In July I returned from an 8 week trip to the Caucasus and Eastern/Central Europe. I started the trip by flying into Baku, Azerbaijan. From there I went south to Qobustan and north to Sumqayit and around the Abseron peninsula. From Baku I took an overnight train to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. In Georgia I went to Mtskheta, Gori and Kazbegi, then went south across the Armenian border to Alaverdi. There I visited the Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries and continued to the capital Yerevan. I spent a few days in and around Yerevan going to Echmiadzin, Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery. Since the borders between Armenia and Turkey are closed, I took an overnight train back to Tbilisi (18.5 hours), ran across the city in 45 minutes to catch a bus to Istanbul (27.5 hours).

In Istanbul I met a friend of mine (Klaus), and we spent a few days in the city before taking the overnight Bucharest train and getting off in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria on the way. We spent a few days there and went to Varna on the Black sea coast. From there we took a bus to Ruse on the Romanian border and another one to Bucharest. Klaus flew back home from Bucharest and I took an overnight train to Sofia (Bulgaria), spent some time there and continued to Skopje (Macedonia). From Macedonia I went to Prishtina in Kosovo, then came back to Skopje and continued to Ohrid. From Ohrid I crossed the Albanian border on foot, and continued to Tirana. After Tirana I took a bus to Shkodra and crossed the border into Montenegro and went to Bar. From there I went to Kotor by bus, then to Dubrovnik in Croatia. From Dubrovnik I went to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then to Sarajevo. From Sarajevo I took a bus to Belgrade in Serbia, then an overnight train to Zagreb in Croatia. From Zagreb I took a day trip to Plitvice Lake National Park, then continued to Ljubljana in Slovenia. From there I went to Vienna for a few days to visit Klaus, then took an overnight train to Poland to meet Aggie.

After spending a few days in Poland, we took an overnight bus to Vilnius in Lithuania. There we went to Trakai and Siauliai before going to Riga in Latvia. From Riga we went to Tallinn in Estonia and spent a couple of days with another friend of mine (Arvo). From Tallinn we took a ferry to Helsinki, then an overnight ferry to Stockholm for a couple of days before flying back home. All this was done completely overland (no flights at all) and was somewhat rushed, I only had a little under 8 weeks, but it was an excellent trip.

Here is an outline of my trip

(Btw, the Green outline is the border of Kosovo, the dark red is of Montenegro. It's very hard to find good maps with those two countries on it)

I will be updating this page as I find the time

42 selected photos from the trip (link)

Georgia - Tbilisi to Kazbegi (Part 1) (45 pics) (link)

Georgia - Kazbegi (Part 2) (53 pics) (link)

Georgia - Gori, the birthplace of Stalin (41 pics) (link)

Georgia - Tbilisi (57 pics) (link)

Georgia - Mtskheta (23 pics) (link)

Turkey - Russian/Uzbek Dance Show in Istanbul (40 pics) (link)