M-whY

"Leaving today?" asked Hara as I packed my bags.

"Yeah." We both agreed. Tallinn, and Estonia in general, is a great place, but there's no reason to stay for very long. Particularly outside of peak season, when it's not worth making the effort to go to the seaside resorts.

I didn't decide to skip the Scandanavian peninsulas until this morning, travelling through the Baltic states instead. Immediately south of Estonia is Latvia, easily reached via bus. As usual, I had waited til the last possible moment, so as to have maximum flexibility in case I changed my mind. I arrived at the bus station hoping the last run hadn't left yet, and that there'd still be seats available. And of course, there were.

"12:00 o'clock, platform one," said the woman. That left me with a little over an hour to waste. Not a big deal, I've twiddled my thumbs for longer than that before. Similarly, the four hour ride wasn't that bad either |(map). Compared to other train journeys, including the 96 hour monster from Ulaan Baatar to Moscow, this was peanuts. I'd sleep for the majority of it; My cold had gotten worse instead of better, and only while dozing was I able to keep from hacking my lungs out. I'd wake up was for the fifteen minute border crossing when immigration officials came aboard and that was about it. All three Baltic states have joined the European Union and the process was painless. Most people just had to flash their EU card, and those of us that didn't have them quickly had our passports stamped.

I noticed I received an arrival stamp for Latvia, but no departure stamp from Estonia. I wonder if that's how most European countries work? Once in Latvia, our bus stuck close to the Gulf of Riga shores. Every once in a while, the dense pine trees might thin out and I'd catch a glimpse of the beach. It was a incident-free (translate: boring) trip, pretty much what I expected of European travel. The seats were comfortable, the driver was rational. I dare say I missed the honking of all those taxis in the east.

It was only 5:00pm when I reached Latvia's capital, Riga, but already pitch black outside. At the bus station, I exchanged my Estonian play money for Latvian play money. At the exchange rate of US$1 = 0.6 lats though, this was currency that I really had to be careful about; The 50 santimi (1 Lat = 100 santimi) coins were designed to be lost and each of them were worth almost a dollar. Finding a hostel turned out to be rather easy, being located just across the street from the bus station. In the end, it was a fairly dull day. Nothing as exciting as say, putting hotels on the Park Place and Boardwalk.

Thanks to everyone for their support and comments! Knowing people are reading keeps me motivated to continue the updates!