After 3 hours of sleep and our third generous Polish meal in 12 hours we hit the road for our Day 3 9 hour train ride up into our first Baltic state. The time passed slowly and as counting trees didn't prove easy we entertained ourselves taking pictures of Lithuania's baton banishing station masters (see pics) enjoying their twice or so daily waving duties.
Andrzej's sandwiches proved their worth as the trip went on and on stopping at a seemingly never-ending number of village/farm stations. The lack of sleep may have been kicking in yet the pleasant enough Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, seemed underwhelming compared to its Baltic rivals and to its reported role as a regional powerhouse during its 16th century heyday.
Having disappointed the Vilnius hostel staff by not living up to the apparent British guy stereotype, Day 4 started early (again) stumbling to the bus station for the ride up to Riga. A lively and intriguing city we made our 5 lats go much further than we imagine they would had we been in town at 2am rather than 2 in the afternoon.
Tempting as it was time was not on our side so, upgraded to a Lux Bus, another 5 hours north took us to Tallinn, our favourite of the Baltic capitals with its largely pedestrianised centre steeped in history in the evening sun, before enticing us into our beerhouse #2 of the trip so far followed by the (obligatory we were told) couple of beers taking in some of the sights night Tallinn has to offer. No scandal I'm afraid, although buy me a beer and I might let you know how Will struts his stuff when the Hollywood stars beckon.
Little did Will know as he went to sleep the fun in store the next day, but for that you'll have to wait until our next blog!
Warsaw - Vilnius: 520 km / 9 train hours (106 zlotys)
Vilnius - Riga: 270 km / 4.5 bus hours (45 litas)
Riga - Tallinn: 270 km / 4.5 bus hours (12 lats)
TOTAL TO DATE: 2,590 km
No comments:
Post a Comment