YAY! I'm on holiday with Hannah and living a fun-filled American life in sunny Chicago (which is only actually windy in spring and fall). I've been doing a lot of shopping, since these American malls are infinitely superior with lots of food to keep Hannah happy. In fact, one particular mall we went to was fully equipped with a Sushi buffet! Another thing I find strange about these Americans are that they seem incapable of walking - they spend all their time driving from one end of a parking lot to another or even from one's house to their neighbours'! But [View Full Entry]

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We got up early to go up on deck as our ferry sailed through the small islands of the Stockholm archipelago. The gaps between the islands seemed rather too small for our very large boat, but somehow it fitted through! On arrival in Stockholm, we went on a tour of the city. I was very excited to go to the City Hall, where all the Nobel Laureates I've heard so much about were given their prizes! The ballroom was amazing, decorated from floor to ceiling with gold mosaics! [View Full Entry]

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From St Petersburg we drove a slightly less bumpy road to the border with Finland. We had to wait here for an amazingly long time with the queue of people getting longer and longer! Once we finally got our visas stamped and headed into Finland we had a pleasant drive through a lot of forest towards Helsinki. In Helsinki we visited a really cool monument to the composer Sibelius, the old olympic stadium, and walked around the centre of the city - it was very nice and modern, but beautifully clean and everyone we spoke to was very friendly and helpful. [View Full Entry]

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We left Tallinn at what seemed like a ridiculously early hour, and headed for the border town of Narva. We soon realised that the ridiculously early start was necessary as it took hours to cross the border into Russia... getting out of Estonia was easy enough, but we had to wait for a long time to get our visas stamped and have the bus checked over before we could drive to Ivangorod, the first town on the other side of the border. From Ivangorod, we had a very bumpy ride along a road with an incredible number of potholes to reach [View Full Entry]

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From Riga, we drove through the Gauja National Park then back to the Baltic coast towards Estonia. We stopped for lunch in Parnu, a nice place by the sea with lots of wooden houses. The beach was packed with people enjoying the warm weather! From Parnu, we went to Tallinn. I liked the way much of the old town is on a hill (we hadn't seen much in the way of hills for a long time!) so you can look down on the rest of the city and see the port. We wandered around the old town, and then walked to [View Full Entry]

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We drove through Poland, past Bialystok and had lunch in Augustow before reaching Vilnius in the late afternoon. We explored the city in the evening in the sunshine, and again the next morning in the pouring rain! The cathedral square with its bell tower is really pretty, as is the old town with its many churches. Fortunately the weather changed very quickly and we set off for Trakai castle in the sunshine, to find that it really does look exactly like the photo on the front of the rough guide! We went around the castle, and then walked around the island [View Full Entry]

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We drove into Latvia from Vilnius - the border crossing was very easy as both Lithuania and Latvia are signed up to the Schengen Agreement. Our first stop in Latvia was in Rundale, near to the town of Bauska. Here we had a look around Pilsrundale, a baroque palace that was designed by the same person as the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Whilst we were driving through the countryside in Lithuania and Latvia we saw a lot of storks, but were quite amused to find that some had built their huge nest right on top of the palace at Rundale! [View Full Entry]

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In Warsaw, we walked around the city, seeing the old town square (where I had my photo taken) and the monument to the Warsaw uprising as well as the former Jewish ghetto. It was all rather thought-provoking. In the evening, we went to the Palace of Science and Culture, a soviet-built tower that isn't well-liked by the local people, but provides a very good view over the city from the 30th floor, after a slightly scary ride in a very fast lift. Later, I relaxed with some very nice Polish beer... [View Full Entry]

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Lara and I travelled from the port at Rostock to Berlin, where we went to see the Reichstag and the Brandenburg gate as well as a piece of the Berlin wall. From Berlin, we travelled into Poland, staying in Poznan. Here I am pictured in the old town in Poznan, which was really pretty. [View Full Entry]

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I joined Lara on a trip around the Baltic sea. We started out in Copenhagen, where we visited the little mermaid and I enjoyed a ride at the front of the metro train (which has no driver). When we left Copenhagen, we drove down through Denmark to Gedser, passing lots of wind turbines on our way. Gedser is the most Southerly town in Denmark! At Gedser, we caught a ferry over to Germany - the photos are of me at the port, waiting for the ferry to arrive. [View Full Entry]

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