My long awaited return to Sweden came round in January 2015 and this time I’d be spending a couple of weeks in the country, starting off in Stockholm, the capital city and heading overland through Malmo, Angelholm and Gothenberg into Norway. With a mandatory dip back into Denmark too to check out Helsingor, Copenhagen and…
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My Baltic overland journey continued north of Riga, as I headed to Estonia for the first time. I decided to get a direct bus from Riga all the way to Tallinn and base myself in Tallinn for a few days before exploring other parts of Estonia and heading to Finland. I stayed in the Hotel…
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While backpacking in Lithuania I decided to concentrate on just seeing five main places in my week in the country – Kaunas, Vilnius, Uzupis, Kryziu Kalnas and Siauliai. Kryziu Kalnas is known in English as the Hill of Crosses and is a stunning place in the middle of Lithuanian countryside about 12 kilometres outside the town of…
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After catching up with my friends in the town of Jarvenpaa, I headed back to Helsinki by train and decided to book into the coolest backpackers hostel in the city – Eurohostel. Why is it the coolest? Because it’s the hottest! It comes with a free sauna every morning, for those up early enough. So…
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You have to admire the Scottish even if you don’t love them. They have quirky off the wall stuff that will only ever be relevant in Scotland. OK, and occassionally the Northern Irish will dig them too. One such delicacy on the Friday’s Featured Food corner is the deep fried Mars Bar! I’d already toured…
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I based myself in Tallinn and Parnu in Estonia before heading north on the ferry to Finland. I got my fix of backpacking and hosteling from the wonderful Euphoria Hostel and then I decided on my own room for a night so I could get some closed eye and some work done. I looked no…
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After loving Lithuania and ahem passing through Latvia, I found myself in Estonia for the first time in January 2015. I first headed to the capital city Tallinn and I spent my first three nights in the best hostel in town – quirky, vibrant, happy and youthful, the Euphoria Hostel is the place to stay…
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Believe it or not, this journey was my first ever land border crossing in the Baltics. I had crossed other ex-Soviet nations by land of course (Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, Georgia and Azerbaijan) but having explored Lithuania, it was time to head north into Latvia, where I had previously been back in 2007. My final stop…
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My return to Latvia demanded a decent hotel. You might have read that first time around I didn’t warm to the Latvian capital city of Riga. That time I also stayed a wee bit outside the old town. So this time, I knew I’d be arriving by bus from Siauliai in Lithuania so I wanted…
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This edition of World Borders is slightly wacky and different from the usual suspects. The reason is I crossed into the self declared arty Republic of Uzupis whilst remaining all the time within the same city, Vilnius housed in the country of Lithuania. The Republic of Uzupis has been in existence since 1998. It has…
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