The latest chapter of our journey has been slightly delayed in making it from our rough notes to our blog due to a number of reasons; mainly long distance travel and other priorities (namely sleeping and drinking). However we now have the serenity of Vaasa, my uneventful home town in Finland, to give us the inspiration and time to update you in full. We've set the date and location of this particular post to when we were in Tallinn for continuity purposes.

So, our previous entry came from our last night in Kraków, just under two weeks ago. Upon our departure from Kraków we faced the biggest travel challenge yet; to get all the way to Riga in one go (trust me, I wasn't looking forward to it...). As we were to be on the road for 24 hours straight we were hoping for a decent night sleep, which yet again wasn't to be. This time it was the turn of 20 Spaniards who had arrived in our hostel that night to lend a hand in the disruptions. They certainly made their presence known and to say they had taken over the place is an understatement. So after a night of non-stop doorbells and banging, we woke up to catch our train to Warsaw.

To quickly fill you in on the itinerary for that day; although our intentions were to circulate everywhere by train, after extensive research in Prague we found that it was easier and cheaper to travel from Poland to the Baltics by coach. Therefore we had booked onto the Simple Express bus to depart Warsaw at 20:30, arriving in Riga at 10:50 the next morning (via a switch of coaches in Vilnius at about 6:30).

So we left our hostel in Kraków for Warsaw at 10:30 and we were quite excited about travelling in first class after being rather forcefully upsold the tickets by the non-English speaking Polish clerk the day before. However, the extra 2€ didn't offer us the comfort or service we'd anticipated and the first class 'lounge' left a lot to be desired. I'd hate to see what the second class would have been like.

We arrived in Warsaw with six hours to spare before the coach departed. After storing our bags and succesfully finding the correct bus stop, we took what was to be one of many strolls around the local shopping centre in order to pass the time without too much expenditure. It seemed a little bit of a shame having to develop games on the escalators and only really confining ourselves to the close proximity of the train station, as Warsaw obviously has a lot more to offer. But we opted for a cautious approach as the last thing we wanted was to be lost in this surprisingly gigantic city. Having stocked up on provisions and finding what were to be invaluable inflatable neck cushions, we finally boarded our coach. The Simple Express proved worthy of it's name; Shaun had to spend the next 9 hours on a broken seat but I guess you can't complain much as we'd only paid 18€ to travel 660km (that's 410 miles to you English out there, or from Manchester to London and back). In Vilnius we switched to a Lux Express coach, thinking the last four hours would be better spent on more comfortable seats, enjoying the free coffee that was included in the price. Our hopes of feeling more refreshed were trashed, but strangely we felt better arriving in Riga than after the overnight train from Prague to Kraków. The coach did provide one first though; the first ever passport check since embarking across the continent. The scary-looking, moustache-clad border control man singled out Shaun for some reason, and only after thoroughly inspecting his passport (and only his passport - everyone else just got a brief glance) we were back on our way. I knew Shaun should have shaved the night before!

Riga also provided another first of our journey - rain. We'd gone the previous two weeks without a single drop, but it didn't dampen our mood (sorry for the pun). We felt quite excited to be in another new city and in completely new surroundings; Latvia definitely felt 'Baltic'. We found the Teddy Bear Hostel easily in the Old Town, took much needed showers (thinking back to what I felt like after only 24 hours on the road, it is quite scary knowing we'll soon be spending five days on one train...) and headed out for a Baltic lunch. We only really had one and a half days in Riga but thoroughly enjoyed our time there. To Shaun's delight, we finally located Christmas markets with the necessary mulled wine & sausages, thus much of our time somehow dissipated in what we had waited for since leaving Manchester. Whilst in the hostel we befriended a German girl, Nadine, who was to be our travelling buddy heading further north for the coming days. After a few glühweins on the first night, our second and final night was spent in the hostel making full use of the great facilities by cooking a wholesome meal; rice with a tasty sauce full of vegetable (and chilli) goodness. Wine flowed and we were accompanied by two more girls, Paula from Spain and Sophie from Austria (not sure if we spelled the names correctly...). The five nationalities conversed as diplomatically as an EU-summit, comparing our different cultures, customs and perceptions of nudity. Shaun was in his element making us girls giggle away with his much loved below-the-waist humour.

With Nadine in tow, we headed for Tallinn the following morning, relying on the old Simple Express to get us there (no broken seat this time). It was great to be heading to a new city and upon arrival, it certainly started to feel very close to home for me as the Finnish flags and nationals were popping up everywhere. After a rain-soaked walk we found the Monk's Bunk Hostel on the edge of the Old Town. Jasper, one of the hostel staff, gave us some advice on the best eateries and drinking holes of the city and also mentioned that their sister hostel, Tallinn Backpackers, had a happy hour between 19:00 and 21:00 where it was just 1€ for a beer. The two hostels worked in conjunction with one and other; the Bunk was the sleepy hostel, the Backpackers was the party hostel, so we had the best of both worlds as they were only a five minute walk apart. After finding yet another Christmas market (really lovely one this time), we took a step back to the 15th century in the Krug Inn, a medieval tavern in the heart of the old town. Lit only by candles and serving elk soup & pasties for one piece of gold each (1€), they also had a choice of light or dark beer for two pieces of gold (you do the maths!). We lined our bellies and three of us headed for a few cheap beers at the Backpackers to make the most of what Tallinn is famous for, because in the words of Frank Gallagher, they know how to throw a parrtyyyyyy....

Sandwiched in between the two nights of good times and drinking mayhem, we had our whistle-stop tour of the sights, a method we developed and mastered whilst in Riga. This consists of pointing to the most attractive & famous sights on a city map and Shaun navigating the best possible route to incorporate them all (I'm useless with directions). After locating and capturing a few artsy-fartsy photos, we'd head onto the next sight. This is a highly recommended technique to see any city and leaves more time for investigating what is most important - the local drinking cultures.

It has to be said that after the first night at the sister hostel, our intentions were to return on the second night only to utilise the book-swap for Shaun (now on book number 6) and maybe stay for one or two beers, as I had promised to go on their daily pub-crawl the previous eve but Shaun tactfully tricked me back to our hostel in order to save my head for the morning. As can be expected, our good intentions didn't materialise and yet another night of fantastic drinking games and frolics ensued. For those curious about the games - wait until we get back to England as we have written the rules down and be warned - there are no winners!

Much love goes out to Liam, Tom, Jasper and the rest of them at the Tallinn Backpackers, along with Martin from dat London, Jorge from Colombia, Tess from Australia, Al & Tim from the States, not forgetting the hoards of other nationals who participated in the drinking games and made our stay unforgettable. Our final night ended in a Finnish Karaoke bar with Shaun singing his classic piece - Don McLean's American Pie. He had the Tallinn crowds in the palm of his hand, it was epic.

The day after we headed to the harbour with suprisingly clear heads to board a ferry to Helsinki. It was comforting to be heading to familiar terrain and yet we felt rather saddened in knowing that our first leg of the journey, Europe (continental at least) was over. The last two and a bit weeks had gone so quickly, yet so much had happened. We had really grown accustomed to the travelling lifestyle, moving on from one city to another after just a couple of days and never totally being in your comfort zone. No sooner had we really found our bearings, we'd be on our way to the next checkpoint. We feel like we compliment each other as travelling companions and there generally seems to be a silent agreement as to what our roles are in taking on the daily routines and handling the unexpected. It would have been nice to have spent more time in Europe, especially in places like Czech Republic and Poland where your money really does go further, but we're really looking forward to spending time with my family and friends before the simplicities of Europe are replaced with the challenges of Siberia and beyond.