I wrote: I wonder if anyone has taken a bus to eastern Europe
(particularly from
Germany or comparable) and their experiences. Would you recommend it,
and how is such an over 24 hour journey by bus? I know that for many
destinations a discount airline will be much cheaper and much quicker,
but the buses go to a lot of places these airlines don't fly to, and
the prices are fairly low.

The buses that I am particularly interested in are the long-haul ones
used by eastern European workers in western European countries (Germany
in this case) to travel to and from their home country. You get on in
a city in one country and get off in only one other city in the
countr(y,ies) that it is going to, transitting through some other
countres with no official stops. We are employing a Polish woman and
she wll arrive by such a bus in Stuttgart. (I know that there is also
such a service from London to Poland.) While examinng where we needed
to pick her up upon arrival, I went and got brochures from a bus
company providing such services. It's amazing the places you can
travel with such a bus including Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland,
Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Byalorussia, Ukraine, Bulgaria,
Greece, Moldavia, Roumania, and Hungary and usually many cities in each
country (Poland 35). Moscow is only 168 euros round trip, and most
other places can be considerably less expensive.

I'm thinking that such trips could be very interesting if they are not
pure hell, and I could visit my grandfather's birthplace in Poland with
no need to make any connections, and since I'm now retired, perhaps
visit some other places if the bus rides were OK.

George