Finally, back on track, and updated! (I am writing from Krakow, Poland, but I am not done with the city yet).
I did not stay the night in Tallinn. Instead I took a Eurobus the 11 hours to Vilnius, Lithuania. I also took the Eurobus 9 hours to Warsaw last night instead of staying in Vilnius. Here's what with overnight busses..................... Exactly. It was the right choice. Everyone, I mean everyone told me not to take overnight trains around the east because everyone gets robbed. The busses themselves are comfortable and heated, but if they are full (Tallinn) then it's a battle trying to sleep next to some stranger. If another passenger decides to lean -both- the chairs in front of you back all the way (Vilnius), then you are cramped and can't do anything because you don't speak her language and no one on the bus speaks yours. Needless to say, I'm sleeping well tonight!
The ride from Vilnius to Warsaw became interesting at the Polish border. I think they were looking for someone. They came on the bus to stamp passports, though they had to take mine inside for a different stamp. They also asked anyone with a green bag to step out and show their bags. My backpack is green. I guess they weren't looking for me! Also, the bus got a flat tire which our driver had to change. Around Warsaw when I fully awoke in the morning I realised we still had tire trouble. The last leg was tepid, the bus shook and stumbled a fair bit. I never got a good look at the left side, but I imagine a tire was about to come off after we reached the train station.
Ummm, right, this is about Vilnius! It has many things in common with Tallinn except that it is still in the throes of reconstruction. The old city is more incorporated with everything else and has more churches of all sorts. Also, everything still looks rather run-down. Lithuania is new as well, and I applaud their mere 3.5 to 1 exchange rate. At first I didn't like the city much. Still dirty to look at? But then I wandered into a church and realised what original structures look like. It was faded and old and missing bricks, but it was beautiful. I just barely made out frescoes on the walls and saw remnants of the stained glass and even could see behind the plaster at hidden alcoves beyond the great stone effigies that hang on the walls. It was fantastic seeing the original. And it shed a new light on Vilnius for me. Also, Vilnius' city legend includes an Iron Wolf who supposedly showed their first king where to build. The central white cathedral and its bell tower are immense, and Lithuania is rebuilding the lower royal palace. It should look fantastic in 2009.
I ate dinner at a local pub. Lithuanian food, like all the Baltics, is about potatoes and fat. I had Borsh soup and potato pancakes with meat filling, and finished it off with a beer and cherry cake. Then I started chatting with a nice guy up from Poland visiting his new boyfriend. He convinced me to see Trakai, a town 40mins away. I took a small bus there and wandered an absolutely fabulous island of a fully restored old redstone castle. It was closed! I was gutted, as the brits say. Someday, I have to see the insides.