind I am I think it will be best to simply write once for each country!

Lithuania was kind of like the starting point of the trip. Berlin and Warsaw had been (intersesting) stepping stones to get there but all along it had been the goal. And it really is such a wonderful place. Vilnius, the capital, is small and beautiful, I spent time there wandering through the streets, sitting in parks, walking up to the tower on the hill for a view over the city, eating in restaurants and relaxing at the hostel.

On my second day there I caught a bus out a to Trakai where there are two great lakes. One of the lakes has a great "fairytale castle" on an island that you can walk to on a bridge. The castle surprisingly enough is called Trakai Castle. Out there I met Brian and David from South Africa - I'd been chatting with Brian the night before at the hostel. We sat by the castle at the lake, eating our cheese sandwiches and having a bit of a laugh, then we went swimming in the lake. I have the say the scenery out by the lake, and the castle and everything, was just spectacular. It made me think, Chris, of the castle on Lake Geneva at Montreux even though it looks nothing like it and the scenery is completely different but anyway!

On my way to Klaipeda I stopped in Kaunus for a few hours. Another very pretty town, smaller than Vilnius. Again I wandered the streets, taking photographs and the like. Lay in the town square for a while, just basically lounged about soaking it in! Visited the Devil museum which had some cool statues but wasn't half as interesting as I thought it could/should have been. On my way back to the bus station I walked by the river and there was some sort of big Jesus gathering in a tent by the river but I had no idea exactly what it was about.

Arriving late in Klaipeda by the coast, I was very relieved to walk just 50m to the cutest little hostel that also happened to have free beds. Again it has been proven that a hostel where you take off your shoes before going in is always a good one! Just a tiny little place with 2 bedrooms and a ickly kitchen/sitting area where everyone had no choice but to gather so it made for good chats.

This again was an even smaller town - unusual in some ways I think, I've never really seen a town quite like it - it reminds me in some ways of Siem Reep because of it's spaciousness and the little river going through it (but that is really just a very crude camparison) - ok I'm just brutal at describing places so I'll get on with what I did.

There's a ferry from the town just across the water to Smiltynes, on the Curonian Spit, which is an 87 km long by about 4 km wide (at the widest) peninsula, which starts in the Kalingrad region of Russia but the farther end is Lithuania (do ya get me huh?). Anyway this thing has beaches and sand dunes and lots of forest and is a very beautiful place, "achingly" beautiful if you're prone to reading the lonely planet.

First day I decided just to take it easy and go to the beach, which was nice enough but the beach isn't really my place - it was the weekend so it was fairly crowded with Lithuanians, and probably tourists too I guess. Anyway I figured that to make things a little bit more interesting/new I should head down to the nudist beach. So I walked the forest path down for a kilometre or so and crossed the dune to the beach, off with my clothes and there I was naked on a beach for the first time in my grown up life. It was quite fun really, just lay down for a while, wrote my diary log for a bit, then went swimming (but the most unusual bit was walking from where I was sitting to the water, all in my nip)... anyway it's definitely to be recommended and is much more fun than the normal beach!

In the hostel I met loads of great people, chatting to guys from Chile and Egypt and Portugal, Claire from Australia is great, and David from Munich (more later) and then one evening I got chatting to Jerca, Mojca, Petra & Katja from Slovenia (hope I spelled your names right?) - went out with them for dinner and drinks and just got on so great with them. The are four great, interesting, and diverse characters, and as a group I think they are quite captivating in a way - or something like that anyway - my use of the English language fails me often. Have spent quite a bit of time with them since then (details will follow when I write about those times).

Anyway the next day I went to the Curonian Spit again but this time I kept my clothes on. I got a bus to down near the Russian border, a town called Nida, where the scenery is much more beautiful than at the Northern end, walked by the beach and through forest up to the tallest sand dune, with a big sun dial on top of it, then explored the sand dunes taking photographs and just enjoying it all - met Mojca and Jerca here by chance and we chatted for a few minutes, then they headed off to the others and their bicycles.

I also went to a town called Juadkrante where I walked by the water looking at the houses and imagining if I lived there! Then they have what is called Witch's Hill. It's a path through the forest loads of these brilliant wooden sculptures along the way - maybe doesn't sound like much but the statues are just superb - all these great characters with exaggerated features and remarkable ornamentation (there goes my English again, what are ya at ush?) - anyway basically yeah, top class place.

Bough me some sunglasses that day - I like them, weird though - they broke but I fixed them with a pipe cleaner.

I left Klaipeda early in the morning on a bus to Riga with the Slovenian girls. We met David along the way, by chance as he was getting the bus from another town in Latvia - and the 6 of us headed into Riga for lots of great fun - but that's Latvia, it doesn't belong in this post so I will leave you alone for now.

Happy Birthday Cian - hopefully I will get a chance to talk to you later.

Miniature update, live from Riga

In Riga now since yesterday afternoon - much bigger than Vilnius, completely different atmosphere, but just as beautiful and plus it seems to have a much more active lived in vibe about the place (not saying that against Vilinius but it's just an observation). Lithuania was extremely great altogether (more details will follow but since this is just a miniature update they are surplus to requirements as of yet). Been hanging around with four great fun Slovenian girls, a guy from Munich and another from Sydney - meeting them again shortly, and another lady from Riga - we're off out for some pints and Karaoke I think! Will let you know how that turns out. Estonia tomorrow, Russia Saturday... will hopefully write more before leaving here tomorrow though.

Later buddy boo byes, O.