I wanted to cross from San Petersburg to Helsinki, from the East to the West which is always harder than the other way around. I felt discriminated from the very beginning in San Petersburg when I wanted to book a bus ticket to Helsinki, Finland - a country of a Santa Claus. I couldn't get the reservation done online and I needed to contact an operator who told me that Serbian passengers are a subject of a thorough checkup what keeps the busses for a long time on the border. Shortly, the agency doesn't accept Serbian citizens for a passengers. It sounded like: "Pets are not aloud on board!!! There was, fortunately, one more agency Lux Express which didn't have such a discriminative rules. It turned out to be better that way because Lux Express accepts Serbs plus offers a very comfortable bus with movies and music on board. From that moment, Lux Express would take me down Eastern Europe whenever it was possible.
On the doorstep of Finland, I showed one of the passports I have. Officer asked me if I had another one and I showed him Serbian passport. I was told to wait for a while until they were checking both of my passports. I was waiting half an hour in the office full of mosquitos. The immigration point is in the middle of the forrest and my flesh was a feast for the bloodsuckers. The operator from descriminative agency crossed my mind because I was holding the bus. Maybe, from now on, Serbian passengers can't travel from S. Petersburg to Helsinki with Lux Express either.
When I arrived in Finland, everything was just fine. Actually, this country can change a name into FinEland. Nothing much happens. Everything is working and everybody exactly knows where they are going to. Only I didn't know where to go. I was walking for a while, got some pictures of the city and soon it was a time to embark on the ship. I appeared two hours before the embarkation and I still missed the ferry to Estonia, because I took the wrong entrance. My money was refunded but I had to buy more expansive ticket, double of a price I had paid.
I crossed the Baltic Sea by ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Even if it was a night trip, I could see clearly the line between a dark blue color of the sea and a very light blue color of the sky. As the boat approached the cost of Estonia, after midnight, the sea and the sky got exactly the same color. In this part of the world, days seem to be like a hyperactive children resisting to fall a sleep and when eventually eyelids are closed they won't stay sleeping for too long.
All around me were people with a blond hair, pail ten and a blue color of the eyes matching a color of the sea that had brought me here.
The old town of Tallinn gives a nice picture of the medieval period. It was hard to imagine how Vikings managed to get through all the narrow street or passages of a castle with such a heavy equipment made of iron. I could imagine, though, all the area falling down while they were passing through. A helmet with horns is a tourist attraction and I tried it on even if I know that actually these tough guys had never worn such a thing. I looked just like a Viking with a helmet, more scary than pretty. Some woolen wear (sweaters, ponchos, scarfs) displayed in the market area would sooth me much better.
Summer uprising was announced by The International Festival of Visual Arts, flowers, music, beer and cider which all together added some colors into the cold medieval walls.
Lux Express brought me to Riga, the capital of Latvia. My biggest fear, almost a nightmare is this one: I will come to a place, I will not find anything interesting and I will leave with an empty camera. It has never happen so far even if European cities don't really inspire me. This means I should stick to the nature but I'm afraid I'll become something like a yeti spending too much time alone.
List of movies on the bus was more interesting than any city so far. The further I traveled the better it was because I was watching more and more movies. I even enjoyed watching movies that I had already seen. It was a totally new kind of experience. I stayed in Riga only few hours, just as long as it took me to find Lux Express to Lithuania.
I visited three countries in less than 24 hours: Estonia, Letonia and Lithuania which is my record so far.
It was a night when I came to Vilnius, such a strange name for the capital of Lithuania. It was a Friday night, I went to the supermarket and I noticed that all other costumers were buying an alcohol: beer or wine. Instead of alcohol from the supermarket I took a walk around the city. The city was not dirty, but it was not perfectly repaired like other European capitals. I could smell some artistic and vagabond spirit in the air. It is not a surprise why murals are flourishing here. It is one in particular that has shaken the world a little bit - the one with faces of Putin and Tramp exchanging their body juices as a symbol of an Eastern-Weatern political connection, interest and profit. That's why I liked it. There were some wholes of the dark past but with announcements that the future is not too bright, either. If it was, there wouldn't be so many people hanging out with an alcohol... I guess.
My next destination was Belarus, the only one among all these countries that is land locked, therefore it doesn't enjoy a Baltic splashes. Belarus doesn't belong to united system of Europe and there's no Lux Express. I didn't know what to expect from the country which president has been holding his position for more than twenty years. He just doesn't get enough. I was surprised that Minsk looks like a city of the twenty first century until I came to some communication problem because I hadn't met a person who was willing to talk to me in English. I would start a civilized conversation with "hello", word and it was the end of conversation because they would just turn their back to me as if I was contagious. Adele is probably not the most popular singer here, what I totally agree with. Regardless Adel's pathetic song, I thought it would be a polite way to start the conversation. Eastern rules might be different!!!!
-"Hello", I said to the lady at the information desk. "No" , she answered with no hesitation.
"What no?", I asked, " what hello?" she said...
-"Do you have a cold bottle of Schweppes?", I asked a vendor lady at the supermarket. "Ne ponimayu" (I don't understand), she answered showing me with her hand to get lost from the window, turning her back to me and serving another customer. I was so irritated by her act that I told her some very rude words in my language so she could spend some time asking herself what it meant. Not every single person from the rest of the world speaks English but everywhere I go people make an effort to understand and to explain me what I ask even if they need to use simply their hands. Honestly, I would be devastated if I knew that people from my country just blow away the strangers who need any help. Speak Russian so everybody understands you!!! Still, the attempts to communicate was the only action that happened me here.
In the style of socialist's ideology of public possession, streets of Minsk are so wide, basically there are all boulevards alike. I couldn't feel intimate with the city with no passages or hidden streets or corners.
Missing some movie time, I came to Poland where Lux Express operates in a full speed. Poland treated me with a very nice sunrise so it wouldn't be polite from me to spare only a day here. The fog that coverd green surfice looked like some hunted place calling me to reveal what had happened in the past.
Warsaw was completely destroyed city once and now it looks very, very modern with only a small part of the old town reconstructed in the old fashioned style. Maybe, for such a cities, listening about history is more interesting than site seeing and I had my friend Anna Maria to talk about history. I found some restaurant with Ex-Yugoslavian food. The waiter told me the music is also Ex-Yugoslavian. I brought Anna Maria inside to hear the music and she asked me if that was a kind of music that usually truck drivers like to listen when they are on the road. I just nodded.
Getting far from the coast of the Baltic Sea, heading to Krakow, one of the oldest and the most famous city in Poland. I didn't have a map of thecity and my main sign for orientation was a smell of fresh pastry: croissants, pretzels, bread and rolls that was coming from Jewish quarter. Since I came this far, I needed to get ready to face the the history evidence of human suffering that is exposed in Auschwitz. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the birds were singing. None of this was possible to hear or to see in the past except huge gray cloud that used to cover this small village. Even if I saw in person the roads made of human ash I still can't understand what humans are able to do to each other. Ghost of the past that will always follow humankind.
After some turbulent period of time, It seems that Europe has decided to retire. But I didn't. I still have some errands to run!!!
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