4th of July, Sunday:

- Well finally I'm getting a bit more anxious of actually hitting the road and heading to Krakow with my fiancé. Can't really wait to see the few cities where we will be staying, Vilnius and Krakow a bit more closely. Old towns both and should contain enough interesting places to see, I hope...

- Annoyingly the Greece - Portugal soccer match is still 0 -0 during the half-time and I really should be going to bed, in order to get up tomorrow morning. The weather I think at least tomorrow will be good enough and hopefully it wont rain two weeks in a row, as that can make things a bit more rougher for us. Everything is now checked several times, that we haven't forgotten anything, but still I do wonder how our trip is actually going to go?

- Anyways, time to go to bed, good night!

Addition:

- Greece won the match! Can't believe it! And now to bed, at least I get to sleep five hours, before we need to go...

5th of July, Monday:

- The journey from Helsinki to Tallinn went fairly well, even though the catamaran really sucks! Your like a herring in a can there, it's so full of people, with most of them already in the morning, enjoying their daily dose of alcohol. Also, our journey had lasted about five minutes, when I managed to break the waist strap from the backpack. Sounds to me, like a great beginning for this trip.

- Now we're just hanging out in Tallinn, as there's still six hours before our bus leaves to Vilnius. Few moments ago there was a funny incident, as a drunken Estonian man came to talk with us and I happen to  mishear him. The conversation in Finnish went something like this:

The Drunken man: So my friend...are you faithful (uskollinen)

Yours truly: Well, no not really...

 The Drunken man: *laughs* (With my fiancé staring at me)

- The thing is, that I misheard him saying uskonnollinen (religious). In English this conversation isn't funny at all and you cannot mishear those two English words, but if you look at the Finnish words, they are very similar...at least to me...

- So far it has been a very hot day, with few dark clouds in the distance. I certainly don't wish rain, but it really wouldn't need to be as hot as in Osmussaar last year...we'll be dead before we reach Krakow, if it's really hot.

- The bus to Vilnius left on time and we managed to grab ourselves the front seats from the second floor...even when actually our seat numbers weren't those. There's a really huge number of abandoned places outside of Tallinn! A real paradise...

- Midnight: We're in Pärnu and I had even fallen a sleep in this rough ride! I quickly went outside to smoke and tried again ask about the schedule from the driver, who's only vocabulary is Da, Da, to every question or comment you have.

6th of July, Tuesday:

- For the love of God, is anybody able to sleep on this bus, raise your hands!

- It's now about 1:00am and we're at the border of Latvia and Estonia, been there about fifteen minutes as this now takes a bit more time, because there's Russians traveling with us and their passports needs to be checked a bit more thoroughly...for some reason...

- Holy shit! I'm starting to crack here, as it's impossible to sleep on this bus. They're advertising the Via Baltica as a nice road to get to Europe, but hell, this isn't no road, this is a cartway. Few kilometers of asphalt road and then ten kilometers of sand road, which makes your head bouncing back and forth to the window. Well, Miina my fiancé at least appears to be sleeping.

- Miina seems to be the only one sleeping, as every time this bus makes a short stop, everybody quickly rushes outside to smoke. It's now 3:15am and we're in Riga. The Scottish business man who sat behind us and had taken a bus from Tallinn to Riga, in order to get a cheaper flight from there, was left standing to the dark and empty bus station. I'm not envy to him at all...

- Latvia seems like a very strange country. The traffic lights are constantly on and it really creates a funny situation, when the bus is standing in the middle of nowhere, in red lights. Then the light turns green and we continue the journey, even when there's not another soul around. Also the public transportation seems to be working even during the night, as suddenly, from one bush, a tram appeared in front of the bus. The expression on peoples faces is something unforgettable, as it felt a bit surreal, to say the least...

- 3:40am and we're closing Bauska, from which the border of Lithuania and Latvia isn't far away.

- 4:30am, the border, which again takes time due to the need to check the Russian passports closely. It's funny how the border guard checked Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian passports quite thoroughly, but our Finnish passports were give back almost immediately. Guess there's nothing interesting coming from Finland ever...

- 7:40am and Vilnius can be seen in the distance. God that I'm tired. I've fallen a sleep only few minutes at a time, as the road hasn't really gotten any better since we were in Estonia. The weather looks a bit rainy and misty.

- Well the fatigue certainly disappeared, when I got several interesting locations in my sight, when we were walking in Vilnius. Few abandoned and badly damaged houses were recorded to the camera, as well as the Higher Castle dating from 13th century and a real gem: The Church Of Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, which was used as a field hospital by Napoleon!

- Now we are again just waiting and hanging around in Vilnius as there's still several hours before the bus leaves. We have also engaged into a several conversations with the local people, even when we don't speak Lithuanian or Russian and the local people don't speak English almost at all and certainly no Finnish.

- I was especially touched by the conversation with an old drunken Russian man from Kaliningrad. He spoke only Russian, but despite of that we managed to talk quite a bit. When he learned that we are from Finland, he started repeating the names of Mannerheim and Zhukov. He also repeated the name Taipale several times, while pounding on his chest and crying. Taipale is one of the battlefields of winter war, so I gather that he must have fought there. Also the fact that I mentioned Zhukov and Berlin in a same context made him cry. While we started to leave he said do svidaniya in which I of course replied in a similar way. He seemed a bit surprised, that I knew the common Russian expression.

- The bus to Krakow finally left from Vilnius around 5:00pm. We seem to be traveling with a zoo. Meaning a group of youth from Lithuania who seem to be making a lot of noise while drinking constantly. Seems like there wont be any sleep during the next night either.

- Crossing the border between Lithuania and Poland around 8:30pm goes quickly this time, because there's not any Russians on the bus, only the Vilnius zoo...

- We've been about an hour in Poland when our bus driver manages to drive 100km/h in an area where the speed limit is 40km/h and of course we get pulled off from the road by the Polish police. The second driver takes up the job of getting this bus at least to Krakow.

- The Vilnius zoo seems to be still making a lot of noise and the second driver certainly isn't driving any slower than the first one. These two drivers seems to be absolutely crazy I say, passing even two trucks at the same time, on a narrow road with other trucks and smaller vehicles driving towards the opposite direction. I don't know about them, but I certainly would still like to live a few moments, rather than to die on this narrow Polish road.

- I guess the Kautra bus company could advertise them with a slogan: "Kautra, Come And Fly With Us!"

7th of July, Wednesday:

- 12:30am, cigarette pause with the zoo...

- 4:15am, I can't believe this...only few hours to go before Krakow can be seen in the distance and the second driver manages to take also a ticket from speeding...unbelievable!

- 6:30am and we're standing in a completely strange city, with almost six hours to go before we can check in to our apartment. We head to the old city to get some breakfast. Lot of old and beautiful buildings around, the city does seem a bit gloomy, when you know it's history. 

- Few observations from Krakow: There's not a many people around who speak even few words of English and I get the impression that it seems to be a some kind of Polish national habit to sponge cigarettes, because we've been here now about three hours and we've been asked cigarettes for six times! These are not hobo looking people either, just ordinary people...

- 12:00pm we check into our apartment. It seems decent enough, with a shower, a fridge, TV and a cooking plate, everything we need actually. Also for free of charge, there's a computer with a internet connection available for our use. 

- Time to eat again and we end up into an Italian restaurant that has some odd erotic paintings on the wall, which remains me a bit of the movie Edward Scissorhands...the food is however very good.

- Looking at the map, there seems to be four to five fortifications in Krakow and we head for to the closest one. Fort Kleparz has some companies working inside of it, but the nice security guard let's us inside the yard, when I babble something about photographing and point the Fort, while swinging my camera in the air. Damn that I don't know anything about the history of these Forts. Somehow they are connected to Austro-Hungary, but this part of history is shrouded in mystery for me...

- The thing that really catches my eye even during this first day, is that racism and neo-nazism seems to be live and doing well in Krakow, as you cannot walk too many meters, when you again bump into tag's that has the white power cross painted along with the text. Even when I don't know Polish, the white power cross doesn't leave too much place for imagination.

- The darkness covers the city quickly around 9:00pm and there's been a lot of events even during the first day. I somehow think, that the Eagle Nest castles we will need to left to be explored on some other occasion, as the city itself keeps a lot of interesting stuff to see, something which I didn't realize while planning this trip.

Addition:

- The cigarette sponging goes on through out the day and it really doesn't matter if you smoke or not...

8th of July, Thursday:

- In few minutes, we'll be heading to KL Auschwitz I. I wonder how it will be like...I've read a lot about the Holocaust, but actually seeing the place...

- 7:00pm, the trip to KL Auschwitz I took the whole day, even when the official brochure claims that you can see the camp in one and a half hours! Well, we were in KL Auschwitz I for seven hours and still we didn't see everything and didn't have the time to read everything. 

- The main feeling left from the concentration camp is a feeling of clinical place or somehow too clean, beautiful and "Disneyland" type of place. I mean it's just disgusting and sick how families are posing for the camera in front of a gas chamber, barbed wire fences etc. Even a group of nuns were posing in front of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate, while one of the nuns took a picture...all of them were smiling...

- It just really feels like a "Disneyland Death" for most of the people. Also the poor English used in the museum signs created a situations where we didn't know should we laugh or cry? I mean I don't know how other people feel like reading a sign, telling the atrocities committed against Polish civilians in a...conservation camp...

- It probably would have not been that hard to get some English speaking people to proof read the signs?

- First few hours went walking along the buildings in astonished state of mind. I actually even forgot to take pictures during the first few hours, but it's strange how quickly the human mind adjusts itself to a shocking or otherwise strange situation, because after a few hours, the place started to feel ok. I mean you started to relax and feel ok inside the camp...

- Tomorrow, we'll visit KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

9th of July, Friday:

- 8:00am and we're on our way to KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau. The weather even during the early morning hours is very hot. There's also some dark clouds in the distance, it looks like it will be a real thunder today, judging from the clouds.

- 8:00pm and we are back at our apartment. I must say that my head is completely empty after spending two days in a concentration camps. My mind just refuses to understand these places, even when I would like to understand. KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau especially is such a huge place, that one cannot even start to understand or grasp the idea behind the place. It's just too huge...

- The air inside the barracks was suffocating, even when there wasn't no other people inside, besides us. You don't really need to imagine how hellish it must have been to "live" there, when the barracks have been full of dirty and sick people. Beside one of the barracks, there was also bones that Miina found. I have no idea if those really are human bones, as you would think that every bone that has been found from the place, has been buried decently. But then again, if you start to think how many people were murdered there...

- In one of the barracks, in the room where there was the washing facilities, installed quite late during the camp history, a lonely frog was sitting in the floor and staring at the wall. It was a strange incident, especially when we found even more frogs from some of the barracks and from the ponds, that are full of human ash...

- Part of the difficulty of understanding the place, is the other tourists that are around and the "Disneyland" type of atmosphere that surrounds the place now, like stated in the journal entry from 8th of July. Also I cannot understand and I don't even want to understand the people who are destroying the barracks and paintings made by the prisoners, by scratching their names on them! For the love of God people, think, even if it would be your first time...

- To me and Miina, even photographing and smoking one cigarette inside the camp area didn't felt right. Even just being there, on a cemetery of millions of people didn't feel right! We should have not been there...walking around...

- Additionally parents are bringing small children to the camp area, even when the museum is recommending that no children under twelve should be brought to the camp. I can just imagine what kind of nightmares they must be seeing, especially from the pictures shown in the KL Auschwitz I. 

- Also, I don't think that the place needs some huge and fancy memorials, like the one build close to the ruins of the crematoriums and gas chambers, the place already is a one huge memorial.

- The museum staff also seems a bit indifferent, as I wanted to know if there's anything left to be seen from KL Auschwitz III - Monowitz, even if it's just a memorial. The first staff member from whom I asked about this said that no, which to me sounded strange that there isn't even a memorial for the victims, so I decided to ask about KL Auschwitz III - Monowitz from another staff member who said that yes there is. I don't know, perhaps the indifferent attitude is because of the poor English skill?

Addition:

- Well it didn't rain and no thunder, but the sun shined warmly throughout the day and I burned my skin nicely as did Miina also.

10th of July, Saturday:

- Today we are just resting and we wont be going anywhere too far away. Also the thunder, that I thought that would be upon us during our visit to KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau, started last night. However, now in the morning, the weather seems to be fine and the sun is shining from a clear sky. 

- 9:00pm, we checked today one of the old Austro-Hungarian forts, the Fort Luneta Warszawska. These are some massive fortifications, too bad that these are not really abandoned in the strict sense of the word. This one also had some companies inside of it and we were again let to the yard by a friendly security guard, after I showed my camera and pointed to the fort. The backside of the fort is covered by bushes and trees, definitely not a tourist attraction, as I have a hard time of imagining a group of tourists walking among excrements...

- The funny thing is, that in Finland these forts would have been preserved a long time ago and no companies would be inside of these and the forest that's now taking over the fortification, would be kept in minimum, as it's partially destroying the walls.

- Rest of the day we spent eating and buying the mandatory postcards to be sent to home. We also visited the cemetery of Rakowicki. Huge place, with some very old graves around!

- Tomorrow we'll most likely head to the Bochnia Mine. We still have not decided if we'll visit Wieliczka Mine as it costs quite a much and even when we really are not lacking money, it still don't feel "right" to start paying to see historical locations, especially when photographing costs extra. The situation is similar as it was in Vilnius, where we refused to pay to get to the tower. I mean paying just to get to see a nice view over the city didn't really seem like a worth while. I do believe that historical locations should be open for everybody, no matter if you have the money or not. Of course maintaining those places does cost, but turning them into a tourist traps, seems like a waste to me. 

11th of July, Sunday:

- 200 meters below the ground level, is where the Bochnia Mine is located. It was an interesting experience to lower down into the mine by an old lift, that some ten years ago was still carrying the miners. Also our great city guide seems to be printed God knows how many years ago, as it again gave false information about prices and opening hours. The city guide also failed to mention that you need to walk there with a group and a guide. The result of this was, that during our two hour visit to the mine, we listened the guide speaking Polish throughout the tour. Thankfully there was a Polish man with his family, who spoke excellent English and he translated the tour for us. We thank you very much, if you happen to read this!

- While heading back to Krakow, we took a train as it seemed a bit too lavish to take a taxi again, like we did in Krakow, when we didn't have the patience to wait the train for few hours. Funny thing about taxis is, that even if you have a map with you and you show the location where you want to go, the result is a market meeting where the taxi driver in question invites other taxi drivers and even nearby people who just happen to walk by. After this some very loud and excited conversation takes place, where the group of people is trying to figure out, I assume, where that street is located, the taxi starts it's engine. This kind of meeting, can take anywhere from few minutes to even five to ten minutes, depending how far the place in question is located from the city center. 

- The weather has been excellent during our visit and even when most of the people don't speak English nearly at all, we have managed to speak with the local people using a combination of English-Polish-German-Finnish-French-Swedish & Russian words.

- Tomorrow, we'll tour and explore again a bit more gloomier subject: The Schindler's Krakow

12th of July, Monday:

- We've seen half of the Schindler's Krakow now and my mind is again empty, like it was after spending two days in the concentration camps. My feet are swollen and sore too, as we've walked a lot, thanks to the great instructions by the printed Polish city guide!

- Both me and Miina, were really touched by the Plaszow concentration camp. Even when it's just a meadow now, with few memorials here and there, it still is a lot more touching place than KL Auschwitz I & KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau. There's no tourists around, no commercial stuff and the local people are taking their dogs for a walk in the meadow. The silence that surrounds the meadow is something that you need to experience yourself, it cannot be describe by words or by photographs.  

- We met a group of American, Israeli and Turkish volunteers who were digging up a Jewish cemetery in the area of Plaszow concentration camp, which was destroyed by the Nazis. While we were talking with them, I started to look around and realized, that I already was standing on top of one grave...the field was full of small mounds, underneath of every mound, there is gravestones, destroyed...

- According to the American man, there is only a very small chance of actually identify who is lying in the grave, as the headstones are destroyed completely, with only one piece from a headstone uncovered so far, that has a name on it.

- Again the feeling, that it's not even appropriate to be there overwhelmed us, as we finally started to walk away from the cemetery, trying consciously to avoid stepping on top of the mounds.

- Tomorrow we will explore rest of the Schindler's Krakow and head to Plaszow a second time to explore the old German air cover tunnels thoroughly, as today I wasn't carrying our flashlights with us. Also, we'll check if it's possible to lower down safely into the quarry itself, where prisoners worked. The quarry itself holds some old and abandoned excavation equipment and buildings and I really would like to see those more closely.

- More and more abandoned places seems to be popping up constantly, but also the time and energy is running out. I mean walking the whole day and photographing, is a real work and not a holiday.

- This really is a strange city, as always during the evening, it starts to rain, but never during the day.

- God that my feet are hurting...

13th of July, Tuesday:

- Rest of the Schindler's Krakow explored today: The Pharmacy Under The Eagles, Remuh Synagogue & Cemetery and the remaining part of the Ghetto Wall. The Remuh Synagogue was a "funny" place, as of course being in a Synagogue, I had to wear the kipa, for the first time actually.

- We also returned to Plaszow and explored the German air cover tunnels, which for some reason, are not mentioned in any official brochures or even in internet. The tunnel system wasn't that large with only the main tunnel going through the rock, with one large room on the right side of the tunnel. Additionally, there was a second tunnel, emergency exit most likely, starting from the left side of the main tunnel, shortly after we had entered the place. The floor in the room was covered with water and the air was quite chilly. When going towards the exit, the air turned warm and suffocating like in Viapori and it also smelled "sweet". While we were heading towards the exit, somewhere in the distance we started to hear the familiar words, that have been heard so many times during this summer: ...This love has taken it's toll on me, She said goodbye, Too many times before...

- Felt a bit strange yes...

- We also managed to lower down into the quarry while struggling through the bushes, in order to avoid the working company in the entry to the quarry. The bottom of the quarry consists an abandoned movie set from the Steven Spielberg movie: Schindler's List (1993). 

- There's still fences in the bottom, a place where the Plaszow camp was build for the movie, even when it originally was not located in the quarry. Also, for some reason and for our astonishment, Spielberg has left the copies of Jewish gravestones lying on the ground...not appropriate memorial I think...

- We were also able to explore the abandoned excavation equipment and buildings closely. Those most likely are not build for the movie and I doubt that they would have been in use during the time when Plaszow concentration camp existed, otherwise those would have been mentioned in some books? Although the fact, that those are completely rusted and the buildings definitely have seen better days, would indicate that those have been abandoned a long time ago.

- Going back we couldn't get a taxi from anywhere. I called to some taxi number, given to us by a Polish woman in the Plaszow railway station, but while calling to that number, they of course didn't understand a word I said...well yes Krakow was understood, but then they thought that I was ordering a taxi to Plaza...

- After that we hopped into a tram and created even more confusion, as I had no idea where to buy the ticket, apparently not from the driver, so we traveled in the tram without a ticket, wishing that there wont be no ticket control...

- Tomorrow, we'll go to the Silesian House and check the abandoned "skyscraper" that rules the whole Krakow skyline.

- Now in the evening, it again starts to rain, as it has done nearly every evening since we arrived. 

14th of July, Wednesday:

- It's a bit bleak weather and it was raining around 7:00am, when I got up. However the rain has now ceased, but still the weather doesn't look too good.

- 7:00pm, the abandoned "skyscraper" was left for tomorrow as after the Silesian House, we headed to the Kopiec Kosciuszki, which was a magnificent place! The view from the top of the mound was absolutely great. Miina however didn't like at all climbing to the top, as the mound isn't protected by any fences and the fall down to the ground is quite long. The mound is also covered by a fortification, build by the Austro-Hungarians and in structure, is a similar to the fortifications that we have already explored. This place has now been turned into a tourist attraction, but while being there today, there was only few tourists around.

- The Silesian House was again part of the gloomy history of Krakow. Used by the Gestapo as an interrogation prison, the cells contain authentic writings and paintings, scratched there by the prisoners with either their bare hands or by a piece of bread...

- The museum official was constantly with us in the cells, in order to supervise that no one damages the writings and paintings. I wish they would take a similar care of the authentic paintings and writings in the KL Auschwitz II - Birkenau.

- A person is a beast to another person (Ihminen on ihmiselle peto), was left by us to the visitors' book.

- Tomorrow yet another Austro-Hungarian fort and finally the abandoned "skyscraper" that I've been looking for so long in the skyline. 

- After that, we need to start to prepare for the trip to home, following a similar route, as we took while coming here.

- It also has gotten a bit colder here, so no need of t-shirts anymore...

15th of July, Thursday:

- We need to find the Eurolines office today, in order to find out where our bus to home leaves. I'm sure we'll find the office, but will we find anybody who can speak English is a different matter...

- Annoyingly the last Austro-Hungarian fort to be explored, Fort Bronowice, was located inside a Polish military area. We walked around the place, without finding a place where the fort wouldn't be so clearly inside the military area, or a place where I could get a few decent pictures from the fort, without being too worried about the tens of "No Photographing" signs around...

- Didn't find a suitable place and I certainly don't want to be caught in a foreign country, trespassing in a military area...carrying two cameras, GPS and a memory card reader...

- Also the exploration to the abandoned "skyscraper" was only half succesful, as there was some men working in the yard. We went talking with them and the disappointment of not getting inside the building vanished due to the interesting conversation I had with one of the older man. The conversation was mainly in Polish, but he knew about the building and it's not a skyscraper, but a half build hotel. Most likely the construction has started during the last years of the communist regime and when that system collapsed, also the money ran out and the hotel was never finished. He really didn't have any objections of us entering the building, just said that "Polizei Nein". However, after he had in different gestures and words described the dangers inside the building, I decided to leave it alone. An English word baby and a hole he drew to the ground, didn't leave much place to imagination. Also the way he showed the building to be unstable was very clear. 

- Exploring this partly build hotel, would require a lot more time than we currently have. Of course we could rush to the place during the next night, but exploring in a hurry a place like that, wont result anything good...

- I photographed the remaining parts of the walls and towers that once surrounded the whole Krakow. I'm starting to think that my hobby will take another direction after getting home. It's just doesn't feel like a worth while to explore some houses or factories...there's no "real" history in those, or at least not a history from which I'm interested. Even if the walls and towers around Krakow are a tourist attractions, they keep inside a lot more history, than any factory or a house can keep inside.

- Tomorrow, home!

Addition:

- We found the Eurolines office and even a person who was able to instruct to us, where the bus will leave tomorrow.

16th of July, Friday:

- Just hanging around in our apartment and reading the few books we bought from KL Auschwitz I. We packed already yesterday, so that there's no panic today. The only panic that I'm feeling, is the fact that I have no way of knowing whether the pictures that I've stored to the memory card reader are there or not? Well if not, I've still taken nearly five rolls of B&W pictures.

- 5:00pm, sitting in a park and reading. We checked out from our apartment around 2:00pm and went eating. There's still five hours before our bus leaves. 

10:30pm, the "Kautra Come And Fly With Us!" bus left on time. Shortly before the bus arrived, it started to rain really heavily and the sky turned really black. It always rains in Krakow during the evening...

- We were a bit nervous if the bus really leaves from the place where we were instructed to go, as there was no signs there to indicate any kind of bus station.

- We also had a bit difficulties of getting adjacent seats, even when we had bought our tickets in advance, over two months ago! Thankfully, one Italian man agreed to change his place and we ended up sitting together.

- This bus really has an international feeling, with people from Italy, Germany, Estonia and even one Canadian has found his way to the bus. Typical conversation here goes something like this: "Was ist los?" "No problems at all" "Da?"

17th of July, Saturday:

- These God damn bus drivers are absolutely mad! They are again passing by several trucks on a small road and even few times passing by to uphill, so that you cannot even see the opposite side of the hill, whether there's another truck coming or not?

- Also, the road is full of trucks from Bialystok to the border, so the point of passing every truck that there is, is quite pointless. Yeah, we might be like ten minutes before the trucks to the border and the benefit is, that the trucks will pass us on the border and these maniacs need to start their routine all over again, to pass by every vehicle in sight.

- Not much sleep during this night either, even when the bus is very silent and the Vilnius zoo thankfully isn't here. Still the road is so bumpy that I cannot sleep...

8:30pm, we've been hanging around the whole day in Vilnius and tried to visit The Church Of Assumption Of The Blessed Virgin Mary again, but this time there was no way in, as the doors were closed tightly. I guess we were really lucky last time, to be able to visit the decayed interiors.

- We've been trying to spend our money away, by eating and drinking a lot. Also the last Polish zlotys we changed to Estonian crowns to live a few moments longer in a lavish style, when we reach Tallinn. Around this time tomorrow, we'll be home, eating dry bread and noodles.

- Also a great entertainment in Vilnius bus station, is to feed the numerous birds...

22:30pm, the bus left a bit behind the schedule, as packing the bags takes a lot of time.

- We decided to try the "trick" we had seen the Estonian couple using last night, in order to sleep a bit better.

- Meaning that one person lowers down to the leg-room (meaning the male person) and sleeps there, while the other person (female) can have the whole two seats for her.

18th of July, Sunday:

- In one hour we'll be in Tallinn and the adventure is pretty much over. Hopefully we will be able to switch our tickets to a bit earlier ship, as originally we bought tickets to the 4:00pm ship and the bus will be in Tallinn already in 8:00am. Otherwise the night went really great and I was able to sleep a lot, only smoking a few cigarettes during the longer stops in Riga and in the borders. 

- The sleep arrangements we saw the Estonian couple using, really works! During the three other night trips on this bus, I haven't slept us much as I have now slept. Of course, you cannot use this "trick" if you're really big, but it worked for me.

- To that Estonian couple, I'll buy a beers if I ever again run into them, or if they recognize themselves from this journal. I just wish we would have understood to try this kind of arrangement from the beginning.

- 9:00am, no luck of changing the tickets to an earlier ship, as the ship leaving 4:00pm is the only one leaving today...

3:00pm, still hour to go before the ship leaves and the last forty kilometers are ahead of us. As there was still time, I photographed few abandoned buildings in Tallinn. Most likely a warehouse and a granary of some sort.

- 9:00pm, home at last...

Epilogue

- After getting home, we immediately in the Monday evening rented the DVD Schindler's List, in order to see the places in a movie, where we just had been. Also now, after seeing Krakow and the places and camps with our own eyes, we thought it would be much more interesting to watch the movie again. Silently we watched to movie, still remembering the pictures from KL Auschwitz I and the atmosphere in the meadow of Plaszow concentration camp.

- Few interesting notes from the movie is, that those abandoned excavation equipment and buildings that we explored 13th of July, can be seen in the movie quite clearly. Especially the end scene where Amon Goethe is being hanged, shows the place clearly. I still however, hold my opinion that those buildings are not from the war time, or from the time when the camp existed, but most likely Spielberg decided to let them be in the movie, as they fit to the background very well. If you watch the movie, you'll understand what I mean.

- It did felt a bit strange to watch the places where we visited, from the TV screen. Also the fact that the camp was not located in the quarry, was a bit disturbing, but still, looking at the tree on the side of the quarry, where we sat just few days ago, looking down to the quarry, brought back some longing memories and a wish to one day...visit the place again...