On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 11:33:33 -0400, "irishtraveller"
wrote:

Greetings, in the month of June me and 3 friends are planning on going on a
trip to eastern europe. Roughly, the route we're planning on doing is,
flying from Dublin to Stanstead, then from Stanstead to Brno (with
Ryanair). From there, a train to Krakow, then to Warsaw. From there, to
Belarus (Brest - Minsk), then to Moscow via Smolensk, after that to St.
Petersburg. The final leg of the trip will be from there to Tallinn in
Estonia and finally on to Riga in Latvia, where can fly back to London
Stanstead. Ideally we'd like to spend not much more than 4 weeks away.
Does this route seem reasonable, are there any places i'd be advised not
to visit due to safety issues and what not. Also, i can't seem to find
much information on train prices so i don't know how much it is all going
to cost. If you have any advise regarding any part of this trip, please
respond.

Others have mentioned that the Russian visa is difficult (and it is)
but I would expect the Belarus one to be even harder. The visa process
is expensive, and time consuming. I would suggest skipping Belarus for
this reason, as that is what I did.

Sounds like a good itinrary otherwise, although I found a lot more
interesting stuff in Lithuania that Latvia. The Hill of Crosses is
worth the trip alone. Perhaps go into Russia via Lithuana instead of
Belarus!

Brno is not that exciting, but has a striking cathedral that sits high
on a rock in the middle of town.

Krakow is just great, even if it's well discovered now.

Moscow is the heart of Russia, and you will love it and hate it.

St Peter is almost European, and you will just love it.

Tallin has a nice old town but has waaay too many cloned souvenir
shops.

Riga is big, and sports a collosal market that is a must see.

Safety is not a great issue anywhere, even in Moscow. Just exercise
the usual caution you would anywhere else.
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