[Sunny] St. Petersburg, Russia - It's sultry here in Sunny St. Petersburg. There isn't much humidity, so it's not too bad. Had some good salads since I've been here, an eggplant and carrot salad, a spicy carrot salad, a tuna a peppar salad (filled with vegetable oil and then refrigerated - that one wasn't so nice). I also tried the local veggies at the store, I got so excited that one store took my visa card that I bought about $15 worth of veggies. It felt nice ...

St. Petersburg, Russia - Had quite a scare with the bank. A wonderful grad student picked me up from the bus (Tallinn- St. Petersburg). Luckily, the busy was safe (no seatbelts) and clean and healthy. The good news - there was a one hour change (ahead), which made the bus trip only 7 hours. The bad news - the child who sat next to me had some sort of whooping cough. The poor kid coughed every minute, on the minute, for 2 hours. And the border patrol made every si...

Tallinn, Estonia - things are happening quite quick at the moment! Got into town around 04.45 and a little tired and queazy, but made it to the hostel where I slept on the kitchen sofa... yeah the kitchen sofa. Its a bit like camping, but with better hair and white pants. My kinda camping =) Currently, Im sitting down for a moment at the National Library of Estonia, where there was just a very boisterous choir outside apparently singing Estonian national son...

Riga, Latvia - Everything is going quite well here! I went on a visit to Jurmala, a 4-mile stretch of white sandy beaches and murky, warm water (but it was really nice). Surrounding the beach were many trees (almost a forest), and millions of killer ants (or at least they seemed like it... I swear I felt a few bites on bare feet!). After that I did a little stocking shopping because the stockings are beautiful and relatively cheap here. The day I arrived, I...

Riga, Lith. - I just arrived from Vilnius to lovely, sunny Riga. Already, the town seems small, quaint, and relatively cheap, although the Latvian Lat is as strong as the pound. If the food is as good as Lithuanian food I'm in for a treat! After my last journal entry, I went to Trakai in Lithuania. There was a beautiful, sandy red castle surrounded by a small lake that numerous people canoed and paddle-boated in. Had a small picnic and went thrift shopping,...