EstoLatUania

 The time has come to crusie (bus) through the Baltics. But wait, crusing is suppose to be easy.  You know what is not easy?  Enter/exiting Russia.

The Russians loved us.  They didn't want us to stay so badly we were kicked off a bus and given a map in Russian that lead us to this classy hotel!

I've already written about how it is nearly impossible to get a visa to enter Russia and now, the exit story.  This whole scandal was foreshadowed with a joke that this would actually happen.  Kate joked that we would be stopped at the boarder and and said well I hope we cross it the next day because our visas will expire. Mind you, our visas entitled us to a 90 day entry, we just chose to write July 5 and, oh no, July 4 as the date we were exiting.  July 4 turned out to be a problem because our bus left at 10:30pm on July 4 (happy birthday America from a really long bus ride in the USSR, wooo!).  Since the Estonian/Russian border is 4 hours away from St. Petersburgh, we did not make it out of Russia on July 4 and Russian women start to tell at Kathryn "problem, problem!".  We were the last people in line to cross the border, in fact I already had I was just waiting for Kate, and we were the only ones not allowed to leave.  Kate had to go to a bank and pay a 600 ruble ($20) fee but since it was 1:30 am (a whole hour and a half past her visas' expiration!) we had to spend the night at hotel.  The somewhat nicer border guard led us up the hill and pointed towards a hostel.  Now most border towns are known to be sketchy and this hotel fit the mold.  Fortunately, the stupid border guard led us to a closed hotel so some drunk Russians called us a cab and we got to a cute family run hotel.  We spent the night, at some breakfast and finally made it to Tallinn just 12 hours behind schedule.

Tallinn is actually great.  I say actually because I know American folk may not be able to locate it on a map and therefore you probably assume it is not great.  No, it is very quaint, clean, and tourist friendly. Best of all, the speak excellent English.  Our highlight was probably the (free) tour we went on with an excellent guide who I assumed was part fairy.  Estonian is one of the most atheist nations and its people spent a long time running through forests and worshiping trees. Kate and I "made friends" with a boys choir which walked into the same restaurant as us in St. Petersburgh (we were joyous to hear English) and then again at a Medieval restaurant (established in 1307 and survived Danish/Swedish/Russian/German/Soviet invasions!) in Tallinn.

Tallinn- Pretty sweet!  The people were extremely nice!

Another country woo!

Next was Riga, Latvia.  We stayed at Frank's Fun Hostel which pretty much says how this leg of the trip went.  Enter hostel, get free welcome drink, drink contraband Russian vodka, go to Latvian bar, meet Latvian boys... did I mention I like Slavic men a whole lot? Don't worry I didn 't do anything Frank (the hostel owner/Mr. DeLucia/my future dog) wouldn't approve of.

Baltic hangover?  We'll do anything to sit, even paddle a boat.

Now we are Vilnius, Lithuania which is scary.  Just a little sketchy. Perhaps it is because we arrived at 10:30pm (still light out, thanks Baltic summer) or maybe it completely empty bus station and strange looks we've been getting from people on the streets.  Tomorrow is another day and hopefully we can see the brighter side of Vilnius.

This is an "independent" republic in Vilinus.  On the anniversary of the day they (unsuccessfully) declared independence they do a  passport check at this point!

I must note, I have heard an overwhelming amount of 80s music this past week.  Perhaps it because in Soviet times (as the locals and now I like to say lamentably) Western music was representative of evil capitalists and their threat to global stability.    Except the Beatles, who were good Brittish Communists (says our tour guide).